Moving

Leaving San Francisco: Three Tales Of Enterprise House owners Who Left And Why

As businesses continue to migrate out of San Francisco, The Globe spoke to business owners who are leaving the city for one of three options: In a new city near San Francisco, elsewhere in the state, and out of state. Everyone shared the pros and cons of leaving and if they would ever return.

Here’s what they told the Globe.

Near San Francisco

In 2019, before the pandemic, fourth-generation San Francisco native Frank Russo left San Francisco because the rent for his business was finally getting too high, and they moved an hour away to Concord. He and his family didn’t want to be too far removed from other families who decided to stay in town.

“Leaving wasn’t such a difficult decision,” Russo explained. “We rented an apartment, rented a retail space where we had a lot of BART commuting, and exited when both leases expired. The rent for the apartment went up by 5% and the rent for our restaurant went up, I’ll say more. My wife wanted to be close to town as her parents are still there but otherwise we could get away. And we had to.”

“It just wasn’t the same city as it used to be. In the 80’s and 90’s there was still something to it. People were proud of the city, and while there was crime and all, it wasn’t a big concern. You could also walk down the sidewalks as there were no tents there.”

“Everything started to change about 10 years ago. It was gradual, but one day you notice that there are homeless people in front of your shop. . That customers come and complain that their car was broken into. The worst part was my daughter who was a waitress at the time allowed someone off the street to go to the bathroom and thirty minutes later we had an ambulance there because the guy went in to shoot and he overdosed had. We went from good reviews on Yelp with a lot of commuter traffic to a place that was panned just because of the social issues out there in an area so troubled that our outdoor menus were stolen at least once a week.”

“We had to move to Concord. It’s much better. Rental rates are a bit better, and we don’t have nearly as much to worry about homelessness or crime here. I miss San Francisco itself, especially the view and the great historical buildings around us, but in Concord we can actually make a living again. We fought during the pandemic, but we yelled back and even paid off whatever debt was left from then on. It was a new life here.”

Elsewhere in California

During the pandemic, Susan Chang’s San Francisco rental business saw a boom in business as many people opted for more in-home entertainment. However, because her shop rents high-end products, it’s also been subject to burglaries, forcing her to keep tightening security and pouring more money into her shop until an opportunity presented itself in 2021 to move to Los Angeles. She used them and hasn’t been to the city by the bay since.

“All my friends have been asking why Los Angeles because they have a lot of problems too and it’s expensive. But it turned out to be a much better rental market. I rent audiovisual equipment and once my brother introduced me to a few people in the film industry, I soon made more in a month in LA than in three months in San Francisco.”

“Also, where I am in LA, surprisingly, there isn’t much crime. There are things like homelessness, but they’re not really an obstacle. But in San Francisco I worried a lot. I didn’t feel safe walking back to my apartment at night. Once I would probably have been robbed if there hadn’t happened to be a police car parked on the side of the road. It was scary.”

“LA isn’t perfect and there are issues, but it’s better here. The weather is better too and there is plenty to do. In retrospect, I should have moved out sooner. There’s a lot of people here from San Francisco and Oakland and other Bay towns, and everyone’s talking about, not how they got out of there, but how they escaped from there. That’s the word we all use. Flee.”

Outside of California

During the pandemic, Douglas Matthewson had to close his grocery store. Supply chain issues exacerbated the situation even after business had restarted. For Douglas, however, neither that nor the high taxes made Douglas leave. That came in the form of stealing his car in June 2021, his wife’s car in November 2021 and the catalytic converter stolen from his new car in February 2022. He was fed up and moved to Tucson, Arizona in April of that year.

“We looked at other places in the state, but everywhere there seemed to be auto theft, high taxes and many other factors working against it. We almost moved to San Diego but were outbid there by 4 houses. Finally we bit the bullet and looked out of state. We couldn’t take the Texas heat or the Florida humidity, and we never wanted to see snow again, so Idaho and Tennessee were out. We didn’t do Nevada out of principle. But then along came Arizona.”

“We called a few local restaurants there about their business and within hours we already had a place to use our business should we move there. It’s been a great thing since we did it.”

“San Francisco, yes, sometimes I miss it. I miss going to Giants games and the excitement of the city is something we all miss. But all the crime has been left behind. Someone steals a car in San Francisco, the cops just tell you they’re going to look at it. Do it out here and the cops will actually do something. Our neighbor here said they had some packages stolen from their porch and the police not only tracked them down using video but they returned the packages intact.”

“I’ll tell you that, it might have been a sign. The day we left and packed everything into the U-Haul, we headed south. As soon as we reached the city limits sign that reads, “You are now leaving San Francisco,” we saw an SFPD officer arrest someone and put them on the hood of their car with their lights flashing. All around him, people were screaming and filming on their cellphones. As soon as we left town I looked in the rear view mirror and the whole scene was blocked by a building as if it was all behind us now. It’s still there, but for us it’s gone now.”

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