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Crime, Homelessness and Commercial Vacancies: SJ’s Doom Loop Mirrors SF
San Francisco Does Detroit
Nordstrom’s closure marks the beginning of the end for the City by the Bay.
May 6, 2023
I left San Francisco just in time — at the end of 2016.
Sure, I saw the occasional junkie shooting up in public when I still worked in the city. And yes, I saw men use the sidewalk at the intersection of Fifth and Market streets as a toilet.
But I never saw swarms of shoplifters emptying pharmacy shelves. If I needed new shoes, I could pop over to Nordstrom at the Westfield San Francisco Centre at Fifth and Market.
Market Street is an obstacle course of used free needles and damaged souls.
The number of friends who had stopped going into the city entirely — and switched to shopping in suburban malls — was unsettling, but tourists could help fill the gap.
This week, sadly, Nordstrom announced that it won’t renew its lease at the Westfield Centre.
The chief stores officer, Jamie Nordstrom, explained in a statement that “the dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past several years, impacting customer foot traffic to our stores and our ability to operate successfully.”
That’s corporate-speak for: Our customers are afraid to go there.
I had almost gotten used to dodging panhandlers and homeless people as I went to and from work.
In 2015, I started writing about how much the city smelled. “Stench and the City” became a recurring theme.
Then-Mayor Ed Lee blamed the drought for the sour smells. ...
If a foreign power — or Republicans — had done to the City by the Bay what the ruling class has allowed to occur, voters would be outraged. Instead, they save their ire for Donald Trump, for all the good that does.
That liberal sense of moral superiority will be the death of the Special City. Years from now, when downtown feels like Detroit, San Franciscans will look at the closure of Nordstrom’s downtown store as the day the music died.
What are you all thoughts on renting in downtown SF?
Oakland Residents Finally Revolt Against Crime: ‘We Are Victims of Failed Progressive Utopia’
The owner of two of San Francisco’s biggest hotels has thrown in the towel and announced it was leaving the city.
Virginia-based REIT Park Hotels & Resorts is abandoning the hotels to the lender because it lost faith the Democrat-controlled city can recover.
The company has opted to cease payments on a $725 million loan, surrendering over 2,900 hotel rooms and hospitality facilities to its lender.
They are walking away from the 1,921-room Hilton San Francisco Union Square, which is San Francisco’s largest hotel, and the 1,024-room Parc 55.
The news comes as crime rates continue to run red hot in San Francisco, Democrat Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) district.
The company has opted to cease payments on a $725 million loan, surrendering over 2,900 hotel rooms and hospitality facilities to its lender.
SAN FRANCISCO -- A driver captured video of a brazen robbery while driving through traffic in San Francisco on Friday afternoon.
The driver, Alex, says he was about to get on an onramp, heading east on I-80 around 4:30 p.m. There, he witnessed someone jump out of a Honda Accord and smash a window of a Prius in front of him.
The thief grabbed a bag and drove off.
The news comes as crime rates continue to run red hot in San Francisco, Democrat Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) district.
SAN FRANCISCO -- A driver captured video of a brazen robbery while driving through traffic in San Francisco on Friday afternoon.
SAN FRANCISCO -- A driver captured video of a brazen robbery while driving through traffic in San Francisco on Friday afternoon.
Home Depot stores in the Bay Area have started to lock items behind cages due to rampant theft.
Workers told The Standard that the stores locked high-value items such as power tools behind the cages starting around January, but since then, even laundry detergent has been locked up.
"It used to be big-ticket items, but now even the detergent is locked up," said one worker at the Emeryville Home Depot store, who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
Items behind lock, key and cage vary, from expensive power tools, spools of copper wire and lawn mowers to more mundane items like phone chargers, work gloves and shower drain covers.
READ MORE: Downtown San Francisco Target Plagued by Thefts, Workers Say
The workers said the cages are an effective deterrent for most thieves, but more savvy criminals can work around the cages, especially to access more lucrative scores, like items in the power tools section.
"A month ago, I saw these two guys just muscle off one of the cages, bare hands," the worker said. ...
Home Depot tells its staff not to confront suspected shoplifters but does employ trained asset-protection guards to challenge thieves. In April, a Home Depot employee was fatally shot in a Pleasanton store after confronting shoplifters. ...
A Homeland Security Investigations report published in June 2022 said the average U.S. family will have to pay more than $500 a year extra for goods due to the impact of organized retail theft.
California Senate passes bill to stop employees from confronting shoplifters...
“This bill goes way too far, number one, where I think it will open the doors even wider for people to come in and steal from our stores,” said Rachel Michelin, CRA president and CEO, in a report by Fox KTVU.com.
The California Chamber of Commerce also expressed reservations about the bill.
Was talking to a cop here about CA. He told me he pulled a guy over that was wanted for a murder in CA. CA did want to extradite him so they had to let him go.
Was talking to a cop here about CA. He told me he pulled a guy over that was wanted for a murder in CA. CA did want to extradite him so they had to let him go.
I'm old enough to remember p.net members ranting agaist "the war on drugs". Now it seems like the mood has flipped 180.
Eric Holder says
I'm old enough to remember p.net members ranting agaist "the war on drugs". Now it seems like the mood has flipped 180.
So, are you on the side of legalized fentanyl?
What part of my little historic observation made you come to this conclusion?
Westfield giving downtown San Francisco mall back to lender
By Ted Andersen and Alex Barreira
San Francisco Business Times
Jun 12, 2023
Westfield San Francisco Centre — the city's biggest shopping center — is headed back to its lender after the mall owners ceased making payments on a $558 million loan, the latest economic and symbolic blow for a downtown struggling to regain its footing after the pandemic.
The 1.2 million-square-foot mall at 865 Market St. near Union Square is owned jointly by the parent company of Westfield Corp., French conglomerate Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, and Brookfield Properties, which acquired its stake through its acquisition of Forest City.
“For more than 20 years, Westfield has proudly and successfully operated San Francisco Centre, investing significantly over that time in the vitality of the property,” the company said in a statement. “Given the challenging operating conditions in downtown San Francisco, which have led to declines in sales, occupancy and foot traffic, we have made the difficult decision to begin the process to transfer management of the shopping center to our lender to allow them to appoint a receiver to operate the property going forward.”
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