SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — There were signs of hope and recovery in San Francisco Saturday, as activists and city leaders came together to support the Tenderloin neighborhood and cast aside the city’s so-called “doom loop” narrative.

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown cut the ribbon, unofficially ending the city’s so-called doom loop, post-Covid economic narrative that it is still trying to shake.

“We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t interesting, attractive, fascinating,” Brown said.

“We love San Francisco. We got to enjoy the city. It’s back and moving forward. The tenderloin needs love,” said Love Fest SF organizer Adam Swig.

Swig says he believes in the city so much that he organized the block party, Love Fest San Francisco, to support small businesses in the Tenderloin neighborhood.

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“All of us love the Tenderloin. A lot us us are afraid to come down here. There’s nothing to fear. There’s great businesses,” Swig said.

The Tenderloin merchant’s association says the neighborhood is improving.

“Signs are basic cleaner streets, safer streets, less car break-ins, less people on the streets,” said Rene Colorado, executive director of the Tenderloin Merchant’s Association

Jorge Luna opened his Larkin Street Taqueria five months ago.

“All the mess, they start to clean it up. I think it’s pretty good,” Luna said.

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Others say it will take more than Love Fest to change the narrative in the Tenderloin, which is facing challenges everyday.

Golden Lotus restaurant owner, Haung Hau says his business is down 70%, because of all the unhoused people living in the alley next to his eatery, keeping customers away, even after homeless encampment sweeps ordered by Governor Gavin Newsom.

“As far as on the streets, some days better than others,” said Justin Bautista.

Bautista lives and works in this neighborhood. He says things are slowly improving and efforts like this block party are a step forward.

“I think any event, which brings positive energy to neighborhood, is important,” Bautista said.

The San Francisco Giants did not have the MLB trade deadline that some had hoped for, continuing a worrying trend for their front office.

As Tim Kelly of Bleacher Report looked around the league for one word to describe each team, they found an interesting one for the Giants. In an ominous outlook for the front office, ‘pink’ was used to express how he felt their future looked.

“[San Francisco] President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi learned under two Hall of Fame-level executives in Billy Beane and Andrew Friedman, but outside of a Cinderella season in 2021, hasn’t been able to replicate the success of his two mentors,” said Kelly. “The Giants are under .500, and still have the same lack of superstars as when he arrived in November of 2018. A year after manager Gabe Kapler was dismissed, you wonder whether Zaidi will receive a pink slip from San Francisco ownership in the coming months.”

It has not been a year to write home about for the San Francisco President of Baseball Operations.

He gave a few huge contracts out in the offseason in hopes of pushing over the edge, but almost none of the signings have worked out in his favor.

The biggest addition was reigning Cy Young winner Blake Snell.

Snell began his Giants tenure about as poorly as anyone could have imagined. He started the year late because he missed Spring Training. Once he finally got on the mound, he was shelled and then placed on the injured list.

Things have finally turned a corner, though. He looked vintage in the month of July, putting forth a 0.75 ERA across 24 innings of work in four games.

Though he was finally looking like the player that San Francisco had paid $32 million for, it was a bit too late for them to be real contenders. Given that he has a player option next year and will almost certainly not be taking it, pretty much everyone wanted Zaidi to trade him away in a sellers market.

Instead, they kept him around. He threw a no-hitter, which was fun, but was it worth missing out on the prospects that he could have brought in?

Matt Chapman was a similar case of someone that was signed to a big one-year deal with player options in place after that. He didn’t get traded, which wasn’t too surprising, but he also hasn’t had a huge impact.

Jorge Soler also got off to a pretty horrid start, but turned things around and finally started playing at a high level. Though he was the one player of the three that was under contract for the next few seasons, he was the one player they decided to ship off.

Jung Hoo Lee was a big signing that hasn’t worked out because he got injured, it’s a bit unfair to blame that on Zaidi.

It’s just been a confusing few months for the Giants. Them switching leadership at the season’s end would not be surprising at all.