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JONATHAN47

30 March, 2023

Not mentioned in the article is that if the city simply returned to the budget (and services) of 6 years ago (when the city had more residents), the budget would be a third less - ergo: no budget crisis.

Somehow SF leadership has pushed radical budget increases well beyond inflation (or population growth) for 20 years now, with little to show for it. Our infrastructure is not world-class, streets and public facilities are dirty, public transit is not a pleasant option, the school system is dysfunctional with high costs and lower-than-average outcomes. The red tape that makes us famous ($1.2 million for a toilet) drives up costs, slows development, and apparently does not create safe or stable buildings.

We have a quality of goveranance issue, a wasteful budget issue, and we are not investing in ways that promote small businesses, middle-income residents, reasonable housing costs, or even reasonable rents for the empty towers priced at $75-$80 per square foot to lease. The enablement of the homeless/drug scene trashing our city is not improving.

The fact that this is not a sustainable state of affairs is a positive development, change is needed, otherwise the budgets would continue to swell and that status quo would drift along as before.

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failed_city

30 March, 2023

And with that bloated budget comes a single minded fixation on funding it, at the expense of anything else.

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myview4u

30 March, 2023

The Noe Valley parklet toilet you referenced was estimated to cost $1.7 million.

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IsaacS

31 March, 2023

Why do we keep electing politicians with no experience, expertise or talent to run a multi-billion dollar budget?? We need professional management, not talking heads.

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IsaacS

31 March, 2023

The City is always behind the problem - that's how you get a doom loop.

If your spending constantly widely exceeds your revenue (not even counting off-balance sheet liabilities such as future pension costs), you will have a failed City.

The budget needs to be right sized NOW to fit the new reality.

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EDWARD251

30 March, 2023

The only thing that might change voting patterns in the city and county is a lot of economic pain that comes as a consequence of their votes.

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Chaotrix

30 March, 2023

I have no faith in that ever happening.

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Wakh1

30 March, 2023

I wish I could disagree with you.

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Chaotrix

30 March, 2023

It's sad, isn't it?

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spring

1 April, 2023

No matter how bad it gets, you think the remaining residents will continue to vote the same way?

I could imagine a sweeping change of leadership at some stage; however, I would imagine that voters would expect new leadership to create a quick fix to a problem decades in the making, and then turn on ...

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rickintheforest

30 March, 2023

Remember.  You already bailed. You no longer live in SF by your own admission.

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mobilecat

30 March, 2023

Even before the pandemic, the city of San Francisco had the lowest percentage of children in the country. SF didn't care about families. SFUSD board was a political stepping stone, and not there to educate kids, so many of the families I knew either end up sending their kids to private schools or "...

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richmond02

30 March, 2023

it was all creative class blah blah and open war on the middle class

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HellaCalifornia

30 March, 2023

When my partner and I started working remotely, we left S.F. for Sacramento after 20 years because real estate was 1/3 the cost, and with that, property taxes also.

But also playing into it was the fact the tech industry and the transient residents it attracted destroyed the soul of the city, the c...

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mnath

30 March, 2023

Totally agree with that. I left SF in 2009 for the East bay. The city felt like it was becoming homogenized, un-creative, and overly trendy. It felt like the most appealing thing was the new place to wait on line for the latest trend in overpriced food or coffee.

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Shorelines

7 April, 2023

Wow, you really (happily) missed the recent gentrification if you left in 09! It got  bananas after that.

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jbttt

31 March, 2023

so where in the east bay is it better not being homogenized, un-creative, and overly trendy

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mobilecat

30 March, 2023

Please...   The problem is not tech workers who were spending money on restaurants and paying for other goods and services.  The real transients are the homeless and criminals that think Walgreens is a "buy nothing, get one free" store.  We need to stop coddling those ruining our city and encourage...

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HellaCalifornia

30 March, 2023

You're wrong. The tech industry give-away extended by the City, and the tech bros it brought to SF who came only for the money were the root causes of the City becoming unaffordable for anyone of moderate means. It led to a boom in building of luxury office space and luxury housing. You're left wit...

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ratt57

31 March, 2023

I have to admit I'm more than happy to see these ridiculously bloated tech companies having to lay off their employees and seeing them move out of the city. I'm hoping this "doom loop" is what it will take to get us back to what we used to be. We're watching a repeat of the same Silicon Valley cras...

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heidigsf

31 March, 2023

Not tech people fault for being tech but need mix of businesses.  That is the problem City does not need all tech.

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SFcitizen

30 March, 2023

100 percent

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DianeMarie

30 March, 2023

You're 100% right. This started in the early 1990s when the tech bros started moving into the Marina where my husband and I rented a flat for $1,000 a month. Suddenly rents spiked, small stores closed and middle income residents who couldn't afford $3K a month for a one-bedroom apartment were force...

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failed_city

30 March, 2023

There were no tech bros in the early 90’s. Those were finance bros.

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HellaCalifornia

30 March, 2023

The first dot com gold rush was indeed in the '90s. Offices were mainly located in the Valley, but most everyone lived in the City.

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liberalgunowner

30 March, 2023

How many articles did the Chron write praising the likes of tech moguls donating to various progressive causes giving us the impression that they were allies of the City?  Marc Benioff left the city with a nearly vacant tower and the rest are fleeing as well.  Bottom line, when the City is down on ...

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jiney8

2 April, 2023

This doom loop is apparently what it will take to get SF back into balance & for diverse socioeconomic groups, businesses, artists, families, regular people, to thrive here. . I only see inevitability in this so called doom loop. Things were way out of balance.

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BiggerPikture

30 March, 2023

Cities don't die, they do deteriorate however. Reimagining the area will do nothing if operating here is impeded by glaring progressive failures in policing and needless costs caused by an overwrought city government. Providing a sanitary, safe business friendly environment will slowly move the area back to where it was. Slopping around with drug indulgent city policy and tolerance of theft/property offenses... not so much.

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EDWARD251

30 March, 2023

I might add that the progressives on the BART board will impede the recovery of that system as well.

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Jeffrey13

30 March, 2023

But what about reparations?????

Entire nation laughing at SF.

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ordinaryjoe

31 March, 2023

Reading about all the factors that play into the "doom loop" for San Francisco, the go-to-playbook for SF's progressive politicians is to raise taxes by any means necessary to forestall the tax revenue declines.  Got to keep City employees employed and money needed to fund the vast social program complex spending levels (Are you not compassionate?).  Expect new parcel taxes, user fees on utilities, more rent control, parking fees increases, real estate fees on vacant office spaces much like vacant storefronts, additional fees on services at retail, restaurants, services, building permit fees, etc.   Wide ranging city structural reforms in policy and taxation will not happen to stem the "doom loop" because the politicians are wedded to their current belief systems and don't understand economic capitalism.

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ChuckF1948

31 March, 2023

It's all they know. Nothing will change until every progressive liberal Democrat is voted out of office in the next election cycle and replaced with young (under 50) Republicans and moderate Democrats with real life work experience in business problem solving and who would be willing to work together to make the necessary changes to turn the page on this disaster that's been going on for decades.

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FastBallSpecial

31 March, 2023

You are so correct on this.

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David888

30 March, 2023

San Francisco has to ask itself why is it at the bottom of the list for cities that are recovering?  Most of the people that I personally know that were working remotely are now back in the office almost full time.  Why's SF different?  Because almost no one who has an option wants to be there any more.  The cost of living, including taxes, is just too high.  The traffic is being made deliberately worse by city officials.  And the disgusting state of the sidewalks, the homeless population and crime all add up to just make it a place people want to avoid if at all possible.  As I've said before, I used to drive into the city almost every day to shop, do things, etc.  Now I might go there once every month or two.  The citizens of SF are going to soon be facing the reality of trying to figure out how to pay for an infrastructure that is overbuilt (and aging badly) for the size population they have.  The answer will be even high taxes.

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richmond02

30 March, 2023

aging badly is an under explored problem. from crumbling stucco houses on the westside to glass falling from office towers the whole city is coming apart.

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ratt57

31 March, 2023

"Most of the people that I personally know that were working remotely are now back in the office almost full time."

Apparently you don't know many, because that's the key reason the financial district has become a ghost town.  And we're perfectly happy to have you NOT drive into the city anymore, we're not exactly pining over your loss, lol...

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Ridelikethewind

30 March, 2023

There is one significant solution missing from this article. The elected officials need to GO. San Francisco is in this situation because of a desperate lack of leadership. With the current administration - from the Mayor to her appointed officers, and the Board of Supervisors, SPUR and the like can generate a plethora of ideas. Without anyone to implement, the ideas are pointless.

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rickintheforest

30 March, 2023

I said the same thing some 48 hours ago.  The current leadership must go.

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Jeffrey13

30 March, 2023

The voters that vote in these politicians need to wake up.

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ratt57

31 March, 2023

Once again, we have very few to choose from when it comes voting time. The new candidates are always just pretty much replicates of those we vote out.

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Ridelikethewind

31 March, 2023

could not agree more.

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DAN214

1 April, 2023

I'm sure that you'll be running to replace one of the incompetents whom you see in every office. If not, stop whining.

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cynthiawukotich1

3 April, 2023

I left the city in 2004. I had a rent control apt. I had a car; I didn't have a job in the city. I commuted. My car was vandalized and stolen, and a homeless man set up his home in our driveway. I got so sick of seeing half naked homeless men all around my neighborhood and also got sick of seeing them publicly urinating in front of me as I struggled to get to work each morning. Thats when I moved just 10 miles south of sf to Burlingame. My rent was the same, but I got a parking garage and a little peace of mind. I joined a gym that wasn't 24 hour fitness and was actually clean and had really nice people going to the gym. I even found a job in the town and could walk to work. I wished I had moved here 10 year earlier. I like the slower pace, lack of street people and clean surroundings. Plus, I could go outside and smell the flowers. I believe sf is dead. I lived in sf for more than 30 years. I am not planning on moving back, I can work anywhere.

sorry sf not worth it$$

tech workers will always occupy sf

and because of their high income's rents will remain high.

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jerry281

30 March, 2023

The short-sightedness of so many groups has put SF on a slide that will be irreversible because all those groups will not brook any compromise until its far too late.

Crime is a problem as is the fear of crime engendered by the aggressive homeless on many corners and public transit, yet policy is almost hands-off. Add in the police force angry at a liberal city and pretty much ignoring crime, even ones they come across as the paper has reported many times. They think they can just put in their 25 years and collect a pension, joke will be on them when the city inevitably declares bankruptcy.

The paper has reported time and again on how difficult it is to get permits for just about anything. A runaway process lets any neighbor block projects they don't like. My favorite examples are ones the paper has printed where restaurants are blocked from opening; not because they violate the zoning or any reasonable rules, simply because another similar business doesn't want the competition in their genre of food.

The schools are racing towards the bottom with social policies. "All must win" and so classes for different ability levels are called discriminatory, as is admission based on achievement. What parent would want to live in such a school district? The board members that were recalled best exemplified this, but don't think this approach has gone away.

One could go on and on about how groups put their particular interest first and refuse to give an inch.

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brainbug

31 March, 2023

BART needs to be honest about the fact that, rightly or wrongly, an impression has taken hold of the populace in the Bay Area that using its services exposes one to danger. Derelicts sleeping on cars, smoking fenty on cars, urinating on cars etc... until this is corrected it's going to keep experiencing problems and worse - there will be resistance to any ballot measure giving BART more money, further enhancing this "doom spiral."

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MICHAEL980

31 March, 2023

Nearly all the problems would be solved by hardening the fare gates. It's largely the fare evaders who are commit the crime. The homeless don't pay, and aren't necessarily going anywhere.

Some SF, Oakland, Richmond elected directors prefer BART to be a social welfare organization rather than a transit system. Vote them out of office.

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Just-Jake

31 March, 2023

The amount of money BART dreams of asking voters for is, in a word, obscene.

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maIcoImketterin

31 March, 2023

Especially since they are still spending/wasting the $3 billion we stupidly gave them last decade.

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sydneychaneythomas

1 April, 2023

This is fact. I tried to Bart to UC Berkeley from SF where I teach and had to buy a car because it was literally unsafe. It was frightening and filthy. I took BART to the airport and a guy was smoking crack sitting next to me. It is not possible to ride BART and assume you are safe. You clearly are not. It’s a slum. Good people are held hostage by a few who do not care about anyone else. Another guy was smoking crack in the Nordstroms elevator. The drug and homeless issues need to be solved. Families and businesses can’t thrive in this environment.

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maIcoImketterin

31 March, 2023

An “impression” 😂😅🤭

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Shorelines

7 April, 2023

I hadn’t even thought about the crime aspect and why I hated using BART when I lived there. It was slow. Inconvenient. Smelly. And very noisy. Nothing like the reliability and ease of Boston or nyc transit in comparison. And those are older systems I think?

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TapestryOwl

31 March, 2023

There are two groups of people who will oppose a tax increase for BART: (1) people who didn't ride BART regularly and don't feel they should have to subsidize it, and (2) people who commuted on BART before the pandemic who experienced an increase in train delays and breakdowns, an increase in crime, vagrancy, and drug use on the BART system, and who got tired of BART explaining away riders' concerns as racism or elitism.

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BART Director Allen

31 March, 2023

Group 1, 90% of voters in the 5 counties likely to see it on the ballot. Group 2: Another 5% of voters who gave up on BART. But no worries, the Bay Area Council and BART labor unions will pay many millions to fund the measure and the PR campaigns to convince 55% of voters that with just a few more billion, BART will once again be "world class".

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Kid Waco

30 March, 2023

Anyone with half a brain, knows that until we get rid of the current batch of politicians, solve homelessness, drug dealing, property crime etc. - nothing significantly positive will happen. Ted Egan is an economist who works for the City machine, so no mention that maybe, just maybe, they should cut spending and layoff some of the 40k City employees as population and tax revenue plummets. We are run by inexperienced idealogues who have never met a payroll in their lives in the private sector, all come from a social services/liberal education backgrounds and it shows. Much of this could have been avoided with the right leadership in place. Instead, they are supporting reparations, taxing landlords with empty spaces, creating this false urgency for increased density in all neighborhoods. etc. etc. Alleged non-profits are sucking in so much of the tax revenue with no positive impact. To right this ship, we need a regime change.

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Jeffrey13

30 March, 2023

Renamed SF.

Detroit by the Bay!

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sriracha

31 March, 2023

Fentanyl by the bay - fixed it for you.

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Newexplanation

30 March, 2023

We elect progressive politicians (BOS) believing their solutions will eventually make our San Francisco the utopian model for the rest of the country. When their solutions don't work out they go into denial. And, decide to move on to some other important issue. E.g. reparations

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Funsies

30 March, 2023

It's already very expensive for the average person to eat out in san francisco even at a modest restaurant. More restaurants will die as fewer people decide to spend their money that way.

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logimouse

31 March, 2023

I agree- I just figured out it's the same price to get food from Perry's than pretty much every restaurant in the financial district- $20+ salads, $18 deli sandwiches-couldn't even tell you what a Lee's deli sandwich costs these days because they closed the one nearby- I remember $.80 cent sandwiches back in 2001.

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OnionBreath

31 March, 2023

Don't try to solve everything at once. Focus on a few smaller problems, like making it easier and less expensive to open businesses like stores and restaurants in the city. There are so many boarded up store fronts. Just work on getting more of those opened up. It's in all the neighborhoods, not just downtown. Remove as much cost and red tape as possible to encourage more small businesses to open.

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RedBlackGold

31 March, 2023

Here here for prioritizing what to address first…

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D260

31 March, 2023

First find a way to return to electing Supervisors at large, rather than by neighborhood. With the current "populism experiment" (only since 2000), no Supervisor represents the City's core business and tourism interests. At first, with strong, well connected mayors like Willie Brown and Gavin Newsom, the new system managed to work, but it's become an emerging catastrophe.

Second, get rid of the undue influence of the Bicycle Coalition on the Mayor and MTA. If the financial district and downtown ever do come back, traffic needs to move smoothly, not simply be "calmed" and impeded with Slow Streets.

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MJP-SF

31 March, 2023

We need a mixed Board of district and at-large. Under the old system, the neighborhood interests weren't well-represented at all.

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D260

31 March, 2023

The neighborhoods aren't the problem at hand. We need a unified City plan and unified implementation. 11 fiefdoms can't address these issues and the Balkanization of a geographically very small City/County serves no one's interest.

Maybe a separate board of neighborhood Ombudsmen might help local r...

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ilikeitwarm

31 March, 2023

Maybe so for some neighborhoods. The West of Twin Peaks area was well represented. Half the supervisors lived there.

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MICHAEL980

31 March, 2023

I'd agree but the courts have said that at large local elections discriminate against minorities. You can't go back.

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ordinaryjoe

31 March, 2023

"If San Francisco Were a Stock, Would You Buy or Sell?"  This was a question posed at the SF Standard.  My response would be that there needs to be a change in management.  Current City management, the BOS and the Mayor are not getting the job done.  Current policies continue to sink the City further.  So until there is a change, San Francisco as a stock would continue to sink. At some point bankruptcy would put the City into receivership.

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ChuckF1948

31 March, 2023

Vote every progressive liberal Democrat out of office in the next election cycle and replace them with young (under 50) Republicans and moderate Democrats with real life work experience in business problem solving and who would be willing to work together to make the necessary change so desperately needed. Then, I'd buy.

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sometimes_dismayed

31 March, 2023

Unless I missed it, I don't see any Republicans and moderate Democrats lining up to replace the current elected leadership of San Francisco.

A bad analogy:  you don't turn an aircraft carrier around in one election cycle.  It will take time to accomplish what you propose and require more than one election cycle.  But first steps in the next election cycle are important. (see below)

Finding moderates who know how to get things done and aren't ideologues and who want to run for elected office in San Francisco may be a tall order.

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Jeffrey13

31 March, 2023

Sell

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BART Director Allen

31 March, 2023

Interesting piece identifying top threats to SF recovery as remote work, BART's demise, SF exodus, & affordable housing crisis. Aren't all of those "threats" really the resulting effects of an SF urban environment that people just no longer want? An environment created by progressive, anti-law enforcement, anti-business, pro-drugs, housing-first, socialist politicians who can't run their own social services departments effectively despite increasing their budgets massively?

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EDWARD251

31 March, 2023

Some of your fellow directors mistake BART for a social service organization instead of a transit agency.

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MICHAEL980

31 March, 2023

Please name the directors to vote against.

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BART Director Allen

31 March, 2023

In 2024, five directors' seats are up for re-election, including mine. The question is not who to vote against. It is who will step up to run for BART Board and be part of moving BART forward with new approaches?

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Diggindog

30 March, 2023

But SF is a sanctuary city, a shining  light for the oppressed. Unfortunately, this woke altruism has pushed regular everyday citizens to run for the hills. The “doom loop” is a classic example of a failed system where the priorities and needs of the many are sacrificed for the benefit and expectations  of the few…

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Jeffrey13

30 March, 2023

Policies matter as you point out.

Consequences.

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MICHAEL980

31 March, 2023

How many have noticed that the more money a jurisdiction spends on housing the homeless, the more homeless that jurisdiction then has?

The homeless are also called transients because they move to where the benefits are the best and law enforcement is the most lax.

No good turn goes unpunished.

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IsaacC

30 March, 2023

The article describes the general mood, but also tries to avoid how dire it is by using out of date data.  Most are referring to end of 2021...yet we are now Q2 2023.  SF (and to some extent the rest of the Bay Area) is on life support.  The financial plug is about to be pulled given the C19 funds were used to delay real changes and hard decisions that needed to be made.

There needs to be economic destruction to take the air out of the economic bubble that exists.  Only until rents/office space, etc is more reasonable in value does the city start to renew its self.  We have propped it up for 3 years artificially and the landlords of SF need to take a haircut....that how economics works.

BART - needed to invest in technology (why do we need train drivers anymore) and optimize the system, not necessarily to preserve jobs (think the auto industry 15 years ago).  Direct salary money into upgrades.  Make the hard decisions that agencies around the world do.

Caltrain - just let it fold....give the right away to BART and fund changes to make it a unified looped system as it was envisioned.

SF will be worse before it gets better....

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tbracken

31 March, 2023

To an earlier commenter's point, the labor situation is not sustainable. Huge wages and benefits for municipal workers, the unfunded pension/health benefits. The unions are tightening the noose around the city's neck while revenues fall dramatically.

Coupled with corruption, terrible leadership and decision making, homelessness, and rampant crime, no, SF is already circling the drain. No business in their right mind would want to come back for more. People only stay because of an emotional attachment.

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Jeffrey13

30 March, 2023

The original promise with BART was no drivers.

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JOHN D.

30 March, 2023

The unions wouldn’t allow it.

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Jeffrey13

31 March, 2023

Best paid transit system in the US

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Just-Jake

30 March, 2023

Ah… it’s BART’s right of way that should be given to a successor agency.  BART needs to complete its shrivel and fail phenomenon…and something fresh can rise from the ruins.

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IsaacC

30 March, 2023

I would agree...in fact the BART system and caltrain system need to be handed over to a brand new PPP type arrangement.  Cancel all worker contracts and start over.  Sure pain, but the status quo cannot continue either.

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90035la

30 March, 2023

How can someone write and article like this and not once mention that some people are leaving SF because they are tired of walking through homeless encampments, dodging needles and human feces on the sidewalks? My friends moved out of SF to Nashville to get away from the homeless apocalypse that SF has become.

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LolaLolaLola

31 March, 2023

I am a born and raised San Francisco Native. (Lowell) I stayed and raised my kids here.  After 67 years, I could not take the chronic homelessness anymore, and I don't see it improving in my lifetime. I didn't feel safe in the City anymore. I moved to Arizona 2 years ago and have never regretted my decision.  I miss my friends, I miss the San Francisco that I loved unconditionally until 2 years ago.  I don't miss the San Francisco that it has turned into.  Unfortunately, I do not think that our elected officials will be voted out. Incumbents traditionally  get reelected.

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ChuckF1948

30 March, 2023

Doesn't fit their narrative ... SF is already dead. They won't admit it.

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john27

31 March, 2023

SF is not dead. Its got some pretty sick zones, though.

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failed_city

30 March, 2023

“Noah Arroyo is a reporter examining the future of San Francisco. Before The Chronicle, he worked at Mission Local and the San Francisco Public Press and focused on the city’s housing and homelessness crises — possibly two sides of the same coin.”  All you need to know.  A professional liar.

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SFcitizen

30 March, 2023

Reporting those facts does not fit the paper's narrative. It's mind boggling.

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bfogo

31 March, 2023

Sure to find all the answers in Nashville...

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VictorSerge

30 March, 2023

That certainly is convenient for your friends to attend funerals from the latest mass shooting.

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DayDrinker

30 March, 2023

Have you already forgotten about the Half Moon Bay mass shooting?  Monrovia?  We need to clean up this mess before we start picking at other states and cities.

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VictorSerge

30 March, 2023

You make my point. It’s easy to pile on SF; and it has a myriad of problems. But to point to greener pastures with their own problems is a fools errand.

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90035la

30 March, 2023

Replying to VictorSerge

I chat with them often. Four years have passed, and they said it was one of the best decisions they ever made. They also didn't have to endure a complete lockdown during the pandemic. And before you go there, neither one got Covid.

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Jeffrey13

30 March, 2023

Replying to VictorSerge

Nope.

Many have left and are leaving SF for greener pastures.

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rickintheforest

30 March, 2023

From the city that spawned a mass cult death.  Remember a guy named Jones?  Nice comment, Victor. Very typical of you.

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VictorSerge

30 March, 2023

I have lived and loved San Francisco for decades and see and hurt for its problems on a daily basis. I fear yet hope for my city. You on the other hand revel and take delight in its problems. As your leader would say; SAD!

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Guncrazy

30 March, 2023

You're right! We certainly shouldn't get into wedgies because a lot of junkies are dying around us or attacking the sidewalk in rages. That is so right wing crazy to mention.

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coldwarrior

30 March, 2023

Among your potential solutions, you forgot to include unburdening taxpayers from the massive pension obligations owed the legions of city retirees, whose years of pay for doing nothing will far exceed their qualifying years of doing very little.

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sometimes_dismayed

31 March, 2023

How would those union-negotiated contracts be invalidated?  The city employees & retirees would presumably have a good case in court if the city unilaterally tried to change the contractual terms of how retirees are treated - without agreement from the current and former union employees.  Having sa...

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coldwarrior

31 March, 2023

Perhaps a free music festival for our pasture-ized paper pushers, featuring cavernous kettles of Kool-Aid?

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Faladog2

30 March, 2023

San Francisco suffers from an absolute dearth of civic imagination. As the old families, stores, and headquarter companies left or folded, its would-be leaders bet the store on tech whose bros have little or no commitment to place, history, or philanthropy, and now even they are leaving. As crisis piles on crisis, its Supervisors vote unanimously for Black reparations because what could be more important or less divisive? It's time to vacate and let them find the money for that in the couch cushions.

San Francisco was founded as a mining camp, and like one whose bonanza has played out, it's becoming a ghost town. Let the sand and lupines take it back.

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ChuckF1948

30 March, 2023

San Francisco is on a death watch. The only hope for survival is a complete rejection of every liberal/progressive/Democrat during the next election cycle. Time for some younger conservatives and strictly moderate Democrats to attempt a cure, though it may be too late.

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jz4117

31 March, 2023

Only Trump can save San Francisco.

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SFcitizen

30 March, 2023

The board of supervisors, and pretty much the entire SF government, has shown nothing but contempt and disdain for law-abiding taxpaying residents, property owners and businesses. Little wonder they're leaving.

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EDWARD251

31 March, 2023

Tourism will return in abundance if the streets are kept clean of detritus in the tourist areas. That will be no mean feat in itself.

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ChuckF1948

31 March, 2023

That will never ever happen until every progressive liberal democrat is voted out of office. The next election cycle can't get here fast enough. Vote in some younger (under 50) Republicans and staunchly moderate Democrats who have real problem solving business work experience and who can join toget...

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EDWARD251

31 March, 2023

Anyone with the label "Republican" has zero chance of elective office in the region. They have been painted as the evil other for so long, the stain won't rub off in the foreseeable future.

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maIcoImketterin

31 March, 2023

It’s so entrenched I think even that would fail. I think it will take a municipal bankruptcy a la Stockton to finally zero out all the grifting money flows to enable a fresh start.

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ilikeitwarm

31 March, 2023

“There isn’t a path to sort of reoccupying downtown without (public) transit,” Egan said, referring to BART. “San Francisco is one of the only employment centers on the West Coast that most people get to work by (public) transit.”

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Making it easier to get to work by car may help bring more workers downtown. Improve the supply of parking space and lower the cost.  If workers come into the city only 2 or 3 days per week, cars may be a more attractive option, it is faster, more comfortable, and safer. It may depend in part on the price of parking. With fewer workers it could go down.

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Sennin1

30 March, 2023

“absence of office workers and tourists.”

SF is a beautiful world class city, one of the best in the world.  Politicians have turned it into a sewer.  Clean up the homeless, clean up crime.  Nobody wants to visit, work in SF.  It’s not worker, company, landlord friendly.

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ROBERT434

31 March, 2023

San Francisco ceased to be a world-class city decades ago. Now it’s St. Louis with scenery.

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ChuckF1948

31 March, 2023

You got that right ...

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Footballguy

30 March, 2023

It is a shame but SF has a well-deserved and negative image everywhere.  I don't think it is coming back soon. If anything, the politicians are doubling down on crazy and that image echos across the country. Check the current discussions on reparations with no way to pay for them. The death spiral has begun in Detroit by the bay.

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tnfdr

31 March, 2023

The obvious way to prevent this doom loop is for the leaders to start treating law and order on our streets as seriously as they treat tax collection. Make this city a clean, welcoming, and safe place, and young people will swarm in here to live in downtown converted spaces, which will bring back business, which will have the opposite effect of doom loop. But sadly, it seems that the mayor and dumb BOS are in love with their chairs and are used to doing anything but good work, and getting away with it, so this is the real power pushing SF down its doom loop.

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tomd1

30 March, 2023

Unlike the government of San Francisco, Walgreens isn't run by incompetent management.  They saw the writing on the wall and were proactive in closing several stores.  They've been through this before in other dying cities.  It's not the end of the world for San Francisco, but you can see it from here.

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Guncrazy

30 March, 2023

Maybe we should listen to what the CEOs are saying about the city? AngelHack CEO Greg Gopman famously shared on Facebook that "the city has been overrun by "crazy, homeless, drug, dealers, and trash". The thought police made him apologize. Selin Kurnaz, CEO of Massive Bio, told Bloomberg she has felt increasingly “unsafe” in San Francisco. Justin Keller, the founder of Commando wrote in an open letter "The city needs to tackle this problem head on, it can no longer ignore it and let people do whatever they want in the city." Zachary Eisenberg, vice president of Anresco Laboratories told the Chron the homeless camping out next door were "terrible neighbors". And when you start talking about retail theft in San Francisco, well the city is full of empty stores and the internet full of viral videos of it. Shades of Detroit and how that once dazzling and wealthy city turned into a roller coaster to...

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mnath

31 March, 2023

Actually, I would listen to the people who live/lived there over the CEOs, though their opinion is valid of course. The people who live/work/lived in SF, like me and many of us on here, know that it has turned into a different city.

I moved to the East Bay from SF after 13 years, because I wanted to go back to school and I couldn't afford the rent, the tuition, etc. Cities change of course, but SF has become surreal. I sometimes shop at Westfield Center for clients, and parking in the 5th and Mission garage is quite scary. It's basically a ghost town.

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MiddleWay

31 March, 2023

Breed and the supervisors are to blame.  Vote them out.

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pat4

30 March, 2023

Families left for greener, family friendly suburbs where their SF home profit from a sale could buy a bigger house and larger backyard further East by 30-45 minutes. The Pandemic seems to have shut SF business down and created a new hybrid work from home/part time office work routine. College graduates who experienced half of their college education over Zoom now demand the same for their sales jobs and employers have to oblige to fill positions. SF has a challenge ahead filling that 30% of office vacancies with tech workers able to work remote.

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CalNative

30 March, 2023

The responsible moderates and conservatives who could have solved this have all been shouted down and run out of town.

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bluecheesy

31 March, 2023

I think this could be positive for San Francisco.  Lower rents for commercial buildings means new small businesses can afford to open shops, restaurants etc and maybe fewer chains!  Lower residential rents mean people who work in san francisco can afford to live here (esp fireman, policemen, teachers, nurses and service workers).  As a city we need to live within our budget period.

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RedBlackGold

31 March, 2023

A key thing to make that happen would be to reform the city charter, then face the music on what we can and should fund and what must be cut - a full restructuring.

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ChuckF1948

31 March, 2023

It'll never happen until every progressive liberal Democrat is voted out of office in the next election cycle and replaced with young (under 50) Republicans and moderate Democrats with real life work experience in business problem solving and who would be willing to work together to make the necess...

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Chaotrix

30 March, 2023

The term they should be using is "downward spiral".  A loop returns to its origin.

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Jeffrey13

30 March, 2023

Cmon man

This is the Chron in SF.

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AutoUnion

31 March, 2023

The Chron you reference is the Hearst Corp. Chron. Headquarters in NYC. It's not the SF based DeYoung Chron.

It is like what happen to San Francisco's Bank of America. The current B of A is the result of Nations Bank buying BankAmerica Corporation in 1998 and then adopting the better known name Bank...

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Faladog2

31 March, 2023

All truly world-class cities have at least one great newspaper. That's another reason SF isn't in that category, but the Hearst Chron understandably doesn't list it.

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MiddleWay

31 March, 2023

The chron does not hire based on intelligence.  Take a guess what their priorities are.

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ROBERT434

30 March, 2023

The City leadership is on it — reparations, minimal policing, more bike paths, and less parking and higher fines.

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FastBallSpecial

30 March, 2023

While some of these ideas sound good, SF mismanages plenty of the taxpayers $$$. When times were good, they spent like it was endless. When you have Stups like Peskin, Chan, Preston, who can't add or make sense, it's an impossible task to make downtown even livable or workable. The three don't know or have any solutions other than throwing $$ at a problem. They don't know how to operate a business. Yet they tax the businesses. Now the businesses are gone and they are staring at each other without a solution. Chronicle's provides plenty of cover for their friends on the board over the years for the stups incompetence.

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myview4u

30 March, 2023

The fish rots from the head. We've been on a doom spiral since Ed Lee was in office, Breed perpetuates it. Without effective mayoral leadership, SF will continue to suffer.

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ChuckF1948

31 March, 2023

It goes back further than Ed Lee. Nothing will change until every progressive liberal Democrat is voted out of office in the next election cycle and replaced with young (under 50) Republicans and moderate Democrats with real life work experience in business problem solving and who would be willing to work together to make the necessary changes to turn the page on this disaster that's been going on for decades.

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UninformedCommenter

30 March, 2023

The fastest way to recover from decades of progressive policies is to vote in moderates.  Let the new leadership lay off 30% or more of city staff, with a focus on ousting staff whose only function is to make life miserable and costly, such as Planning Dept, SFMTA, and DBI.

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Jeffrey13

31 March, 2023

Moderates?

In SF?

A moderate in SF is a far left extremist outside of the Bay Area.

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UninformedCommenter

31 March, 2023

The terminology is confusing.  I could have said vote in SF far right MAGA candidates, who would be seen as a left leaning moderates outside CA.

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BART Director Allen

31 March, 2023

We have to start somewhere.

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JRPetruk

31 March, 2023

Now might be the bay area's toughest time since 1906, but it still boasts tremendous assets. World class location, climate, and infrastructure. San Francisco specifically is so unique, it will always be a desirable place to be.

But there is one thing that can ruin a major metro area. Think Detroit, St. Louis, and increasingly Chicago. Once a city had a reputation for being unsafe, the die is cast.

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ballantyne

31 March, 2023

We don’t have enough high quality thinkers running for office or serving on commissions. That is the real source of the doom loop.

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Venture

31 March, 2023

San Francisco was world famous for so many wonderful things, unfortunately, it has ruined its reputation. With their actions, San Francisco welcomes criminals that harm society. Just recently read how two drug dealers were released because of the claim they were forced to deal drugs. That is absurd! It's hateful! It's an insult to anyone involved voluntarily, or involuntarily, trying to help drug addicts that are dying on San Francisco streets.

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bluescrubjay

31 March, 2023

San Francisco will always have stunning views and wonderful weather. Allow for gentrification of low-income areas, remove the homeless, get tough on crime, and the City will thrive again socially, politically, and economically. But when you have supervisors mandating cultural districts and spending beyond their means SF is doomed.

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AutoUnion

31 March, 2023

I heard that promise for decades - just let wealth and well graduated and well connected neoliberal privilege have free reign and the working class city they crushed will flourish. Yet the frequent busts always come as a shock.  Mayor Ed Lee's dream of a Shining Tech City on the Hill by the Bay was build with a financial house of cards and began to fail once the tax give a ways and cheap money were spent.

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Alamo22

31 March, 2023

The problem with SF is the crime and homeless. SF will sink into further despair unless those problems are solved. Unfortunately the SF politicians are incompetent and incapable of addressing quality of life issues for the tax paying citizens and businesses.

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President_Sharpie

1 April, 2023

That's just the easily observed, superficial problems. They were there before the pandemic too, so not the main reasons behind what's going on right now.

The area that has the most problematic vacancy rates is the FiDi office district (which incidentally is not the area with the biggest homelessness or street crime problems). People are now working from home much more than before. So what needs to happen is a range of things. Breed has talked about some already but hasn't gone far enough yet. City investment needs to occur in that area and zonal change needs to happen.

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Giantsmax

31 March, 2023

The city must be made safe and clean for residents who live here and workers/ tourists who come into the city. Until that is fixed I don't see any plan working, and the city will not have the revenues to function. Fix the deeper problems and the other problems will fix themselves, as who wouldn't want to live or work in a safe and clean San Francisco. After all it is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The second issue would be making rents/ homes more affordable, it is unreasonable to expect people to reside with the costs to live here now.

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michaelhalpren2022

31 March, 2023

Pragmatism. Thank you Ted Egan. San Francisco is better than it was in the 70's and the 90's. Downtown looked good today. Had lunch at TuLan on 6th and walked through UN Plaza. Showed a perspective office tenant space for a new company in one of my listings. Signed two leases last week. People were out and about with more purpose than I've seen in a couple of years. Maybe its spring or like Mr. Egan said market forces at work without vast engineered "plans". The City is better than its ever been. Fact.

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maIcoImketterin

31 March, 2023

And the Kool Aid was delicious!!

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coldwarrior

31 March, 2023

Where do I sign?!!!

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failed_city

30 March, 2023

Before I even read Chronicle garbage anymore I look at the authors.  Like young Noah here, a fringe ultra leftist.  “Noah Arroyo is a reporter examining the future of San Francisco. Before The Chronicle, he worked at Mission Local and the San Francisco Public Press and focused on the city’s housing and homelessness crises — possibly two sides of the same coin.”

So this guy is right there with Jennifer Frankenbach from Coalition on the Homeless.  Not a word printed here is to be considered factual or serious.  The headline most of all.  To save SF we need to take power away from people like these authors.  They’re ruining our city.

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trodstiller

31 March, 2023

Cleanup filthy streets, enforce laws and improve safety, tourists will be back, locals will come to enjoy the city, and commuters will use Bart and Muni. This keep us going until the next cycle - tech downturn is just a temporary cycle, things will improve.

Also, forget about spend billions to build low income housing, as we can’t possibly build ourselves out of the problem -  if you give every homeless a free place to live, it becomes entitlement and privilege, it will only attract more homeless.

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vkimsf

31 March, 2023

I have lived through the ups and downs of SF downtown since the 80s and if I were a gambling man, I would bet "all in" that SF will not only fully recover but also reach new economic highs in home prices and tax revenue.  The simplest fact is that we are in one of the the most desirable physical locations in the world with some amazing weather with recent exceptions.  And unlike NYC where people go to "make it", people used to come to SF to "find themselves".  Those young souls will come back once home prices become realistic again and they will create a new chapter in SF.  Let the markets balance itself out in the short term and watch a new and better SF reimagined.  I'm not leaving anytime soon..

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ilikeitwarm

31 March, 2023

Historically, young people have been flocking to SF for the lifestyle. I am wondering if that is true anymore to a large extent. I would guess the majority who come to SF are coming for economic opportunity.

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mnath

31 March, 2023

It's nice to hear a positive comment and a positive outlook, even if some disagree. I love it here too. With all of its problems, the Bay Area (SF/Oakland) is still a gem to me.

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mitchinoakland

31 March, 2023

Sncisconis in a magnificent setting, & (if you don't mind the chill) has a great climate. The problem is San Francisco itself!

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ChuckF1948

31 March, 2023

It'll never happen until every progressive liberal Democrat is voted out of office in the next election cycle and replaced with young (under 50) Republicans and moderate Democrats with real life work experience in business problem solving and who would be willing to work together to make the necessary changes to turn the page on this disaster that's been going on for decades.

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listserv

31 March, 2023

We're on the coast, end of the line.

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bcwsfo

31 March, 2023

Keep dreaming!

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tnfdr

31 March, 2023

The dismissal of the trial of the Honduran drug dealers is a big fat invitation not only to druggies but to more latin (O/X/F) drug dealers to come over and push this city further down the doom loop. Jenkins and Breed need to pull every muscle fiber in their body to settle the score with these criminals. I don't care if the war on drugs failed in the past. The standard should be that criminals are not allowed allowed in this city, period.

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ChuckF1948

31 March, 2023

That would be nice but it'll never happen until every progressive liberal Democrat is voted out of office and replaced by some younger (under 50) Republicans and moderate Democrats with real life work experience in business problem solving and who will work together to save the city. Then and only then will change happen.

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Commentator

30 March, 2023

Every Democrat-run city that has decided that bums and addicts are victims deserving of special privileges, exemption from laws, and massive expenditures is deteriorating rapidly.

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CalNative

30 March, 2023

And ironically, the homeless industrial complex that always makes things worse is actually funded by the taxpayers.

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sometimes_dismayed

31 March, 2023

And those non-profits use some of the money they receive (or raise independently) to help elect or re-elect politicians that have been friendly or secured taxpayer funding from those elected officials.  The Chronicle should do an in-depth investigation of that loop.

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ratt57

31 March, 2023

What's also not mentioned here is that while the Mayor and MTA make it more and more impossible to drive and park in the city, money is being spent outside of San Francisco instead.  I know several people in my district who do all their shopping outside of the city now because they're sick and tired of looking for parking spots that MTA has taken away.

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logimouse

31 March, 2023

When the tax revenue from all the office building stops, things will really be challenging. The City need to realize that at some point we won't be flush with money so better start planning on significantly less revenue in the future.

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ChuckF1948

31 March, 2023

Maybe that's what it'll take to get every progressive liberal democrat voted out of office in the next election cycle. Can't come too soon.

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MiddleWay

31 March, 2023

I am fine with SF property losing value and lower rents.  But downtown is already a social hub…for addicts across the nation. Maybe we should just invite all druggies to SF?  More than we are doing already?  We could have the biggest nonprofits in the world!  A new industry!

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berkeleybill

1 April, 2023

In the women’s restroom on the first floor of the UC Berkeley Student Union building  there is a sign that explains how you should respond if someone you think doesn’t belong there enters. This sign has been there for over six months. Basically the instructions are to sit down and keep your mouth shut. This, like Nuala Bishari’s “Nashville shows how we fail kids, 3/31/2023,” demonstrates how militant the Trans community has become. Bishari uses bogus data such as claiming 47 states have introduced nearly 500 hundred  anti trans bills. The bulk of those bills deal with requiring biological males compete with other biological males in athletic events and bills that require parents be notified when their minor children request elective surgery. Neither are anti trans.  Bishari claims that non cisgender people are being denied health care.  They can get the same health care as anybody else. Bishari mentions that at least 50 trans or gender non-conforming people were murdered in 2021. Given that there were 22,900 murders in the US in 2021, that is a mighty small number. I think the greatest threat to the trans community currently is the radical, extremist left-wing element of that group.

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KW_in_the_Citay

31 March, 2023

Living in San Francisco has never been easy, yet many of us choose to do so.  Journalistic doom-prediction is another fiction from the Chronicle.  Predicting what 'might' happen is now considered reporting vs. actual reporting.  Let's all look into the future and determine what will happen, because it's sure to be awful and painful!  Everything is horrific!!   Do better.

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ChuckF1948

31 March, 2023

Instead of reporting what might happen, they should report the truth. San Francisco has been on life support for two decades or more and is on its last breath. The only hope to save it is to vote every single progressive/liberal/democrat out of office and hope that it can be revived by some younger Republicans or some very serious moderate younger Democrats or a combination of both working together. By younger, I mean under 50 with some real work history and experience in solving problems in the  business sector.

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PETER3

1 April, 2023

You got a lot of down votes. I don't get it. Even a snarky remark from someone who can't contribute anything.

I agree with you; there needs to be a sea change in leadership. Leftist leadership has brought us to this point.

Your last sentence makes perfect sense; especially bringing in leadership wit...

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HeySpike

31 March, 2023

Did you forget yours meds today?

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mcstorke

3 April, 2023

As another person has already commented in some detail the reason people don't want to come back and work in the city is in large part because the downtown has been taken over by the homeless, the fentanyl and the meth users.    Plus all the stores are periodically ransacked while the police look the other way.    It was not always so.    It is so because the people who the city elected to run the place let it be so.    I live in New York and while that city is still recovering from the pandemic and there is a lot of unused office space especially in mid-town the city is recovering.    People still want to live in New York even though they pay a high price for doing so but at least you can walk around the city without having to step in feces and smell the odor of urine everywhere you go.   New York would never ever allow something like the Tenderloin to exist.    Plus if you shoplift you face immediate arrest and go to jail.

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icon2012

30 March, 2023

Good Lord the city is not going to “die”. It may not be the elitist bastion it is now and the transition might be painful, but it will always be San Francisco.

As the chief economist said, market capitalism (gasp!) will cause rents to lower enough to allow new industry to move in. This will be painful, especially to commercial RE lenders and investors (not just in SF) but it’s the cycle that happens.

The only caveat is the city government must allow market forces to work. Currently that is probably a 50/50 chance as Marxism/Central Planning and market forces don’t jive. Again, the elitists will probably not like the kind of industry (and associated population) that may move in. But eventually they will have to come around.

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EDWARD251

30 March, 2023

San Francisco is blessed by nature with a beautiful setting and has wonderful weather, attributes that won't vanish. However the entrenched political establishment has hampered recovery and has saddled the city and county with a huge bureaucracy with retirement benefits that will weigh on the budget for another generation even if political change happens.

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HelmsAlee

31 March, 2023

Nobody seems to remember SF in the 90’s. Huge crime, high murder rate, homeless everywhere, 18% interest rates, businesses leaving, cheap rent, empty storefronts. It was great. Music clubs, bookstores, innovative new restaurants, alternative lifestyles, creativity and affordability. What a place. Town of towns! Bring on the doom loop!

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AutoUnion

31 March, 2023

I think you mean the Reagan 80s. Interest rates dropped below 10% in the Fall of 1990, as I recall, and ushered in the current Era of cheap money, near zero savings interest rates, and a speculation-gentrification boom bust economy that has remained ever since.

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bytheway

31 March, 2023

Thanks, I think we probably agree but I don't mean the Reagan 80's. I mean the 90's when the crime rate peaked. But the interest rate doesn't really change the point. Does 9.5 % make you happy? Okay, let's try this:

Nobody seems to remember SF in the 90’s. Huge crime, high murder rate, homeless everywhere, 9.5% interest rates, businesses leaving, cheap rent, empty storefronts. It was great. Music clubs, bookstores, innovative new restaurants, alternative lifestyles, creativity and affordability. What a place. Town of towns! Bring on the doom loop!

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richmond02

30 March, 2023

this article is about two years too late

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NoReally

30 March, 2023

Elections have consequences. Fellow San Franciscans, it doesn't have to be this way.

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BART Director Allen

31 March, 2023

LOL, that's my favorite line about BART!

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ccfields

31 March, 2023

Nature bats last, let it take its course. Hopefully the city returns to working families and safe neighborhoods.

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ChuckF1948

31 March, 2023

This will never happen until every progressive liberal democrat is voted out of office and replaced by Republicans and strictly moderate Democrats who can work together to get S.F. of of life support. The death of the city is getting closer every day.

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Newexplanation

31 March, 2023

Meanwhile, our leaders just "fiddle while Rome burns".

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ChuckF1948

31 March, 2023

They don't have the will to make change.

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ilikeitwarm

31 March, 2023

Those offices dominate the urban core, which has few people living there, keeping downtown a hollowed-out shell and less appealing to people who don’t need to work there.

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Downtown has a lot of people living there with above average density.

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soundsinamotion

31 March, 2023

It’s a huge problem for my work, I drive Uber black, and barely any business people are commuting to work anymore. I’m making significantly less money and it’s really putting a strain on living here.

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DAN214

1 April, 2023

Was this article written by Chicken Little? I haven't heard such baseless fear-mongering since I was three years old. Every City goes through ups and downs; every city has real estate booms and busts; every city has creaky bureaucracy and short-sighted leaders. But for all our troubles, San Francisco is still a major finance and tech center; it's still a tourist magnet; it's still a place of innovation and creativity; it's still a city where it's OK to be 'different' and a willing foil to right-wing culture warriors; it's still a place of refuge and beacon of light to many around the world. It will still be all of those things and more after any down cycle is over. Empty offices and lower real estate prices may be hard on some people, but they are "corrections", which create opportunity for the next generation of innovators and refugees, all of whom will happily  flock here, when the expenses are more reasonable.

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mv

31 March, 2023

Also, one of the best things that could happen is if the size of the city staff dramatically decreased as a result of the budget crunch. Right now, too many of them harass small businesses and make their lives a misery because of the overreaching regulations they have installed and then have to monitor. That might lead to a city government that focuses on supporting small businesses instead of harassing them and driving them out of business....

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Jeffrey13

31 March, 2023

If my memory is correct SF is very heavy on employee count for a city it's size.

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Shorelines

7 April, 2023

I can’t help but wonder what San Francisco would be like right now, and if it would be struggling as much if it had maintained its character over the past decade. Instead, what I witnessed was mayor Ed Lee luring tech and other businesses to downtown with huge tax breaks and gentrification on steroids.

This caused a superficial boom in my opinion. so many locals, non-techies and would be homebuyers were ripping their hair out in frustration at soaring rents as entry-level techies around the country flooded the streets of San Francisco wearing their new hoodies and lining up for shuttle buses.

Sure some people moved to the city to live and then worked in the valley but my point is that those tech companies no longer need to be downtown and neither do their employees, not because San Francisco is dirty or its politics but because the cost-of-living is too high. Tech broke its own toy.

What once was a charming, walkable city full of off-beat types and hip leather jacket and faded black jeans wearing grungy locals (who might have stayed downtown or moved back by now because they were personally and socially invested in S.F.) was replaced with intentional policy to juice the economy at any cost.

My theory is that this left San Francisco more vulnerable, less diverse, and less resilient to individual sector downturns like we’re seeing right now. SF should ask itself where have all the hipsters and artists gone? Displaced intentionally by Lee’s personal vision and policy.

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heidigsf

31 March, 2023

City is not going to fail hate that Chronicle keeps saying things like this.  Most expensive City in America needs to get loose some things to gain others.  Opportunity for maybe rents to come down and bring back artists and small businesses back to area.  San Francisco is trying to be Silicon Valley and live off the boom and bust cycle of the computer industry like San Jose who has often face similar issues.  Need other industries than just tech.

However this article is very dated since people are also coming back to work now in office and young people especially white couples are still coming to rent one bedrooms in droves. That is what is killing San Francisco no more fun people.

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WanderingBear

31 March, 2023

If you want a playbook to go by, look no further than lower Manhattan. It took over a decade to recover from the 9/11 aftershock and the shift of a majority of Wall Street up to Midtown but by the mid 2010s lower Manhattan was back to a vibrant and energizing place to visit.

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tnfdr

31 March, 2023

Sounds like a future wave of companies setting shop in SF is what would be the equivalent to what happened in post 9/11 NYC. The thing is that it is hard to imagine how this will happen in SF given that every week another company shuts down its SF offices.

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EDWARD251

31 March, 2023

What financial firms abandoned NYC altogether?

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painandgain

31 March, 2023

This article doesn't really mention rampant crime, homeless and drug use

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maIcoImketterin

31 March, 2023

Well they did mention BART, so there’s your trifecta.

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Uranian

2 April, 2023

How ironic that San Francisco was a happier - and more stable - city before technology arrived and destroyed its working class base. I remember the  many decades before technology arrived in 1998. Rents were reasonable (although rising even then) and people  - and businesses - could  afford to operate in a harmonious fashion. Then the city embraced technology and  "the future" and removed  those who embodied its past: the low and middle-class base. (And Bank of America became a bandit, gouging the poor and pandering to the rich. And now, 25 years later,  it appears it needed those people all the time.  Who knew??

The first dot com boom should have shown the city a path to making the city once again livable for all. But, they did not learn.

"Those who not remember the past are condemned to repeat it" - George Santayana

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CHRIS220

30 March, 2023

It wasn't covid and the pandemic that caused people to flee, it was the City's response to it: masking outdoors at 10 feet was bandied about at some point, all restaurants and theaters started requiring vaccine passports, and we locked down longest and hardest.  You can't scare a population away, let homelessness and drug use fill the void, and then wonder what happened.

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JustHereForTheComments

30 March, 2023

My office building in Oakland STILL requires masks!  Needless to say, I never go...

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Chaotrix

30 March, 2023

Um, no.

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hn0238

31 March, 2023

What is the problem? San Francisco has plenty of money for reparations!

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Bewildered

31 March, 2023

Can someone explain to me why commercial real estate is still "sky high" when we have so many empty storefronts and vacant offices?  And why are they still building new commercial real estate?  Does the law of supply and demand not apply to SF?

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President_Sharpie

1 April, 2023

Real estate companies are taking the short-term hit and riding the down cycle out, rather than dropping lease rates significantly and getting locked into contracts for extended periods where they make less money. There's a large base of companies in the region and mid-long term SF is still attractive to them because of it's location and regional ecosystem. The future of the SF CBD is clearly more mixed-use, so whether demand comes from offices, apartment conversions, shared spaces, ghost kitchens, or whatever, they want to maintain the underlying value.

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Viznews

31 March, 2023

I guess if property tax receipts decline by too much, the city will have to make it up by raising parking penalties again.  Sigh!

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JustLooking

31 March, 2023

I’m sure Scott Weiner can fix all that ails the city…

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Just-Jake

31 March, 2023

… by leaving.

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Lamp-Lighter

31 March, 2023

It's only going to get worse if the voters in SF keep voting for incompetent progressives.  Unfortunately , they probably will.

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EDWARD251

31 March, 2023

Oakland's spiral down looks steeper.

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MICHAEL980

31 March, 2023

Yes, Oakland's crime rate per 100k is twice that of SF, and it's still ridiculously expensive.

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EDWARD251

31 March, 2023

San Franciscans got rid of Boudin.

Alameda County elected Price.

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sby14

31 March, 2023

No mention at all of the amount of $ spent on the homeless, who contribute nothing.

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Jeffrey13

31 March, 2023

Not accurate.

They contribute trash, needles, crime, drug markets, more crime, etc.

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charliecfarrell

31 March, 2023

The poor didn’t have any power pre-pandemic, and they don’t have any power now.

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sby14

31 March, 2023

Very true. But that $1.1B the city spends on them is going somewhere.

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YahooThom

12 April, 2023

The City of San Francisco should go back to basics - Safety, Roads, Transportation and Sanitation.  No more frills like $5 million dollar reparations, injection sites, luxury condo's for the homeless.  It really is that simple.

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2boblong

30 March, 2023

Go figure. Who would have guessed.

Progressives are by definition a doom loop.

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ChuckF1948

31 March, 2023

Nothing will change until every single progressive liberal Democrat is voted out of office in the next election cycle and replaced with young (under 50) Republicans and moderate Democrats with real life work experience in business problem solving and who would be willing to work together to make th...

See more

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doggz3

30 March, 2023

Those who remain San Franciscans should not forget: there is a huge reparations bill coming.

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tnfdr

31 March, 2023

Justin's retirement..

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MiddleWay

31 March, 2023

no way…but the city will try to perform for the nation.

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onetaozen

30 March, 2023

It's Western Civilization that's in a doom loop, not just San Francisco. The whole system is based on economics--devotion to making money--which is a fatal course. Homelessness is not a San Francisco phenomenon. It exists all across the country. We live in a system that glorifies "winners," and where are there are winners there must be losers.

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Jeffrey13

31 March, 2023

We have far better lifestyles than our parents.

Our poor have cell phones and are overweight.

Go to Africa and see reality. I was there in November.

We are spoiled.

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AutoUnion

31 March, 2023

Our poor have cell phones because the post-1981 "free market" wanted it that way.

^

The Velvet Rope Economy: How Inequality Became Big Business,

by Nelson D. Schwartz (2020)

[The section on San Francisco and the Bay Area's tech driven poverty is priceless. ]

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onetaozen

31 March, 2023

Your reply makes my point. "Our poor have cell phones" as if they make our lives so much better. There's a tremendous problem with people fixated on their screens. We're turning into zombies. Ask any school teacher. We're overweight, as if that is something positive. Africans weren't always living a miserable existence. They had evolved a way of life that got them by. Then we came in and tore it up and insisted they live like us.

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ilikeitwarm

31 March, 2023

The average poor person has the same standard of living that a middle class person had 13 years ago.  Absolute poverty is shrinking.

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Jeffrey13

31 March, 2023

I dont know about the "we".

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ilikeitwarm

31 March, 2023

Fixed pie fallacy.

For the most part, the winners improve the lives of the "losers." Absolute poverty has declined.

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onetaozen

31 March, 2023

No. The winners are creating homelessness. It's all fancy homes now. Nobody builds simple housing. Homelessness is absolute poverty and it's growing.

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ilikeitwarm

31 March, 2023

Some winners don't improve lives such as those who get rich off of monopolies. However, most get rich off of inventions that improve our lives.

You can Google absolute poverty for the evidence that it has declined.

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steveinsv

31 March, 2023

Who would want to return to an office in the financial district and the area around it?    What the article doesn’t address is crime and quality of life issues.     Belligerent, homeless and mentally ill people and drug addicts are ever present.   As are the crimes they commit.    I’d stay home too.   In fact I have.   I resigned from my six figure 16th floor view office job a year ago.

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matt.smith

30 March, 2023

My wife and I moved out of San Francisco in 2015 to Marin. We were living in a condo on Van Ness in the Civic Center, and just had a new son. The idea of him walking outside on the sidewalk, dodging needles and excrement, and dozing opiate addicts, was too much. I've been to two work dinners in downtown SF this year, and they were at places that I used to frequent (I lived in SF for 15 years) - they were fun, lively environments. Now, both of these restaurants are closed to the public and only host private events - I presume because it is more profitable to host corporate events. The liveliness and mixing of strangers is gone at these places, and is a real bummer of a trend (if that's what this is). I hope it doesn't continue.

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KingCole

30 March, 2023

Best guess is that SF will follow in the footsteps, really missteps, of other failed Democratic-controlled cities, e.g., Baltimore, St. Louis, Memphis, Chicago, etc.  The descent, however, will be much more rapid--due to the factors cited above and more specifically, the rancid, Progressive, anti-business and anti-capitalism bent of its policy leaders.  Time to head for the exits.

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candide1

31 March, 2023

San Francisco remains a wonderful place to live. Working collaboratively for truly affordable housing will keep the city alive. Cities are kept alive by people that are happy to live there.

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bcwsfo

31 March, 2023

What crack are you smoking today? Or you just choose not to see the corruptions in this awful city? Druggies, homeless, crimes, filthy streets, nasty SROs, high rents, terrible foggy windy weather.

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cueto

31 March, 2023

I like Egan's do nothing strategy - 1) lets him go home at 5pm every day; 2) can continue to be an optimist that eventually the landlords will buckle and drop their rents; 3) lets him keep his lunch plans bc the small business owners will 'figure it out' and stay afloat long enough to make his sandwich.

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bluescrubjay

31 March, 2023

They spent like drunk sailors on $million dollar toilets and now want help.

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ilikeitwarm

31 March, 2023

That means it must buck a long-term trend of producing homes that are too expensive for most people — including service workers, police, firefighters and teachers — in order to address hiring shortages, fight crime and teach children.

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62% of SF workers don’t live in SF. There, is housing within a reasonable commute.  The exception would be single-family homes that are in sort supply. Lower income workers must commute to find one they can afford.

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kotw1

1 April, 2023

Wait until the 5 million per reparation bill comes due.  SF on its way to being a woke ghost town with nothing but zombie junkies roaming the streets.

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steveinsv

1 April, 2023

Cal train wants to spend 6.7 billion to extend Caltrain just over a mile to Sales Fore Tower.   I get why.  The 4th St Station is a mess.  But at 6.7 billion it will be the most expensive railroad line in the world.  Oh and ridership in a scant 22 % of what it was in 2019.....

And by July Caltrain will be out of money.

BTW I was a rider in 2019 and the service was terrible.   Diridon and 4th St were criminal and drug addict hang outs.  Filthy restrooms.  Broken amenities.  Inadequate seating.  And get this - Cal Train has no wifi.   WTH. Even Greyhound has wifi buses.

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maIcoImketterin

1 April, 2023

Let Emperor Benioff pay for it.

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RJPJR

30 March, 2023

If San Francisco wants to come back they need to hurry up and appoint the "Drag Laureate" and cover the murals at George Washington High School.

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Aggybabe

30 March, 2023

SF is in this position because city hall went all in on SPUR's absurd futuristic gamble that the tech golden spigot will flow and grow uninterrupted. Their biggest enabler was DPW Chief, CAO, and Mayor, Ed Lee.

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ChuckF1948

31 March, 2023

They're in this position because voters keep electing progressive liberal Democrats into office and nothing will change until every single progressive liberal Democrat is voted out of office in the next election cycle and replaced with young (under 50) Republicans and moderate Democrats with real life work experience in business problem solving and who would be willing to work together to make the necessary changes to turn the page on this disaster that's been going on for decades.

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GetWellSoonSF

31 March, 2023

How having Heather Knight write the Editorial Board's positions on local politics and candidates for a while?  Start recommending (start your Daffy Duck voice) practical people and policies, instead of partisan posturing.

Stop selling ads based on doom and woe.  Pick up an oar and help us row.

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ChuckF1948

31 March, 2023

They could start by endorsing anyone who isn't a progressive/liberal/democrat running for office in the next election cycle. The city has been in a downward spiral for a few decades. It's time to try a different type of leadership.

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wallier36

7 April, 2023

I just read an article about sourdough in San Francisco. That may be the answer to crime, homelessness, and high taxes.

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RedBlackGold

31 March, 2023

High fives to the Chron on this article. Just about everything in this piece is spot on. Now, we just need a plan to right the ship. Potential office holders, it’s time to step up - with rolled up sleeves.

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ChuckF1948

31 March, 2023

Here's a plan. Vote out every progressive liberal Democrat in S.F. and replace them with younger ( 50 and under) Republicans and moderate Democrats who have real life problem solving work experience in business and who want to work together and save the city. Nothing will ever change in this city u...

See more

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mv

31 March, 2023

I think Ted Egan has his head in the sand.  Absolutely clueless about the gravity of the problem and the imagination it is going to take to make the city an attractive place for both residents and businesses.  I agree with many of the comments here, i.e. until the whole cadre of politicians and people like Ted who are responsible for the governance and development of the city go, SF will continue down it's death spiral!

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ocelus1971

12 April, 2023

Sure the City’s fiscal outlook is grim and crime is pretty high but just look at all those happy drug fueled free range homeless we now bought, paid for and maintain. That’s what the voter demands, right?

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Just-Jake

30 March, 2023

Hark!! People, we need not worry… because once again SPUR will articulate a vision.

(Reminder that where things are right now have a lot to do with prior SPUR-mindsets)

<thinking about it as the central social district for the region,” said Alicia John-Baptiste, CEO of urban planning think tank SPUR. “I think it’s important for us to start to articulate a really proactive vision>

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bcwsfo

31 March, 2023

Lock up the druggies and put the homeless in faraway shelters and you'll see everyone happy to be back to SF.

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ChuckF1948

31 March, 2023

That will never happen as long as progressive liberal democrats are in charge. Never. Ever.

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listserv

31 March, 2023

on the other hand, where else is it better... namely I keep seeing cars with out of state plates in the city.

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Jeffrey13

31 March, 2023

Drug buyers

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awims

30 March, 2023

Cities die and stay dead. St Louis and numerous other Rust Belt cities offer clear examples.

New York City never died, however. What sustained New York through so many different eras? Public housing, and lots of it.

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AutoUnion

31 March, 2023

The advantage NYC has is that it still operates like it did during the years 1875 - 1914, but with cell phones and with even bigger and more disruptive Postwar Urban Renewal Projects.

^

Bulldozer: Demolition and Clearance of the Postwar Landscape,

by Francesca Russello Ammon (2016)

^

The Power Broker: R...

See more

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ilikeitwarm

31 March, 2023

How do you know that?

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awims

31 March, 2023

Professional in the field. Studied Urban Planning in NYC. Lived and worked there for 10 years. Visited dozens of times since, often for weeks at a time.

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awims

31 March, 2023

Love the downvoting of public housing.

The trolls in this comment section, Chron.

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Str8noChsr

31 March, 2023

San Francisco has already undergone the 'poop loop,' so how much worse can it get?

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tnfdr

31 March, 2023

Hmm, sadly there's much more destruction to be made.

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SomethingExciting

1 April, 2023

Bring on the doom loop! What we have right now is not working. Let's destroy the mess we have and build something better as quickly as we can.

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btan123

31 March, 2023

The inevitable consequence of one-party rule with no check and balance in SF.

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ballantyne

31 March, 2023

Homeless moved to the governors campuses would be transformative.

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wllfrancis2000

12 April, 2023

Somewhere in the recent past the popularity of the "sky is falling for sf" articles reached a fevered-pitch, and it hasn't stopped. It's really quite annoying.

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YahooThom

31 March, 2023

Nail on the coffin economically = $5 million per person in reparations...Flush the city down the toilet...Stockton went bankrupt.

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coldwarrior

31 March, 2023

That's never happening and you know it.

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tiredprogressive

31 March, 2023

,... LEADERS, HOMELESSNESS, HOUSING

LEADERS:

The leaders we have now were born during woke-ness. Times have changed. We need hard-nosed thinking that focuses on the broader good. For once I am voting republican so someone can make the difficult choices rather than being softy for every liberal cause...who needs a pacific islanders cultural district when there is no housing...not to mention the 20k trash cans.

Abolish the city board of supervisors. We do not need so many cooks when times require quick decisions.

HOMELESSNESS:

No more open-air drug dealing. Put in Fentanyl dispenser in the middle of the tenderloin where 1 in every 5 hits is an overdose and let them all end it themselves with their own free will. It will be guarded 24/7 by police and all homeless and drug addicts have to stand in line and sign a waiver.

For those that don't kill themselves..off to the cow palace a homeless shelter and required to work,.

If you r a nut job you are required to take your meds, or else you get shipped out to the town you born to your to deal with you.

HOUSING:

We need working class..downtown is the answer. That it will pay off in 3 years. Nationalize 20k office units. Offer them to people who work in the city. They will get credits and $ for renovating them into homes. Waive all the stupid city rules which make it difficult to convert downtown to homes.

However, we don't need to destroy existing neighborhoods and make them mexico-city urban cement hell, downtown has enough space.

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wallier36

31 March, 2023

As much as San Francisco nut job liberals oppose prayer many are working over time praying that your city fails in a major way.

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2boblong

30 March, 2023

Doom Loop AKA a cluster f’

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SFOtoRNO

31 March, 2023

Article lays it out adequately but...have all the editors left the building @ The Chronicle?!!

So painful to read a mangled photo caption like "a office worker walks to their job..."!

Ouch!

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czyd1amondt

31 March, 2023

America is becoming Amerika. If SF can resist this trend people will be drawn to it.

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Jeffrey13

31 March, 2023

SF is the future Amerika.

Progressives

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HeySpike

31 March, 2023

Earth Abides

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Ramdingo

1 April, 2023

good.

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vanmottola

31 March, 2023

The greatest takeaway I had from the article is that this Ted Egan guy is an idiot. He’s skipping and whistling past the graveyard. I live in a suburb of Atlanta and subscribe because I like getting local perspective on places that interest me. I don’t know much about him, but it read as if he was deeply committed to being positive even when he doesn’t believe his own words or he’s just a clown that won’t recognize failed policies of the past that he supported. “That isn’t poop you stepped in, it is organic fertilizer that can be used to grow the city to something beyond what any of us believed possible. Yay!”

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ALn999

1 April, 2023

I am sick to death of these doomsday prophets.   This is not reporting, this is cheap  fear mongering.

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steveinsv

1 April, 2023

San Francisco Board of Supervisors is an Stygian Council  of ignorance and incompetence.

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