XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, ba.politics, sac.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: stupid.black.democrats@splcenter.org   
      
   On 05 Mar 2022, PaxPerPoten  posted some   
   news:t01h7m$26831$8@news.freedyn.de:   
      
   > Bob Duncan wrote   
   >   
   >> How about we bulldoze the entire city with the mayor at the bottom of   
   >> the pile?  Nobody is going to come to a city that refuses to control   
   >> crime.   
      
   Could Westfield San Francisco Centre become a soccer stadium? A lab? An   
   office?   
      
   Those are some of Mayor London Breed’s ideas, thrown out during an   
   interview at the Bloomberg Technology Summit this week, as she pushes   
   visions to reimagine a downtown struggling with office vacancies and   
   closing stores. While not discussing specific plans, Breed’s comments   
   were among the more wide-ranging she’s made about how the city could be   
   reimagined in the future.   
      
   The Chronicle broke the news earlier this month that Westfield mall was   
   giving up its space on Market Street downtown after Nordstrom’s   
   announced it was closing its flagship store there. The fate of the   
   property is uncertain, as it is now in the hands of Westfield’s lender.   
      
   City lovers and critics alike seized upon the news as evidence that San   
   Francisco is further entering a “doom loop” that will make it harder to   
   economically recover from the pandemic. Downtown has been hit hard by a   
   slow return of workers to offices, lack of activity and spending, and a   
   deterioration of street conditions. Other high-profile properties have   
   defaulted, including several of the city’s biggest hotels.   
      
   But Breed pushed back against the doom and gloom narrative, arguing that   
   how people shop has changed and the city can use the opportunity to   
   re-envision a new downtown.   
      
   “A Westfield mall could become something completely different than what   
   it currently is,” she said. “We could even tear down the whole building   
   and build a whole new soccer stadium. We can create lab space. We can   
   look at it as a new company in some other capacity.”   
      
   It’s not clear how feasible or appealing any of those options are for   
   Westfield’s owner — but Breed wants them to think big. Notably, the city   
   does not own Westfield and does not control its fate. Also, the property   
   may not be big enough to house a major sports stadium. And San Francisco   
   doesn’t have a professional soccer team, while San Jose does.   
      
   Real estate experts previously told The Chronicle that aging office   
   buildings downtown might not be ideal candidates to convert into modern   
   labs and would face stiff competition from biotech hub South San   
   Francisco.   
      
   Still, San Francisco is trying to make it easier to repurpose buildings   
   and make them more appealing for businesses to set up shop by proposing   
   tax incentives and changing zoning laws.   
      
   Breed and Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin recently worked   
   together to pass legislation that makes it easier for property owners to   
   convert office buildings into housing and relaxes use of retail spaces   
   in Union Square as the city grapples with a 31% office vacancy rate   
   after the move to remote work in the tech-heavy metropolis.   
      
   “We can’t completely rely on retail in downtown and restricting what’s   
   happening in downtown anymore,” Breed said Thursday. “What we have done   
   is open the door to do more than just retail. San Francisco has never   
   had to work for tourists, for visitors, for people who want to shop   
   here, so there have been a lot of limits placed on what people can do in   
   certain pockets of the city.”   
      
   “Let’s look at what’s possible rather than dwelling on the stories of   
   another store that there are a lot of people who may not even shop in   
   those places,” she continued.   
      
   Breed pointed out when Westfield announced it was pulling out of San   
   Francisco this month that retail has been struggling and Westfield is   
   looking to withdraw from the U.S. market.   
      
   While malls, stores and downtowns in general have faced economic   
   challenges in recent years, emails between businesses and city officials   
   reveal Westfield mall raised alarms about shoplifting and assaults. The   
   city attempted to address these concerns by improving crime reporting   
   mechanisms and posting police officers at the mall, although it proved   
   not to be enough to keep Westfield.   
      
   Breed acknowledged challenges with safety and cleanliness in the   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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