John Chesto is finding it hard to buy a soda in Downtown Boston

Boston Globe reporter John Chesto wrote a story about how easy it was to grab a Diet Coke (and other similar healthy snacks) from convenience stores, mini-marts and CVSs pre-pandemic and how it has now become nearly impossible. Read the full story here: Downtown has lost foot traffic. What's nextThe Downtown Financial District sent everyone to work from home during peak pandemic times and many workers stayed there. Most office towers are only about 50% occupied Tuesday - Thursday (less on Mondays and Fridays) and without those workers, the small shops that rely on foot-traffic for impulse buys (like that can of Coke) or for convenient services near the office (tailor, dry cleaner, cobbler) have closed or are struggling.Christo reports that that there is a perception that Downtown Boston is less safe now - even though crime stats don't show that - and he thinks it's because there are fewer people around.One idea to get more "boots on the ground" is to turn some office space into residential space, but that's more of an urban planner's dream than a developer's reality (and zero developers have proposed doing it so far) because it's just such a heavy lift without financial incentives from the city. The Mayor's office, City Council and BID are all looking into ways to change the zoning and entice developers.