Sacramento mayor supports governor's return-to-office order for state workers. Will it help downtown business?
SACRAMENTO — Many California state workers are frustrated that Governor Gavin Newsom is mandating them to return to the office four days a week starting July 1.
It has been five years since the pandemic forced most state agencies into remote work, but some business owners are hopeful it will be great for the downtown economy.
"Probably the best news I could wake up to," said Roberto Castro, owner of The Philly Cheesesteaks on K Street.
Castro said that his business likely will have to ramp up staff to serve the increased downtown presence.
"There were times here in the past year that we weren't sure if we were going to make it," he said.
Other business owners are not so sure state workers will want to spend money downtown again.
"It's been really difficult to have folks who work for the state coming in seeming really miserable and upset," said one manager at a local business that did not want to be identified.
She said they have stayed successful even through the pandemic and thinks the mandate is uprooting family's new normals.
"I think it's a political move and it's icky and gross and I don't like it," the manager said.
I sat down with Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty, who supports the governor's return-to-office mandate.
"I know some of the employees have gotten used to not coming in on a regular basis," McCarty said. "But having more foot traffic is a positive thing for safety as a whole."
Many state workers are worried about parking because more people in the area means parking spots fill up more quickly. I asked McCarty if there were any plans to provide more parking for state workers.
"No. This is not a new issue," McCarty said. "There has been plenty of parking down here for decades."
Some state agencies do not provide parking for employees and some downtown garages cost up to $200 per month to park, while parking meter prices just increased to try and combat the city's budget deficit.
Sacramento Regional Transit (SacRT) hopes that means the cost of parking could drive more state workers to take the recently upgraded light rail system.
"We have free Park and Ride lots in different communities," SacRT spokesperson Jessica Gonzalez said. "They can easily park, hop on the train."
Gonzalez said pre-pandemic state workers made up a majority of its light rail ridership, so she hopes this will bring them back to where they were five years ago.
Many state workers are not on board for the change and are putting up a fight to continue working from home.
Newsom is still ironing out some of the details of what the return to office will look like.