[Mick]

“over half the restaurants in the city have shut down”…

Wrong!

Per the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, there were 3,974 restaurants in the city in 2021.  To suggest that nearly 2,000 restaurants in the city have closed since that time exaggerates the difficulty the dining industry has experienced over the last couple years. 

I stipulate to your 2021 figure of 3,974. The Rentech restaurant mailing list for San Francisco lists 1,788 restaurants in San Francisco as of September, 2023. That's how I derived my 50% figure.

https://rentechdigital.com/smartscraper/...estaurants

SF has its share of problems.  However, to call it a “failed city” is definitely wrong.  

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that San Francisco is a failed city. I was referring to the fact that the city is communicating that it is a failed city.

The pandemic has had a significant impact (more so than most large cities in the U.S.) with the workforce coming back far more slowly than elsewhere (I would guess this is due to the nature of work done by a very large segment of the employee-base in SF).  This is the primary reason large businesses downtown have shuttered their stores.  

I might also suggest two other reasons; first, that an increase in street crime and a failure to prosecute property crimes may have a bit to do with the enormous number of retail businesses that have closed, and second that there are far fewer shoppers than there once were (I note hotels are closing as well).

However, it is remains a world class city that attracts visitors from all over the world.  In fact, tourism increased in 2022 (21.9 million) by 29% over 2021.  

COVID still influenced tourism in 2021. There were 26 million tourists in 2018 and 2019, so the 21.9 million in 2022 is a considerable decrease from the 26 mm in 2019. San Francisco Travel estimates that there will be 664,759 convention hotel room bights booked in 2023 compared with 967,861 booked in 2019. In 2021, SF had 481,000 international visitors. In 2019, there were 2.9 million international visitors.

The downtown office vacancy rate is 35%. Open air drug market. Tourism decline and closed hotels. Retail collapse. 150,000 fewer daily commuters who used to work downtown. Little new housing. Recovery vs. Harm Reduction. 

I hope the perception of San Francisco as a world-class, safe, exciting city to visit comes back, I really do. My son loves it, and it's always entertaining to visit.

[Mick]

“over half the restaurants in the city have shut down”…

Wrong!

Per the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, there were 3,974 restaurants in the city in 2021.  To suggest that nearly 2,000 restaurants in the city have closed since that time exaggerates the difficulty the dining industry has experienced over the last couple years. 

I stipulate to your 2021 figure of 3,974. The Rentech restaurant mailing list for San Francisco lists 1,788 restaurants in San Francisco as of September, 2023. That's how I derived my 50% figure.

https://rentechdigital.com/smartscraper/...estaurants

SF has its share of problems.  However, to call it a “failed city” is definitely wrong.  

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that San Francisco is a failed city. I was referring to the fact that the city is communicating that it is a failed city.

The pandemic has had a significant impact (more so than most large cities in the U.S.) with the workforce coming back far more slowly than elsewhere (I would guess this is due to the nature of work done by a very large segment of the employee-base in SF).  This is the primary reason large businesses downtown have shuttered their stores.  

I might also suggest two other reasons; first, that an increase in street crime and a failure to prosecute property crimes may have a bit to do with the enormous number of retail businesses that have closed, and second that there are far fewer shoppers than there once were (I note hotels are closing as well).

However, it is remains a world class city that attracts visitors from all over the world.  In fact, tourism increased in 2022 (21.9 million) by 29% over 2021.  

COVID still influenced tourism in 2021. There were 26 million tourists in 2018 and 2019, so the 21.9 million in 2022 is a considerable decrease from the 26 mm in 2019. San Francisco Travel estimates that there will be 664,759 convention hotel room bights booked in 2023 compared with 967,861 booked in 2019. In 2021, SF had 481,000 international visitors. In 2019, there were 2.9 million international visitors.

The downtown office vacancy rate is 35%. Open air drug market. Tourism decline and closed hotels. Retail collapse. 150,000 fewer daily commuters who used to work downtown. Little new housing. Recovery vs. Harm Reduction. 

I hope the perception of San Francisco as a world-class, safe, exciting city to visit comes back, I really do. My son loves it, and it's always entertaining to visit.