San Francisco’s Union Square is gearing up for a busy few weeks due to the upcoming APEC summit and the holiday season.
The Macy’s Grand Tree Lighting ceremony came just in time for the influx in businesses, as they are expecting when 20,000 or so take over San Francisco as part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit or APEC.
President Joe Biden and other world leaders and dignitaries from 21 member countries are set to be part of the week-long summit that’ll take place primarily inside a secure perimeter at the Moscone Convention Center starting Saturday.
John’s Grill manager John Savage says that reservations at his restaurant are slim.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
“We’re really booked up for lunch and dinner. Both with smaller groups as well as large parties,” he said. “So, Sunday night, we start getting busy and then, it starts to fizzle out on Friday, which is pretty much the end of APEC.”
For some people, they say the next week is a chance to change the negative narrative that has plagued San Francisco. Some are seeing APEC as a push to clean up the city quickly.
But San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the city had already began efforts like being more aggressive in getting unhoused into shelters and combatting the fentanyl crisis.
“Before APEC was announced that it would be in San Francisco ,we were already trying to develop these partnerships and never existed, before the partnership that we have with the state and the federal government to deal with fentanyl in our city is not a partnership that has ever existed anywhere that I’m aware of in the country,” she said.
Earlier Thursday morning, the city of San Francisco activated its emergency operations center for APEC.
The San Francisco Fire Department said that 15 extra ambulances are coming into town, while trying to ease fears of response times for those in secure zones around Moscone, Fairmont Hotel, the Embarcadero or elsewhere.
“We have resources located within each zone within each secure area. We have paramedics and EMTs and others that’ll be stationed inside there,” said San Francisco Fire Department Chief Jeanine R. Nicholson.
San Francisco will be bustling and nearly bursting.
"Most hotels around Moscone are fully committed and fully booked. There are some hotels in other parts of the city that still have some availabilities," said Alex Bastian with the Hotel Council of San Francisco.
Many people are hoping the city will sparkle just as much as the lights at Union Square.
“This is unprecedented for San Francisco and a great opportunity. We want to make sure we shine,” said Marisa Rodriguez, CEO of the Union Square Alliance.
If anyone that needs to go San Francisco next week, they should expect delays for motorcades and if possible, officials are recommending those to use public transit to get around.
