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Pandemic exodus is over: Census Bureau numbers present slight improve in San Francisco inhabitants

Daily SF News — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 06:03:19 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — New census figures show people are returning to San Francisco for the first time since 2019.

“I think the pandemic has really changed a lot of people's lives. I'm glad they're coming back. It’s wonderful,” said Mark Palmer, a San Francisco resident.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, San Francisco's population increased by about 1,200 between July 2022 and 2023. The city's population rose from 807,774 to just under 809,000. That's an increase of 0.15%.

“I’m a little surprised at the number,” Linda Jensen said.

Chart not displaying correctly? Click here to open in a new window.

MORE: California Dreaming: Moving to Texas

The recovery from a decline of over 50,000 people in 2021 is shown in the light blue line in the chart above.

“As a chef, a lot of my friends left,” said Danny Murcia, a San Francisco resident. “A lot of the restaurants we grew up in are a thing of the past.”

Statewide, California lost more than 75,000 people from 2022 to 2023 — a decline of 0.2%.

“But things are starting to change,” Murcia said. “I’m starting to get calls again asking if I know anyone who has openings in our industry again, which is huge for us.”

MORE: Census Bureau: Greater SF sees mass exodus during pandemic; more are thinking about leaving

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that 7.6% of San Francisco metro area residents surveyed are considering moving to another city in the next year.

“We spent a lot of time in Tahoe. A lot of people went to Tahoe. They were unprepared for year-round living in Tahoe. I’m not surprised that people want to come back,” Jensen said.

The pandemic allowed people to work remotely and in significantly cheaper locations. But Eric McGee, policy director at the Public Policy Institute of California, said that is now changing.

“Now, in some cases, the staff is a little more cumbersome about people only showing up in person a few days a week, and I think that's attracting people because of the dynamic and the well-paying jobs, especially in the Bay Area, back to California. “Still here,” McGee said.

The Bay Area is also experiencing an upswing.

“The Bay Area in general, not just San Francisco, has seen a bit of a turnaround. We have some new dynamic industries like AI that are attracting people back to the state,” McGee said.

MORE: Bay Area exodus: Where is everyone going and why?

New data from the United States Postal Service shows people are moving from the Bay Area to less restrictive parts of the state amid the ongoing pandemic.

Kevin Ho, a San Francisco real estate agent with Vanguard Properties, said things have definitely improved.

“We have a lot of vendors who would have left town before. Now they're upgrading and staying in the city – and buying bigger and better homes,” Ho said. “We have customers who are relocating and moving back to the Bay Area. We had a couple who just bought an iconic property and are moving here from Miami.”

MORE: After passing affordable housing bond, how can SF build more homes in one of densest US cities?

How can San Francisco build more affordable homes after voters recently passed a bond? Officials also provide insights into the challenges.

Experts say San Francisco still has a long way to go to get back to where it was.

“San Francisco is not quite back yet, but it is in recovery mode,” McGhee said. “We just have to wait and see whether this trend can continue. Policy challenges remain, particularly with regard to building sufficient housing. But things are moving in the right direction again.”

Meanwhile, Ho said there were large crowds at the open house on Sunday. He said the listings would sell in less than a week.

“We see people crowding there who want to buy, who want to stay,” Ho said.

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The Pandemic Allowed Me to Transfer Into My First Micro House in San Francisco

Daily SF News — Mon, 25 Dec 2023 00:01:16 +0000

Reflecting on my first “tiny home” in San Francisco is a multi-dimensional exercise, one rooted in gratitude, reality, and nostalgia.

I’ve long been a fan of tiny living. Establishing a more micro everyday lifestyle has long seemed the most pragmatic and realistic way of making a financially solvent career as a writer, sans roommates. But even in San Francisco — which still boasts the one of country’s most expensive rental markets despite seeing rental prices drop some 26% since the pandemic began — even living tiny has a lofty price tag.

Before Covid-19, it was common to see $2,000-plus monthly rents for units spanning less than 200 square feet. A 161-square-foot unit a block away from my past address had become famous in 2019 for its astronomically high $2,295 a month rent. It featured a wedge-shaped closet, nothing resembling a kitchen, antiquated cabinets, and a shared in-hall bathroom.

However, when that apartment began making rounds on social media for its comic absurdity, I remember earnestly thinking to myself I… I actually could make that work and kind of like it. Except it was well out of my budget.

Fast-forward some months one global pandemic later, and I typed this very article in a unit with identical square footage — my former home, which was my first solo apartment in San Francisco. (It also had an updated kitchenette, a normal rectangular closet, fresh coats of paint, better hardwood flooring, and crown molding.)

My rent at that time? A paltry $1,050 a month with two months free and no deposit down.

It was my lease, under just my name. For a rent-controlled unit. Two things I never thought I’d be able to have (and probably would never have, had it not been for the pandemic) in San Francisco. And even though I’ve since moved to a studio apartment in Nob Hill — a serendipitous find that I, somehow, managed to acquire for $1,250 a month — it was this first apartment to myself in SF; it will always hold a special place in my heart.

That apartment I once live in is described as a comparatively large SRO unit which, per the property management company, boasts “modern amenities and luxury touches.” (For context: My building, the now Saratoga Hotel constructed in 1908, is a historic San Francisco property and consists of eight SRO units, among 50 other more traditional one-bedroom and studio units, spread across four floors.)

These SROs are relics of depression-area housing stock in which units share either a bathroom or kitchen or both; in my case, I shared 1.5 baths with two neighbors who’ve each been in the building for over 20 years. And because many San Francisco properties that feature SRO units have certain grandfathered-in maintenance clauses, the restrooms were cleaned by janitorial staff twice a day — which, frankly, was more often than I cleaned any bathroom in my life.

Much like ’90s fashion and nostalgia-drenched sitcoms, SROs and other mico-style apartments are enjoying a recent boom in popularity. Millennials and Gen Xers are learning to live with less, and housing prices are still through the roof.

So while it’s near as much impossible for many current thirty- and fortysomethings to envision themselves either owning Bay Area property or living in a 700-square-foot-plus apartment without housemates, urban tiny living at least brings some semblance of reality back into the picture.

That… and living small is more fiscally sound and environmentally sustainable. Living in such a condensed, purposeful way also helps one keep things tidy; in many anecdotal cases, those who’ve “gone small” have reported improved mental health and traded excess chores for more free time.

(For context: I carried those same habits; that same mindset; these environmentally-sustainable practices to my new residence, which measures just shy of 300 square feet. I can’t fathom moving someplace larger, surrendering those previously mentioned upsides for the sake of having a larger kitchen counter.)

Before moving into that SRO in Lower Nob Hill, I briefly lived in an all too familiar Bay Area setup: a cell-like room inside a 1,700-square-foot, four-bedroom, 1.5-bath house in Noe Valley for $1,350 that I wasn’t the master tenant of. I dedicated substantial brackets of time each week to helping my housemates clean the common areas; disinfect and scrub the bathroom; water the patio plants after sweeping the patio itself; vacuum the hallway; and dust off the shelves and wood banisters. At some point during the week, I would eventually get to tidying up my 100-square-foot room — which, comparatively, took no time at all.

About 163.7 square feet, my previous SRO removed 90% of those household chores. There was also no need to purchase any bathroom cleaning supplies, as well.

Living in such a small space did come with certain adjustments and acclimations, mind you.

As someone who’s doted over tiny houses and stayed in some overnight, I can assure you it’s still quite jarring to walk into an empty sub-200-square-foot home and realize you must get your entire life inside of it. Unlike even the smallest of traditional city studio apartments, you have to boundary and give multipurpose to all your living areas — all while taking into account each square inch of space.

You quickly realize retractable measurement tapes become secondary appendages. That Murphy beds are a godsend. That a quality bistro table set on casters can double as a mobile meal preparation and dining area. That at just an inch thick, Samsung’s Frame TVs are, in fact, worth every fucking penny. That vertical storage is your best friend — and horizontal clutter is your gravest foe.

Almost three years ago, I wrote in my journal I wanted to have a tiny home all to myself by the time I was 35 years old. And while I couldn’t exactly wheel that second-floor SRO around to National Parks, I had (in a roundabout way) achieved that goal before my 30th birthday.

Or as my mother affectionately said when I signed the lease: “You got your own tiny house—it’s just in a building.”

Feature Image: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

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The San Francisco Bay Space is successful again staff after pandemic exodus

Daily SF News — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 00:11:20 +0000

Unsurprisingly, people are still moving to Austin, Texas. More surprisingly, people are also moving to San Francisco.

Over the last 12 months, San Francisco has seen the second-biggest worker population gain of any area in the United States, according to LinkedIn. The January data, which measures when people update their locations in their profiles, showed that for every 100,000 LinkedIn users, 83 moved to San Francisco in the last 12 months. The workers largely came from Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Washington DC.

Where people are moving to — and leaving — has huge repercussions for the financial success of those cities and what industries can thrive there. Remote work bore the promise that high-paying jobs could spread from superstar coastal cities like New York and San Francisco to more affordable and economically struggling Heartland areas. To some extent, that’s happened, but the new data from LinkedIn shows the pull of major cities could still be strong, even ones hard-hit by the pandemic.

The data represents a significant shift in population trends for San Francisco, which hadn’t seen notable net gains in LinkedIn’s data since 2017. The San Francisco metropolitan area had some of the biggest population declines from 2020 to 2021, losing more than 125,000 residents, according to the latest available Census data.

One of the reasons for the decline was a lack of affordable housing, which meant that even tech workers with six-figure salaries couldn’t afford to live there. When the pandemic hit, the Bay Area’s high concentration of people working in remote-friendly tech jobs made it so that many could leave to seek cheaper and greener pastures. Other reasons to leave maybe include high rates of homelessness and income inequality the area is facing, although it’s also likely that reports of an urban hellscape in San Francisco might have been overstated.

Indeed, more people are now coming to San Francisco than leaving. By the end of last year, nearly two people were coming to the metropolitan area for every one that left (LinkedIn wasn’t able to provide the net change in area members since the start of the pandemic). The area was still bested by Austin, where prices are still relatively cheaper and where there’s no income tax, but that’s been the case for years now.

Why are people moving to San Francisco? In some sense, it’s a matter of popular cities continuing to be popular. That means people still find value and jobs there. The Bay Area is culturally rich, with people — and culture and food — from around the world. While tech companies have been cutting back on hiring lately, the area is still the home base to their giant and lucrative businesses, meaning there’s still plenty of opportunity for workers.

There’s reason to believe that people aren’t just moving back to San Francisco because they want to. The move back also represents a solidification of remote work policies, in which many companies have come down on the side of hybrid work, where people are still expected in the office some of the time. In other words, people who may have wanted to move elsewhere permanently have been forced back to the Bay Area, though perhaps in different locations than they had been.

The decision to return to the Bay Area could also come from employees who are hoping to put in face time with their bosses ahead of a potential recession. Studies have shown that bosses view people who work in the offices more favorably and are more likely to consider them for promotion.

Even still, it only looks like people are going into the office some of the time. Offices in San Francisco and nearby areas have some of the lowest office occupancy rates in the country, according to data from Kastle, which provides building-access swipe cards to companies across the country and thus has visibility into when people go to the office. During the week of December 29 to January 4, office occupancy was about 20 percent of pre-pandemic levels there, while the national average was 33 percent.

Rather than leave cities, many people have moved to more suburban areas, where home rental prices are more affordable. They might still have to commute to the office, but a longer commute doesn’t seem as bad if they only have to do it a few days a week. On average, office workers are expected to continue working from home an average of 2.3 days per week, according to a December survey of employer plans post-pandemic by WFH Research.

The LinkedIn data, of course, only includes people who update their profiles, so it’s limited in its scope to professionals who stay up-to-date on their LinkedIn profiles. A reversal in population decline hasn’t yet shown up in other data sources, but lagging data from the US Postal Service does show a lot fewer people are leaving the San Francisco Bay Area than had been earlier in the pandemic. The number of people leaving San Francisco based on the number of change of address forms filed in the city declined to 12,000 last year, down from about 48,000 in 2020 and 18,000 in 2021, according to change of address data from the US Postal Service collected by Riordan Frost, senior research analyst at Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

“It’s fair to say there’s some recovery happening in terms of people moving there,” Frost told Recode.

California as a whole saw more people leave the state than enter in 2022, with a deficit of 343,000, but that was down from nearly 500,000 net people leaving in 2021. County-level Census data for 2022 will be out in March, but so far there’s only visibility through 2021.

Perhaps all of this represents a natural middle ground, as people try to find both a better quality of life and opportunity. For many, that might once again be in the suburbs outside big cities.

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San Francisco’s Non-School-Educated Inhabitants Has Declined Quickly Because the Pandemic, Information Exhibits

Daily SF News — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 21:27:57 +0000

Census data reveals an unexpected new trend in San Francisco’s so-called “exodus” — a widening educational divide.

One of the biggest demographic shifts in the city since the pandemic began has been the mass departure of residents 25+ who haven’t attended college, per the Chronicle. Even as the city’s population has dropped overall, this sub-demographic is leaving at significantly higher rates.

In the city, since the beginning of the pandemic, the total number of people aged 25 or older with a high school degree or less dropped by 14%, according to the data. Specifically, it plunged from approximately 165,000 in 2019, to around 144,000 in 2021, then further to 142,000 in 2022 (note that census data wasn’t available in 2020 because of the pandemic).

Source: US Census

While SF’s population dropped overall in the same time frame — from 2019, the total population was around 875,000, and in 2022, it was only 834,000, representing about a 5% decrease — the non-college-educated proportion dropped far more than the rest of the population.

In pre-pandemic times, SF was reportedly seeing an increase in its non-college-educated population — as the Chronicle wrote, between 2018 and 2019, it rose by 5,500 people (or 3.5%) — so this represents a significant shift in San Francisco’s population dynamics.

In fact, the change serves as a counterpoint to the narrative that those moving away SF in the exodus were solely overeducated remote tech workers.

The Chronicle attributes the decline of the subpopulation to the pandemic-related shutdowns and the rising cost of living, which prompted both remote white-collar workers and service workers to leave the city for greener, cheaper pastures. Service workers especially have been feeling the squeeze since before COVID, with their numbers declining 32% since 2019 (compared to a 7% nationwide decline over the same time), as the Chronicle reported.

San Francisco’s post-pandemic recovery has obviously been slow, in fact, among the slowest of urban areas in the country, as we’ve previously reported. As of August 13, 2023, total spending by SF consumers is down by 3.9%, compared to January 2020, according to Track the Recovery.

Image via Unsplash/Bia Frenkel.

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Dreamforce conference in San Francisco returns to full pressure following pandemic – NBC Bay Space

Daily SF News — Wed, 13 Sep 2023 03:08:05 +0000

Tuesday marked the first day of this year’s massive Dreamforce convention in San Francisco, and it’s the first time since the pandemic that the gathering does not have any restrictions on the number of attendees.

There are about 40,000 people at the event, making it the biggest convention the city has had in years. It’s also a test for a city struggling with heavy criticism over homelessness, open drug use and crime downtown.

The big conversations happening at Dreamforce this year surround artificial intelligence. But what’s also important for all of the attendees is how they perceive the city.

“One thing I was impressed with is how they definitely cleaned up prior to the conference,” Keegan Otter said. “It looks a lot cleaner than when I’ve come in the past.”

Outside the convention perimeter, the city seems to have made a concerted effort to make the area around the gathering as inviting as possible for attendees. The closest set of encampments appeared to be a couple blocks away.

Ahead of the convention, Salesforce CEO Marc Bennioff made comments hinting that he’d consider moving the event in the future if the city didn’t get a handle on its longtime street struggles.

During his keynote speech Tuesday, he only made a passing comment about safety in the city.

“We want to say aloha to all of you,” he said. “We want to welcome everyone to San Francisco, our home. And we hope that you have a great time here and a safe time.”

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Class of 2022 again on observe and shifting past the Covid pandemic

Daily SF News — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 07:55:50 +0000

Tatiana Torres hatte alles gegen sich. Sie verbrachte die meiste Zeit in der High School damit, von zu Hause aus zu lernen, nachdem sie nach einem Unfall unter anhaltenden Kopfschmerzen und Lichtempfindlichkeit litt.

Sie war gerade ganztägig an die Heritage High School in Brentwood zurückgekehrt, als die Covid-19-Pandemie die Schulen schloss. Trotz dieser Herausforderungen wird sie diesen Herbst als Juniorstudentin an die UC Berkeley wechseln, um dort Politikwissenschaft zu studieren. Sie hatte ihr Allgemeinbildungsstudium in nur einem Jahr am Los Medanos College in Pittsburg abgeschlossen.

Dies ist der fünfte und letzte Artikel in der Reihe „Klasse 2022“. EdSource verfolgte die Fortschritte von 12 Senioren, die während der Highschool und ihres ersten Studienjahres mit den Folgen der Schulschließungen aufgrund von Covid-19 zu kämpfen hatten.

Torres schloss ihr Studium im Juni 2022 an der Heritage ab und schrieb sich am Los Medanos College ein, nachdem sie an keiner der Universitäten, die sie besuchen wollte, aufgenommen werden konnte. Sie wurde dort in ein Honours-Programm aufgenommen und blühte auf, obwohl sie viele ihrer Kurse online belegte.

„Akademisch gesehen war es nicht allzu schwierig“, sagte Torres. „Dieses Jahr war jedoch aufgrund der Herausforderungen im Leben viel schwieriger als ich erwartet hatte. Es hat mich überrascht und ich hatte ein wenig zu kämpfen, aber ich konnte mich erholen.“

Torres ist einer von zwölf kalifornischen High-School-Absolventen des Jahrgangs 2022, die EdSource bis zum Abschluss und ihrem ersten Jahr als Erwachsener begleitet hat. Fünf besuchten eine Universität, fünf besuchten ein kalifornisches Community College, einer nahm einen Job an und ein Student – der während seines Studiums an der UCLA in seinem Auto schlafen wollte, weil er sich die Miete nicht leisten konnte – konnte nicht mehr erreicht werden.

Ein Unfall schickte Tatiana Torres für den größten Teil der High School nach Hause. Trotzdem schaffte sie es, ihre allgemeinbildenden Einheiten an der Hochschule in einem Jahr zu absolvieren.

Für den Jahrgang 2022, der während der Schulschließungen aufgrund der Covid-19-Pandemie mehr als ein Jahr damit verbracht hatte, von zu Hause aus zu lernen, war der Abschluss der High School und der Besuch einer Hochschule oder der Berufseinstieg eine besondere Herausforderung.

Die neuen Erwachsenen hatten schulische Schwierigkeiten, vor allem in Mathematik, und hatten aufgrund der langen Zeit, die sie nicht zur Schule gingen, soziale Probleme. Einige der befragten Studenten änderten ihren langgehegten Plan, weit weg von zu Hause Colleges zu besuchen, und einer entschied sich, überhaupt nicht daran teilzunehmen.

Die Pandemie hatte Auswirkungen auf die Studien- und Berufswahl der Studierenden

Sie sind nicht allein. Eine neu veröffentlichte landesweite Umfrage unter 1.500 Senioren des Jahrgangs 2023 von ACT Research zeigt, dass fast die Hälfte angibt, dass die Pandemie ihre Entscheidung für mindestens eine College- oder Berufswahl beeinflusst hat. Mehr als ein Viertel der Studierenden gab an, dass die Pandemie ihre Meinung darüber geändert habe, welches College sie besuchen sollten, und einer von zehn gab an, dass die Pandemie sie dazu gebracht habe, sich zu fragen, ob sie überhaupt ein College besuchen sollten.

Obwohl die meisten Schüler ihre Studien- oder Karriereentscheidungen aufgrund finanzieller Schwierigkeiten, schlechterer Noten und Zweifel an der Hochschule im Zusammenhang mit der Pandemie änderten, änderten andere ihren Kurs, weil die Schulschließungen ihnen Zeit zur Selbstreflexion oder zum Entdecken neuer Interessen und Prioritäten gaben. laut Forschern.

Torres nutzte ihre Zeit zu Hause, um eine gemeinnützige Organisation zu gründen, um jüngeren Kindern zu helfen, die während der Pandemie mit psychischen Problemen zu kämpfen hatten. Sie hat die Website erstellt ruhig-4-du nachdem sie mit einer fünfjährigen Nachbarin gesprochen hatte, die sich verwirrt und schuldig fühlte, weil sie nicht mit ihren Freunden und Klassenkameraden zusammen sein konnte.

Drei der anderen elf Senioren, die am Projekt „EdSource Class of 2022“ teilnahmen, gründeten Unternehmen, einige mit dem Ziel, sich nach ihrem College-Abschluss und dem Berufseinstieg mehrere Einnahmequellen zu erschließen.

„Wir waren alle während unserer wichtigsten High-School-Jahre zu Hause. Aus diesem Grund haben viele Schüler diese unabhängige Denkweise“, sagte Gannon Peebles, ein Absolvent der Edison High School in Fresno im Jahr 2022. Wenn ich nicht weiß, wie man etwas macht, versuche ich es herauszufinden, bevor ich jemanden frage.“

Es ist nicht einfach, sich im Hochschulsystem zurechtzufinden

Nach mehr als einem Jahr Fernunterricht entdeckten viele der Studenten Lücken in ihrem Wissen und hatten Schwierigkeiten, mit ihrem Studium – insbesondere in Mathematik – Schritt zu halten, als sie ans College kamen. Einige Studenten hatten Probleme, ihre Unterrichtsstunden zu planen oder sich die Lerngewohnheiten anzueignen, die sie benötigen, um die Studienleistungen am College zu meistern.

Die Probleme von Miles Fu begannen danach In seinem ersten Semester am American River College in Sacramento konnte er keinen Termin mit einem Berater vereinbaren, um zu besprechen, welche Kurse er in seinem zweiten Semester belegen sollte. Es fiel ihm schwer, Kurse auszuwählen, und er wählte sie aus, ohne vorher Dinge wie die Dauer der täglichen Unterrichtszeit zu berücksichtigen. Donnerstags zum Beispiel hatte er Unterricht von 9 bis 18 Uhr Nach zwei Stunden Unterricht war er erschöpft und konnte mit der Pflichtlektüre nicht mehr Schritt halten.

„Das ganze Jahr ist in meinem Gehirn verschwommen“, sagte Fu. „Ich habe nicht alle meine Kurse bestanden und es gab viel Gerangel, herauszufinden, was ich als nächstes tun muss.“

Fu kann nicht sagen, ob die Schulschließungen während der Covid-19-Pandemie zu seinen Schwierigkeiten im College beigetragen haben.

„Vielleicht habe ich den Schulstoff besser aufgenommen, und das hat sich vielleicht auch aufs College übertragen“, sagte er. „Vielleicht habe ich Lerngewohnheiten früher erlernt. Es ist möglich, dass ich besser dran gewesen wäre (wenn die Schließungen nie stattgefunden hätten).“

Miles Fu erfuhr, dass er sich für Weidelandökologie interessierte, nachdem er eine Reihe von Exkursionen zu Weidegebieten und Naturschutzgebieten unternommen hatte.

Das College war dieses Jahr nicht nur schlecht für Fu. Er entdeckte sein Interesse an der Ökologie von Weideland, nachdem er mit Menschen gesprochen hatte, die Weideland und Naturschutzgebiete bewirtschaften. Er würde gerne ein Praktikum absolvieren, um mehr über den Beruf zu erfahren.

Studienanfänger stürzten sich eifrig in das Leben auf dem Campus

Trotz der Schwierigkeiten, sich an das College zu gewöhnen und den akademischen Rückstand aufzuholen, waren die neuen Erstsemester bereit, alles nachzuholen, was sie während der High School gesellschaftlich verpasst hatten.

Peebles sagte, die Erfahrung mit der Pandemie habe ihn kontaktfreudiger gemacht, als er letzten Herbst nach New York zog, um die Columbia University zu besuchen. Er genoss die Zeit dort so sehr, dass er nur für einen kurzen sechstägigen Besuch nach Fresno zurückkehrte, bevor er Anfang des Monats nach New York zurückkehrte, um Sommerkurse und ein begehrtes Sommerpraktikum bei Sumeru Equity Partners zu absolvieren, einer Private-Equity-Firma mit Niederlassungen im ganzen Land .

Selbst der dichte Rauch eines in Kanada brennenden Feuers hielt Peebles nicht davon ab, in die öffentlichen Verkehrsmittel einzusteigen und nach seiner Rückkehr alles zu genießen, was New York zu bieten hatte.

„In dieser Stadt wird es nie langweilig“, sagte er.

Gannon Peebles aus Fresno hatte Angst, neue Freunde zu treffen, als er zur Columbia University in New York ging. Es war kein Problem.

Peebles, a Als reiner Einser-Schüler an der Edison High scheiterte er in seinem ersten Semester an der Columbia in Mathematik. Er führt seine Probleme mit Mathematik darauf zurück, dass er während der High School nicht ein ganzes Jahr lang in Präsenzrechnungen gearbeitet hat.

„Eigentlich ist es das Gegenteil von dem, was ich dachte“, sagte er über seine Erwartungen an das College. „Als ich aufs College ging, dachte ich, ein akademischer Abschluss wäre machbar und das soziale Leben wäre eine Herausforderung. Kann ich eine Freundesgruppe gründen und Spaß haben? Rückblickend waren meine Freunde großartig und die akademischen Leistungen im ersten Semester waren herausfordernd, verliefen aber gut.“

Jennifer Tran, Politikwissenschaftsstudentin an der UC Berkeley, engagiert sich in der Studentenverwaltung und ist oft auf Reisen oder bei Zoom-Anrufen, um sich für Gesetzesentwürfe einzusetzen, die sie entweder als Mitglied von GENup, einer von Studenten geführten Organisation für soziale Gerechtigkeit, oder als Youth Power verfasst hat Project, eine gemeinnützige Bildungsorganisation. Tran hilft auch bei der Gründung der National Student Board Member Association.

Trotz des vollen Terminkalenders versteht Tran die Work-Life-Balance und hat sich die Wochenenden zum Spaß reserviert. Sie ist kürzlich aus dem Wohnheim in ein Haus mit sechs anderen Studenten gezogen.

„Ich mache auf jeden Fall die ganze College-Erfahrung“, sagte sie. „Die Covid-Beschränkungen werden jetzt viel lockerer. Ich fühle mich ein bisschen freier.“

Victor Contreras aus Elk Grove brach sich im November den Knöchel, als er beim Radfahren von einem Auto angefahren wurde in der Nähe der San Diego State University, wo er das College besucht. Nachdem der Bruch verheilt war, saß er wieder im Rennteam der Universität auf dem Fahrrad und nahm einen Platz in einem Basketballteam an der Universität ein.

Contreras sagte, die Schulschließungen aufgrund der Covid-Pandemie hätten ihn noch mehr darauf gefreut, Elk Grove zu verlassen und am College neue Leute kennenzulernen. Mit Begeisterung stürzte er sich in das gesellschaftliche Leben auf dem Campus, obwohl er in seinem ersten Jahr mit Mathematik und anderen Fächern Schwierigkeiten hatte. Er geht davon aus, dass er im College wahrscheinlich bessere akademische Leistungen erbracht hätte, wenn es nicht die Schulschließungen aufgrund von Covid-19 gegeben hätte.

„Jetzt bin ich kontaktfreudiger und dadurch definitiv aktiver“, sagte Contreras. „Ich habe das Gefühl, dass mein Sinn für Humor (positiv) beeinflusst wurde.“

Das Beste aus Covid machen

Für Payton Zarceno, der die Mt. SAC Early College Academy in West Covina besucht hatte, bevor er nach The Hill an der UCLA, dem Wohnheim der Universität, zog, war es für Payton Zarceno ein großes Anliegen, Freunde zu finden und sich auf dem Campus einzufügen.

Zarceno beschloss, die Pandemie zu einer Gelegenheit zum Lernen zu machen. Sie verbrachte den größten Teil ihres ersten Studienjahres damit, mit Studentenorganisationen an der Bindung von Studenten zu arbeiten.

Mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Payton Zarceno

Payton Zarceno besucht Anfang Juni im Rahmen ihres Praktikums beim Samahang Teaching Through Experience Program den Unidad Park in Filipinotown in Los Angeles.

„(Dies) ermöglichte es mir, mehr über die Probleme zu erfahren, mit denen Studierende an der UCLA konfrontiert sind und die durch die Pandemie verschärft wurden“, sagte sie. „Das Engagement bei diesen Organisationen hat mich sozial und persönlich sehr beeinflusst, weil diese Organisationen mir so viele neue Freunde und Gesichter vorgestellt haben.“

Während der pandemiebedingten Schulschließungen fand Tran ihre Nische als Verfechterin der Bildung. Sie Während seines Besuchs an der Bolsa Grande High School in Garden Grove schrieb oder befürwortete er mehr als ein Dutzend Gesetzesentwürfe zur Unterstützung kalifornischer Studenten als politischer Direktor von GENup. Jetzt macht sie sich an der UC Berkeley einen Namen, wo sie öffentliche Politik studiert. Tran plant, im nächsten Semester Bildung als zweites Hauptfach hinzuzufügen.

Sie wurde vor kurzem eine von zwei Berkeley-Studenten, die diesen Sommer für ein Travers Fellowship am Commonwealth Club in San Francisco ausgewählt wurden. Laut Angaben des Commonwealth Club ist der Commonwealth Club das älteste und größte Forum für öffentliche Angelegenheiten des Landes Website der Universität.

Tran sagte, die Covid-Pandemie habe sie auf den Streik an der University of California vorbereitet, der die Studenten wochenlang wieder zum Fernunterricht drängte, sowie auf die virtuelle Lobbyarbeit, die sie im Rahmen ihrer Arbeit mit GENup und dem Youth Power Project betrieben habe.

„Es hat definitiv meine Einstellung zu Bildung verändert“, sagte sie. „Ich denke, dass es mittlerweile ganz normal ist, dass ich den Unterricht verpasse. Ich kann virtuell aufholen.“

Im Rahmen des Youth Power Project half Tran auch bei der Ausarbeitung eines Gesetzentwurfs, der US-Studenten im Rahmen des President’s Education Awards Program einen Presidential Award für bürgerschaftliches Engagement verleihen würde. Der US-Senator Cory Booker aus New Jersey hat sich als Autor des Gesetzentwurfs verpflichtet.

Bildnachweis: Mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Jennifer Tran

Jennifer Tran, zweite von links, und andere Studenten der UC Berkeley besuchen den US-Abgeordneten John Garamendi, D-Calif., Mitte, in seinem Büro in Washington, DC

Peebles ist zuversichtlich, dass der Jahrgang 2022 die Corona-Krise hinter sich lässt und wieder auf dem richtigen Weg ist.

„Ich denke, die Leute haben es herausgefunden,” er sagte. „Ich denke, dass es mittlerweile normaler ist. Wir haben uns akademisch alle einigermaßen ausgeglichen.“

Um weitere Berichte wie diesen zu erhalten, klicken Sie hier, um sich für die kostenlose tägliche E-Mail von EdSource über die neuesten Entwicklungen im Bildungsbereich anzumelden.

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U.S. lodge markets recuperate from the pandemic; San Francisco an outlier

Daily SF News — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 07:22:09 +0000

NEW YORK, June 16 (Reuters) – A snapshot of 15 major US hotel markets shows that city travel is back on the rise, with one notable exception: San Francisco.

Several hotel activity metrics, including average price per room, revenue per room and supply growth, show that most major cities have recovered from the worst of the pandemic. Some, including Miami, Florida and Austin, Texas, are seeing remarkable growth in both supply and sales.

However, San Francisco, a top 3 location in the decade before the pandemic, is struggling. There’s a decline in tech jobs, a slow return of Chinese travelers, less downtown traffic as more people work from home, and rising crime and homelessness that have tarnished the city’s image.

Data from hotel analytics firm STR shows that revenue per available room (RevPAR), a key performance metric, declined 30% for San Francisco in May 2023 compared to the same month in 2019. Daily room rates in May averaged $207.72, down 14% from $242.51 in May 2019.

Metrics like ADR and RevPAR are affected by seasonal trends, but San Francisco is taking longer to recover than other major cities.

Earlier this month, real estate investment trust Park Hotels & Resorts (PK.N) announced that it plans to remove two hotels in the city from its portfolio. Developer Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW.PA) will hand over its Westfield San Francisco mall to lenders after 20 years as it struggles with declining customer visits.

Alex Bastian, CEO of the Hotel Council of San Francisco, said the recovery has been slow, partly due to the sluggish return of visitors from mainland China, the city’s largest tourist group before the pandemic.

European travel to the city is at 2019 levels and could even surpass it this year, Bastian added. “We are on the right path.”

Miami saw the strongest growth, with average daily rates and revenue per available room increasing 36% and 23%, respectively.

“Miami is in quite a seismic upswing when it comes to hospitality metrics,” said Scott Berman, board member of the Greater Miami and the Beaches Hotel Association. “I don’t know of any hotel operator who doesn’t want to be active in this market.”

Miami is “the poster child” for strong leisure and healthy business demand as companies move their headquarters to Florida, said Jan Freitag, national director for hospitality analytics at commercial real estate analytics firm CoStar Group.

San Francisco is an “unfortunate outlier” as businesses are still not returning to their offices and concerns about social issues are limiting business and leisure travel, Friday said.

“These two markets are essentially the most important storyline for the hotel industry post-pandemic.”

Reporting by Doyinsola Oladipo in New York; Edited by Richard Chang

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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BofA Institute: Shifting Inside U.S. Nonetheless on Par with Pandemic Developments

Daily SF News — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 06:29:25 +0000

The Bank of America Institute recently released an analysis showing that net flows of domestic migration (people moving within the United States) continue to follow pandemic trends. BofA internal data, which is nearly a year ahead of the Census Bureau’s population data, found that cities that experienced large influxes of people during the pandemic are still growing faster than other cities in recent quarters as of the first quarter of 2023 , but residential construction Even in cities with growing populations, prices are falling.

Among the major metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), Austin saw the largest net inflow of population in both 2020-2021 – up +5% – and over the past four quarters (+1.5%). Also high on the list are Tampa and Orlando, both with +0.8% net growth between the first quarters of 2022 and 2023.

Interestingly, while Phoenix and Las Vegas experienced strong population growth during the first two years of the pandemic, the pace of growth has slowed noticeably in recent quarters, increasing by just 0.3% and 0.2% year-on-year (yoy), respectively . in the first quarter of 2023.

Cities like San Jose, San Francisco, and New York, on the other hand, experienced the greatest emigration in the early years of the pandemic, and the rate of decline in 2023 remains the highest among major MSAs.

While large population influx typically drives both home and rental prices higher, data from Freddie Mac shows that even in cities with growing populations, including Austin, home prices are falling rapidly.

In contrast, in cities with positive inflows, rents remain high. In April 2023, average year-over-year rental payments for BofA customers in Austin, Orlando, and Tampa increased 11%, 14%, and 14%, respectively. This compares to the national average of 8% and just 3% for San Francisco.

“Domestic migration continues to be a key issue shaping the real estate market,” said Anna Zhou, an economist at the Bank of America Institute. “While rising interest rates dampen home demand in the short term, the housing market in cities where millennials and baby boomers are moving could see strength in the longer term as the former enter the prime homebuying age and the latter downsize their homes.”

Photo by Konstantin Evdokimov on Unsplash.

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The San Francisco Bay Space is successful again staff after pandemic exodus

Daily SF News — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 23:14:48 +0000

There’s a big sign that San Francisco may be making a comeback.

From

Rani Molla
on January 18, 2023 6:00 am

Not surprisingly, people are still moving to Austin, Texas. Even more surprising is that people are also moving to San Francisco.

In the last 12 months, San Francisco has seen the second-largest increase in the labor force of any area in the United States, according to LinkedIn. January data, which measures when people update their locations on their profiles, showed that out of 100,000 LinkedIn users, 83 have moved to San Francisco in the last 12 months. The workers came mostly from Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth and Washington DC.

Where people move – and move away – has a huge impact on the financial success of those cities and what industries can thrive there. Remote work promised high-paying jobs could spread from superstar coastal cities like New York and San Francisco to more affordable and economically troubled heartland areas. To an extent, that has happened, but new data from LinkedIn shows that the pull of big cities could still be strong even if they’ve been hit hard by the pandemic.

The data represents a significant shift in population trends for San Francisco, which had not seen any notable net gains in LinkedIn data since 2017. The San Francisco metropolitan area had some of the largest population declines from 2020-2021, losing more than 125,000 residents. according to the latest available census data.

One of the reasons for the decline was the lack of affordable housing, which meant even tech workers with six-figure salaries couldn’t afford to live there. When the pandemic hit, the Bay Area’s high concentration of people working in remote tech jobs meant many were able to move away in search of cheaper and greener pastures. Other reasons for abandonment may include the high levels of homelessness and income inequality the area faces, although it’s also likely that reports of an urban hellscape in San Francisco were exaggerated.

In fact, more people now come to San Francisco than leave. By the end of last year, almost two people were coming into the metro area for every one that left (LinkedIn was unable to provide the net change in the area’s members since the pandemic began). The area has still been surpassed by Austin, where prices are still relatively cheaper and where there is no income tax, but has been for years now.

Why are people moving to San Francisco? In a way, it’s about popular cities continuing to be popular. That means people can still find value and jobs there. The Bay Area is culturally rich, with people – and culture and food – from all over the world. While tech companies are hiring less recently, the area is still the home base of their massive and lucrative companies, meaning there are still plenty of opportunities for workers.

There’s reason to believe that people don’t come back to San Francisco just because they want to. The retreat also represents a solidification of remote working policies, with many companies siding with hybrid work, where employees are still expected to be in the office at times. In other words, people who might have wanted to move permanently elsewhere have been pushed back into the Bay Area, albeit perhaps in different places than before.

The decision to return to the Bay Area could also come from employees hoping to strike up a conversation with their bosses ahead of a possible recession. Studies have shown that bosses view people who work in offices more favorably and are more likely to consider them for promotion.

Still, it only looks like people are going to the office intermittently. Offices in San Francisco and the surrounding area have some of the lowest office occupancy rates in the country, according to data from Kastle, which provides building access cards to businesses across the country and thus has a view of when people are going into the office. In the week of December 29 to January 4, office occupancy there was about 20 percent of pre-pandemic levels, while the national average was 33 percent.

Instead of leaving the cities, many people have moved to suburban areas where apartment rental prices are cheaper. They may still have to commute to the office, but a longer commute doesn’t seem so bad if they only have to commute a few days a week. Office workers are expected to work from home an average of 2.3 days a week, according to a December survey by WFH Research into employer plans after the pandemic.

Of course, LinkedIn data only includes people who update their profiles, so it’s scope is limited to professionals staying up to date on their LinkedIn profiles. A reversal of the population decline has yet to show up in other data sources, but delayed U.S. Postal Service data shows far fewer people are leaving the San Francisco Bay Area than when the pandemic began. The number of people leaving San Francisco, based on the number of change-of-address forms filed in the city, fell to 12,000 last year, from about 48,000 in 2020 and 18,000 in 2021, according to change-of-address data collected by the US Postal Service Riordan Frost, senior research analyst at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

“It’s fair to say that the people who are moving there are recovering somewhat,” Frost told Recode.

Across California, more people left the state than entered in 2022, with a deficit of 343,000, but that was down from nearly 500,000 net people in 2021. County-level census data for 2022 will be released in March, but so far Visible only until 2021

Perhaps all of this represents a natural middle ground as people seek to find both better quality of life and opportunities. For many, that might be back in the suburbs outside of the big cities.

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Will San Francisco’s downtown shake off the pandemic blues?

Daily SF News — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 15:22:09 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO — Downtown shops and businesses play a vital role in boosting San Francisco’s economy, but they’ve been slow to recover from the pandemic blues.

It’s not a scenario shared by many inner cities across the country.

dr Karen Chapple is Professor Emeritus at UC Berkeley and Director of the School of Cities at the University of Toronto. She and a team of researchers run the Urban Displacement Project, which tracks how much activity takes place in inner cities. They analyze cell phone data, not just office vacancy rates, to compare current population patterns with pre-pandemic numbers.

“We look at everyone who comes downtown,” she said. “If you have the right mix of industries, you’re doing pretty well right now. But if you were too specialized, you could suffer.”

Of the 62 cities they tracked, San Francisco consistently ranks at the bottom of the list when it comes to recreation.

“San Francisco was at 30% of its pre-pandemic activity as of March 16, 2020. March 2022, November 2022 still at 30% of its pre-pandemic activity,” she said.

One reason Chapple points to is San Francisco’s heavy reliance on the tech industry, whose workers largely left home early in the pandemic and have not made a robust return.

Jeffrey Woo, who owns Il Canto Cafe in San Francisco’s Financial District, had to change his business model to adapt.

He took over the breakfast and lunch spot a few months before the pandemic, with plans to cater to the office mass at FiDi

“That was the plan,” he said. “It was pretty crowded then. Now it’s a different crowd.”

Woo gets some face-to-face business but says he’s focused on a lot of online and delivery app orders.

“It’s gotten a lot better, but it’s taking a long time,” he said.

According to a CBS News analysis of San Francisco job trend data from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis from 2019 to 2021:

— Jobs in the lodging and hospitality industry fell 41%
— Wholesale jobs fell 25%
— Utilities jobs up 11%
— Information industry jobs up 9%

Looking at a chart showing the project’s data, Chapple described San Francisco as “stuck.”

CBS News Bay Area asked the Mayor of London Breed if she agreed with that assessment.

“San Francisco is not stuck. San Francisco is just different,” she said.

Breed recently announced their “Roadmap to Downtown San Francisco’s Future” which consists of 9 strategies and nearly 50 initiatives.

These are the strategies according to the plan:

1. Make sure downtown is clean, safe, and welcoming.
2. Attracting and retaining a wide range of industries and employers
3. Enable new uses and flexibility in buildings
4. Make it easier to start and grow a business
5. Grow and prepare our workforce
6. Transform Downtown into a premier destination for arts, culture and nightlife
7. Enhance public spaces to showcase downtown
8. Invest in transport links
9. Tell our story

“I think it’s important to make sure there’s a layered approach. There’s not one thing that’s going to bring our downtown back, it’s going to be a number of things,” Breed said. “And of course we need our legislature, the board of directors, as a partner in this effort. So we worked with members of the board of directors, worked with business people and developed solutions and strategies. ”

Measures include tax breaks and initiatives aimed at creating incentives for companies to stay here and come here.

“Part of what I’m pushing for in some of my tax initiatives is that some of the existing companies delay changing the gross receipts tax so people’s taxes don’t double by June of this year,” Breed said. “We’re deferring that for another two years to try and encourage companies to stay with us, work with us, and continue in San Francisco.”

“But for these new companies, we’re saying, look, you’re coming to San Francisco — three years. Three years you don’t have to pay city taxes to get started and get started and grow your business. This is a way to generate interest in new businesses and help with many new startups and the diverse businesses looking to grow and thrive in our city.”

Another part of their plan involves a change in downtown zoning to facilitate the conversion of office space into apartments.

“So we rezoned the entire downtown area so now we have the ability to convert without having to go through a lengthy year- or even two-year process to change a space’s use,” Breed said. “You can do this automatically through a simpler process that takes less time. That doesn’t mean it happens automatically, but it’s just an easier adjustment that takes less time.”

The biggest challenge right now, Breed said, is public safety.

“We know this is a struggle and we know we need more officers because we are short of just over 500 police officers, not to mention the people who are leaving the department to go to other places as well as the people who are retiring,” she said. “So we need to do something aggressive in terms of public safety to put things in a better place.”

Another major challenge that she acknowledged?

“The other thing that’s obviously very challenging is the cleanliness and road conditions in certain parts of the city where people are just frustrated,” she said. “We are dedicating a lot of resources to cleaning up these areas. You can clean up the entire tenderloin in the morning where these teams are out there and then before 12:00 it looks like nothing ever happened.”

“So we not only have to deal with the people that we have out there cleaning the streets, but also with the behavior and challenges of the people that are causing the problem in the first place.”

We asked Breed what obstacles she expects to encounter as she tries to fulfill her roadmap.

“Well, I mean, the board of directors is — some of them can be quite challenging, and that’s going to be a really heavy overhaul,” she said. “For example, I presented the board with an additional budget of $27.6 million for the police, for overtime, but overtime to cover the bases.”

“We have stations that are underutilized. To ensure we still turn in these shifts, we have to work overtime to cover the basic needs of our city. We have some board members who may or may not vote to support something like this.”

Despite the challenges, Breed is optimistic about the future of San Francisco.

“We’re moving forward, we’re aggressive and we’re going to make the city even better than ever,” she said.

Back at Il Canto Café, Woo says unless things really improve downtown, he’s not sure he can stay in business there.

“If I start hearing that the occupancy rate goes down to 10% or 5%, we’re going to get pretty worried and have to move somewhere else,” he said.

However, he has no plans to leave San Francisco.

“I grew up here since I was four years old,” he said. “This is the right place.”

Max Darrow

Max Darrow is an Emmy Award-winning reporter/MMJ for KPIX 5. He joined the KPIX 5 news team in July 2021.

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