On a slightly overcast Valentine’s Day with sweeping views of the Bay Bridge, San Francisco business and civic leaders at the Chamber of Commerce CityBeat Breakfast painted the picture of a downtrodden city finally turning the page into an era of grand recovery.
San Francisco, CA
72% of San Francisco voters say city is on the wrong track
It was a bit of an ironic message, particularly considering some of the survey data presented at the event itself.
A Chamber of Commerce survey found that 72% of voters believe that the city is on the wrong track, compared with only 22% who said the opposite. The number was slightly improved from the 77% figure in the Chamber’s survey back in May, but still a far cry from the 46% who believed the arrow was pointed downward in 2019.
The mixed mood and messaging were hard to ignore, even from the stage.
“I know this sounds a little bit strange, but I want to start off by saying how proud I am of all San Franciscans,” Chamber of Commerce CEO Rodney Fong said, to slightly stuttering applause from attendees nibbling on a light breakfast of leafy greens and an appropriate treat: chocolate-dipped strawberries.
Signs of the vibe shift, according to Fong, were voters’ desire to take action on the city’s problems at the ballot box. Alongside the breakfast, the Chamber released polling showing a majority of voters supported ballot measures in the March 5 election that would increase police powers to use surveillance technology and conduct pursuits (Prop. E), predicate cash welfare on drug addiction screening (Prop. F) and provide tax breaks for office-to-residential conversions (Prop. C).
Fong noted that the theme of the last CityBeat breakfast in 2020 before the pandemic was “Wake Up San Francisco,” an allusion to the problems already starting to fester in the boom times.
It took a few years, Fong said in his remarks, but he feels that the city is finally heeding that call.
“I’m confident that 2024 will be a year that lays the foundation for a stronger, more inclusive and even more innovative San Francisco,” Fong said.
In her keynote remarks, Mayor London Breed’s overarching message was that to turn a corner, San Francisco needs to embrace being “aggressive” and “uncomfortable” in its approach to long-standing issues, such as homelessness and drug crimes.
She targeted “naysayers” both outside and inside the city who seemed to gloat over its misfortune.
“There were those who said that the economic fallout from the pandemic might be a good thing. Can you imagine that?” Breed said.
Breed, who’s facing a tough reelection fight in November, defended her record on public safety, saying her policies led to the second-lowest crime rate over the past 10 years in 2023.
“People need help in San Francisco, and if you aren’t willing to get a little aggressive, then you’re willing to let the stuff that’s continuing to happen on our streets continue,” she said, touting her work with state and federal officials to tamp down drug dealing.
“Change makes people uncomfortable, but I’m not worried about that because you know who we need to make uncomfortable? The drug dealer selling deadly fentanyl on the streets of our city,” she said.
And, although outside media has long been an adversary, Breed approvingly quoted recent Bloomberg, New York Times and Economist headlines about the city’s rebound.
“Surprising, comeback? Maybe for some, but not for those of us who’ve been here doing the work, for those who believe, for those who have always been here,” Breed said.
The dissonance between rah-rah cheerleading and larger public opinion grew obvious when around five minutes after Breed’s remarks, event organizers showed data about the 72% of San Francisco voters who said the city is on the wrong track. The proportion of San Franciscans who think that economic conditions are better today than a year ago went from 12% in 2023 to 20% in 2024.
But around 50% felt things were worse, and voters who believe that economic conditions will be worse a year from now outnumbered those who thought things would be better.
A voter guide released by the Chamber found the business interest group aligned with nearly all of the mayor’s priorities. One glaring exception was the “no position” taken by the Chamber on Prop. F’s rules around addiction screening for city welfare recipients.
Carlos Solórzano-Cuadra, CEO of the city’s Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview that while he appreciates the mayor’s optimistic messaging, he isn’t writing off all of the worries about public safety and the economy. He added that he would like the business community to shift some of its focus away from downtown and to neighborhoods like the Mission.
“We still have work to do,” said Solórzano-Cuadra. “There are things that need to be done better.”
Hanging over the breakfast were two fiercely contested elections likely among the most consequential in San Francisco’s recent history. In the audience were at least two other candidates vying for her job: Mark Farrell and Daniel Lurie.
At his campaign kickoff event on Tuesday, Farrell—Breed’s predecessor—painted a darker picture of the city’s condition, mirroring the Chamber’s public opinion polling. Instead of questioning the doom loop claims, he embraced them as a sign of how lost the city is.
“We have a doom loop, and we are losing our mantle as a world-class city,” Farrell said. “We are literally now being compared to Detroit and Oakland. That is not the conversation where San Francisco belongs.”
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced multiple hate crime charges, as well as assault and vandalism charges against an Oakland man for an incident that happened in the Castro District last month.
On Thursday afternoon, Hans Haken pleaded not guilty to one felony count of assault with a deadly weapon, one count of assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury, one count of vandalism, one count of hit-and-run, and one count of reckless driving.
Prosecutors also allege each of the felony assault counts was a hate crime.
“In San Francisco, we have zero tolerance for any hate, hateful acts, certainly that cross the criminal line, and we will do everything that we can to protect our residents from these types of incidents,” said Jenkins at a Thursday afternoon news conference.
It was on May 16, around 5:30 p.m., when prosecutors say Haken spray-painted a homophobic slur on the wall next to Chartreuse by Roje, a gay-owned floral boutique in San Francisco’s Castro District.
“It was a reminder that even though we’re here in Castro, San Francisco, we live in this well-protected bubble that we have created very passionately and strongly, that that can still happen,” said Jeffrey Dumlao, the owner of Chartreuse by Roje. “If anything, that is what’s scary, that it happened here in broad daylight of all times.”
Dumlao says his store had already closed by that time, but Justin Donnelly, who lives above the store, heard the spray-painting and came down to confront the man and tell him to stop.
“He just became very agitated,” Donnelly said. “I tried to remain calm and just tell him, like, sir, you know, I don’t, I don’t, I’m not involved in any of that. I’m just, I live here, right, and this is, this is my home, and you know, this is vandalism.”
Donnelly says when he took a picture of Haken’s license plate, Haken got in the car and tried to run him over. Then, prosecutors say he got out of the car and punched Donnelly in the jaw while uttering homophobic slurs.
“I’m definitely doing a lot better than I was. It’s been, I don’t know, a month or so,” Donnelly said.
He says the incident has shaken him, but he’s been lifted up by the community’s support and law enforcement.
“A lot of people have said, ‘oh my god, I can’t believe something like this could happen in San Francisco, of all places.’ And the fact is that something like this can happen anywhere, but in San Francisco, we don’t stand for it, and we deal with it, so, so that makes me feel good,” Donnelly said.
In announcing the charges, Jenkins pointed out the climate in this country has become more hostile to the LGBTQ community. She says that makes it even more important for elected officials to protect that community, just like they do every other community.
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San Francisco, CA
Artwork quilt unveiled at San Francisco dirt alley that was mistakenly bought at auction
In the fall of 2025, CBS News Bay Area first brought you the story of a Sunset couple that had the winning bid for a piece of property next to their home. They thought they were getting the duplex next door. Instead, they got a small patch of land known as Dirt Alley.
This story has many chapters, but it ended with a community celebration.
The final chapter in the story of Dirt Alley was written Wednesday night as they unveiled the tiles of artwork on the pavement.
“I’m very happy today,” JJ Hollingsworth said. “It’s just amazing that these artists that I’ve been working with and sold the alley to have come through with this incredible art.”
JJ Hollingsworth was the original property owner. She took out $25,000 from her retirement to pay for this parcel in a city auction. She thought she got a bargain for the duplex next door. When she found out it was actually the alley, the stress led to health problems and a lot of anxiety.
“I’m trying to forget, but I caused all this,” she said. “That’s what happened. I caused all this.”
Then came an email that would help her get out of the Dirt Alley nightmare. A group of friends from San Francisco was interested in buying this 82-foot-long alley.
“I know she was really stressed out when she first bought this and kind of didn’t know what she was going to do with it,” Theo Bleier said. “It’s really lucky. We were going to buy a different parcel, and we lost the auction. It was more than we wanted to spend. We felt really lucky the coincidence worked out, and we were able to help out JJ.”
The new owners then had the idea of laying an artwork quilt on the pavement and took submissions online.
“I think we had about one million people visit the website at least,” owner Patrick Hultquist said. “1.2 million, I think is the number of people that visited the website.”
The tiles with the most votes made it onto what is now called Notion way.
“Now, it’s not an official name of the street. It’s an unofficial name, but we did get an official-looking sign,” he said.
JJ Hollingsworth, who is a music composer, wrote a ballad called Notion Way for the special occasion. What started as a horrible mistake ended up bringing the community together.
“It’s really beautiful,” neighbors Tom Goslinga & Nesha Niezrecki said. “It’s how culture gets created in a lot of ways. People kind of being creative with an interesting situation. It’s really cool.”
While Hollingsworth is grateful for how this story ended, she says she learned a valuable lesson from this whole experience.
“Read the fine print and ask a lot of questions,” she said.
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