SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco has stepped up efforts to put its best foot forward for APEC, including clearing homeless camps in neighborhoods surrounding the conference.

This activity has raised questions about where the homeless go and what is being done to get them the help they need.

Michael Hudson has been living near Market Street for several months. He says he just found out about the APEC conference.

ALSO READ: More stories from the APEC summit

“This is the third time they have kicked us out. And this time they didn’t allow us to put our tents back up,” Hudson said.

He said he lost many of his belongings during the last move.

“They threw everything in a big truck, took it and hauled it somewhere,” Hudson said. “They're supposed to keep it for us, and that's what was written on the paper they gave us. But when I asked, no one could find any of my things. They're just harassing us more and coming out and arresting people.”

ALSO READ: What you should know about APEC-related road closures and impacts on public transportation in San Francisco

The Coalition on Homelessness says more help should be available for unhoused people living in the APEC safe zone.

“We have been pushing for them to release more resources,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness. “What we've seen is that the main shelter that people can just walk up to and leave – on Dolores Street – doesn't allow people to sleep there. It only allows people who have been expelled from the APEC zone to sleep there.”

SFMTA APEC INFO: APEC Travel and Transit Information | Interactive map | Impact on Nob Hill | SoMa Impact

Friedenbach said her organization learned of the Dolores shelter plan on Wednesday.

“We would like to see the city add more beds and perhaps provide some hotel rooms or accommodations in a church. But we would increase capacity to offset the displacement that people are facing,” Friedenbach said.

KPIX reached out to the city for comment on these concerns and received an email that stated, in part, “The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing does not provide special housing for APEC.”

It was noted that some recently funded sites are already available, such as the Interfaith Winter Shelter. Around 300 additional beds will be available in three adult accommodations between November and December.

As for Hudson, he doesn't know where he'll sleep the rest of the week.

“I’ll drop my stuff off at the shelter down there, but I don’t sleep there,” he said. “It’s dirty and people cough on you everywhere.”

More from CBS News

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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — If you've visited San Francisco in the last week, it's likely you've noticed fewer homeless people near the Moscone Center and downtown.

Since APEC began, the streets are cleaner and the homeless population is no longer as visible in downtown San Francisco.

The San Francisco Standard took over the warehouse at Van Ness Avenue and Eddy Street two months ago. A completely different look this week. Plant boxes are now on the sidewalk. A mile from APEC.

Minna Street between Seventh Street and Julia Street with several tents, two months ago. Deleted this week. Less than a mile from APEC.

All of this leads to the question: Where did the homeless in San Francisco go? We found many of them on Willow Street.

MORE: Living Room on the Embarcadero: The Story of a Homeless Man in SF

Luz Pena: “Where were you before you came here to Willow?”

Cody Jost: “Harrison and 5th Street. A little further down”

Pena: “Has the city moved you?”

Jost: “Yes, pretty much. They close off certain streets and tell you to move on. Basically they control everything. They tell you where to move and all you have to do is get up and go.”

Before APEC, Cody had set up camp two blocks from the Moscone Center.

Over the last week, U.S. Secret Service has restricted access around the Moscone Center. Cody said city workers showed up and offered him housing. He took it.

Pena: “What did you notice a month before APEC?”

“About a month before APEC began, there was targeted engagement with the city and the homeless. People who were homeless in the south of the market. Many of these people came to the Tenderloin and told us they were given options for housing,” said Terry Giovannini, St. Anthony’s chief program officer.

St. Anthony's has been keeping an eye on the housing need in the Tenderloin. There was an upward trend this week.

“Many of the people who remained on the streets in SOMA were asked to move. Many of the people asked to relocate were offered housing. Those who have chosen not to seek accommodation are looking for alternatives during APEC,” said Giovannini.

MORE: SF will step up clearing of uninhabited camps after court resolves, officials say

In a statement, the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing acknowledged that efforts change when events like APEC take place:

“We want to do our best. Targeted outreach will focus on the conference environment and providing safe spaces for people experiencing homelessness will be a priority.”

Businesses in the Tenderloin are happy that more homeless people are now housed in shelters, but are worried about what will happen when APEC is over.

“We will definitely keep pushing. We are all voters. The property owners, the businesses, we are the mayors, voters, we are the city of San Francisco and they need to listen to us,” said Rene Colorado, executive director of the Tenderloin Merchants Association.

HSH also said that although there was no dedicated shelter capacity for APEC, the day APEC began in San Francisco, the city opened winter shelters and added 300 beds to the shelter system.

Full HSH statement:

“San Francisco’s work to combat homelessness is a priority 365 days a year. We are on the streets every day, sheltering people every night, and moving people out of homelessness every day. Our best efforts will be focused on the conference environment and providing safe spaces for people experiencing homelessness will be a priority be. The SF Homeless Outreach team will connect people experiencing homelessness to services, shelter, and housing assessments in real time. HSH does not provide specific housing for APEC. We are not expected to provide additional shelter capacity during the Summit, which will support us during APEC and throughout the winter: The Interfaith Winter Shelter will run from November 10, 2023 to March 24, 2024 and will provide shelter capacity for Increase people who are homeless during the challenging winter season. Further expansion of accommodation capacity in three shared accommodations for adults. This expansion was funded in the last budget cycle and is scheduled to come online in November and December 2023. This capacity is not yet complete. We estimate this will add 300 beds to the shelter system. As always, addressing homelessness requires a comprehensive and compassionate approach. The APEC Conference provides an opportunity to highlight San Francisco’s commitment to this problem and demonstrate our city’s innovation, resilience and determination to find lasting and meaningful solutions.”

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Less than a block from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that brought thousands of diplomats and leaders from around the world to San Francisco, a young man in the middle of a drug addiction lay curled up while a city worker calmly carried a broom and dustpan the downtown plaza near Fifth and Mission streets was swept.

In a nearby alley, a half-dozen people crowded around a light pole and walked past butane lighters, some slowly falling asleep after inhaling milky-white puffs from glass pipes.

Around the corner, directly opposite a heavily guarded entrance to the summit, a man in a dark hoodie slept on the sidewalk, resting his head on a bright orange backpack, while foreign emissaries in neatly pressed suits strode past.

If you've been following much of the coverage leading up to APEC, you might have come to believe that San Francisco has at least temporarily cleared its downtown of scenes like this, hoping to show the world its best face in the relentless “Doom.” Loop” narrative around post-pandemic challenges is being flipped.

But even though the city pushed homeless people out of the designated peak safety zone around Moscone Center, many didn't get far.

“People were just forced out into the alleys,” said Javier Bremond, a human rights activist with the San Francisco advocacy group Coalition on Homelessness. “And a lot of people are under the highway.”

A homeless encampment is seen along Leavenworth Street in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco on Wednesday, November 8, 2023. Thousands of CEOs, world leaders, protesters and others will soon descend on San Francisco to attend a high-profile global trade summit, giving the struggling city a chance to turn around its image as a declining economic power. As hosts, San Francisco and the city's partners clean sidewalks, remove graffiti and place homeless people in indoor shelters. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Of course, city officials have cleared many encampments, scrubbed major roads and promised to open some new shelters. And places where outdoor drug use is typically common, such as the Powell BART station and United Nations Plaza near City Hall, have been noticeably quiet in recent days.

“They definitely relocated people from the areas where the fancy people were supposed to live,” said homeless man Zach Wiseman, 28, sitting hunched over a suitcase next to a bus stop across from the APEC entrance on Mission Street. “Get dressed up for the show, and when it’s over you can go back to whatever.”

Nevertheless, it was difficult to avoid human suffering during the conference.

On Thursday, a delegate from Thailand waiting to enter a summit checkpoint said he had heard about San Francisco's problems with homelessness but was still shocked to see how many people were languishing on the streets.

“I didn’t believe it at the time until I saw it myself,” he said, declining to give his name while representing his country in an official capacity. “It's sad to see, especially because I've lived here before. It was a romantic city.”

San Francisco officials did not immediately respond to questions about the city's response to homelessness during APEC.

Bremond, the advocate for the Coalition on Homelessness, noted that the city's efforts to keep homeless people out of major events are nothing new, pointing to encampment clearances in 2016 when San Francisco helped host the Super Bowl, an event that brought the local population into the national spotlight.

Late last year, the coalition obtained an injunction against the city that restricted officials from clearing many encampments for months. But in September, a federal court clarified the order, allowing the city to dismantle encampments as long as officials first provide homeless residents with a homeless bed.

At last count last year, an estimated 7,750 homeless people sleep outdoors or in shelters each night.

Bremond said he was disappointed that APEC organizers and federal officials did not do more during the summit to help set up shelters, such as temporary motel rooms for displaced homeless people.

“How many billions were at this conference?” Bremond asked. “To them, it would be like dropping a quarter on the floor.”

The city doesn't have nearly enough shelter beds for everyone, although homeless people often refuse shelter for a variety of reasons, from safety concerns to reluctance to comply with curfews.

Tracy Phan, 38, begged shoppers for change outside a Walgreens on Market Street and said she had seen more people this week staying at the city group home where she sleeps most nights.

The conference might have something to do with it, she said. But the weather also begins to change as the winter months approach.

“It’s raining,” Phan said, “and it’s cold out here.”

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SAN FRANCISCO — Although APEC officially ended Friday, many San Francisco businesses in the area said they didn’t see the recovery they were hoping for this weekend.

Crews were busy moving and clearing the heavy-duty security fences that defined the landscape near the Moscone Center for more than a week. 

Several streets in the area were still closed to traffic Sunday evening, with the city confirming the fencing was removed by 8 p.m. 

“People still just wanted to avoid the neighborhood, just because of all — There were so many protests, and it was so hard to get around in the city,” said bar manager at The Lark Bar Scotty Liberatore. “In general, people just kind of blocked it out of their minds and said ‘Hey, we’ll come back next week.'”

ALSO READ: San Francisco bars and restaurants see losses upwards of $150,000 due to APEC

Liberatore said he saw his regular customers return on Sunday, but not quite as many as he’d normally see on this day at the Market Street bar. 

“It wasn’t the large groups we thought they were going to be,” he said. “We had nothing to really base it off, and we had no idea what to expect; we were prepared for anything.”

He said the bar had extra workers on-call, but as it turned out they weren’t needed, and very few APEC attendees wandered in.

“It was a whole lot of fuss for no real reason, I don’t know why they had these cages and things around, but it didn’t affect me at all,” said Dan Galvin, a San Francisco resident, who considered his experience the exception during APEC. 

That’s because Galvin said he works next door at Cask, an artisanal liquor store. Cask and The Lark Bar are both owned by Future Bars. He lives close enough to walk to work.

Around the corner on Yerba Buena Lane, eateries said they saw a steep drop in business and the financial losses were significant. Orange security barricades were still present on the plaza late Sunday.

“Supposed to be like yesterday everything opened,” said Karim, an area general manager, who didn’t want to identify his restaurant. “Even us this morning, I have some vendors I tell them everything should be open. But they came here, they cannot even deliver for us.”

Karim said even his regulars are still staying away.

“Even today, Sunday, still it’s very slow. The restaurant is empty, we’re just hoping it’s going to be better,” he said. 

But he said Thanksgiving week is typically slow for restaurants in the area, so it’s unlikely that will help make up for the losses. 

“We just expected it to be like one of these normal conferences we have and it was clearly a different animal,” added Liberatore. 

KPIX 5 reached out to the city regarding the concerns of impacted small businesses and any potential compensation for operating costs, but have not yet heard back. 

More from CBS News

Betty Yu

Betty Yu joined KPIX 5 in November 2013 as a general assignment reporter. She spent two years at WTVJ, the NBC-owned station in Miami, as a reporter before moving to San Francisco.

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Meanwhile, there were 468 people on the city’s online waitlist for shelter on Wednesday, less than a week from the event’s launch. The city has about 3,000 shelter beds in its system, which is currently at 91% capacity.

“One of the issues, in this case, is the lack of transparency from the city in terms of what its plans are and how it handles encampment resolution, which can lead to a lot of issues with enforcement of the ordinances they are supposed to be following,” said John Do, an attorney with the ACLU, which is representing plaintiffs in the homelessness lawsuit against San Francisco.

People like Taj and Matt, an unhoused couple living in the South of Market neighborhood, appear to be caught in the city’s impossible juggle.

About a week ago, the two slept on Merlin Street under the 80 freeway overpass in San Francisco when a cadre of city workers woke them up and told them to move.

A Public Works employee told them they needed to clear the area for a big event coming up where President Joe Biden and other heads of state from nearly 20 countries would be coming to town, according to Matt.

They didn’t have any other place to go. So now, Taj says, the couple stays “anywhere we don’t get harassed or our stuff stolen.”

On Wednesday morning, they were in SoMA and asked to shoo again.

“They didn’t offer anything,” said Taj on Wednesday from a SoMa bus stop. “It’s bad enough we are in this position. You know how bad we want to be inside?”

KQED reporter Vanessa Rancaño contributed to this story. 

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At a White House press conference on Monday, a reporter raised her hand and asked National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan a question about the APEC summit being held in San Francisco this week, where President Joe Biden will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and a host of other world leaders.

“San Francisco has cleaned up their streets ahead of President Biden and President Xi’s meeting,” the reporter said. “They’ve moved homeless to other parts of the city, cleared tent cities and trash off the street. Is the president embarrassed that an American city needs to go through a total makeover to be presentable for his out-of-town guests?”

Sullivan deflected the question, but as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering swings into full gear, San Franciscans themselves are noting a timely improvement in the condition of the city’s streets—and wondering how it was accomplished and whether it will last once the summit ends Friday.  

RELATED: San Francisco Cleaned Up for APEC: See Before and After Photos

In particular, there has been a noticeable reduction in the number of tents and drug activity along Van Ness Avenue, United Nations Plaza and the area around the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building, which has long been the epicenter of the city’s drug crisis. 

Press left and right to compare

A large group of people congregate along Mission and Seventh streets, adjacent to the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building, on May 23, left, and the same location, where a chain-link fence has been installed and the area cleared of people, is pictured on Monday. | Benjamin Fanjoy for The Standard; Justin Katigbak/The Standard

“Some of the spots have been out there for 20 to 30 years, and they’re just not there,” said local activist and nonprofit founder Del Seymour. “They’re coming out doing all of this only for APEC. … I’ve got to be fair and give the city a chance to see if we can continue this.”

Shelter Beds Added, but No Change to Regular Pace of Encampment Clearing 

The U.S. Secret Service is restricting access to a 12-square-block radius in the South of Market neighborhood around the Moscone Center, the main venue for the event, and the California Highway Patrol and several other Bay Area counties are deploying over 1,000 additional law enforcement officers to the city to bolster security. 

The city opened 30 beds at its annual winter shelter facility in South of Market on Friday and is “inflating” many of its existing shelter facilities to accommodate roughly 300 more people. It’s unclear when all of the additional beds will become available. 

San Francisco has roughly 7,750 homeless people, according to the most recent point-in-time count, with 56% unsheltered. A waitlist for shelter beds was 487 people long on Monday as the city has struggled to connect with applicants by the time a bed becomes available.

Dre Blake, second to right, and Darrell Sharef, far right, stand by as a Department of Public Works employee washes the sidewalk on Van Ness Avenue. Blake told The Standard he’s on a waitlist for housing but prefers living on the streets over shelter because of past negative experiences at shelters. | Source: David Sjostedt/The Standard

The city’s homeless shelters saw a slight uptick in occupancy as of Monday afternoon—reaching 92% capacity after months of hovering at 90%.

Representatives from the city’s homelessness department denied they added shelter beds because of APEC. However, advocates for homeless people were quick to note the beds came online “just in time” for the city’s moment in the global spotlight. 

Though the addition of shelter beds is recent, the city has been stepping up arrests for drug dealing and other offenses for months. 

Over the summer, the San Francisco Police Department received reinforcements from the California Highway Patrol and the California National Guard to tackle drug-related issues, and the daily population of the city’s jails rose to over 1,100 people for the first time since before the pandemic. The rise in detainees forced the sheriff to reopen a disused facility to accommodate the influx. 

In the weeks leading up to APEC, records show the city maintained its regular pace of clearing two encampments per day, Monday through Friday. However, emails between San Francisco officials show the city made a concerted effort to address homeless encampments in particular areas before APEC. 

Press left and right to compare

A tent, personal belongings and people are clustered outside the Asian Art Museum near United Nations Plaza in San Francisco on May 11, left, and the same location is seen without people on Monday. | Jason Henry for The Standard; Justin Katigbak/The Standard

In an email dated Sept. 25, Department of Emergency Management Executive Director Mary Ellen Carroll requested a 24/7 homeless shelter facility in time for the conference. Marion Sanders, chief deputy director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, responded to Carroll by promising to have a “clear plan of action” for the event.

In another email dated Oct. 23, a manager for the Healthy Streets Operations Center recommended delaying clearing two encampments in the Tenderloin until the week before APEC.

“One thought I have is to put in Leavenworth … then Eddy and Mason on Wednesday, but thinking it may be better to do this the week before APEC,” the manager said in the email.

Van Ness Avenue a Focus of Concern

Other emails show city officials expressed particular concern about encampments along Van Ness Avenue, which runs behind City Hall—a venue for multiple APEC-related gatherings, including a fancy party thrown by Mayor London Breed and East West Bank Chairman Dominic Ng on Sunday. City Hall will host another party for journalists covering APEC on Thursday.

Van Ness was listed as one of six priority areas to address before the conference, according to an email first obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle from the superintendent of Street Environmental Services, Christopher McDaniels. The department told the publication the areas were considered priorities regardless of the event.

Members of the Board of Supervisors have been pushing for the city to act before APEC.

Press left and right to compare

A police vehicle is parked next to a homeless encampment on a sidewalk along Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco on Sept. 26, left, and the same location has planter boxes installed to discourage encampments on Monday, right. | Benjamin Fanjoy for The Standard; Justin Katigbak/The Standard

“We understand the importance of presenting our city in the best possible light for international delegates,” a legislative aide to Supervisor Catherine Stefani wrote in an email to a constituent on Oct. 3. “Ahead of the event, our office has been actively advocating for improved conditions along Van Ness Avenue.”

City workers cleared two encampments on Van Ness the week before the conference. But it was not their first trip to the street: City workers visited the street 23 times to clear encampments over a six-month span starting in April, according to the Department of Emergency Management. 

In October, the San Francisco Police Department authorized its officers to enforce anti-camping laws in response to new guidance from the City Attorney’s Office, which is engaged in a high-stakes lawsuit over the city’s encampment clearings. 

A Department of Public Works employee stands beside a truck filled with the belongings of unhoused people. | Source: David Sjostedt/The Standard

During its most recent visit on Tuesday, the city at least temporarily swayed people from rebuilding their encampments on Van Ness. 

Darrell Sharef, a 34-year-old homeless man, said he was going to try to “hustle” enough money to afford a hotel room after the city disbanded his encampment. 

“This is the everyday lifestyle,” he said. 

Another man named Dre Blake said he turned down the city’s offer of shelter because he previously had negative experiences at the facilities.

“It’s just like the streets in there,” Blake said. “Nothing really changes. It’s not like I don’t have to look over my shoulder anymore.” 

Press left and right to compare

A group of people sit on the ground at Mission at Seventh streets in San Francisco on May 16, left, and two pedestrians pass the same location cleared of loitering people as seen on Monday. | Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images; Justin Katigbak/The Standard

As of Monday, the encampments had not returned. Daniel Rivera, another homeless man, said the people living along Van Ness had scattered across the city. He said the city told him and other homeless people to “clean up” due to APEC.

“It’s like getting dressed up for a party,” Rivera said. 

Many weren’t pleased the city asked them to move. For some, past experiences with the city, particularly during encampment clearings, have left them distrustful of government services.

“This is a category five hurricane hitting your spot, and you’re left with nothing,” said Nobel Mitchell, an unhoused man.

Nobel Mitchell salvages his belongings as San Francisco city workers conduct an encampment clearing. Mitchell, who is unhoused, said he’s been set back by previous encampment clearings, during which city workers destroyed his property. | Source: David Sjostedt/The Standard

Some advocates for the homeless expressed concern about the well-being of unhoused people who may have been displaced due to the APEC event. 

Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, noted the issues homeless people face don’t disappear even if those people have been moved out of the public’s line of sight. 

“There’s a lot of money coming into this conference, and none of that is being set aside for unhoused people who are being displaced,” Friedenbach said. “They’re just moving people around.”

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According to official figures, San Francisco’s homeless population was around 7,750 people in 2022, with 57 per cent living outside officially sanctioned shelters.

Drugs also plague the area. San Francisco’s UN Plaza – about 1.6km (1 mile) from the Moscone Centre – saw more reported overdoses each year from 2018 to 2022 than any other block in the city.

Why the US push for military guard rails with China could be a near miss

Despite San Francisco’s move to clear its unhoused population around the site of the summit, there were still homeless people in the area on Tuesday, a day before Biden and Xi meet to hash out issues from AI governance to tensions over Taiwan.

California Governor Gavin Newsom – a possible future presidential candidate who visited Beijing in October and met Xi – addressed the issue of moving on homeless people ahead of the Apec summit at a press conference earlier this month.

“I know folks say, “Oh, they’re just cleaning up this place because all these fancy leaders are coming into town. That’s true because it’s true,” Newsom said. But he also insisted the removals were part of the broader “Clean California” project that has moved some 3,300 encampments since 2021.

The city’s homelessness and supportive housing department said it would not be expanding shelter capacity during Apec but would allocate funding for 300 new beds as winter approached.

San Francisco’s downtown area has been a favourite punching bag in recent months for the US right-wing media, which cites homelessness and illicit drug use as by-products of liberal policies in the Democrat-controlled city.

Xi Jinping and Gavin Newsom strike positive tone on US-China climate cooperation

As Apec approached, Chinese state media – which sometimes uses negative overseas examples to showcase China’s system – ridiculed the city’s social problems. “San Francisco hogs limelight for wrong reasons,” read a China Daily headline in July.

Global Times commentator Hu Xijin asked: “Why doesn’t the US put up some money to resettle these homeless people?”

Closer to home, San Francisco activists wanted the money spent on the summit to help marginalised communities instead.

Local organiser Joemae Santos said residents would see little benefit from the US$20 million in sponsorship agreements to fund the event. They “will only benefit the political elite and the wealthy”, she wrote on a blog.

When Xi and Biden talk at Apec, managing Taiwan will top the agenda

Pamela Holmon, executive director of San Francisco’s Project Homeless Connect, said the city had “provided a lot of options and a lot of pathways to resources for those that were encountered on the street”.

“Everyone that has been in an encampment was offered shelter access services directly by San Francisco’s city and county emergency response team,” she said. Holmon also noted that the level of homelessness had not increased around her office, about 1.6km (1 mile) from the Moscone Centre.

San Francisco is also on a tourism drive, offering free or discounted tickets for boat trips, art exhibitions, Chinatown restaurants and historical tours to showcase its stunning scenery and long record as a gateway to the Indo-Pacific.

“I love my city,” said Curtiss Hayden, a “welcome ambassador” in an orange jacket printed with an image of the Golden Gate bridge. “It’s a world-class city, people who live here get along even if we have a few issues.”

How leaders and an army of staff turned Beijing’s grey into ‘Apec blue’

Beijing made a similar effort to put its best foot forward in 2014, enlisting 400,000 officials to cut smog and shut down factories ahead of its own Apec summit.

While Chinese authorities do not face the fierce public backlash experienced by US politicians for heavy-handed policies ahead of major international conclaves or visits, there was indirect criticism on China’s social media platforms.

Internet users coined the term “Apec Blue” to describe the temporary clear skies over the capital that resulted from the factory closures and other measures. They also said the picture-perfect conditions staged for foreigners should be extended permanently for locals.

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The Ferris wheel that’s been spinning next to Golden Gate Park’s Music Concourse for three years is relocating to the more heavily touristed Fisherman’s Wharf, and will reopen in two weeks.

The company that operates the ride, SkyView Partners, announced on its website that the final rides in Golden Gate Park were on Sunday, October 22, and the wheel will now move and start turning again November 10. Anyone with tickets for the coming two weeks can redeem them when it reopens.

SFGate reported the news today, a month after we first heard that SF Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin was pushing to get the ride moved to the Wharf, which is in his district.

City Hall followers and SFist readers may recall how Peskin was a vocal foe of the Ferris wheel before it first opened, arguing that the Parks Alliance, which had arranged for the ride’s arrival for Golden Gate Park’s sesquicentennial celebrations, had overstepped, and that the city wasn’t reaping enough financial benefit from the wheel operators.

When the Ferris wheel’s permit was coming up for an extension in 2021, Peskin and Supervisor Connie Chan pushed back again, citing complaints from neighbors and environmental groups, and suggesting that proper approvals had never been received from two thirds of the Board, as required under the City Charter.

“We are trying to get it out of the park, where it never belonged, and to the wharf, where it is a perfect fit,” Peskin said last month.

And so it shall be.

Kat Anderson, president of the Rec and Parks Commission, told the Chronicle last month, “If [the observation wheel] moves, it will attract visitors and provide a fresh view of our beautiful city.”

It’s still not clear who is footing the bill for the disassembly, move, and reassembly of the wheel. And under the terms of the wheel’s extended permit, the city is only getting 3% of revenues from it.

The wheel will now live, presumably through 2025, in the triangle parking lot next to Boudin Bakery, and it will be open just before 20,000+ attendees of the APEC summit arrive in town.

Previously: Supervisor Peskin Proposes Moving the Golden Gate Ferris Wheel to His District, at Fisherman’s Wharf

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Golden Gate Park’s Ferris wheel is set to move to Fisherman’s Wharf after almost three years of delivering riders 150 feet into the air over the Music Concourse between the de Young Museum and the California Academy of Science.

The Ferris wheel—technically, the “SkyStar Observation Wheel”—was installed in 2020 over considerable opposition due to its bright lights, potential impacts on wildlife and $18 ticket price for a 12-minute ride. After almost three years in operation, it will relocate to a triangular-shaped parcel near Pier 39 known as Lot 301 in time for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, or APEC.

What exactly is APEC, and why is San Francisco hosting part of it this year? KQED journalist and APEC Host Committee Press Ambassador Priya David Clemens explains.

The Port of San Francisco did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

As The Standard previously reported, discussions between the Port and other city and state agencies have been underway ahead of the conference, which is expected to bring thousands of visitors to San Francisco in mid-November.

Indeed, SkyStar’s days in the park are already over, as the website said it closed to riders on Sunday and will reopen near Fisherman’s Wharf on Nov. 10. 

In a statement to The Standard, San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department spokesperson Daniel Montes said more than 650,000 people have ridden SkyStar.

“Since 2021, Rec and Park distributed 13,650 free tickets to kids and families through its partnership with schools, camps, and 100+ community organizations assisting underserved San Franciscans,” Montes said.

How the Ferris wheel will be transported and whether it will return to the park after the conference concludes is unclear.

SkyStar was installed as part of Golden Gate Park’s 150th anniversary celebration and claims to be the first such Ferris wheel in the park since the 1890s. It’s set to remain in San Francisco through 2025. The wheel and its 36 gondolas have 1 million lights and weigh nearly half a million pounds.

Fisherman’s Wharf has seen a number of long-term restaurants close in recent months over nonpayment of rent, although a proposal is in the works to turn Pier 45 into a recreation complex with an events center, museum and pedestrian promenade.

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