“Let’s set a New Year’s resolution right now: The days after New Year’s Eve, we say, ‘Everybody’s back in the office,’” New York governor Kathy Hochul recently declared. “You can have flex-time, but we need you back the majority of the week.’”

Hochul made the comments two weeks ago at a “power breakfast” organized by the Association for a Better New York (ABNY), a nonprofit whose board members include several prominent commercial real estate executives.

It didn’t seem to matter that COVID-19 cases were on the upswing statewide, along with hospitalizations. As Hochul had noted on Twitter earlier that morning, “Offices are still too empty and too many workers are at home — that has an impact on our economy and ripples across the entire city. I’m putting a stake in the ground: It’s time to get back to the office.”