 Sunday, February 20, 2022 in Blog  No Comments |  | Mayor London Breed is working with business leaders to push San Francisco employers to start bringing more workers back to downtown offices at some point in March.
Breed revealed the plans during a Friday morning appearance with Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf at the Hyatt Regency. Sitting before hundreds of business leaders and others at an economic forecast event hosted by the San Francisco Business Times, Breed said she was developing a strategy with the Chamber of Commerce and other groups to help turn around the city`s once-bustling commercial core. San Francisco`s downtown has been hit hard as most employees have stayed home during the pandemic.
The mayor acknowledged that some amount of remote work would remain, but she did not provide a precise date for when she wants major employers to start filling their offices again. But she said it would be sometime in March.
Breed said she had been in conversation with business groups "to come up with a specific strategy around dates of when people should return."I keep saying, just like the Warriors, there`s strength in numbers, Breed said. Breed`s comments reflect the pressure she`s under to revive San Francisco`s struggling downtown where weekday foot traffic remains sparse, small businesses have shuttered and massive office towers sit largely empty nearly two years after COVID-19 sent most workers home indefinitely. Some workers are likely to stay remote because they`re concerned about being exposed to the virus or for other personal reasons.
The city faces an uphill battle in trying to bring its downtown economy back to some semblance of pre-pandemic levels, particularly when it comes to attracting conventions. Last week, Breed told the Board of Supervisors that she had "some hard conversations with business leaders during a recent trip to Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New York with local hospitality industry leaders.
Executives have serious concerns about the city`s massive homeless population, public drug use and well-publicized property crimes, Breed said. While those problems aren`t new, the pandemic has cast them into sharp relief as more businesses have realized they can hold meetings remotely or host conventions elsewhere, she said.
"I don`t agree with the people who say that our best days are behind us, Breed told supervisors Feb. 8. "People have written off our city countless times before, and they are always proved wrong, but I also think it`s a mistake for anyone to ignore what people are saying and feeling about this city.
As San Francisco tries to attract more conventions, Breed is also focused on getting more office workers back downtown on a semi-regular basis. San Francisco officials predict that around 15% of office workers will stay remote when the economy is expected to stabilize in 2023, a major shift that would permanently hurt business tax revenue, according to a report released last month.
At Friday`s event, she spoke of a potential domino effect that could occur, with the in-person return of some companies hopefully encouraging others to follow suit.
sfchronicle.com | |
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