Mayor London N. Breed hit Sacramento today to rally support for the city's downtown recovery initiative in a determined push to revitalize San Francisco's economic core. Mayor Breed joined forces with mayors from across California, including Sacramento's Darrell Steinberg, Long Beach's Rex Richardson, and Riverside's Patricia Lock Dawson, to address Assemblymember Matt Haney’s Select Committee on Downtown Recovery. This committee aims to cut through the red tape inhibiting the resurgence of downtown areas hit hard by the pandemic, as reported by SF.gov.
Mayor Breed threw her weight behind three state bills designed to fast-track San Francisco's makeover, including SB 1227, a Bill sponsored by her that would open up San Francisco for a radical ten-year redevelopment plan, including student housing and other commercial projects by streamlining bureaucratic procedures, as per statements gathered by SF.gov. Alongside, AB 3068 and AB 2488, authored by San Francisco lawmakers, seek to provide financial incentives for office-to-housing conversions and use tax increment financing for such transformation over a 30-year. Speaking eloquently of change, the mayor remarked, “San Francisco’s Downtown is changing, and we must be creative and aggressive in our work to transform our City’s core from an outdated 9 to 5 office environment to a bustling 24/7 neighborhood,” a sentiment echoed in the article on SF.gov.
In addition to her testimony before the state, Mayor Breed, as recorded by SF.gov, has outlined her commitment to the continued renaissance of downtown San Francisco. Her pledge includes "30 by 30," an ambitious plan to welcome 30,000 more residents and students to downtown by 2030. The strategy takes a holistic approach involving converting unused office spaces into housing and establishing more educational institutes within the city's hub.
According to the statistics posted by SF.gov, the seeds sown by Mayor Breed's administration have started to sprout. Recently, San Francisco welcomed a resurgence in international and domestic travel, venturesome hotel occupancy that hit 80% of its pre-pandemic numbers, and a convention business that boasted 400,000 visitors—a financial boon estimated to have poured $725 million into the urban center. Serving as the world's largest venture capital pipeline, the Bay City saw deals eclipsing $34 billion last year. Demand for office space in the first quarter of 2024 blew up to 6 million square feet, a spike from late last year's figures.
