Written by By Evan Symon at californiaglobe.com
In her State of the City Address on Thursday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed unveiled a new measure to bring 30,000 more residents and students to downtown San Francisco by 2030.
Since the beginning of the decade, San Francisco’s downtown has been in a downward spiral. Work from home levels have remained high in the city since the COVID-19 pandemic. Tech companies have been eliminating tens of thousands of jobs, as well as hundreds of thousands across the Bay Area, in the past several years. More and more retail locations have been leaving the city. Office vacancy rates, which were near 0% in 2019, are at around 36% right now. Crime is high and a major concern. The budget deficit nears $800 million for the city.
For many residents, this scenario seems like deja vu, as this was almost exactly where San Francisco was at during the last state of the city address 13 months ago. Last year, Mayor Breed introduced the ‘Roadmap to Downtown San Francisco’s Future‘, promising a changed city in 2024. Since then while the crime rate has gotten a little better with a push for more law enforcement, areas like downtown have actually gotten worse with vacancy rates growing and stores continuing to leave. And that’s not to mention departments like San Francisco public schools which are now facing closures amid huge budget crunches.
On Thursday, Mayor Breed gave a new plan for attack: 30 by 30. By focusing on bringing a new UC campus downtown and attracting tech companies, particularly AI companies, to set up shop downtown, Breed wants 30,000 new residents and students downtown by 2030. With numbers like that, businesses to support them would grow around them, helping at least partially solve the office vacancy issue and stop the flow of businesses leaving the downtown area.