Downtown St. Louis wins the number #2 spot for worst pandemic recovery which has turned the City of St. Louis and others into ghost towns with San Francisco ranking in at number #1, according to research done by the University of Toronto. These two North American cities remained deserted months after the pandemic subsided compared to other urban areas.
St. Louis has only recovered 38% of its pre-pandemic cellphone traffic while San Francisco is even lower at 32%. The 3rd worst city for recovery is Portland Oregon. The best recovery according to the research is Salt Lake City, UT which has increased its cellphone traffic by 139%. The five cities in the U.S. which are back to normal or exceed pre-pandemic levels of cellphone pings are: Salt Lake City, Bakersfield, Fresno, El Paso and Columbus.
