Since San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced he plans to have city employees return to the office at least four days a week, local business owners said they are excited about the potential boost to their establishments.
Online orders have kept Atique Rehman busy at Naan 'N Curry near San Francisco City Hall, and since operating there last December, he's seen change.
"The moment I came here, they started cleaning the place. Before I got here, they started cleaning downtown and everything around Civic Center," Rehman said.
And with Mayor Lurie's push for more in-person work, Rehman said he's excited to see the potential of more walk-in customers.
Luries reiterated his position at the CityBeat breakfast on Wednesday.
"We announced yesterday [that] we are bringing all city workers back to the office so taxpayers can get the services they deserve from [the] government," he said.
Lurie said in the memo on Tuesday that a recent survey found that about 70% of city employees work in person at least five days a week, while most other employees are in the office three days a week.
Local
By April 28, Lurie wants all city employees in office at least four days a week. However, that excludes employees with approved accommodation requests.
According to a recent poll sponsored by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, city residents said they increasingly felt that things were going in the right direction.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
Five hundred residents were surveyed by phone or text, and 43% of those surveyed said the city is on the right track, nearly double the number from last year. Meanwhile, 56% said the city is on the wrong track, a decrease of 16 points from last year.
People polled, business leaders and government officials all said revitalizing downtown remains a top priority. Some of that will mean getting people back into empty offices, including city employees.
"You’re starting to see those businesses reopen. You’re starting to see larger companies take lease office space. You’re seeing an office-to-residential conversion happening legislatively," said Chamber of Commerce President Rodney Fong. "There are a number of different things that people have been working on for the last five or six years that’s are really coming to a crescendo."
With more creative ways to draw people in, businesses and experiences have popped up.
In Union Square, a Simpsons-inspired pop-up bar is now open.
First Thursdays have also allowed people to eat and dance their way through downtown. The event was created to address the areas struggling to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We have between 15 and 20,000 people who show up once a month to enjoy San Francisco in the streets downtown," said Manny Yekutiel of Civic Joy Fund. "I think what it shows is that people will go downtown they just need to be invited."
However, some businesses said they have been forced to close their doors.
The owners of The Market, located on the first floor of the former Twitter business, said that they will be out of business on Friday. They claim sales have plummeted from $60,000 a day in 2019 to just $2,300.
The owners also cited remote work as a reason and added that they couldn't afford to wait for in-person work mandates.
Others hope that Lurie's mandate could be a way to steady their businesses' future.
"I think people need to come back just generally speaking," Rehman said. "We need people walking."
