Much of San Francisco is facing an economic death spiral brought on by post-pandemic woes, the San Francisco Chronicle said in an editorial.
The article is headlined, "San Francisco could be on the verge of collapse. What should California do about it?"
"Downtown San Francisco is at risk of collapsing — and taking much of the Bay Area with it," according to the editorial.
"Experts say post-pandemic woes stemming from office workers staying home instead of commuting into the city could send San Francisco into a 'doom loop' that would gut its tax base, decimate fare-reliant regional transit systems like BART and trap it in an economic death spiral."
The article asked the question: "Who could have predicted such a fate?"
"Anyone who paid attention to what happened in New York after the 9/11 terrorist attacks," it answered.
"Like San Francisco, lower Manhattan's Financial District was once a nearly exclusive daytime hub for suburban office commuters and the businesses who fed them lunch — and a ghost town after dark.
"That all changed after 9/11.
"But New York came up with a vision for reinvention."
The Big Apple's Financial District would become a place where people lived and worked. About $20 billion in public and private investments were spent on making the vision a reality.
The editorial noted the Financial District ended up bouncing back.
"The tragedy of 9/11 inadvertently revealed the glaring vulnerabilities and inadequacies of office-dependent, 9-to-5 business districts — and created a new model for making American downtowns more stable economic engines for local governments and fostering better, more compelling urban life," the editorial said.
"Unfortunately, San Francisco didn't get the memo."