Cable car ride up Powell reveals heavily vacant Union Square shopping district in San Francisco

No, not eerie. That stretch of Powell was mediocre in 1980…take your City-bashing elsewhere. True San Franciscans don’t mind a little down & dirty, or gritty. It’s summer in the City.

R1 Excuses, excuses, excuses.

Great news. Space to put thousands of Mexicans and their chicken coops.

Reality sucks, we know. But that’s no excuse for you.

Jeeze look at the state of the roads.

Still manages to be livelier than even the most vibrant areas of nearly any city not named New York.

Why so angry R1? D id someone hit a nerve?

Looks like the once vibrant downtown of my city from 1974 - 2014. The 'revitalization' of the past nine years hasn't really produced much better.

San Francisco has always been a smelly dirty city

What area of Powell was that? I used to live on that cable car line.

R7 I’m long dead, can’t you read? My nerves were shot in the early 80s.

Phyllis Lindstrom wouldn't be caught dead in San Francisco today. She simply wouldn't subject herself to such hoodlums in the store.

R1

Midjourney prompt: The “This is Fine” meme but with San Francisco on fire.

[quote] What area of Powell was that? I used to live on that cable car line

Jesus Christ, I have visited San Francisco precisely three times over twenty years and I know exactly where this is.

This problem has been brewing for years. Union Square hasn’t done anything to appeal to locals, and the brands that left are either troubled/failing/no longer relevant to young people.

Before the pandemic there was already a vacancy issue-Forever 21 filed bankruptcy; Gap was planning on reducing their footprint; H&M was closing one of its two huge stores, Gump’s closed; Macy’s closed their men’s store, Barney’s went bankrupt; etc.

The stores that were there were in place for 10+ years, and they probably would have left anyway. These brands also don’t appeal to American teenagers. It is very dated.

The foreign tourists, office workers and conventioneers were masking this problem as well as the homeless-it didn’t feel as disgusting and depressing when there were thousands of people running around.

If I owned the Westfield mall or was running the Union Square Business Improvement District, I would encourage all of these local small shops in San Francisco who closed up in the past five years due to rental costs in San Francisco to come to Union Square, and give them the spaces at well below market rates-get the stores open again but with a local focus. That would fill it back up, and then these landlords could go after hot brands that can pay more.