Golden City tarnished by dirt, crime and needles: San Francisco looks to Apec summit for revival

SAN FRANCISCO – For a city that has been declared dead more than a few times since its founding, rising from the ashes is more than a metaphor. It is a motto, burned into the soul of what feels like a bipolar city.

Since San Francisco was founded by the Spanish in 1776, the Golden City has lived dangerously, a growth spurt alternating with a flatline every so often.

After the Gold Rush peaked in 1852, the great shock was the earthquake and fire of 1906. The tech boom and bust in the early 2000s was the next big disruption, followed by the foreclosure crisis after the great recession of 2008 and 2009.

With 2020 came the triple whammy – the Covid-19 pandemic, the chronic homelessness and an epidemic of fentanyl deaths – which stoked the latest prophecies of the city’s demise, shared by many, including the world’s wealthiest man Elon Musk.

“If you walk around downtown San Francisco right near the X (Twitter) headquarters, it’s a zombie apocalypse,” he said in an interview in October.

But some would disagree, including Mr Larry Baer, chief executive of San Francisco Giants, a major league baseball team and a fourth-generation San Franciscan.

The apocalypse narrative is overblown, according to Mr Baer. “When I travel, people say, ‘Oh my goodness, San Francisco! Are you scared to walk out your door?

“It is a crazy notion. There is also a lot going on in a good way,” he told The Straits Times.

“There are some areas of the city that are challenged, as in every big city. But most of the neighbourhoods are thriving,” he said.

“Not in all respects – we do have to get more affordable housing and there is crime in the streets, car robberies and break-ins. I am not saying we are without problems, but I think the narrative is skewed and distorted.”

Mr Baer, along with other local business executives, created Advance SF – a consortium of business leaders interested in reviving the city’s fortunes – in the belief that San Francisco’s best days are still ahead of it.

Other members of the group are Mr Bob Fisher, former chairman of Gap and Ms Elizabeth Minick, a managing director at the Bank of America.

In October, Advance SF kicked off a civic pride campaign to persuade more people to believe that the glass is half-full, not half-empty.

“If it changes everything in an instant, well then, chances are, it was dreamed up and built up here in San Francisco. And the best is yet to come,” a campaign video says, celebrating the birthplace of many iconic things – from denim jeans and cable cars, to slot machines, ice cream sandwiches and fortune cookies.

And, of course, the tech wonders from Silicon Valley, including the latest – ChatGPT.

As the city seeks to rise again, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit could be a lifesaver. The last time global leaders gathered here in such numbers was in 1945, when the United Nations Charter was signed at the city’s Veterans War Memorial.

The week-long Apec meetings

are expected to deliver benefits worth US$52.8 million (S$72 million) to the struggling local economy, denied the post-pandemic revival seen in other cities across the world.

Visitors have booked 55,000 hotel nights, according to the city and the San Francisco Travel Association.

But what happens after the show leaves town?

Among San Francisco’s serious issues is

the office vacancy rate

of more than 30 per cent, most visible in its emptied-out downtown, the result of remote work, tech layoffs and the shuttering of major retail stores. 

Mr Baer believes the key to future growth lies in developing a mixed land use strategy in downtown San Francisco, by increasing the number of residential buildings to make up for the void left by remote-working tech workers who seem unlikely to return to office.

Add the dynamism generated by tech companies staying in place and the return of tourists, and the picture begins to look more positive.

“All of that can reboot it,” he said. “We are already seeing some signs, and within the next couple of years, we’ll rebound.”

Mr Joel Kotkin, who writes about demographic, social, and economic trends in America’s urban areas, is more downbeat. Not just about San Francisco but other cities in the area including Los Angeles, Oakland, Portland and Seattle.

There is good reason why big companies such as Tesla, Oracle and Hewlett-Packard have moved their headquarters from the Pacific coast cities to more business-friendly and less costly regions in Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Florida and Tennessee, he wrote in The Spectator, a British conservative magazine, on Sept 13.

“San Francisco suffers among the worst levels of property crime in the country and residents frequently find themselves dealing with theft, public defecation, open public drug use and occasional assaults,” he wrote.

“This sad scene is unfolding even as tech’s golden goose is also flying south.”

Meanwhile, dirt, homelessness and hypodermic needles (roughly two million are left on the streets annually), are depressing the tourism and hospitality industry, the city’s other big employer, he noted.

“This once unstoppable economy retains some of its crown jewels, but the region overall is losing its allure,” he said, blaming the rise of progressive dogmas that were tough on police and permissive towards crime.

The San Francisco Chronicle, the city newspaper, speculated in 2021 on the possibility of the current decay foreshadowing a gilded age.

“Is a eulogy in order for San Francisco?” it asked. “Or is it possible that a cycle of change, rebirth and bitching-on-the-way-out has perpetually kept our Golden Age in the rear-view mirror – even as we move on to greater things?”

Only time can tell. But one answer comes from a prominent resident, Mr Greg Brockman, the president of OpenAI, the company that owns ChatGPT. He called the city “the best place to start an AI company”.

“But,” he added, “it could be 10 times or 100 times better.”