December in San Francisco would usually bring throngs into the city for shopping and celebrating. On weekends hotels would be full and sidewalks, stores and malls around Union Square would be packed with people. Police would be at intersections directing pedestrians and traffic in an effort to keep things moving on the gridlocked streets. Restaurants and bars would be booked with company holiday parties. Theaters all over the city would be bustling with movies, concerts and performances. And then, in the middle of December on one of the busiest weekends of the year, Santacon, an annual city-wide pub crawl, would bring thousands of inebriated young people dressed in various Santa and holiday themed outfits into town leaving a trail of bottles, barf and other debris of drunken debauchery.
This year, nothing is as it should be. There were some holiday shoppers, but only a fraction of what you would expect to see in a normal year. Already under stress from online shopping, many retail stores have permanently closed. Some restaurants seemed to be making a comeback with outdoor dining, but on December 3, California Governor Gavin Newsom launched a regional stay-at-home order, and the next day, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced a new lockdown to start December 6. This closed all outdoor dining, spas, salons, barber shops, gyms, museums, and reduced retail to 20% capacity. Along with it came a 10pm to 5am curfew. On the weekend before the lockdown, I walked around and noticed that a lot of people were out taking advantage of a last chance to grab a bite at an outdoor table or get a haircut in a salon.
Even under the lockdown, San Francisco has plenty of eye candy to photograph. And despite the hard times, people and businesses kept up with the Christmas decorating to create a festive feeling, even when streets are mostly deserted. Here are a few photographs from the first two weeks of December.