Bad, if you look at the figures. A few months ago, a study reported that the number of smartphone connections to telephone masts in the city center was only a third of the 2019 figure, putting San Francisco in last place out of 62 cities in North America.

Visitors to the popular tourist destination also notice that the city is emptier than they were used to in the past. Now the San Francisco Chronicle has added further figures to illustrate the city’s plight.

In 33 out of 39 districts, income from sales tax is below the 2019 level, and only 5 districts generated more sales tax after adjusting for inflation, i.e. before the pandemic. In 2023, sales tax fell by 7.2% below the 2022 figure and was therefore 28% lower than in 2019.

The sales tax, which is added to sales to end customers, is a direct indicator of economic activity, and some sectors have been hit particularly hard, such as clothing stores and department stores, which experienced a 59 percent drop. A supermarket that had an annual turnover of 20 million dollars before the pandemic now only generates 1.2 million dollars. As he is located in the building that houses Twitter, he was hit particularly hard by Elon Musk’s wave of layoffs at the social medium, which affected 80 percent of employees. The only reason the supermarket is still alive is the free rent the landlord gave it.

Most affected is the Financial District, where mainly offices are located. After the pandemic, there was a lot of vacancy. Work from home for the thousands of tech workers emptied the city, and the spiral of closed businesses, homeless and drug addicts, as well as a crime spike, are not helping the revitalization.

However, five districts have more income from the sales tax than before the pandemic. These are Japantown, Seacliff, Oceanview-Merced-Ingleside, Treasure Island and Presidio. The latter saw an increase of 65 percent between 2019 and 2023. The buildings there, which date back to the military era, are also 97 percent let, a dream figure that the Financial District can only dream of with a vacancy rate of 30 percent.

The San Francisco Chronicle has more facts and figures.