SAN FRANCISCO’S DOWNTOWN NEEDS “REDEVELOPMENT 3.0”

July 13, 2023

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

San Francisco, CA

Contact: TODCO Group, todcoplanning@todco.org, 415-896-1880

SAN FRANCISCO’S DOWNTOWN NEEDS “REDEVELOPMENT 3.0”

It’s Time For A Different Approach

When Governor Jerry Brown erased all possible future redevelopment projects statewide in 2010 he threw the baby out with the bathwater. Rather than just reforming the historic abuses of redevelopment he made it impossible for cities to ever undertake and finance comprehensive planned urban revitalization programs again, even in times of crisis from natural disasters or economic collapse … like the our downtown’ “doom loop” that now threatens the future of San Francisco.

But hopefully there can be a “workaround,” an innovative combination of possible financing and development programs still allowed by State laws held together by essential community building institutions. But this will take two vital ingredients: Insightful Civic Vision and the Leadership Skills to put it all together. The fundamental flaw of our City’s downtown, especially its moribund Financial District, is that after 60 years of commuter-focused corporate headquarters development it does not embody the soul and spirt of San Francisco. It does not belong to all the people of San Francisco. That has to change.

Now we can learn from the past. 50 years ago TODCO’s founders, the bulldozed tenants of the Yerba Buena Redevelopment Project and their community allies envisioned instead a new part of downtown that, unlike the Financial District, belonged to all the people of the City, not just the visitor industry and convention hotels. They proposed instead a Yerba Buena Gardens and cultural district that was gradually built in the following decades using redevelopment powers and financing. And thanks to TODCO’s vision of a genuine neighborhood here too, today over 5000 residents live in the area’s 9 big SOMA blocks, half in 2000 affordable senior housing apartments and half in 2000 more market housing units,3 with more on the way.

So to begin with, first the Financial District must have the true civic centerpiece it lacks today, a great public space that will come to embody the soul and spirit of all the people of San Francisco – a grand Embarcadero Park where today three disjointed and underused parks and plazas lay fallow. Sue Bierman Park, an empty lawn that replaced one-time Embarcadero Freeway ramps, a little-used bocce ball court, and the ill-named Justin Herman Plaza with its unloved Vaillancourt Fountain can be merged together to showcase the spirit of today’s San Francisco. The City’s waterfront and historic Ferry Building are the most popular destinations in downtown San Francisco today because they embody the timeless soul of our City, the great crossroads on our magnificent Bay.

Imagine a Burning Man sculpture garden here for its iconic monumental artworks that have no place to display today. Imagine a dynamic skateboarders amphitheater here for the City youth that gather daily in front of the Ferry Building now. Imagine a stage for popular concerts here to bring the music of the world to our City.

To fund the $50 million cost to renovate these worn public spaces and adjacent areas along the Embarcadero, the City can establish an Enhanced Infrastructure Finance District including the Financial District, like a past years redevelopment project, to generate tax increment bond financing. Uniquely this can also finance future new affordable housing nearby to make up for relaxing City inclusionary housing requirements for the downtown market housing projects that everyone agrees are needed for it to become a vital part of the City too.

And to ensure the grand Embarcadero Park is well managed to engage all City communities , the City can also replicate the unique model of the nonprofit Yerba Buena Gardens Conservancy and its Arts and Events affiliate to dynamically activate all its possibilities. To fund its annual operations and modest but needed improvements to the streetscape of surrounding blocks the City can also establish a new Community Facilities District, just like the former redevelopment agency district that built and operates all of Mission Bay’s lovely parks today, supported by annual assessments on all the surrounding properties that will benefit from this significant public investment.

But one mistake not to make is cutting corporate headquarters business taxes in a futile hope of somehow drawing more back to the City. Instead that will only prop up the high office rents that soared in recent years, which is a big part of the problem now. It’s those rents that need to come down to fill up the empty towers, even while building owners are petitioning the city to cut their assessed values and city property tax. And city voters agree. In a recent poll only 19% saw “lower taxes for big companies” as a high or top priority, while 59% responded this was a low priority or, the city should not do that.

Instead, last but not least, if the goal to attack the heart of the problem, is to bring San Franciscans back to downtown so they really come to believe it is their downtown, then now is the time to stop charging city residents  a fee to come there – to stop collecting MUNI fares downtown, effectively cutting round trip fares in half. The impact on MUNI’s already declining fare revenue will be modest, while it will save regular commuters and essential workers about $500 per year as well as  encouraging residents of the entire city to  come to Union Square and the grand new Embarcadero Park.

Former City Planning Commissioner Douglas Engmann, an original member of the Mayor George Moscone’s 1976 Select Committee on Yerba Buena draws upon the lessons of this complex history of San Francisco redevelopment, “The civic vision and successful effort to create our treasured downtown Yerba Buena neighborhood was spearheaded by determined San Francisco community organizations, and then joined by business, labor, the visitor industry, cultural organizations and developers in an effort that continued for decades and continues even now. Our city leaders of today need to foster and empower a similar process that brings all sides, especially the communities of San Francisco, together in creating the future of downtown.”

How To Get Started

Not long ago the City might have designated the Financial District as a redevelopment “survey area” to prepare a comprehensive plan for its future public improvements, like those suggested above, their programs, and how to finance their construction and operation. Such an inclusive planning process is needed today. It could be hosted, for example, by the San Francisco Planning Department as an update to its 35 year old, now obsolete, “Downtown Plan.” Such a process can be initiated by City Supervisors at any time. Let’s put the spirit and soul of San Francisco, our People, our communities, back into downtown. Let’s make it their downtown.