The beginning of August is usually one of the busiest times of year for tourism in San Francisco. In a normal year, it feels like all of Europe is visiting, particularly if you are in Chinatown or Fisherman’s Wharf. I used to work as a waiter at a restaurant a block from Union Square. In August it felt to me like that everyone’s second language was English. One of my favorite chants at that time was “Italians and Germans and French - oh my!”.
It is also the time of year when many locals go on vacation. If you are not in one of the tourist hot spots, city neighborhoods can seem quiet. It can be a good time to visit local parks and cafes that are normally crowded on most weekends.
This year there are few if any tourists, and many of the locals are still out of town on vacation. Plus, people are moving out of town in droves. There is an exodus from San Francisco that I have not seen in the 30+ years I have lived here. This makes the vibe in San Francisco feel weirder than ever. On one hand, it is nice to have the city streets to ourselves. On the other hand, it feels almost dystopian walking around an empty city that was very recently bustling and vibrant.
San Francisco was long overdue for a reckoning of some kind. While the tech boom over the last ten years provided a huge economic boost, it also was creating some serious problems. The cost of housing skyrocketed so much that it simply became unaffordable to live here unless you made six figures a year. With fewer and fewer working class people able to afford housing, the city had become more gentrified. Some neighborhoods, such as SOMA, The Mission and even Chinatown were losing their unique characters that had withheld for generations. Many long-standing institutions and businesses simply could no longer afford the rents. And the economic success had other downsides too: construction everywhere and terrible traffic.
The City and its residents are resilient and we will make it through this pandemic. We may never be quite the same, but for better or worse, San Francisco will endure and continue to reinvent itself.