On March 5 of last year, San Francisco voters passed two referendums that may have started the process of the city's rebirth.
Proposition F called for welfare recipients to be tested for drugs before receiving benefits, and Proposition E expanded police surveillance powers and lessened oversight.
Both measures passed with more than 60% of the vote. They were supported by former Mayor London Breed, whose extraordinarily tolerant views about drugs and drug users, as well as inviting homeless people to live, sleep, and urinate anywhere they wished, accelerated the decline of San Francisco to light speed.
Breed had recently woken up to the fact that she may have been getting cheers from San Francisco liberals for her efforts to create a "liberal paradise," but most ordinary people were appalled. She was losing her re-election race and thought pulling a 180-degree turnaround would save her job. It didn't.
Breed, in November, lost to philanthropist and heir to the Levi Strauss fortune Daniel Lurie by ten points. He immediately took steps to bring some common-sense governance to the city.
"Since taking office in January, Lurie’s office has stated that it is heavily focused on tackling public safety issues in an effort to improve perceptions about downtown and bring businesses back," reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
Whether it was because San Francisco literally had no place to go but up, or a realization among city elites that change was necessary for their survival, San Francisco is kind of, sort of on the way back from the dead.
How far back they make it remains to be seen. The city is still full of toxic, left-wing radicals who are hell-bent on destruction. But for the moment, common sense appears to have the upper hand.
“Clean up the streets and the homeless, please,” an older woman implored, shaking Lurie’s hand. “We’re going to,” he responded with a smile," reported the Wall Street Journal in January.
In recent years, no American metropolis has drawn more headlines about civic dysfunction than notably liberal San Francisco. Now, the storied city’s renaissance rests on Lurie, a moderate Democrat and Levi Strauss heir whose victory over incumbent London Breed and four other City Hall veterans marked the first time since 1911 that voters here chose a mayor with no government experience—a reflection of the appetite for change.
The state-wide crackdown on the homeless encampments that were a blight on so many cities has resulted in many tent cities being removed or pushed out of sight. The efforts by police to clean up open drug markets are having some success, although they still have a ways to go before city streets can be walked in relative safety again.
One contributing factor to the city's reincarnation is the movement to bring office workers back to in-person work. It's already started to revitalize downtown.
Nearly everyone agrees that the hope for a complete return to the Before Times is a lost cause. But it’s clear from speaking to members of the business ecosystem — HR managers, sellers of office furniture, grumbling employees, headhunters, and small companies like Andytown — that something has changed. Five years after Covid shut down the city, it seems we’re at the beginning of the end of the remote-work era.
The café in October matched pre-pandemic revenue, and, aside from a holiday lull, business has been steady or growing since. It’s a sign of a palpable resurgence in parts of the city, where working from the office has become the new new normal.
In 2024, Zara's Fashion Store announced it was closing its downtown location. Last week, the company announced it was opening a four-story flagship store just a short distance from where the old one was closing.
The revival is still in the early stages. It may yet prove to be illusory, but I am rooting for a city that used to be one of the most exciting, beautiful cities in the nation to regain some of its former luster.
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