• San Francisco Mayor London Breed hit out at Good Morning America for saying it was ‘too dangerous’ to film in the city’s downtown
• She claimed the negative coverage is ‘hampering’ efforts to bounce back from the pandemic as major retailers continue to leave the city 
• The mayor also seemed to deny that rampant crime was a problem 

San Francisco Mayor London Breed has lashed out at Good Morning America for saying it was ‘too dangerous’ to film in the city’s downtown, claiming it is ‘hampering’ efforts to bounce back from the pandemic.

ABC’s chief national news correspondent Matt Gutman told viewers Wednesday he had been advised against appearing live from Union Square or the now-closed Westfield Mall for a segment on the spate of stores fleeing the crime-ridden city.  

‘It is worth mentioning that we are not at Union Square or the Westfield Mall this morning because we have been advised that it’s simply too dangerous to be there at this hour,’ he told viewers.

But in a statement to the San Francisco Gate on Friday, the mayor’s office seemed to deny that the area is dangerous — suggesting instead that major retailers are fleeing the city in droves due to a lack of customers as more people work from home.

‘Sadly some of the news coverage conflate the reasons or do not provide the full picture of why big retailers and other businesses in San Francisco are deciding to leave or transfer ownership of their operations,’ the mayor’s office said.

‘Lacking foot traffic in our downtown areas as a result of work-from-home habits, as well as challenges stemming from shifting shopping trends that have persisted for years were exacerbated by the pandemic.’

San Francisco Mayor London Breed hit out at Good Morning America for claiming it was ‘too dangerous’ to film in the downtown area

Breed continued: ‘Although there is a lot of work ahead of us and we will continue to focus on our economic recovery and public safety, the reality is that the number of violent crimes in the Downtown and Tenderloin is down so far this year when compared to the same period last year.

‘San Francisco also has an overall violent crime rate that is lower than other cities.’ 

But police data shows criminal activity in the area has been on the increase this year – with a 14.7 percent rise in robberies and a 10 percent increase in homicides so far this year when compared to the same time period last year.

Motor vehicle thefts and arson cases are each up more than 5 percent over last year.

There has also been an explosion in the number of homeless people – drawn to the city in part by generous assistance programs worth up to $687-per-month. 

As of the last official count in 2022, more than 7,000 occupied the tented shanty towns that have sprung up downtown and in the nearby Tenderloin district. 

Drug-related deaths have also sky-rocketed by 41 percent in the first quarter of 2023 compared with the same time last year, mostly due to fentanyl. 

Some 200 people died due to overdoses between January and March – or one death every 10 hours – compared with 142 deaths in those months the previous year in the California city. 

On Wednesday’s episode of Good Morning America, Gutman said there is concern San Francisco ‘could turn into a so-called zombie with it downtown hollowed out by a fentanyl epidemic, pervasive homelessness and fleeing retailers.’

He then asked Mayor Breed: ‘Is San Francisco dangerous?’

‘Here’s the thing: San Francisco is a major city and it has challenges,’ she said, apparently dodging the question.

Drug-related deaths rocketed by 41 percent in the first quarter of 2023 compared with the same time last year, mostly due to fentanyl. There has been an explosion in the number of homeless people ¿ drawn to the city in part by generous assistance programs worth up to $687-per-month Police data shows criminal activity in the area has been on the increase this year

The mayor now says the negative coverage of the rampant crime and drug use in the city is ‘hampering’ efforts for the city to rebuild from the pandemic — after several major retailers closed.

Westfield announced on Monday that it had defaulted on its half-a-billion dollar loan for the downtown mall, and was handing it back to the lender, blaming ‘unsafe conditions’ and a ‘lack of enforcement against rampant criminal activity’. 

The mall said the ‘unprecedented’ poor performance in San Francisco was a sharp contrast to the rest of its properties.

San Francisco Centre generated $455 million in sales in 2019, before the pandemic.

Last year, sales were down about a third to $298 million.

Nordstrom occupied 312,000 square feet in the mall: when it closes, Westfield San Francisco will only be 55 percent leased.

Other Westfields are, on average, 93 percent leased.

Westfield in San Francisco (pictured) has announced it is handing the building back to the lender A map reveals the major businesses which have left, or plan to leave, San Francisco in recent months. Westfield, the most recent to announced its departure, will give up its huge mall – and several occupants have already said they intend to follow

The folding of San Francisco’s biggest mall follows the closure of at least 24 major stores in the area.

Whole Foods, Old Navy, Gap and Office Depot are just some of the stores in the district to announce in recent months that they are closing.

Out of 203 retailers open in 2019 in the city’s Union Square area, just 107 are still operating – a drop of 47 percent in just a few pandemic-ravaged years.

As these retailers flee and customers stay away, the vacancy rate of office buildings has also reached unprecedented highs. The vacancy rate in May was 31 percent – amounting to 18.4 million square feet, or enough space for 92,000 workers, according to an analysis of data from Lee & Associates by the San Francisco Chronicle.

As a result, tax receipts for the city of San Francisco are suffering.

The revenue loss to the city caused by decreased property taxes could reach $196 million per year by 2028, according to modelling published in November by the San Francisco Controller’s Office. 

The best-case scenario from the modelling expects the cost will be nearer to $100 million per year.

That will contribute in part to a $1.3 billion budget shortfall by 2028, according to forecasts from the Controller’s Office. A report published in March cites ‘lower revenue projections’ as a factor.

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News

From Katherine Donlevy

June 16, 2023 | 12:01 a.m

An ABC reporter admitted his bosses advised him not to perform live from downtown San Francisco on Wednesday because the area was “just too dangerous.”

Chief national correspondent Matt Gutman told viewers his crew had been instructed to film their 4am GMT segment of “Good Morning America” ​​in a different part of the city as they covered the shocking closure of Westfield Mall.

Although the mall — the latest in a string of Bay Area malls to close its doors — cited the drop in foot traffic as its reason for its closure, Gutman said the city’s rising crime rate could be to blame.

“The mayor notes that several crime indicators are actually flat or declining. But it’s worth noting that we’re not at Union Square or Westfield Mall this morning because we’ve been told it’s just too dangerous to be there at this time,” Gutman said.

Back in the studio, Michael Strahan said Gutman’s admission “says a lot.”

Matt Gutman, a reporter for ABC News, admitted he was advised not to perform live in downtown San Francisco for his feature Good Morning America due to rising crime. Fox News

San Francisco has seen a dramatic increase in violent crime and the ongoing fentanyl crisis over the past year.

According to police, robberies, arson, grand theft autos and homicides increased by over 5% in 2023 compared to the previous year.

Crime – which residents claim has turned the city into a “zombie apocalypse” – is largely responsible for the mass exodus of large corporations, including Old Navy and Nordstrom.

According to police, crime in San Francisco increased by over 5% in 2023 compared to the previous year.Fox News

A viral video from earlier this month showed that a whole section of the city’s commercial hub was completely deserted.

During the “GMA” segment, Gutman asked San Francisco Mayor London Breed if the city should be considered “dangerous,” but the Democrat explained that the news team was focused on the negative.

“Well, here’s the thing: San Francisco is a big city and it has challenges. But let’s go back a little. You’re talking about people leaving the city, but not people staying, expanding, and coming to San Francisco,” Breed said.

A number of Bay Area businesses have closed their doors due to rising violence in San Francisco. San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images

On the same day, Twitter CEO Elon Musk revealed that his employees “feel unsafe” when visiting the social media headquarters.

“[They’ve] The windows of their cars were smashed. Also, they received such a zero response from the police that they barely bother to report crimes because nothing is happening,” the billionaire tweeted.

However, crime rates could be far worse than statistics and reports suggest.

Car break-ins and thefts have plagued the city as employees in the area admitted they are afraid to come to work. Chin Hei Leung / SOPA Images / Sipa USA

“Crime is worse than the data shows,” San Francisco attorney general Charles Stimson told Fox News.

“People don’t report these crimes because if there’s a prosecutor who’s pro-criminal and doesn’t enforce the law, the cops aren’t going to go out and arrest someone if they know the case is undocumented.”

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