Hotels, music groups and other things we leave behind
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Perspective: When loss is really just panic over change
In June 2023, it was reported that Park Hotels and Resorts which owned Parc55 and Hilton Union Square had stopped paying back it’s $725 million loan. The snarky side of my brain wondered if they also realized, like so many of us in debt, that their loans weren't being forgiven and gave up?
But that was in the beginning of this transition and I see there are other things at work. The city of San Francisco had approximately 33,000 hotel rooms and in 2022 coming out of the pandemic had a hotel occupancy of 67%.
Then Nordstrom in Westfield Mall announced they would be taking its business elsewhere. They officially closed their doors in August 2023. As per usual anything related to movement, loss or transition in any major city incites a panic over loss of large businesses that many of us barely shopped at in person and a flurry of stories of that financial ruin was on the horizon. DOOM and GLOOM!
This isn’t ubiquitous to one industry. In February 2024, Universal Music Group announced layoffs which would impact West Coast combining Interscope Records and Republic. Warner Music laid off approximately 600 employees.
These industries, like others, suffer because people aren't supporting them. We move with the markets on to the next fad and claim nostalgia when it’s gone. My take away is we love to mourn the things that passed us by, more than we do to take care of what we have. Taking care of something to make it sustainable requires work, at times tedious and painstaking.