by Randy Shaw on June 20, 2023 (BeyondChron.org)
Nordstrom’s closure could trigger Westfield’s demise
Public Safety is Key
Westfield, Nordstrom, Walgreens, Whole Foods—retail closures are San Francisco’s new story line. Will it have a happy ending?.
Some blame the city’s retail decline on work from home, the rising online economy, and internal corporate business decisions. Others see public safety concerns as the common denominator.
I’m solidly in the latter camp. Open air drug dealing is a public safety menace. A menace that deters customers from coming to parts of the city where retail long thrived.
The Westfield Center was not primarily dependent on downtown office workers. Its customers came to the 5th and Market mall to shop. Those feeling unsafe at Civic Center or Powell Street transit stations or walking around the surrounding area stopped coming to Westfield.
Closing open air drug markets is an essential economic strategy.
Dealers Damage SF’s Economy
Retail closures are bad—equally troubling is resistance to new investment in the Mid-Market/Civic Center/Powell Street area. Building owners are offering tenants bare bones prices and getting turned down. Nobody wants to invest in an area that has been plagued by drug dealers and public safety problems for over two years—with no clear end in sight.
Investors have lost confidence. And should Westfield Center close—a likely prospect considering only 40% of businesses remain and the anchor tenant Nordstrom has left—restarting the area’s economy will be even more difficult.
Mid-Market office space succeeded prior to COVID as an affordable alternative to downtown. But rents on downtown spaces have declined. This has left the Mid-Market office market effectively dead. For example, last I checked the 16- story office building at 6th and Market was still entirely vacant. That’s a huge loss of business for nearby cafes, restaurants and entertainment venues.
Nobody will invest in Mid-Market so long as open air drug markets proliferate nearby.
Closing Drug Markets Kickstarts Investment
What’s the best way to send a message to investors that San Francisco’s retail environment has improved? How about photos and billboards of clear sidewalks and public spaces where drug markets once operated.
Both Governor Newsom and Mayor Breed have said they wants drug markets closed prior to November’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Summit, or APEC. The last thing San Francisco’s economy needs is international coverage of its open air drug dealing. Media covering APEC will be seeking stories that confirm what they have heard about San Francisco’s public safety crisis—think of the surprise that would follow if drug markets were closed.
Many are skeptical. They argue that if city political leaders wanted to close drug markets it would have happened.
I understand such doubts. But the past two weeks has seen a commitment of 130 deputy sheriffs by the end of June and new federal resources. San Francisco’s retail crash has triggered a new seriousness as to the resources needed to close drug cartels.
Will San Francisco finally get its retail house in order? If so, we should start seeing a meaningful reduction in drug activities in July.
Everyone should be watching.
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
