(Bloomberg) — San Francisco’s Westfield mall was for decades the city’s premier shopping destination, a nine-story complex in the heart of downtown known for its iconic glass dome and spiral escalators.

These days, the property is struggling with empty storefronts and falling foot traffic — so much so that owners Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Brookfield Corp. are giving the mall up to lenders, underscoring the wider challenges for brick-and mortar retail. Last weekend brought a particularly deep blow: the anchor Nordstrom Inc. store closed after 35 years.

Just an hour’s drive south, Westfield has another shopping center in San Jose that’s booming. Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, it’s added new stores, including a three-story Eataly eatery and a luxury wing with brands like Tiffany & Co. and Versace. The mall’s sales have increased by 66% since 2019.

The contrast highlights the changing fortunes of the world’s tech epicenter at a time of industry upheaval and a post-pandemic recovery that has seen dense US downtowns struggle. 

San Francisco, a major beneficiary of the last decade’s boom as young workers flocked to a lively urban center, is floundering due to an exodus of people and empty office buildings. The suburban region of Silicon Valley, meanwhile, has seen its economy hold up relatively well from remote work and the fortunes of the likes of Nvidia Corp. and Apple Inc.

“Silicon Valley is a net winner from the pandemic,” said Nick Bloom, an economist at Stanford University who coined the term “donut effect” to describe how urban centers are losing their appeal while suburbs are flourishing. 

Read More: Tech’s Bust Delivers Bruising Blow to Hollowed-Out San Francisco

San Francisco’s downtown is lagging behind every other major US city in its post-pandemic recovery. Its office vacancy rate has surged to 30% as tech companies opt for remote work, downsize or move away. The city shed 40,000 residents during the pandemic and its population is projected to remain 3% smaller by 2060.

Silicon Valley has seen an even slower return of workers to its offices, according to security company Kastle Systems. But the area’s sprawling landscape made up of tech campuses and shopping plazas makes it less dependent on people filling downtown office towers. Property values are rising, three of its companies — Apple, Alphabet Inc. and Nvidia — have more than $1 trillion in market value each, and its population is set to grow over the longer run.

While Silicon Valley’s unofficial capital of San Jose — the Bay Area’s biggest city, with roughly 1 million residents — has long been overshadowed by its flashier neighbor, Mayor Matt Mahan envisions that it that can benefit as San Francisco’s economy reels.

The Bay Area’s center of gravity is shifting to areas that are more “business friendly, larger, and have a greater talent pool,” Mahan said in an interview. “I predict one day it will be the San Jose-Bay Area.”

Cities across the Bay Area are struggling with high housing costs — with the median home price in the region topping $1 million — along with a homelessness crisis and the departure of residents to cheaper areas. In a sign of frustration over mounting challenges as well as the tech industry’s deep roots in the region, a group of prominent investors are backing the purchase of thousands of acres of farmland to build a new urban oasis about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco.

Read More: Secret California City by Ex-Goldman Trader Faces Scrutiny

San Francisco, though, faces it’s own unique set of challenges as perceptions of rising crime and street squalor contribute to people staying away. Mayor London Breed says she’s working hard to revitalize the downtown, and she wants to reform business taxes and attract new companies to vacant office buildings. She has even proposed the idea of razing San Francisco’s Westfield mall and building a soccer stadium in its place. 

“This is not the first time we’ve gone through a financial downturn,” Breed said in an interview last month at City Hall. “We’ve rebounded and diversified and we have sought different industries. And that’s why people keep betting on San Francisco.” 

The shift of people in Bay Area is having an influence on the real estate market, which remains the most expensive in the country. The median sale price of a home in the Silicon Valley town of Santa Clara was $1.5 million in July, up 8% from a year ago, according to Redfin. In San Francisco, the price has dropped by 8% to $1.3 million as the city saw more listings and less demand.

The region’s public services are also feeling the strain. While Silicon Valley’s bus and train operator expects a 10-year surplus thanks to higher sales-tax revenue from local and online shopping, transit agencies serving downtown San Francisco have scrambled for funding to avoid service cuts. 

The transit crisis is just a symptom of the city’s larger fiscal woes. Overall, San Francisco is facing a $780 million budget shortfall and Moody’s in July lowered its credit rating outlook to negative.

Silicon Valley, encompassing more than a dozen cities, is the cradle of some of the world’s tech behemoths. Companies including Apple and Intel Corp. were born there, often starting in garages before expanding into sprawling campuses. Alphabet resides in Mountain View and Meta Platforms Inc. calls Menlo Park home. Cupertino is known for Apple’s Infinite Loop campus.

“You couldn’t have a least glamorous place on Earth,” said Mark Ritchie, a commercial real estate broker with offices in both areas. “But it is so productive it’s unbelievable.” 

Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor acknowledges that her city of about 130,000 residents may not offer the fine dining and nightlife found in San Francisco. But with plans to host the 2026 Super Bowl and the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament, the city is working to enhance its appeal. “Let’s be frank, San Francisco has fun,” she said. “That’s what we’re missing here.”

Her city represents the area’s boom-and-bust tendencies — home to both Nvidia and Silicon Valley Bank, the tech-favored lender that collapsed this year.

The bank’s failure rippled throughout the region and shows that Silicon Valley faces many of the same challenges as San Francisco, including a wave of layoffs and a pullback in venture-capital funding. Notable companies including Oracle Corp. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. have moved their headquarters to Texas, and Google has paused a planned San Jose mega-campus. 

Silicon Valley’s office-vacancy rate has surpassed 18% — almost tripling from 2019 — but it’s still far less than San Francisco’s. 

As the tech industry recovers from the slump of 2022, San Francisco is looking to bounce back. Last week, the city’s first Ikea store opened less than a block away from the Westfield mall. Office attendance in San Francisco increased 38% in July from a year earlier, the biggest gain of any US city, according Breed’s office. And tenant demand for space jumped 16% in the second quarter, according to real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle, buoyed by the booming artificial-intelligence industry.

“We get back on our feet and keep moving forward,” Breed said. “AI is starting to take flight in a whole other way.” 

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

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Palestinian people and their allies are continuing calls for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. Thousands of people filled San Francisco’s Civic Center on Saturday, joining nationwide rallies calling for an end to the fighting and for the U.S. to stop sending aid to Israel. The rally was the biggest so far in the Bay Area since the war began on October 7, and one of numerous actions in other cities, including a massive demonstration in Washington, D.C., with other demonstrations taking place across Europe.

A woman waves a Palestinian flag at the International Day of Solidarity: Free Palestine rally in front of City Hall in San Francisco on Nov. 4, 2023. (Kathryn Styer Martínez for KQED)

“I am optimistic about the unbelievable outpouring. Just coming here on BART this morning, half the car was people with signs,” said Seth Morrison, a member of the national board of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, at the rally. “I’m seeing all over the country our JVP chapters, our actions are bigger than ever.”

Seth Morrison, 72, attends the International Day of Solidarity: Free Palestine rally. Morrison, who lives in El Cerrito, has been organizing with Jewish Voice for Peace since 2011. (Kathryn Styer Martínez for KQED)

Suzanne Ali, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement Bay Area Chapter, says she hopes the marches happening across the country draw attention to the thousands of Palestinians that have been killed in Gaza since the war began.

“What we’re seeing today is a shock to the human conscience.  People need to focus on the real root issue of violence which is Israeli settler colonial occupation.”

Suzanne Ali, 25, speaks with reporters at the International Day of Solidarity: Free Palestine rally. Ali of San Francisco is an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement. (Kathryn Styer Martínez for KQED)

Andrea Muir said she has family in Gaza that have been displaced from their home, and that one of her cousins has died as a result of the fighting.

“It doesn’t feel right to sit at home,” said Muir.

It’s been a month since Hamas launched an unprecedented cross-border attack into Israel from Gaza, killing at least 1,400 people and taking approximately 240 hostages, according to the Israeli government. In the weeks since, Israel’s unrelenting attacks on Gaza have killed more than 9,400 people, at least 3,600 of whom were children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.  Over 1.4 million people have been displaced. Calls for a cease-fire, including a call for a humanitarian pause from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday, have so far been rebuffed by Israel, as supplies of food, water and medicine in Gaza run dangerously low.

The Bay Area has seen a series of vigils and rallies in recent weeks.  Last Saturday an estimated 15,000 protesters marched up Market Street in downtown San Francisco and onto the Highway 101. The following day, hundreds attended a tightly guarded pro-Israel rally in downtown San Francisco at Yerba Buena Gardens.

Thousands gather at the International Day of Solidarity: Free Palestine rally in front of City Hall. (Kathryn Styer Martínez for KQED)

Dozens of Bay Area residents traveled to Washington D.C. this weekend, joining the march there calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel, an end to the siege of Gaza, and for an immediate ceasefire.

“I have to do what I can in this moment and onwards to ensure that more Palestinians aren’t displaced from their lands, like my grandparents, using U.S. taxpayer dollars,” said Rami Abdelkarim, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement in the Bay Area. “I want to join the people who refuse to sit idly by while our country funds the destruction and the displacement of my ancestors and my people.”

Thousands showed up to attend the International Day of Solidarity: Free Palestine rally. (Kathryn Styer Martínez for KQED)

San Francisco rally attendee Kisae Hussein said she feels a moral obligation to protest because her country, the United States, is spending tax dollars to support Israel.

“It’s hard not to feel despair when there’s all these marches and our representatives are still doing what they’re doing,” she said. “But if there’s enough pushback, if we boycott, divest, sanction, if we keep moving forward with these actions I think we have to have hope that something will happen despite how impossible it may seem.”

Adam Shain, 6, attends the International Day of Solidarity: Free Palestine rally with his mom Faten, who says they currently have family in Jordan and Palestine. (Kathryn Styer Martínez for KQED)

The response to the protestors’ calls by California politicians has been mixed. California’s leading Senate candidates, running to fill the late Senator Dianne Feinstein’s seat, have largely expressed support for Israel’s response to the Hamas attacks. Meanwhile, East Bay Rep. Barbara Lee is calling for a cease-fire and is stressing that Israel must respond “within the framework of international law.”

While the White House has not called for a cease-fire thus far, President Biden on Wednesday did call for a humanitarian pause in Gaza, at a time of mounting pressure from human rights groups, and even members of his own Democratic Party. But a majority of the U.S. Congress continues to support the Israeli military. The House of Representatives recently approved $14.5 billion in military aid for Israel.

On Thursday, a San Francisco law firm sued the Biden administration in a push to evacuate Palestinian-Americans trapped in Gaza, saying that while some American citizens have been evacuated, the administration has so far failed to bring Palestinian-Americans home to safety.

Attendees at the International Day of Solidarity: Free Palestine rally in front of City Hall call for the Israeli military to cease fire in Palestine. (Kathryn Styer Martínez for KQED)

The Bay Area’s Jewish Community Relations Council CEO Tyler Gregory said the JCRC and the Jewish Community are calling on the Biden administration to do everything to provide humanitarian aid and work with Israelis to minimize loss of life. But, he added, Israel would not live with a cease-fire until the hostages are returned and Hamas is “no longer ruling the Gaza Strip.”

“We think that it’s reasonable that Israel has the right to self-defense and to try to reclaim its hostages,” Gregory said on Friday. “And we know that the United States would do the exact same thing. There is a lot of hypocrisy going around by those that are denying Israel the right to finish this.”

United Nations experts are warning that Gaza is “running out of time” and are calling for an immediate cease-fire “to prevent genocide.” Amnesty International has referred to Israeli governance of Palestinians as “oppressive and discriminatory” and “a system of apartheid.”

Organizers are planning more actions in the weeks ahead, including a protest at the Oakland Federal Building on Thursday.

KQED’s Juan Carlos Lara, Annelise Finney, Attila Pelit, David Marks and Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman contributed to this story.

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By Chris Matthews and Madeleine Ross

23:24 20 Feb 2023, updated 00:19 21 Feb 2023

SNP frontrunner Kate Forbes called trans double rapist Isla Bryson ‘a man’ as she revealed she wouldn’t have voted for gay marriage a decade ago. 

The lead candidate for First Minister, the 32-year-old politician has been vocal about her concerns about the Scottish government’s controversial gender self-ID laws.  

Ms Forbes said: ‘No rapist can be a woman. Isla Bryson is a man,’ in an interview yesterday as she signalled that she wouldn’t continue legal action against the Westminster veto of the Scottish gender self-ID law. 

Questions of gender identity have haunted the final weeks of Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership as she repeatedly stumbled over questions about the double rapist’s sex. 

The finance secretary, 32, who is known to hold socially conservative views, also said in an interview that she would not have backed the legislation to make gay marriage legal but would have ‘respected and defended the democratic choice that was made’. 

SNP lead candidate Kate Forbes (pictured) said she would have voted against gay marriage in Scotland at the time it was made legal almost a decade ago Isla Bryson – formerly known as Andrew Graham – pictured outside court in Glasgow in January. Nicola Sturgeon has dodged questions about the convicted rapist’s gender identity

The Telegraph reported that the frontrunner said the gender legislation was ‘not a priority right now’ for Scotland, distancing herself from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. 

‘I would be strongly minded not to proceed with that court challenge [against Westminster], subject to legal advice and so on. 

Read more: How outgoing leader’s ruthless ambition brought Scotland to the brink of independence before a series of scandals

‘I would much rather engage in discussion with the UK Government about the amendments that need to be made than proceed with the challenge.’

Ms Forbes previously said she would not have voted for the Scottish Government’s Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill in its current form. 

As she was on maternity leave, she did not participate in the final vote before the new year, but has been clear on her opposition since 2019.

She was one of 15 SNP politicians who publicly called on her party to delay the controversial proposals which make it easier for transgender people to self-identify as their chosen gender. 

She said: ‘My concerns about self-ID have been well documented and I would have continued to have those concerns about self-ID. 

‘It’s very difficult to talk hypothetically when it comes to a Bill but I think I would have struggled to support that self-ID element of the Gender Recognition Act.’ 

However, if she had voted against it, she would have been required to leave her position as Finance Secretary.

The comments come as Ms Forbes yesterday made clear her stance on gay marriage, as her religion and socially conservative views cause concern with some SNP voters. 

Equal marriage was made legal in Scotland in 2014 with an overwhelming majority of 105 votes to 18, while Ms Forbes was not elected to Holyrood until the 2016 election. 

Nicola Sturgeon dropped the bombshell that she is quitting last week, after a torrid spell where the SNP slid into chaos over its abortive bid to loosen gender identity rules and dwindling support for independence Humza Yousaf, 37, (pictured) is the Scottish Government’s health secretary, who became Scotland’s first Muslim Cabinet minister in 2018, when he was appointed justice secretary

Who is Humza Yousaf? 

Humza Yousaf, 37, is the Scottish Government’s health secretary, who became Scotland’s first Muslim Cabinet minister in 2018, when he was appointed justice secretary.

He has been MSP for Glasgow Pollok since 2016, having previously been elected to the Scottish Parliament as an additional member for the Glasgow region in 2011 at the age of just 26.

Despite being tipped as a possible replacement for Ms Sturgeon as First Minister, Mr Yousaf’s chances could be harmed by the current health crisis in Scotland.

He has come under particular pressure over long waiting times for ambulances and emergency care.

Mr Yousaf has a daughter and a stepchild with his second wife Nadia El-Nakla. 

Talking to The Scotsman, Ms Forbes, who has been on maternity leave and away from frontline politics since early summer last year, said she would not have supported equal marriage as a ‘matter of conscience’ if she had been a member of parliament at the time.

She cited the example of Angela Merkel as a leader who voted on the matter ‘with her conscience’.

She said: ‘I would have voted, as a matter of conscience, along the lines of mainstream teaching in most major religions that marriage is between a man and a woman. 

‘But I would have respected and defended the democratic choice that was made. 

‘It is a legal right now and I am a servant of democracy, I am not a dictator.’ 

After giving her views on gay marriage, the Scottish Health Secretary and SNP leadership candidate Humza Yousaf, 37, said in an interview that he would not legislate on the basis of his faith. 

Speaking on Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC on Monday, Mr Yousaf said: ‘I’m a supporter of equal marriage. 

‘Let me get to the crux of the issue that you’re asking me. I’m a Muslim. I’m somebody who’s proud of my faith. 

‘I’ll be fasting during Ramadan in a few weeks’ time. 

‘But what I don’t do is, I don’t use my faith as a basis of legislation. 

‘What I do as a representative, as a leader, as a Member of the Scottish Parliament is my job is to bring forward policy and pursue it in the best interest of the country.’

Ms Forbes also condemned the ‘illiberal discourse’ around her faith and how her religious views could impact her decisions as First Minister. 

She is a member of the Free Church of Scotland and had previously said her faith did not impact her ability to serve as an MSP. 

Scottish finance secretary Kate Forbes swiped at the need to ‘widen’ the SNP’s appeal as she confirmed she is a candidate

She said: ‘It is quite an illiberal discourse. 

‘Because if we get into the territory of suggesting that anyone who holds public office is to be barred to people of faith, then it sends a very bad signal to the countless people of faith and no faith in Scotland today.’ 

Earlier, Ms Forbes committed to ensuring women are free from harassment and fear around abortion clinics following a plea from campaigners. 

She said women should not ‘be subjected to fear and harassment’ when attending clinics across the country. 

It comes as campaigners Back Off Scotland wrote to Ms Forbes – and her opponents in the leadership race Mr Yousaf and Ash Regan – to ask for support in implementing 150-metre safe access zones around hospitals administering abortions. 

She said: ‘I would say that I certainly don’t think that women going for an abortion should be subjected to fear and harassment. 

‘And so, I’d be willing to work with Gillian Mackay who is introducing the Bill.’

Who is SNP leadership contender Kate Forbes?

Kate Forbes is a leading member of Ms Sturgeon’s administration who is being tipped as the favourite to replace her.

The fluent Gaelic speaker became the Scottish government’s finance secretary in February 2020, the first woman to hold the post.

Kate Forbes married Alasdair MacLennan – a widower chimney sweep 10 years her senior – in July 2021.

Her husband, known as Ali, had three daughters – Rachael, Rebekah and Zara – with his Indian first wife Priya. She died in 2014, aged just 38.

Ms Forbes, 32, went on maternity leave last July – the first ever serving Scottish Cabinet secretary to do so – and gave birth to her daughter Naomi in August.

The daughter of missionaries, Ms Forbes spent much of her childhood in India.

She is a member of the Free Church of Scotland, sometimes known as the ‘Wee Frees’, which is opposed to gay marriage and believes there are few circumstances in which abortion is justified.

Ms Sturgeon’s government was accused of rushing through its controversial gender identity reforms before Christmas, while Ms Forbes remained on maternity leave, in order to prevent a potential revolt by the 32-year-old. 

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In the past year and a half, San Francisco residents have filed over a million complaints with the city’s 311 hotline. A breakdown of those calls shows that some of the most common complaints were about trash, illegal dumping and graffiti — issues the city has struggled to keep up with since the pandemic as the Public Works Department faced staff shortages.

“We faced a challenge from vacancy at our street cleaning operation, which was exacerbated during the global COVID pandemic,” said Rachel Gordon, spokeswoman for the city’s building department. “But we’ve made good progress in recent months to replenish the ranks.”

Garbage complaints accounted for the largest proportion — about 16% — of all calls, according to the Chronicle’s analysis of 311 case data between January 2022 and June 2023. These requests, listed as “General Cleaning” in the database, are typically handled by the municipal building authority.

Complaints about loose litter and illegal dumping fall under the “street and sidewalk cleaning” category in the city’s database. Complaints about illegal dumping have quadrupled in the last decade and in 2022. The Public Works Office has set a goal of responding to 95% of street and sidewalk cleaning requests within 48 hours, and according to its performance rating card, responsiveness has been below target since 2021.

Requests to pick up bulky items, which are handled by municipal waste management company Recology, have been the second most common type of complaint, accounting for 15% of all calls since 2022, the data also shows.

In addition to rubbish and illegal waste disposal, graffiti removal was one of the 311 most frequent service requests. San Franciscans have filed over 125,000 graffiti-related complaints since 2022 — more than 12% of all calls. The Public Works Department’s goal, according to the scorecard, is to respond to graffiti requests on public property within 48 hours and on private property within 72 hours. However, since 2021, the department’s on-time performance rate has been below 55% and achieved in the year 2022 even a low point of 14%.

Laws requiring private property owners to remove graffiti from their properties were stopped by the board of directors during the pandemic, slowing graffiti removal, Gordon explained. The department has since resumed inspections, she added. The department also launched an opt-in pilot program late last year to allow certain private properties and businesses free graffiti removal.

If you consider where most of these complaints and service requests are coming from, the Mission District saw the highest call volume with nearly 114,000 calls between January 2022 and June 2023.

However, when looking at call rate by population, downtown San Francisco neighborhoods stand out more. The Financial District and Downtown/Union Square neighborhoods recorded the highest call rates during this period, at 6,400 and 4,300 calls per thousand residents, respectively.

The highest proportion of key complaints from these two boroughs concerned overflowing municipal dustbins, accounting for over 20% of all calls in both boroughs. Garbage calls related to garbage cans accounted for just 7% of complaints citywide.

Also, a recent survey of the city’s streets and sidewalks by the Controller’s Office found that trash and garbage disposal problems were concentrated in high-traffic commercial areas such as downtown.

Gordon said DPW increased its cleaning efforts at UN Square in March this year, visiting the site every two hours during the day and early evening and twice more at night. The department has also expanded its cleanup of illegal landfills in Bayview from four days a week to five days a week, she added.

Nearly $17 million of the mayor’s proposed budget will go toward street cleaning, Gordon said. She said that if approved by the board of directors, those funds would be used for expanded city-wide steam cleaning, additional manual sweeping of city blocks and graffiti removal.

Reach Adriana Rezal: adriana.rezal@sfchronicle.com

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Cranbourne has been suffering from an extremely cold November. This has resulted in many Cranbourne residents calling Plumber Cranbourne to fix repairs they thought could wait until summer.

The state of Victoria has been on the receiving end of an extremely cold November. Usually, November is the final month before entering the Australian summer. Many Cranbourne residents put of roof and house hold repairs until the warmer months. However, this cold snap hasn’t allowed the Cranbourne residents to perform the work.

Plumber Cranbourne, one of the top rated plumbing service companies in Cranbourne, Victoria has had a significant increase in plumbing emergency calls. This is due to the fact that the local homeowners were unable to perform their own repairs before they became a serious issue.

One Cranbourne resident noticed a discolouration in their ceiling and has some basic plumbing knowledge and thought they would fix the problem themselves. However, there was a leak in the roof which was allowing the rain water to gain easy access inside the house. The homeowner had to call Plumber Cranbourne to repair the damage before anything could get worse.

Plumber Cranbourne is encouraging Cranbourne locals to call a plumber in Cranbourne if they have any plumbing issues before it’s too late. These issues can be a matter of life and death.

Media Contact
Company name: Plumber Cranbourne
E-mail: send email
phone: 0359099371
Address:115 High St
City: Cranbourne
State: Victoria 3977
Country: Australia
site: https://plumbercranbourne.com.au/

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The group, called “Moms Against Drug Deaths,” spent $25,000 on a new billboard in Union Square that reads: “Famous for the world over for our brains, beauty and now dirt-cheap fentanyl.”

“It’s cheeky. We hope it gets attention,” Gina McDonald, one of the group members, told ABC7 News.

“Moms Against Drug Deaths” is made up of a small group of women with children who have either died from — or are addicted to — fentanyl. They hope their campaign brings awareness to the city’s open-air drug market.

COMING SOON TO SAN FRANCISCO: This billboard calling out the city’s drug crisis

“Famous the world over for our brains, beauty and, now, dirt-cheap fentanyl.”

The group “Mothers Against Drug Deaths” is behind the campaign. The billboard will be up starting Monday in Union Square pic.twitter.com/C0cxhiURoc

— Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) April 2, 2022

The lead organizer is Jacqui Berlinn, whose son is currently an addict living on the streets of San Francisco. She said their group launched the campaign after Mayor Breed’s decision to end the state of emergency in the Tenderloin, followed by the mayor’s recent trip to Europe where she pitched San Francisco as a safe, enjoyable place for tourists.

RELATED: SF Mayor London Breed heads to Europe to court international visitors back to Bay Area

“And we’re like, wait a minute, it’s not changed. We should still be in a state of emergency,” Berlinn said. “And then she went to Europe and said, ‘Come to San Francisco. It’s fine.’ Um, no, it’s not fine. It’s really not.”

Here is the “Moms Against Drug Deaths” billboard, now up in Union Square. Member Jacqui Berlin says they hope their message reaches Mayor @LondonBreed. She says they’re considering putting some up in European airports if they don’t see real change soon. pic.twitter.com/GCR9ohPkPu

— Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) April 4, 2022

McDonald said the group took the mayor’s pitch as a “slap in the face” and they ultimately decided the billboard was the answer.

The group said they used their own savings and donations to pay for the $25,000 ad campaign.

Several San Francisco tourism and business associations, including the San Francisco Travel Association, The Hotel Council of San Francisco, the Union Square Alliance & The Golden Gate Restaurant Association, released a joint statement denouncing the campaign.

“The passionate campaign being launched today by MADD, although impactful, is not the solution as it will only hurt local small businesses and our hospitality workers who just now are beginning to crawl out of the economic disaster caused by COVID and its continuing fallout,” the statement said.

VIDEO: Father recounts what it’s like to raise a child surrounded by drug dealing and crime in SF’s Tenderloin

Joe D’Alessandro, the CEO of the San Francisco Travel Association, said they agree the city needs to address the drug crisis but believes a campaign putting down San Francisco is not the answer.

“They’re asking people to stop coming to San Francisco right now,” he said, “So that hurts people tomorrow.”

Many of the San Francisco tourism/business associations have come together to respond to the billboard going up in Union Square calling out the city’s drug crisis.

“Although impactful [it’s] not the solution as it will only hurt local small businesses & our hospitality workers” pic.twitter.com/26qrgHUQ9m

— Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) April 4, 2022

A spokesperson for Mayor Breed argued the city is working to crack down on drug use.

” The Mayor agrees that we need to break up open-air drug dealing in San Francisco. Police officers are making arrests every day, and in the last few weeks an additional 20 officers have been added to the Tenderloin neighborhood to support our emergency response initiative ,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “The Police have seized over 10 kilos of fentanyl in the Tenderloin area this year alone, which is roughly four times more than was seized over the same time period last year.”

“We know more needs to be done to make more arrests, but there also needs to be accountability for the people who are dealing drugs, committing acts of violence, and making our communities less safe. We also need to increase access to services and treatment ,” the statement continued. “We’ve hired over 200 new behavioral health workers, opened the Tenderloin Linkage Center to provide people who are suffering with issues relating to mental health and addiction with the help they need, and are in the process of adding hundreds of mental health and substance use beds.”

.@LondonBreed’s office just released this statement responding to the Moms Against Drug Deaths billboard.

It says Breed agrees open-air drug dealing needs to end & says this year police have seized 4x the amount of fentanyl in the Tenderloin compared to the same period last year pic.twitter.com/2WBkfrws1J

— Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) April 4, 2022

Moms Against Drug Deaths, however, said they are not seeing enough change. They felt their recent protest about drug use at the newly opened Linkage Center fell on deaf ears and that they needed to do more to get the city’s attention.

If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live

Berlinn said if they don’t see change and progress soon, they may expand their campaign internationally. She said they may place these billboards in European airports to warn people about San Francisco.

“I know it’s not going to happen overnight. It’s not a fast fix,” she said. “But we need to start moving that direction.”

These are some of the digital billboards created by the “Moms Against Drug Deaths”

Their campaign is in response to Mayor Breed’s recent trip to Europe where she pitched San Francisco as a safe place for tourists pic.twitter.com/GXYSZM5A63

— Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) April 2, 2022

Copyright © 2022 KGO-TV. All rights reserved.

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