by Randy Shaw on July 22, 2024 (BeyondChron.org)
Renewing Focus on Mid-Market, Tenderloin Revival
Elon Musk’s announcement that “X” (formerly Twitter) will leave San Francisco for Texas brought mixed responses. Many are glad to be rid of Musk while others see it as a major loss for the city.
Elon Musk tweeted complaints about Mid-Market but never used his vast wealth to improve the situation. Much of the Twitter building was vacant despite Musk’s March 2023, 2:30am request that employees return (several rounds of layoffs left far fewer employees available to return).
Twitter’s departure offers San Francisco a great opportunity. An opportunity like Mayor Ed Lee seized upon in 2011 when Twitter expressed a desire to move to a long vacant historic building at 9th and Market.
Lee’s Mid-Market/Tenderloin payroll tax credit for new hires galvanized both neighborhoods. It brought more new investment in the Tenderloin than in the prior fifty years. All while avoiding the gentrification and displacement predicted by tax credit opponents.
But COVID halted and then reversed this progress. COVID caused structural changes to Mid-Market and the Tenderloin requiring bold and creative action from City Hall. Twitter’s departure should trigger renewed focus on reviving both neighborhoods.
Here’s what should happen now.
Integrate Mid-Market into Downtown Plans
Despite the best efforts of the Mid-Market Business Association and other groups, Mid-Market is still floundering. Vacant office buildings have left a lack of retail foot traffic. Retail spaces have long remained vacant. It’s great news that the Red Tail wine bar will soon open at 992 Market but a lot more is needed. The main challenge is that businesses that got lower-priced office space in Mid-Market pre-Covid have left; those seeking bargain office space can now get it downtown.
While San Francisco has announced millions of dollars in assistance to downtown, Powell Street, Fisherman’s Wharf and other areas hard-hit by Covid, Mid-Market has been largely overlooked. The best strategy to change this is to integrate Mid-Market (up to 10th Street) into the ambitious downtown plans.
Last week, mayoral candidate Mark Farrell released a plan for downtown that should be extended to Mid-Market. As described in the SF Standard, “Over the course of 20 years, Farrell wants to overhaul the downtown waterfront by converting some buildings to mixed residential and commercial use, providing tax incentives for companies with in-office work mandates and establishing a government agency to oversee the area’s recovery. He also wants more police, denser housing and private vehicles back on Market Street.”
Mayor Breed has her own downtown plan. Her spokesperson criticized Farrell’s plan, saying “Humans will land on Mars and flying cars will be traversing the city by the time Farrell’s plan is complete.”
Whoever wins the mayor’s race must include Mid-Market in their plans for downtown. Also necessary is a special emphasis on permanently closing the open air drug markets which still operate at 7th and Market and on Market between 7th and 10th Streets (drug activities around Market and Van Ness must also be stopped but that area is not historically part of “Mid-Market.”)
Mid-Market retail also requires greater small business assistance than in the core downtown area. As Steve Gibson of the Mid-Market Business Association and Foundation told me, “Most of the risk has to be removed to attract new businesses in the area.” The post-Covid turnover of formerly successful retail spaces under the Warfield Theater confirms the area’s challenges. As does the temporary closure of the highly praised Tenderheart restaurant in the newly-opened LINE Hotel.
The best-case scenario for the Twitter building is for a new tenant to sublease the space and fill it with five day a week employees. This is unlikely to happen without the city integrating Mid-Market into its broader downtown economic revitalization plan.
Tenderloin Strategy
The city also lacks an economic revival strategy for the Tenderloin. All that has been offered is small business grants of $50,000, restricted to Little Saigon. Considering that $50,000 is less than needed to restore the street’s rundown commercial spaces it is not surprising that those grants have not been used.
The city should offer financial assistance neighborhood-wide. On top of $50,000 grants it must waive all city fees for at least the first two years of operation. The city should also consider leasing spaces along Larkin and then offering free or below market rent to quality new businesses.
That may sound out of the box. But Little Saigon’s future depends on major City Hall help.
Starting in 2011 Mayor Lee gave personal assurances to investors that the Tenderloin would cease to be a drug containment zone. Lee kept his word. Investment followed. The mayor elected in November also must be willing to meet personally with potential business owners and assure them that City Hall will not allow their businesses to be surrounded by drug activities.
The Tenderloin does not face the structural challenges of needing to fill vacant office buildings. Once the drug activities are finally removed, the Tenderloin will continue its pre-Covid path toward revitalization.
With City Hall on board, 2025 could be a big comeback year for the Tenderloin and Mid-Market.
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
