San Francisco Mayor London Breed lashed out at Good Morning America for saying it was “too dangerous” to film in the city’s downtown, claiming it was “hampering” efforts to recover from the pandemic .
Matt Gutman, ABC’s chief national news correspondent, told viewers Wednesday he was advised against appearing live from Union Square or the now-closed Westfield Mall for a segment about the wave of stores fleeing the crime-ridden city.
“It’s worth noting that we’re not in Union Square or the Westfield Mall this morning because we’ve been told it’s just too dangerous to be there at this hour,” he told viewers.
But in a statement to the San Francisco port on Friday, the mayor’s office appeared to deny the area is dangerous — instead suggesting major retailers are fleeing the city en masse due to a lack of customers as more people work from home.
“Unfortunately, some reports conflate the reasons or don’t give the full picture why major retailers and other San Francisco businesses are deciding to exit or transfer operations,” the mayor’s office said.
“The lack of foot traffic in our downtown area due to work-from-home habits, as well as the challenges posed by changing shopping trends that have persisted for years, have been exacerbated by the pandemic.”
San Francisco Mayor London Breed lashed out at Good Morning America for claiming it was “too dangerous” to film downtown
Chief National News Correspondent Matt Gutman told viewers he was advised against appearing live from Union Square or the mall for ABC’s 4am Good Morning America segment on Wednesday
Breed continued, “While 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 violent crime rate in the downtown area and Tenderloin has fallen year-to-date compared to the same year. period last year.
“San Francisco also has an overall violent crime rate that is lower than other cities.”
But police data shows that criminal activity in the area has increased this year – with a 14.7 percent increase in robberies and a 10 percent increase in homicides so far this year compared to the same period last year.
Car thefts and arson are each more than 5 percent higher than last year.
There has also been an explosion in the number of homeless people – drawn in part to the city by generous aid programs worth up to $687 a month.
According to the last official count in 2022, more than 7,000 people occupy the slums with tents that have sprung up in the center and in the nearby Tenderloin district.
Drug-related deaths also skyrocketed 41 percent in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same time last year, primarily due to fentanyl.
Between January and March, some 200 people died from drug overdoses — or one death every 10 hours — compared to 142 deaths in those months last year in the California city.
On Wednesday’s Good Morning America episode, Gutman said there are concerns that San Francisco “could turn into a so-called zombie as downtown is eroded by a fentanyl epidemic, pervasive homelessness and fleeing shopkeepers.”
He then asked Mayor Breed, “Is San Francisco dangerous?”
“The thing is, San Francisco is a big city and it has challenges,” she said, apparently dodging the question.
Drug-related deaths are up 41 percent in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same time last year, primarily due to fentanyl.
There has been an explosion in the number of homeless people – drawn in part to the city by generous aid programs worth up to $687 a month
Police data shows that criminal activity in the area has increased this year
The mayor now says negative coverage of the city’s rampant crime and drug use is hampering the city’s efforts to rid itself of the pandemic after several major retailers shut down.
Westfield announced Monday that it was unable to honor its half-billion dollar loan for the downtown mall and returned it to the lender, blaming “unsafe conditions” and a “lack of enforcement against rampant criminal activity.” .
The mall said San Francisco’s “unprecedented” underperformance was in stark contrast to the rest of its properties.
San Francisco Center generated $455 million in revenue in 2019, pre-pandemic.
Last year sales fell by about a third to $298 million.
Nordstrom occupied 30,000 square feet in the mall: When it closes, Westfield San Francisco will be only 55 percent rented.
Other Westfields are leased at an average of 93 percent.
Westfield in San Francisco (pictured) has announced it will return the building to the lender
A map shows the top companies that have left or are planning to leave San Francisco in recent months. Westfield, the most recent to announce his departure, will be giving up its huge mall – and several residents have already said they plan to follow suit
The closing of San Francisco’s largest mall follows the closure of at least 24 major stores in the area.
Whole Foods, Old Navy, Gap, and Office Depot are just a few of the stores in the district that have announced they are closing in recent months.
Of the 203 retailers that opened in the city’s Union Square area in 2019, only 107 are still operating — a 47 percent drop in just a few pandemic-ravaged years.
Like these shopkeepers are fleeing and customers are staying away, the vacancy rate of office buildings has also reached unprecedented heights. The vacancy rate in May was 31 percent — representing 18.4 million square feet, or enough space for 92,000 employees, according to an analysis of Lee & Associates data by the San Francisco Chronicle.
As a result, tax revenue for the city of San Francisco suffers.
The city’s revenue loss from reduced property taxes could reach $196 million a year by 2028, according to models released in November by the San Francisco Controller’s Office.
The modeling best-case scenario expects costs to be closer to $100 million per year.
That will contribute in part to a budget deficit of $1.3 billion by 2028, according to projections from the Controller’s Office. A report published in March cites “lower revenue projections” as a factor.