Sales tax data shows San Francisco’s population likely declined during the coronavirus lockdown and panic, the city’s chief economist Ted Egan told The San Francisco Chronicle.
From April to June, the city’s sales tax revenue dropped to $30.8 million, down 43% from the prior year.
San Francisco’s taxable online sales were up only 1% in that three-month period compared to the same period a year ago, while other California cities saw gains over 10% as people ordered more home deliveries, the paper notes. The modest increase likely shows that many residents left the city entirely, Egan said.
“We’re the worst in the state,” he said. “That’s a sign to me that people aren’t here.”
Restaurant and bar sales were down 65% as indoor dining was prohibited, while food and drug store sales were down 8%.
Other metrics like falling apartment rents and busy moving companies suggest the population decline, though it’s too early to tell how many people have left, Egan said.
On an anecdotal basis, I passed through (by car) the Tenderloin section of the city. It has always been the epicenter of drugged-out homeless, thousands of them. But I was shocked to see the expansion of tents and new homeless in the area. Bangladesh, you have competition.
And in another section of the city, the once-bustling shopping district, I spotted this latest development in what was once the Jos. A. Bank store:
As I reported earlier, a sign on the door advises customers to visit the nearest now open Jos. A Bank store which is 150 miles away in Sacramento.
Meanwhile, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who suffered a hard case of dread risk fear at the start of the COVID-19 panic and was the first city to order a blunt instrument across the board lockdown, thinks things are just fine in the wrecked city.
“We are doing OK, but we can do better. Because I want to keep these businesses open,” said Breed recently said---as if all the businesses are open. “I want to make sure we don’t lose the fabric of San Francisco and what makes San Francisco so great and so special.”
Hey London, this isn't fine. The mannequins have no clothes.
-RW
Yet, my understanding is that SF is strewn with feces and used needles, but hey, let's be afraid of a virus no worse than the flu for most people. You can't make this stupidity up anymore. You have to wonder how The Onion and Babylon Bee still write satire.
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