At tables overlooking the San Francisco Bay on a recent, unseasonably warm Saturday afternoon, diners slurped down oysters, cut into crepes, and shared bottles of rosé chilling on ice. The stands of the Ferry Plaza’s weekend farmer’s market teemed with fresh artichokes, leeks, and oranges; the empanada vendor was sold out by 1 p.m. In between the foodies was a sea of baseball fans rushing to a Giants game at Oracle Park.
Watching the bustling scene, it’s easy to forget that San Francisco has had one of the slowest recoveries of any U.S. city coming out of the pandemic and was the country’s worst-performing tourism market last year. Much of its tech workforce continues to work remotely, tourism from Asia has yet to rebound, and business travel has all but evaporated.
It’s not just an economic toll: Drug overdoses killed more San Franciscans than COVID in 2021, and the city’s homelessness problem, already exacerbated by high housing costs, has only deepened in the last few years. The downtown Tenderloin district has been hit especially hard. In a bid to turn the city’s image around, Mayor London Breed recently went on a 10-day tour of Europe to attract foreign visitors and promote events.
