By Tessa McLean Updated Oct 18, 2023 9:06 a.m. (SFGate.com)
FILE – Aerial view of San Francisco.heyengel/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Each TikTok video starts the same. There’s a sweeping shot of an iconic landmark that places you in a city or neighborhood. Then comes clip after clip of vacant storefronts.
Cody Casillas has posted nearly 50 videos just like this on the social media platform, but none has garnered more views than his video of vacant downtown shops in San Francisco.
It has 2.8 million views as of this writing and it helped spur Casillas into turning his account into what he calls a certain type of “nostalgia content,” where he documents once-bustling commercial strips.
It all started in early September when the 30-year-old fashion merchandiser was visiting a formerly busy commercial district in Santa Monica near where he lives in Los Angeles. He filmed a video to show his friends how dire things looked for retail, overlaying names of the shops that closed as his camera scanned empty restaurants and stores. The video, which was only his second video on the account, quickly garnered more than 100,000 views. So he made another one. The second, an overview of papered-over windows and “for lease” signs in the Beverly Hills shopping district, quickly racked up more than 700,000 views.
After that video got a mention by the New York Post, he knew he had something he could run with. “I thought, this is a thing,” Casillas said. “I just kept going. I travel a lot for work so while I’m [in different cities] I go and see what’s there.”
His videos now include neighborhoods and towns in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego and Arizona and he said he has plenty of footage he still needs to compile into new videos. Each video takes a few hours to make, including the research to figure out which stores closed at each address. Once a video is posted, he tries to monitor the comments the best he can, as they often can get combative and wade into users’ political views.
“At first I was trying to manage the comments, but at a certain point it grows and grows and I can’t keep up,” Casillas said.
If he’s responding to comments too rapidly, TikTok will stop allowing him to comment temporarily while they review the activity, he said. He understands that the social media platform has to monitor the platform, but it’s “a little frustrating I can’t respond to everyone.”
Casillas said he thinks the depressed downtown San Francisco video went viral because it’s the most scrutinized city in the media right now, even though it’s clear most retail sectors are struggling. He pays particular attention to retail as his job is in the luxury fashion industry and he believes the rise in vacancies is due to a lot of factors — smash and grab crime, high rents, a lack of policies to help small businesses and the rise in online shopping. Still, he’s not posting the videos with pessimism. “I heard in the ‘80s it was similar and it all came back and I have hope in that regard,” he said. “It’s saddest to see a lot of these small businesses [closed].
As for the music, he said he tries his best to “match the vibe of the neighborhood” and often asks for help from a friend. He said “throwback songs” pair with the nostalgia element best, and he knows TikTok’s algorithm also favors more popular songs.
