The sun graced San Francisco, the typically very foggy city, during the Fourth of July weekend.
The view of the Golden Gate Bridge was clear, as were the glimpses of the bay and ocean from the rolling streets downtown.
I wondered where everyone was. Later, Jordan Hollan, a resident, reassured me the lack of people was to be expected.
“San Francisco is notoriously sleepy over the Fourth of July because it’s funky,” she confessed. But tourism is also lower than it was, say five years ago, she added.
Hollan spoke to me a few years ago, when I was reporting a story about the city’s steep decline.
What’s different now?
Back then, she told me the city had forced her to accept a “crazy reality.” As a parent, Hollan and her husband longed for safer streets and a change in leadership, and they weren’t the only ones.
And now, some of their prayers may have been answered.
“We have a new mayor and I have really felt a difference,” she said.
I heard that a lot. Voters are mesmerized by Mayor Daniel Lurie.
His approval ratings float around 73%, much higher in comparison to the low level of support — 28% — the previous mayor, London Breed, received last year.
As my husband Jake and I revisited San Francisco for the first time since March 2020, when the pandemic first took hold, we couldn’t help but see the stark the contrast.
The city, once bustling with tech workers and tourists, now displayed “For Lease” signs prominently in downtown windows, emblematic of its recent struggles. The pandemic accelerated the move to remote work, leading to a vacated downtown. It also exacerbated the city’s longstanding issues with homelessness.
Now, some employees are coming back and federal law is more agreeable to clearing tents on the streets
But the city still appears to be caught between past and future — the tent encampments are gone and so are the street-level businesses.
But, as Hollan said, the “new mayor,” could make all the difference.
The city’s recent past
Back in 2023, she told me that all San Francisco needed was to elect a mayor like Rudy Giuliani, known for cleaning up New York City — but she knew the city could never muster up such a thing. San Francisco hasn’t had a Republican mayor since the ‘60s.
About Lurie, Hollan recently said, “he’s as Rudy Giuliani as San Francisco would be willing to elect.” It helps that the mayor has children growing up and going to school in the city.
Can small changes in leadership finally put the Golden City on the right track?
Back in 2023, locals saw a glimmer of hope during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the city, where he met with former President Joe Biden. Cleaning crews scrubbed down graffiti, cleared encampment areas, painted on new murals and hung up signage for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom boasted about the progress and made a promise he would pursue a $1.2 billion Clean California campaign, as the Deseret News previously reported.
San Francisco has been a thorn in Newsom’s legacy as governor and could follow him to the presidential race in 2028, should he decide to jump in. Newsom remains in the national spotlight because of his pushback against the Trump administration.
But evidence of the large scale clean-up ahead of Jinping’s visit quickly disappeared as tents made their way back to the sidewalk. Even when the former mayor, London Breed, vowed to clean up the streets, the trickiness around the legality of clearing encampments made it nearly impossible.
A decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which oversees nine western states, made it illegal to clear encampments unless shelter is available.
In July 2024, the Supreme Court overruled the appeals court decision and empowered cities with the authority to remove homeless encampments regardless of shelter space.
This redefined San Francisco’s policies for the homeless. Now, these unhoused residents could be penalized for sleeping or camping in a public space.
But clearing the encampments is still just a Band-Aid for the deeply-rooted problem.
A long way to go
Martha Ehmann Conte has her doubts on whether the strategies to address homelessness are working. She has been a resident of the city for more than two decades and is very involved civically, serving as the national vice-chair of No Labels and the finance vice chair at the city’s Republicans.
“They’re saying the right things and taking the right steps and I know that they’re cleaning up the streets,” she said, “but from what I understand, it pops up in another place and ... they have to keep working on this.”
She is also a part of the Briones Society, a group of conservatives working behind-the-scenes to redefine conservatism in blue cities like San Francisco, while backing more moderate candidates in local races.
“Daniel Lurie is restoring faith in our local government because he is out there talking to people, talking to businesses, talking to corporations, saying that he wants to know their concerns and be responsive to them, instead of a small activist group of people,” she said.
She praised his support for government partnerships with private companies to address various gaps. For example, she said, homelessness can’t be addressed without solving the housing shortage, and that’s an area that could use private investment.
“(Lurie’s) doing all the right things, and I think he has support — as long as he continues to move the ball in the right direction.”
The city’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development told the Deseret News efforts are underway to try to make it more economical for businesses to stay and grow.
“Mayor Lurie is incredibly focused on downtown and on our business environment,” a spokeswoman said. “I would say that he really believes that clean and safe streets are key to bringing back businesses.”
Just last year, S.F. passed a $5 million tax exception for small businesses, and eliminated annual fees. Meanwhile, the Vacant to Vibrancy program hosted pop-ups for local businesses this year.
“We’ve been really happy at this sustained recovery of foot traffic downtown, of people being in the office,” said Laurel Arvanitidis, the director of business development at the OEWD. Businesses owners see this as a positive sign.
During my brief visit to Union Square, I felt deeply disheartened. It didn’t look half as energetic as it does in decade-old videos on my old iPhone. It was the heart of the city, where the tourists and locals muddled together to shop and dine. Now, it looks hollow.
But Arvanitidis offered another glimmer of hope. She revealed major retailers have committed to opening storefronts in the area. The big names include Nintendo, Popmart and Zara, while Visa committed to host its conference in the city for three more years. Her office expects 200 days worth of programing at Union Square.
“We are seeing a lot of momentum,” she confessed.
But, Tte city’s business development director admits they “have a long way to go.”
San Francisco is going through a change. No one denies it. For city officials like Arvanitidis, it comes down to sustaining this growth.
Only then might the hoped-for full revival happen.