Continuing on former Mayor London Breed's efforts to attract a university to create a new satellite campus in SF's still semi-vacant downtown, Mayor Daniel Lurie's office is reportedly in talks with Nashville-based Vanderbilt University.

The Chronicle had the news Monday morning of Vanderbilt's interest in coming to SF, after the school has already built satellite campuses in New York City and West Palm Beach, and as it tries to expand its offerings to grow its main campus of 13,000 students. The university said it was "optimistically exploring" the possibility of an SF hub.

"Vanderbilt is always exploring new opportunities to expand our impact and further our mission," the school said in a statement to the paper. "We recognize the long-term global leadership of San Francisco and its ever-growing potential, defined by a vibrant culture, dynamic innovation ecosystem and the talent drawn to its leading technology companies and top-caliber arts and cultural institutions. This powerful combination is why we are optimistically exploring the possibility of establishing a presence downtown, working closely with Mayor Daniel Lurie and his team."

Mayor Daniel Lurie also put out a statement about the talks, saying, "Our administration is working every day to create a clean, safe and thriving downtown — one that draws people, businesses and investments back to our city. As I said during my campaign, welcoming a world-class university like Vanderbilt to our city would bring new energy and foot traffic downtown, and we will continue working to make that happen."

Reportedly, the city's new economic development chief, Ned Segal, has met with the university several times.

There is no word on what site or sites might be getting considered.

During her last two years in office, former Mayor London Breed had also talked to multiple universities about the potential for building a satellite campus in downtown San Francisco, including the University of California — which ultimately passed on the idea last summer. Another program that seemed to be getting rolling in early 2024 was to attract a historically black college or university to the city, but nothing ever came of that plan as far as we heard.

Already downtown we have Golden Gate University, whose 210,000-square-foot Brutalist complex at 536 Mission is apparently sitting largely unused, despite enrollment being up thanks to online classes. The school, which offers degree programs in ccounting, business, financial planning, taxation, and psychological counseling, put its building up for sale in recent years but hasn't had any takers.

The Wharton School of Business also already has a presence in downtown SF, a 35,000-square-foot West Coast campus on the Embarcadero that's it's had for over a decade. As we heard in April, that school's expansion plans had it looking at taking over The Cube at 345 Montgomery Street, which would mean the ouster of the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco — which is taking advantage of a limited-time free-rent deal at the space, having moved there last fall.

Previously: University of California Might Give London Breed That SF Expansion Campus She’s Been Hankering For

In case you missed it, singer, songwriter, and producer Chaz Bear aka Toro y Moi was the headliner at Downtown First Thursdays last night, and a major crowd showed up for the day-after-New-Year's-Day event.

San Franciscans aren't too accustomed to outdoor monthly events that don't pause for the winter months. But amid some balmy weather Thursday, a whole lot of you turned out for Downtown First Thursdays, as the nine-month-old downtown event kicked off the new year on Second Street. Organizers with Into the Streets and the Civic Joy Fund said they were expecting 18,000 to 20,000 people to attend Thursday, but photos and video from the event suggest the crowd may have been even bigger than that.

"Holy. Moly," writes organizer Manny Yekutiel in an Instagram story, which shows video from an upper story of a building on Second Street showing the large crowd gathered in front of the Howard Street Stage.

Toro y Moi did a DJ set featuring plenty of upbeat, danceable tunes, and crowds also spilled over into the alleyway Discoteca Stage on Minna Street, with its enormous disco ball, where DJs Gemini Santiago and Magnolia Polaris were spinning. And the Dancehall at Natoma Cabana was popping off as well.

Sanaz Deldar, a nearby resident in downtown, told the SF Standard of the crowd size, "We’re always waiting for it to happen," adding, "I hope it goes on forever."

Downtown First Thursdays has been fairly popular from the outset, and is one of multiple activations of the downtown area that have been bright spots for small businesses, especially, who have suffered a few very quiet years.

The events are reportedly funded through April — which would mark 12 months since the inaugural event last May. But it seems likely there will be community support to keep them going beyond that.

The Downtown First Thursdays event on December 5 was also very well attended, with Rebecca Black performing and DJing.

Top image by Manny Yekutiel

The recent tick-up of more alcohol-permitted “entertainment zone” parties may turn into a flood of more such parties, as the SF supervisors just approved legislation to create a whole lot more of these parties downtown, and in SoMa and Union Square.  

Downtown San Francisco foot traffic remains relatively moribund compared to pre-pandemic levels, prompting Mayor Breed and SF City Hall to tinker with revitilization strategies like the Vacant to Vibrant pop-ups, night markets, and downtown “entertainment zones” where restaurants and bars can sell to-go alcohol to the revelers in the street where these events are happening. The first of those “entertainment zone” parties was last Friday’s Oktoberfest party on Front Street in front of Schroeder’s, Harrington’s Bar & Grill, and the Royal Exchange.

In late July, Supervisor Aaron Peskin proposed a streamlined process to create a whole lot more “entertainment zones” downtown, which just happens to be largely his district. Under Peskin’s proposal, neighborhoods’ community benefits districts (CBDs) would be able to get large-scale permits that they could use over and over, rather than getting individual permits for each event.

And on Tuesday, the SF Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Peskin’s expanded entertainment zone legislation.

Consider that the Downtown First Thursdays parties now happen once a month, or 12 times a year. Under Peskin’s just-passed legislation, CBDs would throw no fewer than 20 parties a year, and could even throw 100 or more of them.  

“Each CBD must commit to holding a minimum of twenty events annually at one or more specified locations within their CBD boundaries,” the legislation says. “The ordinance designates each Activation Location as an ‘Entertainment Zone,’ thus allowing brick-and-mortar bars and restaurants within the Entertainment Zone to sell alcohol for patrons to consume outdoors at the Downtown Activation event.”

Above we see the very complicated process for throwing one of these outdoor alcohol events as it exists now. Under this new legislation, the CBD would get a reusable permit that alcohol-serving businesses could just activate over and over.

This legislation does not apply to the entire city. Front Street has already been authorized, as we saw at the Oktoberfest party. But new micro-areas new approved as new entertainment zones include parts downtown (Balance Street at Gold Street, and the Landing at Leidesdorff), Yerba Buena (Annie Plaza, Jessie Street, and Minna Street), Union Square (Claude Lane, Maiden Lane, Harlan Place), and the East Cut (Natoma Street and Second Street).

Related: Yet More Outdoor Downtown ‘Entertainment Zone’ Parties Could Be Coming Under New Legislation From Aaron Peskin [SFist]

Image: @mcampbellSD via Twitter

As San Francisco tries to party its way out of the lack of foot traffic and the office vacancy problem downtown, Supervisor Aaron Peskin has introduced a measure that would streamline the permitting process to create more outdoor parties.  

It’s no secret that downtown San Francisco has absolutely not recovered from the pandemic, as foot traffic remains way lower than pre-2020 levels. Small businesses in the downtown area are suffering, so Mayor Breed and SF City Hall have tried a mix of strategies like the Vacant to Vibrant pop-ups, night markets, and downtown “entertainment zones” where restaurants and bars can sell to-go alcohol when there are street events happening.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin, whose District 3 covers much of downtown, wants more of these outdoor events downtown and a simpler permitting process to throw them. The Chronicle reports that Peskin is introducing legislation to streamline the outdoor event permitting process downtown, so that downtown community benefit districts (CBDs) can more easily host recurring outdoor street parties.

“This legislation came directly from the community of Downtown stakeholders who have worked so hard to be a part of the City’s economic recovery, but still struggle with the slow pace and confusing duplicative nature of our permitting systems,” Peskin said in a statement. “It shouldn’t be this hard to have a First Thursday art walk or regular block party, especially in neighborhoods that don’t have the same residential density that might necessitate more review. These downtown community benefit districts are already doing the work to program these events, we just have to make it easier, bigger and bolder if we want Downtown to come alive more than once a month.”

His legislation is called the Greater Downtown Master Permit program, and it would create about a dozen more of those boozy “entertainment zones.” Each would be required to throw 30 events a year, but in return, they would get so-called “master permits” that would be good for five years.

That’s a real change for the current process where each individual event requires permits from a number of city agencies. And the supervisors have already approved $2.75 million to help the CBDs throw these events.

“Imagine what we can accomplish for San Francisco just by creatively streamlining clunky government processes,” president and CEO of the Downtown SF Partnership Robbie Silver said in the announcement (Downtown SF is the organization behind those holiday season projection mapping displays on buildings). “Supervisor Peskin’s first-in-the-nation legislation does just that, by prioritizing downtown recovery through regular programming and activation in under-utilized alleys and side streets. It goes beyond temporary pop-ups to expand Entertainment Zones, cut red tape for small businesses, and anchor arts and culture through real investments.”

This is still just a proposal, and the Board of Supervisors won’t take up the legislation until the return from their summer recess in September

But in the meanwhile, there’s one of these events this week as Downtown First Thursdays returns to Second Street (between Market and Howard streets) on Thursday, August 1 from 5-10 pm. This month's party features a DJ set from Vandelux, who’s playing next weekend’s Outside Lands, and this month's event is  being billed as a sort of Outside Lands pre-party. It’s free to attend, though an RSVP is required.

Related: Wiener Proposes New Downtown Booze Zones Where You Can Walk Around With To-Go Drinks [SFist]

Image: @miyagawa via Twitter

A kind of moonshot proposal to install a new University of California campus in downtown San Francisco — one of a number of ideas that have been thrown out there in the last year by the mayor to bring new life to downtown — has been declined by the university.

It's been almost a year since SF Mayor London Breed sent the University of California (UC) Regents a letter pleading with them to consider opening a satellite campus in the city's struggling downtown. Breed's proposal, which did not come with any specific real estate attached, suggested that the school could "alleviate some of [its] critical student housing shortfalls" by occupying some downtown buildings. And, she said, "Bringing students into the heart of San Francisco affords a set of remarkable opportunities."

In January, we learned that the UC Regents were considering the idea, but we don't know how seriously they were considering it. And late last week, the university issued a statement putting any speculation to bed about their near-term plans.

"Given the outlook for state appropriations and the financial capacity of our campuses, the university is not considering establishing any new campuses or other new facilities in the City of San Francisco at this time," said UC spokesperson Ryan King, speaking to the Chronicle.

Breed's spokesperson Jeff Cretan responded with a statement Monday, saying, "While we know they aren’t moving forward with a proposal at this time due to their budget situation, they’ve expressed interest in continuing the conversations in the future. This is a long-term effort and we will continue to engage with UC on opportunities that arise for them to participate in the future of downtown."

This was one of several ideas that Breed tossed out in which students would be a key to downtown revitalization. Breed also has an ongoing project, announced in February, to lure a historically Black college or university (HBCU), or multiple schools, to open a satellite campus here.

In April, Breed also talked about luring a Chinese university to do the same thing.

The HBCU program is in a kind of soft-launch now, as the Chronicle reports, with 60 students from 20 HBCUs arriving in the city last week for a summer program in which they will be studying downtown and working as interns for the city.

Previously: Mayor London Breed Hopes to Lure Historically Black Colleges to Downtown SF With New Program

Photo: Kenniku Tolato

SF Mayor London Breed’s latest gambit to get you to please go downtown and spend money again is her new proposed “entertainment zone” where establishments can sell to-go alcohol to street patrons, and the first of these could be on the Financial District’s Front Street.

Thursday night just saw the first Downtown First Thursdays party, which KPIX reports “drew thousands” to Second Street in SoMa to frolic beneath an oversize disco ball. Saturday will be the first show in the SF Live concert series, presenting DJ Galen, Doc Martin, and DJ M3 at the Golden Gate Bandshell from 2-6 pm. Both of these are civic initiatives to get people going out again, and on the Friday in between these kick-off events, SF Mayor London Breed just announced another program to get people back to a slowly recovering downtown.  

The SF Business Times reports that Breed is proposing legislation for downtown “entertainment zones,” where bars and restaurants would be able to sell open containers of alcohol to passersby on the streets. The proposal picks up on state Sen. Scott Wiener’s “Refreshment Area” legislation that would allow such open-container sales to localities that want to establish them.

Breed’s tweet above references this KGO report which describes her proposal as “an ambitious plan to revitalize downtown.” But as seen below, the plan is not terribly ambitious at first. It only establishes the “entertainment zone” on one block of Front Street. But that 200 block of Front Street is home to proven block party hosts like Schroeder's, the Royal Exchange, and the newly reopened Harrington’s, so you figure those places can probably make the best of it.  

“We are thrilled to be the first city in California to take advantage of this new law to bring opportunities that foster joy for our residents, workers and visitors,” Breed said in a Friday press release. “Our message is clear: San Francisco is having fun, thriving and open for business.”

This is still just a proposal, and there is no actual event scheduled yet that would allow such alcohol sales. But the Business Times reports that the Downtown SF Community Benefit District and the Building Owners and Managers Association of SF are “in the process of setting up a new recurring event on the block with live entertainment and other activations to take advantage of the new permissions.”

And there may be grant money for such events. The city’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development is teaming up with the non-profit SF New Deal grants potentially up to $50,000 to throw such events. It’s called the Downtown Entertainment & Nightlife Revitalization Grant Program (ENRG), and there’s a grant application online. According to the mayor’s press release, the grant money can be used for “permitting costs, planning expenses, marketing material and design, event coordination, food & beverage, artists stipends, equipment, and on-site staff.”  

But as noted earlier, the “entertainment zone” proposal has not yet been passed as local law. The matter is currently scheduled to be introduced before the SF Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, May 7.

Related: Civic Joy Fund Hopes to Liven Up SF's Downtown With Launch of Downtown First Thursdays [Joe]

Image: Chris F. via Yelp

On Friday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced a plan to begin offering summer classes through historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the city, and the intention of luring at least one of those HBCUs to establish a satellite campus downtown.

Getting more students to replace the workers who no longer populate downtown San Francisco in as large numbers as they did five years ago has been a state goal of Mayor London Breed and others in City Hall. One way they've talked about doing that is bringing a new University of California satellite campus into downtown, something that UC is reportedly considering, as we heard a few weeks back.

But Breed also announced a program Friday called Black 2 San Francisco, shortened to B2SF, which the city's Human Rights Commission is spearheading. The program will begin with some select classes being offered at SF State this summer. But long-term, the city says, the goal is "to launch a satellite campus partnership with several HBCUs, including a physical location and a full suite of academic and professional programming."

"In San Francisco, we are working to build partnerships that strengthen our leadership as a center of education, innovation, and opportunity," Breed says in a statement. "By bringing HBCUs to our city, we can not only create a connection to empower our next generation of leaders, but we can also contribute to the revitalization of our city. I want to thank all of our private sector supporters, as well as USF, UCSF, and SFSU for their partnership in this work and continued commitment to San Francisco’s future."

(USF is going to be providing student housing for the summer program, and UCSF has signed on to partner with HBCUs to expand mental health mentoring, training and internships.)

"After many years of planning, and months of seeding and working to create meaningful partnerships, all the stakeholders are together to explore how we can connect San Francisco to the incredible talent that has historically been cultivated and supported by HBCUs," says Human Rights Commission Executive Director Dr. Sheryl Davis.

A small convention of stakeholders was convened Friday and is meeting as of this reporting at the War Memorial Veterans Building in SF.

No specific buildings or part of downtown or the Financial District have yet been discussed, but the mayor's office says that "Preliminary work has focused on cultivating a network of sponsors and collaborators" for the project.

And no specific HBCUs were mentioned in the announcement, but KTVU had a report that suggested that Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, and Spelman College in Atlanta could be involved, as well as others. Update: KTVU reports, via city reps, that the schools being talked to are Charles R. Drew University, Howard University, Morehouse College, Morgan State University, Morris Brown College, Tuskegee University, and the University of the District of Columbia.

Related: Wiener Proposes New Downtown Booze Zones Where You Can Walk Around With To-Go Drinks

The long and slow recovery of San Francisco's downtown has been a death sentence for many small businesses and restaurants that catered to the FiDi worker crowd. But a bevy of recent and upcoming openings point to some bullishness about things picking up.

If you haven't been to SF's Financial District or the general downtown area recently, you may not know that there's been a lot happening in recent months, with more set to come as we move into spring and summer. The mayor's Vacant to Vibrant initiative brought a slew of pop-ups to empty spaces at Embarcadero Center and elsewhere; Holbrook House debuted in late August and has been giving the two- and three-day back-to-the-office set a swanky new happy hour destination; and Heartwood has been similarly bringing in weeknight crowds for its excellent cocktails and bar food on the alley known as Commercial Street.

Across Market Street, the Dawn Club has been gaining traction as a somewhat below-the-radar, mellow nightlife destination, with live jazz and an extremely deep whiskey list.

And there are a few things readying for openings later this year that add up to a general renaissance for downtown. Longtime Thai stalwart Osha Thai is moving into a large space at Montgomery and Pine streets, as the SF Business Times reports this week. The 4,000-square-foot space had been a location of The Plant Organic Cafe, which closed a while ago.

This will be Osha Thai's third downtown location, after their longtime spot at 4 Embarcadero Center, and their Osha Thai Express location at One Market.

Another venerable SF institution, Crustacean, is also opening a new downtown location. The 33-year-old Polk Street restaurant is relocating to new digs at 191 Pine Street, as the Business Times reported a year ago, with its lease on Polk coming to an end. The opening date for that has still not been announced.

And no one is more bullish on SF's downtown than celebrity chef Tyler Florence, who has two big projects in the works in addition to his two new Miller & Lux Provisions cafes in Union Square, which debuted in November.

We learned a couple months back that Florence is taking over Town Hall, the longtime New Orleans-themed restaurant in SoMa. Town Hall closed after 20 years in business on Halloween, and Florence is planning to reopen it in "early 2024" with a refreshed menu.

There is also an ongoing buildout happening at 201 Pine Street (at Battery), which is going to be a new three-level location of Florence's Wayfare Tavern. Florence has yet to clarify whether the original Wayfare at 558 Sacramento Street is going to remain there, or if this will be a full relocation. But the Business Times reported last February that the Florence team "will renovate the basement-, first- and second-levels of six-story 221 Pine, transforming the former ground-floor Tunisian restaurant Dar Fatma and adjacent shuttered GNC store into an 8,000-square-foot restaurant featuring the Wayfare's private lounge and event space, The Sequoia."

The plan also includes retractable awnings and outdoor seating on Pine Street.

Florence has operated Wayfare Tavern since 2010, taking over a space that had famously been home to the hotspot Rubicon in the previous decade and a half. But soon, including the two Union Square cafes and the pricey, Ken Fulk-designed Miller & Lux steakhouse at the Chase Center, Florence will be at the helm of five (possibly six) restaurants in the city, making him the most prominent celebrity chef currently in business here.

Stay tuned as opening dates for all this stuff come into focus.

Related: Chef Tyler Florence Is Taking Over Town Hall; Existing Town Hall to Close Next Week

Photo: Google Street View

Friday night kicks off the third year of the holiday projection mapping display Let Glow SF, bringing animated ice castles and freaky festive projections to the sides of San Francisco buildings.

For the third year in a row, a holiday projection mapping attraction called Let’s Glow SF will holly-jolly the dickens out of the sides of San Francisco buildings. The visual winter wonders, which transform the sides of several downtown San Francisco buildings into animated holiday displays, begin tonight, Friday, December 1, with a 6:30 p.m. countdown and kickoff celebration at the Ferry Building.

“Let’s Glow SF, the country’s largest holiday projection event, will return to downtown San Francisco this holiday season, from December 1st through 10th,” the project’s sponsor Downtown SF Partnership says in a release. “The FREE outdoor holiday event will use high-tech Panasonic projectors and lasers to project large-scale art concepts across the facade of five iconic SF buildings from 5-10 PM nightly, including the Ferry Building for the first time ever. "

While we don’t have any video of this year’s projections yet, that Ferry Building display sounds particularly intriguing. Artist Yann Nguema’s “The Shadow Lighthouse” will use the freshly-unscaffolded Ferry Building as its canvas. In the words of the artist, the project “molds the architectural facade of the Ferry Building Market Place of San Francisco together with virtual algorithmic constructions.”

There will also be displays at the Hobart Building, Landing at Leidesdorff, One Bush Plaza, and the Pacific Stock Exchange building, all running through Sunday, December 10.

But do these projections really do anything to bring tourism or business to downtown SF? The organizers say yes, they do. According to the Downtown SF Pernership’s numbers, last year’s display brought $3 million into the downtown economy, and they estimate that 51,000 people came to see the show over its run.

Let’s Glow SF runs Saturday, December 2 through Sunday, December Dec. 10 from 5-10 p.m. nightly, with a lighting ceremony at the Ferry Building on Friday, December 1 at 6:30 p.m., and the projections on display until 10 p.m. Friday night.

Related: Holiday-Themed Projection Mapping Will Display on Downtown SF Buildings [SFist]

Image via Downtown SF

A night market on Thursday night hosted by Sucka Flea, and a bunch of individual parties at the pop-up businesses in the program, are celebrating the launch of SF's Vacant to Vibrant program, with the hope of breathing some new life into downtown.

A pastry-themed drag show, an art show opening, a doughnut party, and a night market are all part of this week's launch of the Vacant to Vibrant program.

The program hopes to bring more foot traffic and, with it, vibrancy to the woefully empty downtown area, and it launched with both city and private funding in April. The city put out a request for applications, and in August we learned what the first round of 17 pop-ups would be. These include local radio station KALW, the Mission's Sucka Flea, Whack Donuts!, art curators GCS Agency, and two bakeries, Rosalind Bakery and Devil's Teeth Bakery.

Sucka Flea is hosting a night market Thursday starting at 6 p.m. outside their space at 332 Pine Street, along with two of the other program participants, Luminous Waveforms and The Mellow. There will be art, music, and vendors including Sazon Libre, Sheesh Records, Tasty Tings, Outta Sight Pizza, Jewels de la Soul, Lotta International, Jankzine, Swap Film, Beija Flor, Off Top, KPxSF, PillowfightSF, Sake One, Tigerbunny Studios, Mag Dre, and Yucci Outlet.

The success of that Sunset Night Market last month suggest there's an appetite for these things, and with today's super-warm weather, this thing could get busy! Get there early, but it runs until 10 p.m.

Also tonight, KALW is doing an opening celebration and art show at their space at 220 Montgomery Street.

Tomorrow, Friday, October 6, Whack Donuts! launches with a celebration starting 8 a.m., and contemporary African cuisine pop-up Teranga is doing a menu-tasting event starting at 4 p.m.

Then, at 7 p.m. Friday, there's a free "pastry-themed drag show" and party at Devil's Teeth Baking Company. They are opening a downtown pop-up at One Embarcadero Center (Suite R1113).

Also don't miss the opening celebration at Holy Stitch's new factory and school at 100 California Street, starting at 7:30 p.m.

And at 6 p.m., GCS Agency is hosting "Relish: SF Bay Area", a reunion of artists that they brought together for a group show in 2017, all displaying new work.

Check out all these and more upcoming Vacant to Vibrant events here, and there are regular operating hours for all the pop-ups at that link as well.

Previously: Meet the First 17 Pop-Ups That the City Will Pay to Live Rent-Free Downtown In Revitalization Effort

We learned in April that the city was offering to pay pop-ups as much as $8,000 to occupy vacant retail spaces downtown. We now know the first batch will include Devil’s Teeth Bakery, KALW, and a flea market called Sucka Flea.

As the downtown SF recovery has continued to be hindered by vacant office space and storefronts, Mayor Breed’s various offices announced a plan in April, in partnership with SF New Deal, to allow pop-up businesses to operate rent-free, and even paying them $3,000 to $8,000 in grants to get them up and running. The program was dubbed Vacant to Vibrant, and the pop-ups that applied were offered three- to four-month residencies in vacant office and retail spaces.

On Thursday, those offices announced the first 17 participating pop-ups. There are a few familiar, established favorites on the list, some you may have seen at food truck meet-ups, and others that, well, we’re not sure how to explain exactly what they are. These pop-ups are not open yet, but per the Chronicle, they will open “in the second half of September.” We’ve listed all of the “activators” coming into these vacant spaces below, and where you can find them to help juice up the downtown SF recovery.

And, you'll see, several of the spaces getting occupied are empty stores in the Embarcadero Center mall.

Outer Sunset breakfast sandwich favorite Devil’s Teeth Baking Company is coming to the other side of town, and is likely to be a hit given their delicious established credentials. (One Embarcadero Center, Suite R1113)

Rosalind Bakery is a well-established sourdough breadmaker in Pacifica, and they’ll now have an SF outpost, where we hope they'll serve this BLT sandwich. (Four Embarcadero Center, Suite 4054)

La Cocina marketplace veteran and Senegalese eatery Teranga is landing on its feet nicely in the Embarcadero Center, just after La Cocina closes September 1. (Four Embarcadero Center, Suite R4104)

You may have seen vegan donut purveyor Whack Donuts! at Ritual Roasters and Rainbow Grocery, and now you an find them at the Embarcadero Center. (Four Embarcadero Center, Suite 4507)

Nature’s Keeper will be selling “sustainable” outdoor gear with a decidedly tie-dye flair. (100 California Street, Suite 140)

Sharing that same spot will be Holy Stitch, who offer both apparel and sewing supplies. (100 California Street, Suite 140)

Dazzling stuff will be available from Phil Spitler and Victoria Mara Heilwell, whose work is described as “sculptural artwork using LED illumination.” (332 Pine Street)

Multimedia artist Risa Iwasaki Culbertson will have a studio displaying work by the Berkeley-based artist. (151 Jackson Street)

NPR affiliate KALW will apparently be doing some broadcasting from this pop-up Financial District studio. (220 Montgomery Street, Suite 100)

Sucka Flea is a very cleverly named flea market that you may have seen during weekend engagements on Valencia Street. (332 Pine Street)

Yonder Shop will offer a lovely lineup of upscale kitchen and home goods. (151 Jackson Street)

BRUJAS is a New York City-based women’s skateboard collective branching out to the west coast. (201 Jackson Street)

Bee Betwee is a visual artist who’ll be setting up a mini-gallery at Montgomery and Bush streets. (220 Montgomery Street, Suite 100)

York Street Cafe will be serving their pastries and drinks that you may have seen at pop-up markets across town. (Four Embarcadero, Suite 4507)

The Mellow will offer very nice plants and plant holders. (332 Pine Street)

Creativity Explored has been an art collective for developmentally disabled adults for more than 40 years, and now they’ll have a storefront. (220 Montgomery Street, Suite 100)

GCS Agency says they do “curating captivating exhibitions” and it seems they’ll have art gallery type displays. (201 Jackson Street)

More pop-ups will be announced in a couple of months, as this is the first of three rounds for this program.

Wells Fargo has provided an undisclosed sum as the program's presenting sponsor, and the pop-ups are not actually being charged rent. The City of SF has contributed $710,000 towards the program.

"Vacant to Vibrant is a public-private partnership that we’re actively seeking additional partnership and support to bring to it to its fullest potential," says SF New Deal's Executive Director Simon Bertrang. "We’re grateful to Wells Fargo for stepping up as our presenting sponsor."

Related: Pop-Up Bars, Restaurants, and Market Street Dance Parties Envisioned In New Downtown Revival Program [SFist]

Image: VibantSF.org

A previous version of this article stated that Wells Fargo was subsidizing rent for the pop-ups, but Wells Fargo's contribution is not actually going toward rent.

It's the third summer in a row that a new initiative or program is seeking to breathe some life into SF's struggling, sparsely populated downtown. But this time it sounds like money is actually being thrown at filling vacant storefronts.

A program being managed by the pandemic-born nonprofit SF New Deal called Vacant to Vibrant, which just launched a website and application portal today, is using some City Hall funds to bring small-business entrepreneurs, artists, gallerists, and event promoters downtown to do events and three- to four-month pop-ups, starting in late summer.

Applications are being accepted in three categories starting this week: art, live events, and small businesses, and funds from the SF Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) will provide grants of $3,000 to $8,000 to get the pop-ups up and running. SF New Deal also promises to handle all the "hassles" and logistics of getting city permits.

The first group of winning proposals will launch together, with 10 to 15 so-called "activations" all within close vicinity.

As Jacob Bindman, chief programs officer for SF New Deal, tells the Chronicle today, "We want there to be a lot of wild ideas, like a dance party on Market Street."

While downtown and the Financial District has largely been occupied by office workers for decades, with businesses that tend to cater to those office workers — think expense-account lunches and dinners, soup-and-sandwich places, after-work bars — the city knows they need to re-energize this part of the city as an entertainment district, or something, right quick.

There has been a failure to launch in both the summers of 2021 and 2022, as some office workers (lawyers and bankers at least) have gone back to the office, but tech workers have largely continued to be remote. And many firms continue to allow flexible schedules that have made Wednesdays the busiest days downtown, when the majority of those going into the office at all tend to show up.

Mayor London Breed's $9.5M Downtown Recovery Plan first launched in May 2021, funding a series of outdoor events at Salesforce Transit Center and in Union Square and expanding the city's Ambassador Program — which puts "ambassadors" from the nonprofit Urban Alchemy on the street to deter crime and promote safety.

The Delta variant and subsequent Omicron wave put a damper on that recovery plan pretty quickly, and in March of last year, Breed was asking businesses to sign a "Welcome Back to SF pledge" encouraging people to go back to their offices.

Fast-forward to this spring, and all the talk is about "doom loops" and the fact that Whole Foods couldn't even stay open a year at 8th and Market. Also, in February, Breed announced a new program of tax discounts for any new business looking to relocated downtown.

With Vacant to Vibrant, city officials are again hoping to spur more activity — and more reason to be in an office downtown — by way of pop-up art galleries, bars, restaurants, and shops, along with events. This effort has $710,000 behind it from the OEWD, and the hope is to get 33 vacant storefronts filled. The program also includes funding up to $5,000 per storefront for tenant improvements — which isn't much, but is meant to be some incentive for landlords.

Without a new wave of the pandemic cresting, and with people seemingly craving being out and about after a rainy winter — did you see Dolores Park on Easter? — this just might work, if the offerings are enough of a draw. San Franciscans love a limited-time pop-up! Especially if shoes or bagels are involved!

Interested applicants can start sending in their stuff now, and there will be an informational session about the Vacant to Vibrant program over Zoom on May 1. The first wave of applications, for the late summer launch, will end on June 1, but applications will be accepted on a rolling basis after that.

And, in a potential boon for restaurateurs who lost their businesses to the pandemic, the pop-ups have the potential to become permanent, if they're successful. The San Francisco Office of Small Business says it will step in and try to help business owners negotiate long-term leases once they're in a space, but there are no guarantees.

Look for more announcements about events and the pop-up roster sometime this summer.

Related: Mayor London Breed Announces Tax Breaks, Other Incentives Aimed at Reviving SF's Downtown

Photo: Robert Forcadilla

In her State of the City address Thursday, SF Mayor London Breed announced a multipart plan aimed at revitalizing the city's beleaguered, seemingly half-empty downtown, and it involves some Twitter tax-break-style tax breaks.

"San Francisco downtown as we know it is not coming back,” Breed said in her speech, striking a less cheerleader-y note than in the past. "You know what? That's OK," she continued. "Empty office buildings have fueled dire predictions about economic doom and screaming headlines about the death of downtown... In 1906, downtown was mostly rubble and ash. That's considerably worse than today's shift in how people are working. We have our challenges, but that doesn't mean it's the end of downtown."

Breed announced a sweeping plan, dubbed Roadmap to Downtown San Francisco’s Future, which includes a two-year pause in scheduled increases in the gross receipts tax for certain industries hardest hit in the pandemic; and tax discounts of up to $1 million per year for three years for any new companies that relocate to downtown.

Breed also hinted that a permanent tax-break ballot measure of this kind may be in the cards.

The infamous "Twitter tax break" provided by former Mayor Ed Lee to lure companies, including Twitter, to mid-Market by exempting them from a portion of their payroll taxes, had its sunset in 2019. Many argued that it did little to revitalize mid-Market — and certainly Twitter former fancy cafeteria didn't help in terms of workers spending money at local businesses — and it just ended up costing the city about $10 million a year in lost revenue.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who once called the Twitter tax break "a terrible piece of public policy," sounds mostly onboard with Breed's smaller tax "discounts." He tells the SF Business Times that his office and Breed's are on "similar pages about short-term targeted tax relief to incent[ivize] new office occupants" and with regard to "delaying tax increase for sensitive sectors."

The downtown plan is structured around nine strategies that also include making downtown more "inviting" and safe, improving parks and plazas, and "transform[ing] Downtown into a leading arts, culture, and nightlife destination." And Breed discussed the oft-mention push to streamline the permitting process for new downtown businesses, as well as creating more flexible zoning to diversify the uses of downtown properties.

"The truth is it won't be one thing that fixes downtown," Breed said in her speech. "It will be many things. And the good news is that downtown San Francisco has so many advantages — a beautiful waterfront location, local and regional transportation a dense walkable neighborhood restaurants, bars, entertainment and the proximity to iconic venues like Oracle Park and Chase Center."

And, she added on Twitter, "Today, San Francisco is poised to move forward. The last few years have been tough, and the challenges ahead are tougher still.  But we are a city that perseveres. We don’t give up. We will rise."

Related: SF Mayor London Breed Begins Laying Out Plan to Build 82,000 New Homes, and the City's West Side Better Brace Itself

Photo: LondonBreed/Twitter

Yet another analysis points out the well-reported state of affairs that downtown San Francisco’s economic recovery from the pandemic is awfully sluggish, but this one purports that we’re in last place among 62 North American cities.

It’s pretty common these days for some pro-business Bay Area think tank to put out a study about the death of downtown San Francisco since pandemic restrictions have largely been lifted, and a hundred thinkpieces have been penned on the topic. Every single one of these thinkpieces and analyses fails to take into account that San Francisco also had the lowest COVID-19 death rate of any U.S. city, and by a substantial margin at that. So if we’re suffering hundreds or thousands fewer deaths than other same-size cities, but having a slower economic recovery, call me crazy but that’s a trade-off I would take any day.

But the Chronicle reports one of these new analyses ranks San Francisco dead last among the 62 largest North American cities in terms of downtown activity since COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. That comes from a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies analysis that studied the largest U.S. (and Canadian) cities’ mobile phone-ping data — measuring cellphone activity in SF's downtown quadrant in 2019 vs. 2022 — and found that there’s only 31% as much human activity in downtown SF compared to pre-pandemic.    

“In this research, we examine visits over time to 62 downtown areas using mobile phone data, comparing the most recent activity (as of November 30, 2022) to pre-pandemic levels (in 2019),” the study says. “We find wide variation in the extent of recovery, with activity ranging from a low of 31% of pre-pandemic levels in San Francisco to a high of 135% in Salt Lake City.”

In contrast to other studies which use data from public-transit exits or car traffic, this study specifically isolates the number of cellphones in an area at a given time.

You can see the data represented in their graph above (“RQ” means “Recovery Quotient”). And a small number of mid-sized cities, like the aforementioned Salt Lake City, plus Bakersfield and Fresno, actually have more bustling downtowns now than they did pre-pandemic.

There are a few reasons SF is in last place, but the big one is our very large tech sector that is still often working from home. “In general, places with a higher share of employment in knowledge-based industries and occupations and/or more highly paid workers, are likely to shift towards remote work," the study says. “Surveys suggest that shift will be permanent for up to half of the workforce in cities that are large and congested (e.g., New York), or powered by the tech sector (e.g., San Francisco).”

The study’s lead author, UC Berkeley professor Karen Chapple, tells KRON4 that "San Francisco suffers from an economy that isn’t very diverse. It does great when there is a tech boom, but right now it’s really hurting the city’s resilience."

Certainly the tech office vacancy rate is dire, as we learned this week that there are currently 15 Salesforce Towers worth of empty offices in San Francisco. Commercial real estate brokerage CBRE quotes the city’s office vacancy rate hitting a record high 27% at the end of last year.

“San Francisco set itself up for this,” Chapple explains to KRON4. “It zoned out residential and doubled down on commercial offices in the downtown zip code. That’s what it decided this area of the city should be and it was the wrong bet.”

She’s probably correct on that, and we ought to be moving faster on converting offices to housing. But there are more figures to consider. The Chamber of Commerce and business lobby set also fail to take into account that San Francisco unemployment is currently at a fabulously low rate of 2.3%, which by the way is lower than it was pre-pandemic. So maybe those people working in downtown cafes, bánh mì shops, and Financial District bars have found other work?

Or sure, maybe they moved to Fresno or Bakersfield, whose downtowns are more bustling than the Before Times. But Bakersfield currently has 6.8% unemployment (nearly triple that of SF!), while Fresno has 6.6% unemployment. So that may be some important context when the big-business think tanks tell San Francisco that it supposedly has the worst downtown economy in the nation.

Related: ​​State of SF Economy: Tech Booming, Unemployment Low, But Tourism and Hospitality Still Screwed [SFist]

Image: Clay Elliot via Unsplash

While most tech companies are downsizing — or outright eliminating — their corporate headquarters in San Francisco, the work management platform Asana is actually increasing its office presence in the city with a new office space near its South of Market headquarters.

The descent of San Francisco's downtown moniker as a prominent place for tech companies to set up massive headquarters continues in unobstructed free fall. Earlier this week, Twitter announced its plans to ditch its Oakland expansion... all while committing to a sizable decrease to its San Francisco headquarters. (Though these actions do make sense, given how the social media company's CEO Parag Agrawal announced that he'd continue supporting the option of working remotely “forever" in March.) Etsy, the American e-commerce company that's become a go-source for one-of-a-king goods, is expected to shutter its San Francisco offices for good come September.

Why? Employees aren't going into them. It's why LinkedIn has completely redesigned its Silicon Valley campus — to include over 75 types of seating and make it feel more like a large community center than a sprawling office space.

Asana is among the companies interested in creating and expanding physical spaces that explore the next generation of (likely hybrid) office work, which is why its corporate footprint in San Francisco is set to grow by 71,000 square feet.

First reported by the San Francisco Business Times, Asana is expected to begin subleasing more office space at 633 Folsom Street this year; the company, which was co-founded by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, is headquartered in South of Market. According to the publication, Asana will be taking over space that was previously home to Macy’s San Francisco offices.

It's unclear how the newly leased office space will be laid out, but it's a bit of bright light for a particularly dark time in corporate San Francisco real estate.

Related: Twitter Is Slashing Its Office Footprint, Canceling Plans for Oakland Office