Free to roam into a corner to play w/their phone and fall asleep.

That's encouraging at least. But how effective are said filters?

The MTA employee who told you no doesn't seem to understand that THEY too will be inhaling that smoke b/c it is all recycled air. There are a lot of junkies on the trains who will smoke far more than weed - I have seen people light up crude pipes made out of a bic pen. It smells like a combination of burning plastic and a strong industrial chemical odor. My guess is that is not weed but something far harsher like meth or fentanyl.

Edit - in fact, the MTA employees will actually be in a far worse position than the commuters long term b/c we at least have a destination to get off while they are inside the same train for hours at a time while the recycled air from different passengers is turned over and over again.

How quiet or noisy are these building conversions? Can you hear neighbors stomping upstairs or blasting stereos?

The only coding they can do is changing the zoning codes to residential. Good luck with that as the price is prohibitive to gut and convert a building. Not to mention hire lawyers, accountants architect lobbyists etc. It may be cheaper to just demolition the whole building and start from scratch.

Banking jobs definitely are pushing for a return to full time office presence. Their CEOs are quite vocal about it and using the threat of layoffs to scare workers into the cubicle again.

Wall st and lower Manhattan visit. Take photos by the bull statue.

Edit then take a ferry to Brooklyn and Staten Island

Big IBs don't actually pay that well. They can get away with underpaying due to a line of people out the door consisting of fresh faced, 22 year olds eager to pad their resumes. It is the middle tier and niche banks on the sell side, plus the aforementioned buy side firms by other posters who are forced to go hybrid. Not b/c they want to but because they need to in order to attract and retain talent.