(Photo courtesy of Henri Borius @ IG_Henri_Borius_Photos)
Noe Valley, where I live, is supposed to be sunny. But I can tell you that – until this July 4 week-end’s delightful respite — I was getting tired of waking every morning to another milky white sky and a temperature reading that seemed stuck on 50º. It’s not just the weather that’s been gloomy. One article after another seems to take delight in enumerating San Francisco’s travails. The Economist, among other magazines, opines that downtown San Francisco may risk falling into a “doom loop.” The San Francisco Chronicle followed up with a list of major retail vacancies after Westfield gave up its flagship property on Market Street. And the Financial Times, in an article titled “Defaults Raise Alarm Over Stability of San Francisco’s Commercial Property,” quoted the chief executive of the company that owned two major hotels given back to their lenders as saying “San Francisco’s path to recovery remains clouded and elongated by major challenges” including “concerns over street conditions”. ...