What Comes Subsequent for San Francisco’s Emptied Downtown
In his 2002 book “Rise of the Creative Class,” Mr. Florida found that companies like Yelp were springing up in cities rich in design and engineering workers, rather than aiming for lower taxes and operating costs or locating near suburban ones Establishing enclaves with good schools Companies had to grow. He built the book’s success into a consultancy, Creative Class Group, which advises cities on strategies for attracting young workers.
The advice — find an educated workforce, create dense, fun neighborhoods, and embrace social liberalism — could effectively be pared down to “become more like San Francisco.”
One irony of San Francisco’s burgeoning status as an economic pioneer was that the city had made no particular effort to attract tech companies until the Great Recession, when a collapse in tax revenues prompted local government to seek ways to stimulate growth . However, in the wake of the downturn, the city changed its tax code to be more welcoming to startups, while office owners began offering shorter leases that startups want and open floorplans that allow businesses to bring more people together.
Less than a decade later, a city that was never more than a satellite of Silicon Valley was the epicenter of a new boom, with companies like Twitter, Lyft, Uber, Dropbox, Reddit, and Airbnb all set up within city limits. And the employees who worked there needed lunch.
Ms. Cerros-Mercado, who grew up in the city, observed this while building her career at Specialty’s, a local coffee shop and sandwich chain known for its giant cookies. She began working there for about $10 an hour, viewing it as a way station to support her children through their colleges with hopes that she would later attend nursing school.
But she took a liking to it, rising from a cashier to a kitchen manager and then to a manager earning $80,000 off off work, along with dental and health benefits. She worked mostly downtown, next to a mixt restaurant where lines stretched out onto the street.
