By Chronicle Editorial Board – excerpt
We need residents in downtown San Francisco, not empty offices. Proposition C would help get us there.
It’s no secret; downtown San Francisco is struggling.
Nearly 36% of the city’s office space is empty, totaling over 30 million square feet. Workers would rather stay home than commute, and many of the businesses that relied on the patronage of those commuters have closed, leaving “for lease” signs on vacant spaces. Downtown is the engine that drives San Francisco’s tax revenues. Consequentially, these vacancies are the most significant contributor to the city’s projected budget deficit of nearly $800 million over the next two budget cycles.
Nearly everyone in San Francisco, it seems, sees a solution to this quandary in converting empty, unwanted offices into housing.
Rightly so…(more)