San Francisco, CA
Lee's Deli permanently closes all locations after 40 years in downtown SF
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Lee’s Deli once had 16 locations in and around San Francisco. Twelve of those locations were in the city’s Financial district just a few years ago, but the final two restaurants just closed for good.
“COVID has been the disease for us and we tried to open six to eight stores in the beginning in 2021, and it was ugly. There was just nobody around – we can’t do business,” said owner Lee Quan.
And while some people have come back to work, Quan, who started and ran Lee’s Deli, says, those customers are mainly there just three days a week. For a breakfast and lunch restaurant in or near San Francisco’s Financial District, he says that doesn’t pay the bills.
MORE: 5 days in the office: SF small businesses say it may be the only way they can survive
Lee points to inflation, the multiple minimum wage hikes in recent years in San Francisco, and a lack of support from city and state leaders after COVID.
“Did they do anything to really help us? No. What things they did were insufficient to deal with the problem. We needed people to come back in and we needed the homeless people out,” said Quan, “When the pandemic hit we had 12 stores – let’s say all those stores were stocked with food, each one of those stores would be stocked with food that would last for weeks or month so when we could not open, all that food ended up going in the garbage can!”
Office vacancy rates in San Francisco are the highest out of any major city in America. San Francisco has been one of the slowest to recover after the pandemic as a large percentage of people are now involved in remote work.
MORE: San Francisco now at 35% office vacancy rate, highest ever recorded: data
Wednesday night, we spoke San Francisco Mayor London Breed about the current struggle in the Financial District.
“Revitalization takes time. We’ve been through a global pandemic. Shopping patterns have changed and we need to adjust to that and reduce all the fees and taxes and barriers that make it difficult for people to thrive and business in San Francisco, and that’s exactly what I’m doing,” said Mayor Breed.
Lee, who is now nearly 80, says he’s leaned on faith and family in the last few months. We even had a good laugh when I learned that he still has dim sum in his freezer (and has been eating it quite a bit).- leftovers after his final two stores closed on 280 Battery Street and 303 2nd Street. He has been holding his head up high for lasting 40 years, and remembering the good times with family.
“If I had to do it again, I’d go Richmond or Sunset – one of the neighborhoods – but not downtown, that is for sure,” he said.
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San Francisco, CA
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San Francisco, CA
Driver Arrested After Pedestrian Killed, Three Injured In Mission District Crash
One pedestrian died at the hospital and three others suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a driver struck them in SF’s Mission District earlier this week.
The San Francisco Police Department arrested a driver suspected of fatally striking four pedestrians in the area of 16th and Mission streets Monday morning, as KRON4 reports.
Officers responded to the scene at 12:13 am and found medics treating one pedestrian with life-threatening injuries. The person later died at a nearby hospital, and three other pedestrians sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
The driver was reportedly detained soon after the collision. The department has not announced what charges they will receive.
“We hold the victim and their loved ones in our thoughts, and grieve this loss of life on San Francisco’s streets,” said Jodie Medeiros, executive director for Walk SF, in a release. “We all deserve to be able to get around safely in our city.”
This marks the ninth pedestrian death in San Francisco this year. It’s also the second such death in the Mission, following the tragic death of local musician Danielle Spillman at Mission Street and South Van Ness Avenue in April, as SFist reported previously.
Four pedestrians were killed throughout the month of March, including deaths in Chinatown, the Financial District, North Beach, and the Outer Mission. In late February, a two-year-old was run over in Mission Bay.
Anyone with information may contact the SFPD at 415-575-4444 or text “TIP411,” beginning with “SFPD.”
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San Francisco, CA
California Supreme Court ruling on bail sparks debate over what it means for San Francisco’s safety
A recent California Supreme Court ruling is changing how bail is set across the state, and it’s sparking a sharp debate in San Francisco about what it could mean for public safety.
Inside her office, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said every decision carries weight. She views her role through one lens: protecting the public.
“My responsibility to San Francisco is public safety,” Jenkins said. “And to be transparent to me in achieving that safety. This is a ruling that has real-life consequences, and deny that would be untruthful and would not help people understand why we may see retraction from our progress.”
The ruling requires judges to set bail at levels defendants can afford, shifting the focus away from cash bail and toward whether someone poses a risk to public safety.
Jenkins said she believes that shift could have serious consequences.
“I knew it would be immediately be devastating to public safety and the state of California and had a lot of concerns that I thought needed to be shared with the public and other city leaders,” she said.
She warns that the change could make it easier for repeat offenders, particularly those involved in drug-related crimes, to be released before trial.
“These judges don’t live in San Francisco, many of them,” Jenkins said. “They don’t live in places like the Tenderloin that are most affected by these issues. They are ruling in a way that has impacts on other people’s lives.”
But not everyone agrees with that assessment.
San Francisco Defense Attorney Marsanne Weese said the ruling does not eliminate accountability and that courts still have tools to detain people who pose a threat.
“In regards to her statements, there is no basis for it,” Weese said. “And the justices pointed out that there are a number of non-financial tools the lower courts can use and should use.”
Those tools include options like pretrial detention and supervised release, which allow judges to consider risk without relying solely on a person’s ability to pay bail.
“So, in regards to this being a drastic change, yes, it will be a drastic change, but not to safety,” Weese added.
For Jenkins, the concern is not just the intent of the law, but how it will be applied in real-world courtrooms and what that means on city streets.
For now, there is unease for some, optimism for others, and a growing debate over what public safety will look like under this new system.
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