The owner of the Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc 55 hotels in has chosen to stop making payments on $725 million in debt and turn the keys over to their lender, J.P. Morgan Chase.
Park Hotels and Resorts says San Francisco is too much of a mess and won’t be turned around any time soon. According to the ownership group’s CEO,
After much thought and consideration, we believe it is in the best interest for Park’s stockholders to materially reduce our current exposure to the San Francisco market.
Now more than ever, we believe San Francisco’s path to recovery remains clouded and elongated by major challenges, both old and new: record high office vacancy; concerns over street conditions; lower return to office than peer cities; and a weaker than expected citywide convention calendar through 2027 that will negatively impact business and leisure demand.
The Hilton San Francisco Union Square is the city’s largest hotel with 1,921 rooms, and Parc 55 has 1,024 rooms. In 2016 the hotels were appraised for a combined $1.56 billion. The owner is turning over the keys even though they owe less than half that, showing just how far the value of San Francisco properties has fallen. They couldn’t sell the hotels, and couldn’t make the economics work even with the smaller debt load.
The properties remain open for business, but the decision underscores the struggles that San Francisco is going through. In some ways it’s been poorly governed for a century, though many of its problems are far newer. The pandemic made it vulnerable to these problems – people left (whether for LA or other states), and the reason to stay in San Francisco was because of the other people who there there. Work from home and work from anywhere increasingly meant being in San Francisco was no longer the exclusive path to success in tech and adjacent industries. Park Hotels had made a big bet on the city, and now they’re walking away too.
Will this be a wakeup call?
(HT: @DSvor)
Congrats California on electing wacko radicals that have enabled the anarchy that is now San Fran. Reap what you sow.
Perfect, more space to house the “homeless”, i.e. bums.
I’m from Sydney. First went there 1979, then 1985, 1997, 1999, 2005. AlwYs loved the place. But then noticed more homeless people. A couple more trips over the last ten years and the love affair is over. Homeless, drug use, crime. Fisherman’s wharf a shadow from its hey days. Well done Gavin newsome and the democrats
One line in the article says Chase recently took over First Republic. Was this loan made by First Republic?
You conveniently forgot to mention the radical left wing Socialists running CA and the city of San Francisco. The sooner these people are held to account and locked away for many years, tourism and business will return. But you forgot to mention that. Instead you claimed Covid. BS, get fair dinkum’ mate.
This can’t be true. I just watched an SF tourism commercial that says SF is wonderful
Dream on robbo. You see anyone in Venezuela being held accountable for what the left did there, or anywhere else for that matter? You’re right but it never happens.
“Will this be a wakeup call?”
No.
San Francisco is the greatest city in North America. The city is maligned unfairly by MAGA Republicans who have never visited and who know the city only through prejudiced news reporting. San Francisco is a beautiful place. The weather is temperate year round. The people are kind, educated, and cultured. PoC and LGBTQIA+ are accepted. We have cuisines from all over the world and fresh local produce and great local wine. San Francisco is a place where we believe in science and the University of California, San Francisco pioneers groundbreaking and lifesaving medical research. (Across the bridge in Berkeley or down the peninsula at Stanford is where amazing research happens in all other fields.) San Francisco is a place where Black Lives Matter. San Francisco is a place where we Stop Asian Hate. San Francisco is a place with an easy to navigate international airport, less than half an hour from the city center, connected directly to public rail transit, and host to both an Amex Centurion and UA Polaris lounge — the frequent traveler’s marker of a city in high demand by people of high socioeconomic status.
Hotels and businesses come and go. San Francisco will be great forever.
San Francisco is such a dump. I mean it’s post apocalypse up there. Everyone should get out. It was violent and zombies ten years ago. Now it’s hitting the inevitable economic bottom from when your tech bro daddy dumps you.
Wake up call? Ha, that’s a good one, Gary!
SF isn’t going to turn around any time soon; if anything, the ‘leaders’ will lean further into their devoid-of-all-logic policies and point the finger every other direction than themselves. They’ve solely created this mess, further allowed it to thrive, and continue to double down on doing everything possible to prevent any sort of improvement.
So, two days ago Hilton was the worst hotel brand of all (in your blog) and now they are brilliant strategists because they abandon their billon dollar obligations. Just sounds like the same arrogant behavior with a different target, and with fewer hotels the real losers will be travelers. Every city goes through up and down periods, but San Francisco is still a prime convention, tourist, and innovation center. Hope an honorable and responsible company remakes this property.
Youngblood is the village idiot.
Youngblood works for the Travel Board or the Chamber of Commerce. Of course, it could just be that he’s a master of sarcasm. Either way, it made for a good “belly laugh”.
This is GREAT!!
Jamie Diamon can now set up this place as a Jeffery Epstein 1921 room business.
@Youngblood. Nothing to do with MAGA. All to do with left wing radical government and the lack of any common sense. Laws that effectively allow people to go into a store and steal for instance. Well you get the government you deserve. Enjoy!
These are financial issues that have a lot to do with Covid fallout and economics and not much about shocking changes in governmental policies. It feels like you’re stretching on this one to take cheap shots.
I treasure the time I spent living in the SF Bay Area but those will be fond memories of a place that no longer exists. Will the last person with a legitimate source of private income to leave please turn out the lights?
Increasingly expensive, increasingly dangerous, all we need is the big earthquake and we have Escape from San Francisco and ship all the convicts there – not like they’d be bothered by law enforcement anyway.
Glad we are sending most of the trash to florida and texas. Now san francisco can go back to the wonderful place it was before Musk, Thiel and other selfish jerks dragged it down.
@Christian- travel has recovered nationally, in-office has not, and high interest rates are bad for real estate. But those factors affect cities everywhere. The relevant issue is what is different here and that is not a cheap shot. It is what the hotel owner points to.
Youngblood : Frisco is a dump. Last time I came in by sea and went to J town I had to walk around several drunk/stoned bums sleeping on the street in broad daylight. The only civic pride that city has anymore is gay pride.
San Francisco is what the USA will be if the democrats keep winning. I know all the republican candidates suck so bad but I’ll take it over the radical left any day.
Responding specifically to Youngblood.
I’m not a MAGA republican. I am a Republican.
I remember visiting my cousin in SF since the 70’s. It was pretty nice as cities goes. Nicer than NYC and CHI at the time.
In the 00s I had a couple of conferences out there, and you could see the city struggling. I went back every other year through the 00’s and 10’s.
The plummet I witnessed was astonishing. Taking the BART was terrifying. Meth heads spitting everywhere. Fistfights in front of the conference hotel over homeless “territory”. Open drug use in the parks. Human feces EVERYEHERE. You could take a safe step. The last time I was there my cousin wouldn’t even leave her house to meet us for dinner after dark. And she’d lived there since she was 19.
The decision for me came when I was down at fisherman’s wharf, and a riot broke out near the Alcatraz boat. I dint know how many people were involved, but thebpolice there did nothing to ensure the safety of anyone, let alone try to break the riot up. This was in the afternoon.
What you say about CA and the SF area about having resources is true. Got great research, etc. But so does Iowa. Much better managed and much safer.
@Gary – I think you’re spot on with identifying the relevant issue. There are real estate owners holding on to worse financial prospects elsewhere, but they have more faith in future upside in those cities. The hotel owners aren’t in business to walk away from money – and this no confidence vote is very telling.
Democrats Destroy everything they touch. I’ll never go back to SanFranSchitHole.
As somebody who lives in SF, and has done for 25 years, yes, it is not nice in some parts, but that applies to all cities, anywhere. The comments here are r/wing ideology. Its an amazing city. What a joke this set of comments and article are. Puts this otherwise decent site to shame.
San Francisco has been in decline for a while, mired by bad municipal bureaucracy. That said, it’s pathetic to see the right-wing pile on in these comments. The polarized dysfunction is what’s paralyzing the US, and the only people who benefit from that are media moguls and politicians. Oh, and Xi and the CCP.
Let’s check out the top 5 most dangerous cities in the US:
1. St. Louis, Missouri. Violent crime rate: 1,927 per 100,000 inhabitants. …
2. Detroit, Michigan. Violent crime rate: 2,178.7 per 100,000 inhabitants. …
3. Baltimore, Maryland. …
4. Memphis, Tennessee. …
5. Little Rock, Arkansas. ..
That would be 3 on the “right”, 2 on the “left”. Same imbalance when it comes to teenage pregnancies, spousal abuse, etc. Holier than though isn’t so holy when it gets down to it.
“Socialism” is not the problem. Social capitalism is practiced in the Nordics, where they have free health care and education, an actual middle class, and much higher upward mobility than the US (AKA the American dream). The GOP has been bleeding the middle class to pass more tax cuts for the very wealthy.
Oh, and… California has the world’s 4th largest economy.
I am a gay man. My first trip to the city was in 2003. I loved it and went back 3-4 times a year. But the last few years, things started to change. The city went from liberal to radical. A couple of years before covid, the leftist lgbt’s decided the police didn’t belong in the parade, even though most gay men supported the cops. My last visit was 2019, things were getting really bad with crime, explosion in homeless, and radical trans activists. I have not been back, and do not plan on doing so anytime soon. Many other gays are on the same page. Until the city changes, i can only treasure the wonderful memories
this is great, Austin paid $8 mil to convert a hotel for homeless, SF can follow suit the great paradise coming on earth.
San Francisco is and will always be, one of the best cities in the world. Hilton, Marriott too, have been closing hotels across the world since the pandemic hit. They are facing massive financial hardships due to the drastic decline in travel. Closures are happening in red states too. Sf clearly has its problems, but please tell me again how it’s the policies of the left.
@zack I totally agree; you nailed it. The city has gone from Liberal meaning tolerant to Liberal meaning intolerant.
Congrats. San Franciscans got exactly what they voted for. Enjoy!
Wow, I had no idea that so many public policy and economics wonks read this blog! The nuanced discourse on solutions is … *chef’s kiss*
All the comments blaming this on Democrats are off base. The problems are rooted in the cultural and economic changes wrought by the tech boom of the last 10-15 years.
Housing prices skyrocketed, increasing the homeless problems and driving out small business. Now covid has sent the tech workers out of town, leaving vacancies behind, but prices have not yet responded by dropping. They should—and then the city will once again be a great home for artists.
Cities went into decline in the 50’s and 60’s. We may be seeing this happen again, but for different reasons.
San Francisco is not the Bay Area. SF. is a super small place/city population. True it’s vacated because people are not going back to the office. People don’t want to commute when they don’t have to- it’s a lifestyle changer for the better. This is the big problem for San Francisco. As far as homeless, cities are sending them here- that’s cheating. I don’t live in the city, I just enjoy the skyline view. . Here in my Bay Area, the climate and things to do in nature makes it heaven.
I welcome you haters to leave. Thank God I don’t live in prosperous Florida where books are being banned, discrimination being tolerated, women losing rights over their body. Yikes. Sure, San Francisco’s crime is trying to do the right thing and sometimes it doesn’t work. I can live with that. The rest of the country is acting like the Taliban – scary stuff! .
People like Youngblood proves it will take more pain for these poor souls to wake up and change trajectories. If Youngblood truly believes what they say they are truly brainwashed. SF WAS a great city, loved visiting there, a bit liberal for my taste but quirky, fun and refreshing. It’s now dangerous, dirty, and a shadow of its former self solely by the policies of the radical liberal politicians.
Thank you Youngblood for your wonderful well said post.I’ll add to your list of great scenic beauty .And decades of exceptional culinary inspiration that still lives on
Who wants to stay at either of those two crappy Hilton’s.I’ve been to both when things were good and they were inferior to other hotels.Hopefully new owners will make them good properties treating guests well.
SF def has it’s problems perhaps a bit more than other cities right now
hopefully solutions will be found I still prefer to visit there over many others even while atm it’s a bit rough around the edges
I live in SF. Gang members that have threatened to kill me get released by police without jail time back into the community. They still walk around doing whatever they want here. If you come to San Francisco, stay safe.
“Will this be a wakeup call?”
For whom, exactly? A borrower stopping payments will be a wakeup call for in office workers? For the police to clean up the streets? For conventioneers to return to the city? For other companies to ditch their assets too? I think it’s amusing that you’d ask that question without having aimed your thought first. I also think it’s adjusting that you think that a company ditching assets would cause anything to change. Absolutely nothing will change because of this action, it’ll take a huge number of other companies doing the same thing to start a panic. But if that happened some shrewd investment groups would buy it all up at a huge discount. Someone with your financial background should understand this.
@ Youngblood is correct. The current mess will improve, and San Francisco will continue to be an awesome city. It will not happen overnight. I hope the housing prices drop 50%, so we can afford to buy a house there and move there to live in the best weather in the USA. Hint: it ain’t gonna happen. Certain groups like to paint SF as the worst place on earth, but if it so horrific, why are people still paying $1,000+ per sq ft for houses?
San Francisco had so much promise. San Francisco had so many advantages. For many years, that was enough to offset poor management of the city but that cannot go on forever.
America is like that. So many advantages but run the country poorly or inefficiently and eventually it will catch up with you.
Look at taxi fare. They are high in America. In some countries, the cost of gas and the cost of a car is about the same but the lower labor costs results in affordable taxi fares. If taxi fares are affordable, people can depend on public transit and, occasionally, taxis. In the US, with taxis so expensive, one has to own a car.
Finally, a company that is leaving a city because of how bad the conditions are, and actually says it. Not like Walgreens or CVS when they close a location because they are being robbed out of existence, but give a watered-down reason like they’re adjusting to market conditions or some such nonsense. Crime is up and quality of life is down. What a disaster. Do normal people really look at this and say, “gee, I wonder why this is happening?”
Yeah, they bet big and over stretched in a transitional part of town.
Yeah, the major of San Francisco is doing a terrible job with the drugs and homeless crisis.
It’s not just an SF issue, but she is not making the situation better.
Most of the homeless in San Francisco or in California for that matter are from shit-hole red states for reasons we all know: less police brutality against victims of Capitalism, fair weather to camp outside, and more social services for the homeless including veterans (more than 10% of the homeless are veterans used up and spit out by the system).
Having said all that, it’s important to remember that homelessness is a complex issue influenced by various factors, and people may migrate to different cities or states due to economic, social, or personal reasons. Major reasons for homelessness in the US are: lack of affordable housing, poverty & unemployment, mental illness and substance abuse, domestic violence, lack of supportive network, etc. While it’s estimated that the homelessness issue can be fixed with an investment of $20 billions per annum, our politicians has chosen to give multiples of this amount to the military/industrial complex to continue a winless war. I guess the homeless have no lobbyists in DC!
The last Republican mayor of San Francisco left office in 1964.
Reap what you sow San Francisco: sh!thole of the West Coast.
The only wake up call will be when the left-wing comes to the realization that all this ‘compassion’ and these social-engineered programs to ‘help’ the homeless only make the problem far worse, as they do nothing but harm the population they’re targeting to help. It’s an endless black hole money pit that gives the appearance of leaders looking like they are doing something, when really San Fran shows case in point what the outcome will be if leaders don’t come to their senses and stop writing check after check.
Rather than understanding the root causes of San Francisco’s current state, everyone loves to point fingers and blame the liberals. In reality, San Francisco, like many boom towns, was a victim of it’s own success, ultimately pricing itself out of competitiveness. It’s the first digital Detroit. It boomed, and now it’s busted. It’s happened in cities across America, both blue and red.
There is no reason to doubt their explanation for leaving S.F. : “ record high office vacancy; concerns over street conditions; lower return to office than peer cities; and a weaker than expected citywide convention calendar through 2027 that will negatively impact business and leisure demand.”
Nothing about homelessness or mismanagement or ineptitude. Just flat out facts.
Shelters prohibit drug and alcohol use. Some people find that deal unacceptable.
If you want to live cheaply outdoors so you can spend what little money you have on intoxicants, you will naturally go where the weather and the free services are best. Anyone would. SF can’t reduce its population of street residents without cutting back on the services it provides them, which would be seen as inhumane. This will remain a conundrum until the public realizes that enabling people to overdose and die on the streets is not in the end the most humane policy. There are no simple or harm-free solutions. I don’t envy the city leaders now that they are in this position.
Whatever. Cry me a river over the investment group that made a bad bet.
Lived in and around the City since the 1980s, and still spend a lot of time there. It is one of my top three cities anywhere on the planet, and I have been to much of it and lived on three continents. The ‘problems’ that are outlined here are overblown….big time.
Yes, there is a part of town that is pretty bad (but not near as bad as Skid Row in LA) with people living in the streets and doing drugs, and yes, the huge tech boom of the last two decades created a large amount of commercial space that is now underutilized, but these problems are happening to some degree in most cities around the country, and crime is actually not as bad as in most other big cities in the country. Yes, it is not the same as it was, but what place is? In some ways, its better and others worse.
But the core of the City – it’s geographic setting, unique neighborhoods and incredible sports, arts and entertainment – remain. Fewer tech bros and clueless tourists just makes it nicer for those of us that appreciate what it offers. You couldn’t pay me enough to live most places in the country, but I may just end up retiring in SF.
And for those of you who want to make it a partisan issue, its not because of politics; sanctimonious politicians of all stripes annoy me.
Most of the commenters need to turn off Fox News. I doubt even a fraction of the people lamenting California as a “socialist state” have ever visited, or if they have, only for a week.
I live in SF, and there are issues, no doubt. But using right wing talking points to describe a public health situation is idiotic. Fentanyl and opioids have taken hold of America, and SF is certainly not immune. We (California) also has some of the most expensive housing in the US, making matters worse.
Interesting that such a shit hole state is so expensive. It’s almost like people want to live here.
didn’t the city use the Hilton as a COVID homeless shelter in 2020?
now the city can simply eminent domain the properties for a fraction of the assessed value and use them to house the junkies and mentally ill zombies that are roaming downtown. turn them into SRO properties and watch them disintegrate in real time. the addicts tends to OD with regularity so there will always be a vacancy for newcomers. Rinse and repeat.
The U.S. is in trouble. Not because of the left or the right, but because of its citizens’ obsession with left vs right.
Can’t be a wake-up call; they’re already woke.
No Al LeFeusch: it’s because of the left.
All you cheerleaders: please stay there. Don’t infect my state.
We used to take a vacation to SF for 2 nights every year before driving up to Napa/Sonoma for 3 nights (we live out east). The aggressive homeless people on the street and unsightly smells on the street were enough that we have not been back since 2017 after about 25 straight years of spending 2 nights at various Hilton or Marriott full service properties, enjoying a wonderful breakfast at Buena Vista, great lunches in North Beach and wonderful dinners recently at Kokkari in the financial district. No more.
We now conveniently fly into Sacramento and take the easy, stress free drive over to Napa. Saving money and reducing risk exposure on the streets of SF.
I feel bad for the businesses that always did the right thing and are now struggling or moving out. But, for those businesses that have supported to wackos of the city and state government, you got what you deserve. Free markets at work
@Andrew “We (California) also has some of the most expensive housing in the US, making matters worse.”
Local policies have kept people out and unable to afford housing, I’ve been impressed by recent state-level policies to address this. But expensive housing isn’t a given, it’s the result of restrictions on creating housing.
@Eric “So, two days ago Hilton was the worst hotel brand of all (in your blog) and now they are brilliant strategists because they abandon their billon dollar obligations”
* Honors worst loyalty program among the major 4 for elite benefits
* One hotel owner, not a brilliant strategist (they bet wrong in the first place)!
@ SOBE ER DOC
Please enlighten me as to which Red cities have declined to this degree.
Commercial property of the office building variety and hotels catering to the office building and convention crowd are struggling elsewhere in the country and the world too.Add in higher interest rates and other difficulty getting financed, and it would be a surprise if this kind of thing didn’t happen anywhere.
You didnt even bother to state how dirty and crime-ridden SF is as a reason why good hotels can’t thrive? The p@ndemic was a reason why the business did poorly a few years ago, and not. a reason why the owner would rather bail now.
First this stuff about how great the United’s pr1de promotion is and you can’t even bring up the real reasons why the owner sold. Hilarious
And those of you in SF that love SF – don’t infect other cities.. please.
Señor Leff,
Developers make more bang per acquired square yard of land by building higher end high density housing and expensive single family homes than to make affordable housing. And trying to build more dense affordable housing where there tends to be bigger plots of land in urban and suburban areas that could involve building up more into the sky? That hits a lot of NIMBY attitude. And NIMBYs who are financially more well-off tend to get their way more than the lower middle class, working poor and others on the financially struggling side of the economic spectrum..
@Mindwrencher
Try to wrench you mind to read between the lines:
“concerns over street conditions” = crime/homelessness
“lower return to office than peer cities” = mismanagement/policy ineptitude stemming from the ridiculous clinging to lockdowns far past peer cities.
“ weaker than expected citywide convention calendar through 2027” = a consequence of the two above.
Don’t get me wrong! I love San Francisco, I’m there once every few months, but if you are unable to admit it’s troubles are a direct result of bad policy you are ideological brainwashed. SF could change all of this in 6 months if they wanted, it’s just a question of admitting they took some bad policies led by ideology over reality too far and reversing direction, but I guess more pain is required of the voters to learn.
For all who is saying how great Kalifornia is, especially San Francisco….please oh please, continue to live there. Please stay there. Like one poster put it, don’t come and pollute my state with your politics, we all see how well that’s working for you in Kalifornia.
Another piece of info, it’s kinda funny a couple insurance companies have pulled out of your ‘wonderful socialist state’.
The power of perception
Cities that have the perception (or reality) that travelers aren’t safe because of defunding of police, rampant criminal behavior that is unchecked by local government, drug use, homelessness and overall lawlessness can’t also be extraordinarily expensive to visit. That’s a bad combo.
Cancun has a perception but that perception is countered by how cheap their all inclusives are to attract customers.
San Francisco is a city I visited for business 4x a year for over a decade for business. Hotels are some of the most expensive in the world. At that price point tourist safety should be paramount over rights of drug addled mentally ill homeless people and criminals
Get tough on crime and homelessness and tourists and business will return in droves
Conferences are down until 2027
That dovetails into my comment about costs. A nice hotel in San Francisco in can come in at 800+ dollars a night in high season (pun intended).
A 3-4 night stay is $3,200 plus taxes, airfare, food and car from airport. That’s a $5,000+ trip.
That’s why conferences are in Chicago (geographically convenient and cheaper premium hotels), Arizona (cheaper hotels, not perceived as a boondoggle location, good weather and golf) or places like Boca or Miami.
SF priced itself out of the convention market and at the same time has concerns about safety. Like I said…bad combination
@GUWonder – greater supply of premium housing pushes down the price of premium housing, which frees up and pushes down the price of less premium housing.
Poorly written article with some grammatical errors, it’s obvious the writer here didn’t do well in his journalism 101 class.
Billy Bob is proving my.point.
Must be nice to be able to just walk away from 1/2 $B debt. I lived in Seattle for 14 years. Before Amazon moved to Lake Union and after. Seattle used to be a reasonable place to live (cost of living), extremely safe and clean. But when you have a company like Amazon move downtown and start paying people high six-figure salaries (And these people are about 23 years old and not from the US), It creates an income disparity which pushes out the middle class. Seattle created the same problem as San Francisco. You are either rich and live downtown or you are homeless and live downtown. cities like New York figured it out, these cities have not.
UC Berkeley grad and big fan of the bay area of california here. Things always change and the pendulum will swing back in SF favor one day in the near future. For now the city is not anywhere near as compelling as it use to be. I use to always vacation plan and SF/Napa were on the short list. Just like the previous person said, nowadays flying into Sacramento seems like a better choice.
I agree with many here that San Francisco is a great city and for the large part the people there are interesting and the central cali vibe has always been interesting to me. Southern Cali is just like Miami but San fran is like the new york of the west coast to me. It seems inevitable that SF will rise out of these issues unless the city is flattened by an earthquake. Even then, I wouldnt bet against the city.
@sosueme
I live in miami and the red state of florida has far worse insurance problems than san francisco. My windstorm ins was 9k last year and that was before my insurance company went under (along with 5 other companies). Now everyone is with the state run Citizens andCitizens is trying their damnest to kick people through incredibly nit picking on inspections. Right now im struggling to get insured and if Citizens drops me the next choice is Forced placement insurance where its $27,000 for windstorm with another 4k for homeowners.
Those on the right and left who make claims like you just did are both extremists when the reality is insurance is an issue in certain areas of the USA because there are too many claims and the insurance companies have been unable to price risk accurately and are facing huge losses which leads to them withdrawing from the market and its creating huge chaos in those areas for homeowners.
Hilton “Union Square” is just a flat-out fabrication. The hotel was built in the ghetto and the neighborhood has only gotten worse. Last time I tried to walk somewhere in that area … in broad daylight … I turned around and got back on BART. I’m not ‘scared’ of all those people loitering everywhere, I just don’t want to have an encounter with them. SF is paying the price for it’s nutso politics. What an incredible waste of a glorious city. I wonder when it will end.
Given how narrowly Chavez advisor and all round terrorist liver was recalled there is no hope for SF residents. They should
Move either down into the peninsula or into Marin. We stopped going to the city even by Uber/Lyft as the politicians are militantly in favor of legalizing all crime
You know things are bad in a city when people have to leave their cars unlocked and their doors open and then can’t believe you don’t have to do that in your city. Many residents just think this is normal. The smart ones are getting out.
Baffled commentators claim that issues are restricted to a narrow area around Skid Row. My wife was mugged twice within a 100 yards of the second phase of the four seasons residences! And 30000 fecal incidents are spread all over the city. And whole Foods closing and retail in Union Square suggests it’s not restricted to a small area
I think Prince Harry should do a blood test and that is the only way to know for sure who his real father is
I can only relate my last visit to San Francisco last summer. When I arrived at my hotel a few blocks off Union Square, the lobby door was locked! In the afternoon. The check-in clerk told me to be careful in the city, “…there are lots of crazy people around”. I’ve been going to SFO for 40 years, but this time the vibe was different. There was a whole block with tents in the street so that no traffic could pass. I didn’t really enjoy my visit; I have no plans to go back anytime soon. When I visit my brother near Sonoma, I’m flying into STS.
Had to stay at these hotels two years in a row for conferences and the poor street conditions were very true. It’s just not pleasant to be there, especially at night after dark when I tried to walk around to find some food, etc.
I don’t go to San Francisco any longer with reason. Too many places in both the US and California where one isn’t confronted daily by the miseries, injustices and ignorance of humanity. And having a beauty natural setting amidst mountains and bays isn’t enough for me to take my eyes and mind off the “nastiness” of San Francisco. I have to make one more trip to San Francisco in the near future but anticipate it will be my last visit.
Democrats have destroyed SF, which is now a failed city like Democrat-run Portland. The comments here are typical cognitive dissonance – “it’s not so bad”. It’s not just bad it’s catastrophically terrible. It looks like someone unlocked the gates of an insane asylum and everyone wandered out into the streets. Open air drug abuse and dirty tents and makeshift shelters blocking public sidewalks and businesses. Aggressive panhandling, shoplifting and burglaries. Shootings, stabbings and clubbings. Defecating on the sidewalk. The most absurd thing? Absolutely no political willpower to protect law abiding, tax paying citizens from these feral zombies. Democrats would rather destroy their cities than hold anyone personally accountable for their actions. There are many clever ways to rid SF of this public nightmare, but it requires Democrats to develop a spine and remember who is paying the bills. Wasting energy and resources on the least productive, most self destructive members of society, and attempting to excuse their behavior and negative impact on economic activity is self defeating and just plain crazy. But you do you. Continue pretending you don’t see businesses and people fleeing your incompetent governance. Continue wringing your hands so you won’t risk offend anybody. Your leftist policies wreak misery and destruction every time! Look at every Democrat city where Democrats have had unchallenged power for a decade or more – they all look like criminal anarchy. Forward!
I love hearing these libs screeching as they try to convince others (and themselves) that San Francisco is just fine and to ignore the rampant crime, literal feces in the streets, the open air drug markets, the exodus of retail and employers from downtown, thousands of zombie, drug-addicted homeless wandering the streets when not shooting up again in one of the absolutely squalid “camps,” failing schools, failing services, violence-ravaged public transportation, and much more misery than can be cited here.
And now owners of what just a few years ago were a combined >billion dollar properties are just taking their $725 million in losses and walking away.
Sorry libs… this is what your policies accomplish. Only years of Democrat rule could take one of the world’s most beautiful cities and turn it into a cesspool, both literally and figuratively.
Own it.
@Al LeFeusch it’s because of the relatively new obsession of the US with the left.
When the conversation with clueless socialist wannabes in the US gets to a dead end.. I, as a Venezuelan who flee from socialism, give my final line: As much as I try to tell you how bad the sh.** tastes, you insist to try it by your own. CA is (literately) getting the early taste of the process that went back in Venezuela.
@Joseph Exactly! tech bro daddy already dumping CA for FL.
@SoSueMe – if you want to use the loss of insurance companies as a yardstick…take a look at the great red state of Florida, and what the wonderful Republican legislature and Governors have [not] done over the last 25 years.
Can’t get homeowners insurance for less than $20K a year…but thank God “The Hill We Climb” was removed from Miami elementary school libraries.
San Francisco is not perfect, but there are so many great things about it that it’s worth it to visit. Love this city, always will. Golden Gate Park and Bridge, Palace of Fine Arts, Pier 39, North Beach Italian, China Town, cable car rides, buena vista Irish coffees, and so much more. Big cities have crime, but please don’t base your judgement on just that. Come to SF, there’s so much more than what a headline tells you.
Funny how commentators such as Johnny Boy and Andrew have no clue what is actually happening in their city. Take off your rose colored glasses and try to understand why tourism and corporate travel is down. News organizations across the board regularly report on the demise of the downtown corridor. Only blind loyalists such as yourselves cannot see this. It is not a safe or clean city and remains very expensive! Why go there when there are so many good alternatives? Until this mindset of everything is fine stops, the city will continue to decline.
I am a California native and have lived in San Francisco for 38 years. I’m an ex-Democrat, having left the party after 35 years. The City is a hollow shell of what it once was, and I lay the blame squarely at the feet of the far-left and clueless liberals who will automatically vote for any candidate with a “D” after their name. The handling of the pandemic and the George Floyd riots by the City and California as a whole was atrocious, and led directly to businesses and citizens fleeing. The Dems’ soft-on-crime, anti-police, and anti-business policies are bringing about their natural result. But at least recreational pot is legal, right?
All these fools talking about how it’s just fine these are “fox news talking g points”, sure it’s got issues like anywhere else are just frantically popping cope rocks into their glass copium pipes. Have fun “retiring” in s.f. because you will be devoured by the fiends. I lived there for 20 yrs most of them in the deepTenderloin..the entire city has turned into a dystopian nightmare. I’m 6 foot 3 heavily tatted, most of my friends are goons and I’m telling you it is no bueno. Nothing about it is remotely “ok” anymore. Got my family tf on out of there.
Born and raised in San Francisco. The stories the media insist on writing about the City are so extreme. Tourists tend to go downtown and other highlights. We have so many lovely districts that make the City special. Please don’t make headlines that cater to extreme views.
Donald Trump was the first president in the world and the USA to point out how dangerous San Francisco can be. Trump predicted that San Francisco would have a homeless and drug problem. Companies are now leaving California. Put Trump back in power and he will sell San Francisco to Canada and make California great again
The sheep continue to “baaaa” at how wonderful their failing city is.
Oklahoma City, very much a Red city, has neighborhoods overrun with the homeless and struggles with drug addicts laying in the streets and trespassing in industrial lots.
If only this were an exclusively SF problem. But all American cities are facing a serious decline right now. A deadly combination of poverty, drugs, immigration, and inept leaders in government.
The solution? Get people in homes. Connect them to family or friends that are willing to look out for and be that person’s advocate. Squash our wealth gap so that a full-time job is enough to house and feed a family, no more CEOs making 10,000x the janitor at the same company. End the manufacturer and importation of highly addictive drugs, and make sure anyone who is ready to quit can get treatment regardless of income. Make sure there is a legal way for people to enter the country for work, and start enforcing work visa laws at farms and construction sites. And finally, the tough one. Make sure every high school graduate understands what government is, why we have it, and how ours functions. Informed voters would be a big problem to a lot of the special interests and a lot of the inept politicians that slide in through charisma and populism alone.
I ❤️ SF! And want to propose that first class residential mental health care (think Bellevue Hospital) be available on ALCATRAZ Island. Drug dealers not welcome.
JOhnny boy it is all about politics===esp LEFT WING!!Red,White and BLue-I agree
Hooray for Hilton! If more businesses would just dump San Fransisco…heck…”woke-a-fornia”, maybe…just maybe (but I doubt it) the voters would toss out the whole lot…city, county, state politicians and get some real people to run the government. It ain’t (sic) gonna get better until people WAKE UP…not WOKE UP.
Hilton didn’t leave SF. They just quit paying their mortgage. In short they are threatening to leave unless the bank or city can somehow offer a profitable alternative.
Let the liberals and urban thugs keep the major cities, they’ve destroyed them all anyways.
I really have to laugh at all the political comments here, especially from the liberals. Ya’ll blamed TRUMP for everything, before that it was Republicans in the Senate/House during Obama, before that it was Bush. So you need to just take the heat from everyone who is blaming the democrats/red voters for this – since we are very much so in a left vs right momentum right now. And its absolutely aweful.
But I just watched the left chastize Trump for every tiny little thing for 4 years (actually I think its still going on), and totally IGNORE Biden doing the same stuff, or they blame Republicans for it.
I think its time I change my voter registration from Libertarian to Democrat so I can push blame on anyone but me and my party, it must be wonderful to be a part of a left wing movement & party that is 100% pure, 100% perfect, and 100% for the people. Like, in California. Because California is such a welcome, growing corporate environment. At least, that’s what their Governor is telling everyone.
I have no Sympathy for these Greedy hotels who charge for everything. They post their prices to lure you in and then want a Ride resort fee when you arrive. For what they’re not including breakfast or most don’t have a pool or gym. SO WHERE ARE THE RESORT AMENITIES?
Nonsense in these comments. It’s a great place to live, and it has the same problems every big, first tier city has. Yes, it’s expensive. Get over it. My in laws assure me it has been at least since 1950. I moved here in 1987.
I have no worries about meeting friends and guests at the Hilton or Parc 55. We simply avoid those few neighborhoods the news labels as dangerous, just as anyone smart does in any city. People here are friendly, intelligent and welcoming.
Last month I ate at Ethiopian, Eritrean, Japanese, Italian, Burmese, Szechuan, Greek, middle eastern and Indian restaurants, besides the usual steak, Mexican, California and fresh fish places. Can you do this within a few minutes’ drive?
I visited two National Recreation Areas and a National Park last month and drove down for a night to Big Sur. We went up to wine taste in Napa, and went shopping in Berkeley, Union Sq, Palo Alto and Mill Valley. We listened to music at several of the restaurants above during our meal. We attended two concerts (one rock, one classical) and a street fair on different days. This just is NOT the hellhole Rush, fellow right wingers and your idiot news portray.
Real residents wouldn’t live elsewhere— it’s that dynamic and fun. My business does well.
You ought to take the naysayers with a whole cup of doubt, and recognize that while the problems of big cities are not absent here, our town is mighty positive for many of us, and I’m sorry it’s expensive and become a punching bag for our political enemies. Feel free to come join us in the fun— or not, if you believe them, and we’ll probably BOTH be better off.
Those who think everything is fine because they are having so much fun enjoying the restaurants and attractions are missing the point. The city is losing jobs, cannot hire enough police, may have to greatly curtail public transportation, and has a huge budget deficit, all because people don’t want to live or work here and tax revenue is drying up. The city needs to work for everyone, not just the elites.
28 year resident of SF and social moderate and I love the city. But it’s a mess and a disgrace. True, the surrounding area is beautiful and engaging but downtown is a shit show and you know it. Dismissing that fact by listing restaurants you dined at last week while walking by 8000 homeless makes you look foolish.
Funny how emotionally bankrupt, delusional, deranged triggered, snobby, far left liberal neo-Marxists deflect & defend their beloved, rotted San FranPsycho ran by all radical liberal neo-Marxists who enable all of this crime, destruction with businesses fleeing with zero accountability as they know the voters there are too stupid & the robot puppets will always submit & vote for them no matter what. Same goes for crime ridden Lost Angeles, nut job NYC, Killadelphia, Baltimore, Schitcago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Newark, D.C., Portland, Seattle. They are all crime ridden decayed liberal toilets. No wonder since 2020, nearly 800,000 hard working taxpaying Californians from all income levels have left the rusty overtaxed, crime ridden, neo-Marxist state & have taken their billions of tax dollars with them. They have been replaced with lazy leeches, homeless, drug addicts, mentally ill, criminals who are coddled & illegal aliens sucking off the system. Way to go San FranPsycho, all of that indoctrination & brainwashing thought control & rampant drug abuse since the 1960’s has really paid off for you. You reap what you sow. Like the old saying goes: If you are not a liberal by age 18 you don’t have a heart. If you are not a conservative by age 28 you don’t have a brain.
Sure @SST… and then everyone clapped and you got a pony.
It’s not going to get better in our lifetime. The city is for tourists but that might not hold out to be for much longer.
Is this the content that qualifies you to be a “thought leader in travel”. Regurgitated Fox News talking points from a REIT that doesn’t pay its bills hardly seems like thought leadership.
@Roger:
You are correct, and I enjoyed your colorful language! Here are links to some reports by Stanford’s Hoover Institution as to what the limousine liberals are doing to SF and California. Maybe some serious financial and social pain is what they need:
https://www.hoover.org/research/san-francisco-falls-abyss
https://www.hoover.org/research/san-francisco-falls-further-abyss-office-values-plunge-75-percent
https://www.hoover.org/research/san-francisco-homeowners-lose-260-billion-value
Wait, so it is ok for a company to not pay their debts in the millions, but $20k for student loans is a problem for the right wing. The condition of SF is not relevant to the fact that this company is violating the terms of their contract and they should be sued for the balance.
I always hear how businesses take the risk so should reap the rewards. What risk did they take? They made millions when the convention business was booming and when things went bad they walked away. That is inexcusable.
Sorry @Sean Randel, but who precisely is saying it for a company to walk away from it’s debts? If they walk, they lose the asset, which thanks to the sh!thole San Francisco has become after decades of Democrat rule, is worth hundreds of millions less.
If you quit paying your student loan you don’t have to give back your degree.
Your ignorance, while not surprising, is inexcusable (and always laughable).
Glad I could help…
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