Can San Francisco Be Saved?

I feel like I'm in a movie so four girls just  egged a worker at Trader Joe's for whatever   reason and also obviously stole some food and  then just started sprinting down the street the   Trader Joe's worker literally chased them down but  the girls got away it's not just about crime it's   just some weird Behavior too and really sad I'm  back in San Francisco after 2 years to see what is   happening with this city and it's somehow better  yet somehow worse real estate in downtown seems   hopeless the price of this building in 2016 was  $62 million and it just sold for only $6.5 million   that's a 90% drop in price I've was told is like  pretty dangerous in s suburbs McDonald's Whole   Foods Walgreens so many restaurants and retailers  are pulling out of this city and now this massive   Macy in San Francisco's iconic Union Square is  going to be shutting down on this corner of Union   Square there are four police cars more than any  other types of cars first there was a pandemic   which meant office workers would essentially  leave downtown and turn it into a ghost town   this is the iconic Macy's store in Union Square  it's massive it's been around for a while but it   will be shutting down less homeless less drug  problem I hope San Francisco gets better then   businesses shut down and ones that stayed would  face massive surges and crime and looting not safe   not safe not safe I don't enjoy it so two years  ago when I came to San Francisco you wouldn't even   see something like this because Union Square was  basically locked down there was police everywhere   security everywhere and this was kind of right  after the Looting was happening the Apple Store   the Louis Vuitton store people would just smash  the windows break into them and then just steal a   ton of stuff so when you look on a day like today  you see actually a lot of improvement there's been   a younger crowd that's moved here to start the  careers off during the pandemic a good amount   of people moved to like the Austin of Texas Miami  Nashville Las Vegas a lot of them did for better   situation for their families more accommodating  for home tax breaks so in this video we're going   to look at what happened to the city and how  it's changing everywhere I look around downtown   I see the same sign for rent for rent for rent for  rent for rent for rent for rent for rent for rent   for rent for rent the city's office occupancy  rate continues to go up and reached 37% by the   way if you're enjoying this video make sure to  subscribe because I do a lot of videos like this   around the world and it's free San Francisco's  homelessness became a major crisis during the   pandemic I did cross the tender line just walking  past definitely dodgy looking but no one was like   in my face or anything this is the tenderloin it  used to be a vibrant nightlife area bustling with   theaters restaurants and hotels but today it's  known for its struggles with homelessness drug use   and poverty it's a tough neighborhood and common  to see open air drug dealing and people living on   the streets in San Francisco deaths among homeless  people doubled with drugs being a main culprit   the total number of homeless people and those in  shelters has also gone up identify people with is   not just drug but mental illness and then provide  the resource to help them that will help a lot   and uh making the city cleaner meanwhile housing  here is still crazy while home price growth has   fluctuated it's still expensive the median sale  price for a single family home in San Francisco   is around $1.3 million and rents are also very  high with some areas still exceeding $3,000 for   a two-bedroom apartment right now San Francisco is  caught in a loop people don't want to live or work   here when a city feels off and the city feels off  as long as office workers and new residents stay   away and adding to that is work from home meaning  a lot less people are commuting in every day and   you've had a surge in crime outside of Ross you  have three security guards making sure that you've   actually paid for your items and it's no surprise  when I was here 2 years ago there was actually   police called in because people would just grab  items and run out of the store and now there's   basically a barricade to make sure people don't do  that in California theft that is less than $950 in   value is considered to be a misdemeanor and just  not taken super seriously this law is mocked by   citizens who blame this in part for the rise in  Theft there was even this fake sign put outside   Union Square that went super viral but crime  is just part of the problem with people working   from home you have less people coming into the  city and that means less people going to offices   eating at restaurants going shopping and more  it's one reason that crime surge so much although   recently it's starting to come down which is a  good sign a lot of these cars look like they're   straight out of the '90s this looks like it's in  a museum or a TV show this behind me is called   Market Street and it's the most important Street  in San Francisco San Francisco's dying Westfield   mall has lost more than $1 billion doll in value  since 2016 but why has it gotten so bad now likely   because of looting this Michael K's entrance has  been closed this would lead you directly into the   street but the only way to access the store is  to go through the mall this Burberry store in   the mall decided to leave it wasn't worth it for  them they didn't even fully remove the sign which   is kind of crazy even Starbucks removes the sign  overnight and what's also interesting is there's   not only Mall security but a lot of these stores  have their own additional security like the Coach   store I'm now going to the food court to see  what still is open so this is the middle of   San Francisco this is a food court by all accounts  it should be a lot busier than it is now less than   half of the places available are even open right  now and what's really crazy is that it's 2024   you can't blame the pandemic anymore for these  places being closed by all accounts it's really   bizarre to be in the heart of a big city that's  a nice city but see it to be so dead and so many   places empty and you think about a restaurant  or a company and you think what is the upside   of opening here when there's not a ton of foot  traffic and there's a lot of crime and potential   looting why would you do it every city I've been  to around the world New York Paris London they're   all back to normal and in a lot of cases even  thriving but here in San Francisco in the Heart   of the City in the heart of the food court in the  mall most of these places are actually completely   empty and it BS the question why I mean they  can't use pandemic as an excuse anymore it's   2024 but if you think about it if foot traffic  is relatively low and there is high crime what   is the upside why would you open your restaurant  here and on top of that rent is still not cheap   when you first walk into this mall you see closed  closed Tumi store closed closed close and I think   that was an abomi store and then this is American  Eagle closing these floors above me are completely   empty they don't even turn on the lights anymore  so they've actually blocked off the escalator to   the rest of the mall because there are no stores  there are no customers it's completely just a   ghost town up there meanwhile throughout other  parts of downtown it seems like it's getting   worse with so many storefronts becoming empty in  this intersection three of the Four Corners are   all empty they're for rent they're four lease but  what's really interesting is this Barney is this   shut down in 2019 now that's before the pandemic  but imagine for 5 years this four-story building   has not been leased or rented by anybody who wants  this much space right now in San Francisco for 5   years just sitting empty in this entire block you  see all of the real estate is empty it's for lease   except there's one little shop and it looks like  they're selling Boba a lot of these real estate   companies are trying to say hey things are getting  better progress is being made this entire block   right here completely empty except for an espresso  store unlike 2 years ago when when I was here I do   see a lot more tourists in San Francisco and it  does not feel dangerous to walk around at night   like it did last time actually right now it's are  trying to avoid those kind of areas and right now   when we were crossing a street also we saw a  person like you know who was kind of demented I   guess like was just walking around so yeah we just  have to be careful around here the city is fine I   just stayed nearby I took a hotel nearby and it's  walkable it's fine before the pandemic tourism   was a major part of the city's economy generating  huge tax revenue but since then it's taken a major   tool and has yet to reach pre-pandemic levels  San Francisco has been much more reliant on   office workers than a city like New York City it's  kind of like the chicken or the egg see in order   for the city to thrive it needs office workers  but for office workers to actually want to come   well the city needs to be thriving there needs to  be incentive it has to be a Vibe and as long as   there's no office workers it's harder for the city  to come back but it's not just that in a lot of   cities a lot of people don't want to go back to an  office working from home is a lot easier and more   convenient people are coming into office like half  the week and so the city's starting to come more   busier busier there's a lot more events people are  going to watch like today the Giants game was on   the warriors were playing really well most of the  people during the pandemic who left San Francisco   and when they did like myself we moved to most of  like Northern California from like Silicon Valley   become a big living place from pal out like to St  Jose the East Bay is grown a lot some people are   saying that AI can really help invest back into  the City and bring the city back to life so this   event here has thousands of attendees most of them  I'm talking to are not from San Francisco or even   California it's bringing together people from  around the world some are saying San Francisco   is a failed City it lost around $7 billion of  household income between 2019 and 2021 and that's   even after accounting for people who moved to the  city we distribute make some of the wealth better   but also can go the other way as well where like  it's key certain few people get the most of the   money and then exacerbates the issue I guess is  this city struggling because of its politicians   is the income inequality because of tech just  too high or was this city just never designed   for both a shutdown and a future with remote  workers and what happens next San Francisco   my opinion is a Bas for just American Dream if  you look at the history of like companies Levi   Strauss like basically took advantage of building  startup dream and helping people who are here for   the Gold Rush have comfortable jeans or War it  I see people out of restaurants more people are   you know walking on the streets even before  America there was people from China there was   people from Japan there was people from Mexico  here like even from Spain and Portugal who came   and and worked for their dreams and and vision  and actually collaborated and work together so   it was always a a like a Melting Pot it was very  proactive it a very much an entrepreneurial spirit   and it's still to this stay that Vision like  you could be anybody and you could come here   and live that American Dream he might be right  you could come here to live that dream but the   questions sort of becomes do you want to it's nice  to see some signs of life I'm optimistic I mean   if you look at it more on a macro level San Frisco  definitely has its moments for every like 10 to 20   years like and then do com boom it exploded then  it crashed and then like when like the Web 2.0   happened it started to revive over time I want  to know what you think what does San Francisco   need to do in order to actually come back and be a  thriving City let me know in the comments [Music]

Channel: Uptin

Views: 55,713

Keywords: uptin, cnbc, wsj, bloomberg, business insider, vox, vice news, johnny harris, is san francisco safe, is san francisco really that bad, is san francisco dying, is san francisco dangerous, why is san francisco so bad now, why is san francisco so expensive, will san francisco come back, is california dying, is california safe, california vs texas, california vs new york, silicon valley cost of living, downtown san francisco, san francisco now, bay area news, Bay Area Transparency

Id: GHz9lxYSSio

Length: 11min 7sec (667 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 07 2024