The bleak reality of San Francisco’s emptied downtown has been laid bare with images showing every store in an entire commercial block closed and empty.
Lloyd Chapman of the American Small Business League visited the once-thriving Union Square area, in the heart of its business district.
This prime real estate was once home to outlets such as Uniqlo, H&M, Rasputin Records and Lush, but they have all disappeared in a city center plagued by crime, drugs and homelessness.
‘Incredible!’ she exclaims as his camera pans over the ghostly remains of former stores now defaced by graffiti.
“This whole street is empty, all the shops are empty.”
Nothing remains of San Francisco’s retail heart on a block where all the stores are empty
Lloyd Chapman of the American Small Business League said it was a stark contrast to the city’s glory days just a few years ago, when it was a “Disneyland for adults.”
The retail exodus is reflected on nearby streets, with 22 of 33 stores now empty on a three-block section of Powell Street from Market Street to Union Square, according to a survey by the SF Chronical.
And the entire Union Square district now has a record vacancy rate of 20.6 percent, helping push the city’s overall retail vacancy rate to a new high of 7.9 percent, according to a survey. last month by Cushman and Wakefield.
“The decline in retail performance was primarily due to worsening conditions in Union Square and surrounding downtown areas,” analyst Soany Gunawan wrote in the report.
Chapman’s disturbing video has been viewed by 500,000 people since he posted it on X
Assaults have increased 10 percent in the Union Square police precinct so far this year and vehicle thefts have increased by a third even though police have established a new command center in the area.
Most crime numbers have dropped citywide this year, but Chapman said the damage is already done after years of increases, pointing the finger of blame at California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“He has devastated California with his failed policies,” the business leader tweeted.
‘San Francisco is a ghost city. Oakland looks like a refugee camp.
California spent $24 billion to address homelessness in the five years through 2023, but failed to track whether the money was helping the state’s growing number of homeless people, a damning report revealed last month. past.
Homelessness rose 6 percent to more than 180,000 people in California last year, federal data shows. And since 2013, numbers have skyrocketed by 53 percent, with the state accounting for one-third of the entire homeless population in the United States.
It has contributed to California’s budget deficit of at least $45 billion, a shortfall so large that it led Newsom to propose painful spending cuts that affect immigrants, kindergartners and low-income parents seeking child care. in a state often praised for having the fifth largest economy in the world. .
California Governor Gavin Newsom recently admitted that the state spent $24 billion to address homelessness in the five years through 2023, but did not track whether the money was helping.
A map reveals the major companies that have left, or announced they will leave, San Francisco in recent months. Retailers such as Whole Foods, Anthropologie, Old Navy, AmazonGo, Saks Off Fifth and now American Eagle are among those participating in the mass exodus.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed praised figures showing a recent reduction in the number of people sleeping on the streets.
Retail stalwarts Old Navy, Nordstrom, Whole Foods, Anthropologie and Office Depot were among those that announced their exodus last year.
North Face, Jeffrey’s Toys and Lacoste followed, and Macy’s is expected to close its flagship store next year.
‘As someone who grew up in San Francisco, Macy’s has always meant a lot to the people of this city. It’s where families come to shop for the holidays,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed said when the news was announced in February.
‘It’s where many people in my community got their first jobs, or even held jobs for decades. It’s hard to think that Macy’s is no longer a part of our city.
Store workers told The San Francisco Standard they believe the decision was made because of rampant daily theft, with thieves regularly making off with at least four jackets, 10 purses and 20 packages of underwear a day.
American Eagle announced last month that it will vacate the former Westfield San Francisco Center over the summer, citing more than 100 major security incidents that reportedly occurred between May 2020 and May 2023.
Breed hailed new figures last month suggesting the number of people sleeping in the city hit its lowest level in five years, with 360 tents and structures counted on the streets in April, a 41 per cent reduction from the previous month. last summer.
A gruesome video filmed in November showed homeless and intoxicated people strewn across hundreds of yards of streets in the city’s Tenderloin district.
At one point, a man in a hoodie apparently burned down his back steps in front of the TikToker as other ghostly figures emerged from the darkness.
Visitor numbers to Union Square are down nine percent so far this year according to Cushman & Wakefield, and the crisis is not limited to retailers with office vacancies now at a record level as businesses of all types leave the center. from the city.
Scenes of homeless drug addicts stumbling on sidewalks and fears of violence and petty crime have become a national political issue, and Donald Trump has made it part of his campaign platform.
In a video about homelessness released by his campaign, Trump said “hard-working, law-abiding citizens” were being marginalized and forced to “suffer at the whims of a deeply sick few.”
He promised to “ban urban encampments” and create “tent cities” on “cheap land” for homeless people that will be staffed by doctors and social workers to help people address systemic problems.
More than two-thirds of Americans say homelessness, which increased 12 percent last year, is out of control.
A recent DailyMail.com/TIPP poll showed that more than two-thirds of American adults said homelessness was out of control and that officials needed to move those sleeping rough to tent camps outside the towns and cities.
The survey found that 67 percent of Americans are fed up with the rapidly increasing number of homeless people in the country and want mayors to take drastic action to address this scourge.
“San Francisco was like Disneyland for adults,” Chapman wrote.
‘Lots of great shops and fabulous restaurants and nightclubs. They’re all gone now. Maybe one day it will all come back.’
