This is one of the conspiracy theories I believe in.

Most tech workers buy lunch in their local area. If they wfh, they’ll make lunch and not spend money. Meaning less commerce in the city… Makes city look bad.

Also, if you’re coming to said city, if you can choose to live 2 hours north, suddenly that choice looks terrible from a quality of life pov. You’ll likely rent/buy a place in said city. Keeping real estate values higher. (This is another value that benefits both govt and company since they so big they own the majority of buildings they use)

Source: am tech worker at a big river company

Insurance companies can’t match real estate prices of the office buildings they own AND the tax incentives large cities are giving them to force their ppl back

I used to very frequently. (For about 3-4 months, 5-7x a week)

Don’t anymore. Wish I did