by Randy Shaw on August 14, 2023 (BeyondChron.org)
SF’s Civic Center State Building; Federal Building in rear left
Nearby Restaurants, Bars Need Customers
It’s been over three years since COVID began. Yet state and federal buildings in San Francisco’s Civic Center remain largely vacant. Workers in these buildings long patronized restaurants and bars in SOMA, Mid-Market and the Tenderloin. But not since COVID.
Small businesses are suffering.
It’s a huge problem that deserves more public attention.
The Nancy Pelosi Federal Building at 7th and Mission is a different story. It was reported last week that crime in the area is so bad that” officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services advised hundreds of employees in San Francisco to work remotely.”
That sends quite a message to all those claiming myself and others exaggerate the out of control drug scene at 7th and Mission. Instead of Homeland Security and Federal Protective Services clearing the area—as has occurred at the Civic Center federal building—federal workers are urged to stay home.
That’s another customer loss to struggling SOMA and Mid-Market businesses.
No wonder so many are closing.
Two weeks ago President Biden emailed his cabinet encouraging in-person work. The email “said that with the end of the COVID-19 health emergency and with fall approaching, agencies will be implementing increases in the amount of in-person work. This is a priority of the President.”
It does not appear to be a priority for those running the Phillip Burton or Nancy Pelosi Federal Buildings. I wonder if San Francisco got an exemption from Biden’s directive due to drug cartels operating at federal buildings.
Until last week I had never seen a story explaining why so many of the area’s state and federal workers remain absent. It’s still largely a mystery.
The Civic Center State Building houses legislative staffs, the Court of Appeal, and many workers for state elected officials. The federal building on Golden Gate long housed Homeland Security.
Are Homeland Security employees still working from home?
Nearby businesses deserve to know what the next 1-3 years hold. Will these employees ever return?
If we learn these workers are not coming back for the foreseeable future San Francisco officials have a choice. They can watch nearby restaurants and bars close or they can do what they are practicing for downtown—-start strategizing how state and federal buildings can be repurposed to restore full occupancy.
Maybe we should fill half the federal building with students, as was proposed for downtown. I’m sure there are many creative repurposing ideas.
Sadly, for La Cocina, Whitechapel, and multiple restaurants on Larkin in Little Saigon, it’s already too late. For owners in Mid-Market, Civic Center, and the Tenderloin, recognizing that federal and state business is not coming back to pre-COVID levels could deter efforts to rent vacant retail spaces.
Shouldn’t federal and state officials be helping their surrounding areas? Can we at least get an answer why the Phil Burton Federal Building and the adjacent state building are largely vacant despite no drug dealers or crime in either area?
Mayor Breed tweeted on July 18, “Public agencies can take the lead on providing an improved work environment, filling vacant office space and leveraging our own publicly owned space for other uses like housing.”
Are state and federal officials listening?
Randy Shaw
Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw’s latest book is Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. He is the author of four prior books on activism, including The Activist’s Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century, and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. He is also the author of The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco
