San Francisco ‘doom loop’ threatens to intestine downtown financial system as staff earn a living from home
The editors of the San Francisco Chronicle issued a stark warning about San Francisco’s economy, emphasizing that the city must move forward as quickly as possible to avoid a “fate loop” as employees transition to remote work.
“Experts say post-pandemic problems stemming from office workers staying home instead of commuting into the city could push San Francisco into a ‘doom loop,’ eroding its tax base, decimating tariff-based regional transit systems like BART and trapping it into an economic death spiral,” the editorial warns.
The editorial also drew a comparison between San Francisco after COVID-19 and New York City after 9/11, as commuters feared returning to New York’s skyscrapers after the terrorist attacks.
But with enough subsidies, the article argues, Manhattan rebounded thanks to new train stations, public parks, malls, and residential buildings in the Financial District. But San Francisco has yet to make structural changes.
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A view shows the downtown skyline of San Francisco, California, June 29, 2022.
“Despite our housing crisis, the COVID pandemic took years for our leaders to meaningfully question the logic of reserving some of the most valuable real estate on earth for moody suburbanites and their cars,” the editorial reads.
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“And so we squandered generous federal COVID emergency funds trying to bludgeon, cajole, and pray for office workers to return downtown instead of planning for change,” the article continued. “We are now staring at the consequences of this lack of vision.”
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The editors suggested investing in office conversions and demolishing office buildings for new projects, which would require financial support from the state government.
Last year, San Francisco topped the list of cities homebuyers were looking to move from. 24% of buyers in a Redfin report wanted to leave San Francisco.
The story goes on
Alexandria Real Estate Equities founder and CEO Joel Marcus told Fox Business in January that redeveloping older office buildings into multi-family units could solve the housing crisis.
“I think this is a monumental opportunity for this country to take over this inventory of older office buildings,” Marcus said in Mornings with Maria. “Nearly 996 million square feet by checking account, and move that to a housing stock because it’s there and just needs rehab.”
An aerial view of the San Francisco skyline in California, October 28, 2021.
