On the edge of the food court at the bottom of San Francisco’s largely empty downtown mall at Market and Fifth streets, Sam Argueta is waiting for the inevitable.
Argueta, 66, has owned a shoe repair shop at San Francisco Centre for about a decade. Before the mall’s customer base evaporated during the pandemic, Argueta usually had five other people working in his store, Shoe Wiz. Now, it’s just him most days.
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As the mall endured a relentless wave of store closures in recent years, emptying out the vast majority of the building’s 1.5 million square feet of retail and office space, Argueta thought about joining the exodus. But he doesn’t have the money to move his shop.
“We’re waiting to see what’s going to happen with the mall — eventually, (it’s) going to close,” Argueta said. “I know the end is coming one of these months.”
The mall’s deterioration is a potent symbol of the economic malaise that has plagued San Francisco’s once-vibrant shopping district since the pandemic began. But while nearby Union Square has seen some new businesses moving in, the San Francisco Centre is locked in a death spiral. An auction of the troubled mall, now controlled by lenders after prior owners Westfield and Brookfield Properties walked away in 2023, has been repeatedly postponed. It’s currently scheduled for Aug. 21.
Kill the street grid and parking. State the Frisco 500+ miles of bike paths is the answer (forget they have failed for over a quarter of a century).
This is what you get when you buy the junk called the 15 minute City, and destroy a traffic grid that made Frisco work for decades.
There is a multiplier effect for each dollar spent it expands in the community by $25. Tourist don’t want to go to Frisco because it is a dreaded traffic grid, and parking is impossible. There are more people going to the Chinese Communist Council then the Japan city a few blocks away. The main Catholic Cathedral and the beautiful Scottish Rite Masonic Center hardly get the tourist or local traffic.
You voted for them…….Newsom, Weiner, and the likes. Now you get to suffer their failures.
I use my bike to get around and it’s great. What are you talking about?
Stevie boy you are the exception. You and you type have failed throughout the State to replace the auto.
Also as a bike rider who put in 50-70 miles every week for 4 decades until my body failed me.
That is what I am talking about. Failure of the bike boys / move in a State where the weather is conducive for riding should be the end condensation comments.
Have a great day and watch out for the latest stupidity e-motorcycles that are not licensed, insured, or have licensed drivers.