I owned a small shop in the Westfield San Francisco Center pre-covid. I left it in late 2018 when the lease renewal came up and they raised the rent requirement to the point where it was unrealistic to continue to stay there. I tried negotiating the lease but they would not budge, telling me that I either had to sign the lease and pay the rent or move on because if I don't then someone else would. I actually enjoyed being in this mall and it was very nice at the time, though you could start to see signs of deterioration already at the time with increased shoplifting and homeless people wandering freely around the mall (especially in the dining areas and rest rooms). While I feel bad for the people who had businesses and jobs lost from this, I also believe that the mall brought it on itself as well.
@@WanderingUkes Yes, absolute shambles! Don't you wish they had done their sums and allowed tenants to stay on? Sensible rents would have sustained the local economy. I sincerely hope they can come up with a sensible strategy and revive beautiful San Fransisco once again. A beautiful, glorious landmark location, admired worldwide.
I used to work two blocks away and would frequent the galleria during lunch breaks. I would also go Christmas shopping with a friend every year and have lunch at the top of Nordstroms. This stopped when my company eventually closed up and I got a job down the peninsula. Great memories.
As someone on a good but not abnormally high income, living in a city as expensive as San Francisco would be an impossibility. I simply could not even consider it. Without 'ordinary' people, how can shops survive? They need the money from normal people. The wealthy are not enough. Thank you for the video!
I have no idea if anyone else has been seeing this, but every time I look for hotels around Northern California rates for similar rooms are notably lower in the Bay Area than in Stockton, with San Francisco almost always having the lowest prices. I’ve been seeing this consistently for about year now. I once managed to book a massive suite with a balcony that provided an unbroken view that started with Sutro Tower on one end leading the SF skyline, both parts of the Bay Bridge, the Oakland Skyline, the Coliseum, and then ended with the Oakland Hills for the same price I paid to stay at a Best Western in Stockton that looked nice on the surface but became super noisy at night
Execllent report. I was a real estate developer in the boom. Actually, when considering the loss of City revenue, is SF poised to go bankrupt? I cannot see how SF will ever recover.
So sad and very sad 😢😢😢😢 So many beautiful memories when I used to work in downtown San Francisco and I used to hang out at the Mall during my break time and walked around powell street all the way to Embarcadero
Sometimes in San Francisco you're not quite homeless but sometimes you need to get out of where you're staying for a while and you have nowhere to go so you end up at the mall. You remember how cool it was in the Westfield center when you went to one of the top floors for the bathroom or something but then you get some mean texts and there you are in this cool place in the mall with the ceiling and railings and architecture features
Well done overview of this mall. I always loved the design of this mall... the high-rise design, curved escalators and the classical design. Used to take BART in from the East Bay to shop with my parents as a kid, lots of fond memories.
The failure of Westfield in San Francisco is a reflection on the city not the business model. Westfield is Australian, started by the Lowy family in Sydney in 1959 and has been operating successfully across the world. Chadstone is the biggest in the southern hemisphere and is expanding exponentially. Do your research before posting!
17:55 Santa Clara is nowhere near San Francisco so I’m wondering why the video talks about Santa Clara’s COVID response while showing SF? Now, SF ultimately responded just as bad as Santa Clara did, but Santa Clara has nothing to do with SF in terms of Santa Clara COVID responses affecting SF.
There are NO SHOPPERS at this mall. No one wants to run the gauntlet of crime and filth to get there. Oh, and 😊the video forgot to mention the homeless people crapping inside the elevators.
That is simply not true. If you go down to the westfield or union square its full of shoppers. Property theft is definitely a motivator for pulling out but, if you actually went to this mall, you wouldnt know that because its usually busy.
Several days ago a community leader and some community members took a tour of the city and tried to paint a different narrative...well, heller, if you don't get rid of the crime and open use of drugs, this dystopia will spiral downhill some more😂😂😊
San Francisco isn't that close to stanford. San Jose is closer and it has fewer problems than San Francisco as a result. A lot of the people who left San Francisco moved into the suburbs, they didn't leave California completely. Also as a result, stores and restaurants in the suburbs have seen a lot of growth as they received the demand that left downtowns. With remote work, there's not really much of a reason for business travel and conventions so it seems unwise to base your entire downtown economy on those things.
Can you PLEASE do a modern ruins video on Pittsburghs Century 3 Mall ? It’s one… well, interesting mall history to be told and now that it’s permanently closed I feel like it would be AMAZING if you did a video on it. Thank you!
I'm wondering about the other Westfield mall in San Diego. (Westfield-Horton mall) I think that one may have been the first to fall before San Francisco's, especially with it's history (of incidents).
Another factor, not deflecting from the horrible results of local progressive policies, but Westfield's parent company has been identifying large retail footprints to get rid of for years now, so that probably sped that up.
I live in the South Bay and the Westfield Valley Fair is doing better than ever. It is crowded all the time with new stores opening. BTW, SF will still have over 20 million visitors this year despite its problems.
This Nordstrom was in dire need of a full interior renovation. I’m sure this factored in. The building cannot be repurposed. It will likely sit vacant for years.
"vacant" as in full of crust punks and homeless people. Very silly to let abandoned properties sit and rot instead of creating transitional and long term housing out of them.
If you create policies that encourage crime, don’t punish the criminal and don’t protect the victims… People will flee. It’s very simple. The politicians that you elected you need to unelect. You need to put in responsible people that will enforce the laws and protect the citizens or they will go somewhere that does.
It’s very dangerous to run for office if you’re not in the club, I hate to say. It’s a totally controlled system when it comes to running for office. I have some experience with this going back to the 1980’s. You’re basically running against the mafia.
This is a naive take on what is going wrong in San Francisco. Homelessness on its own is not a crime. Being homeless INCENTIVIZES crime. So does being in poverty at all. The only effective way to truly reduce crime is to address poverty. There will always be criminals and derelicts in any society, we just seem hard pressed to pretend that the people currently commiting crimes, have no legitimate incentive to do so. You try being hungry. In the Great Depression, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, did whatever they had to do, to feed themselves and their families. I almost hope we have a great depression already so people who only make a living salary right now might realize that sometimes: shit isnt fair, life falls apart, and you have to steal. Crime is incentivized MAINLY not by lack of legal consequences but by hopelessness and poverty. Give people legitimate hope to get out of said poverty and many wouldnt continue to commit crimes. Trying to find housing for a disabled person in SF takes years, trying to find general low income housing takes years, and yalls solution is to arrest people? THAT IS THE PROBLEM.
@@terejosh13 For comparison, the GDP of the biggest Republican city in the nation is 110 billion, less than half that of San Francisco. Jacksonville, FL has less than half the annual economic output of the "dead city" of san francisco
@@frankmacleod2565 Who cares what the GDP is when downtown is a ghost town, businesses are closing (empty Embarcardero Center), offices are empty, crime is rampant, cars are left unlocked for the looters, police don't respond to most calls, and people are leaving? Who's benefitting from this GDP? Certainly not the people of San Francisco. I guess, according to you, GDP and not quality of life is how you rate a city. BTW, I work downtown and have worked in S.F. for over 30 years and have lived there before, so I know whereof I speak.
I live 20 minutes from downtown SF and the Westfield Mall. Of the five closest malls to me, only one, Serramonte, is doing well. Tanforan is being redeveloped into housing and offices, Stonestown and Hillsdale are redeveloping from shopping malls to more mixed-use housing, restaurants and entertainment complexes, and you've already heard about Westfield in SF.
That’s because they are two different countries, with two different Political systems . The UK has a stronger social security system, whereas in the USA , if you haven’t worked, it’s almost near impossible to get unemployment benefits, onrental assistance and NO universal health care. Just some food stamps, if your lucky...In Australia, no Westfield mall has closed down either, although there are some shuttered shops and haven’t reopened since Covid began.
A lot of the tenants had leases that they couldn't get out of, so they had to keep paying high rents even if they vacated the premises. Landlords had no incentive to refill those vacancies as long as high rents were still being paid. It wasn't until leases started expiring, which is happening now, that rents have started falling.
@@frankmacleod2565 ahem: it was 221 billion as of 2021. However business is decreasing by evidence of the exodus of major businesses, the downtown vacancy rate it’s highest in 30 years, and even most annual conventions moving elsewhere for better cities. I bet YOU would not take your family to visit that city or live there. I sure wouldn’t.
@@richard09able Yes I would visit the city, I visit fairly regularly to see bands that don't make it out where I live. You clearly haven't been there and don't know what you're talking about. Yes, 221 billion dollar GDP in 2021, over twice the GDP of the biggest Republican city in the nation. San Francisco has a lot of decline to do before it's economic output is as low as that of the largest Republican cities in America. Your point about their failed policies and crime is valid, though they have figured this out and are changing those policies. I would never want to live in any city that big, I don't care what color hat they're wearing. City of nearly a million, on a tiny peninsula, no thanks
@@richard09able Oh and there's this. I didn't even bother looking up the GDP last year. Turns out it was up to $250 billion, up $14 billion from 2021. What were you saying about the city dying? Quarter of a trillion dollars last year, genius
I'd ask the same question about a thousand cities back east. San Francisco has an annual GDP of over 236 billion dollars and you people think its dead. Whats the GDP of your city?
I have a hunch that demolishing an old historical structure to build a new one with poor quality materials that soon lose their shine, that cannot easily be repurposed like the original one was, inevitability puts the voodoo on the businesses that locate there. Just a hunch, from observation. It’s easy to argue on a comment section but I would not risk any $billion investment on anything that begins by tearing down a beautiful old building, personally. Lol.
Yeah it really makes no sense. They want to build a womens soccer stadium and im like...... we couldnt keep the 49ers what makes you think we're gonna turn out so hard for womens soccer that it would "save downtown". Like come tf on.
What no one mentions about Nordstrom. They left their anchor store in San Francisco's other mall, Stonestown Galleria, in 2019 (pre-pandemic). After, they closed another store in nearby Pleasanton, CA, at Stoneride Mall. Online shopping and changing habits hurt them much further than what excuse they're providing for leaving Westfield SF.
Man it sucks I last went in 2019 and it was still bustling hopefully someone new and competent becomes mayor and turns things around. Then again idk NorCal people are wacky and I haven’t lived there since 2004.
Yeah, no. The homeless are homeless because they'd rather be on drugs. Most of them have somewhere to go on the condition they get clean. So building more rabbit hutches for people to live in may lower rents a bit but it won't affect the homelessness.
Nice overall documentary, but sadly filled with unrealistic amounts of copium and wishful thinking at the end. San Fransicko’s recovery is in great doubt. The quality of life in the Bay Area has declined dramatically. While the elites have somewhat stayed, and while the poor are trapped, it’s the middle class/families that have fled, and are continuing to flee. Nice weather doesn’t pay the bills. And when taxes are outrageously high, prices are even higher, and real estate prices are still astronomical, why would people move in. Especially, when dealing with the tents, drugs, thieves, carjackings, assaults, and all the rest. The quality of life is dead for the middle class and regular families in Bay Area. The Doom Loop is here to stay, in the neo feudalistic economy that the elites and their bought politicians have set up.
Content creator is incorrect about Valco Mall in Cupertino, the connecting bridge does not cross over a Highway, it crosses over a multi-lane Roadway/Espressway not far from a busy intersection, where speed limits are not highway speeds. I've lived in area since 2003 and that Mall was super dead back then. I stop watching after I heard that minor incorrect detail.
I loved those curved escalators and so did my kids. Also it’s important to remember that San Francisco is 7 miles long and 7 miles wide and surrounded on three sides by water. Can’t infill Bay any more to create more land.
No I don't think the old retail model will ever go back, shopping habits of people have shifted. Cities should really look seriously into redevelopment of the once big shopping centers, those are fast becoming sxtinct.
Personally have done business with the Westfield's ( an Australian Family owned Business with Corporate offices in NYC ) and they have Sold Off or are Selling Off All Properties
In the Classical Greek and Latin noun, there are 5 or 6 cases. To do the declension, one declines the noun. When there is a Doom Loop, where the desperation of the street fights against the interests of the city and its businesses, the nouns better not be the businesses in the area. Currently, there are enough vacant businesses for 3 Salesforce buildings to be inflated with emptiness. The witch that sent the emptiness will explode when Bastian wishes for her to have a heart, according to Neverending Story 2. The Nothing is first, formlessness. The emptiness is second, void. Darkness was over the face of the deep. Where is God to take his clueless beginning back to himself so that he is alone and dropping the circumstances to us from the future? Is there a televised dream weaver that God uses when we find in the TV so many hopes and dreams and possibilities? Who is in our way that keeps us from wanting to achieve the most for ourselves, with a channeled and disciplined self-interest that includes the welfare of all others as we seek to do for ourselves, sharing with others and supporting the poor as we prosper?
Westfield is or was one of the largest mall companies nationwide. I worked building various stores in malls across america. It felt like half of them were westfield malls. Ive had a naked lady jump in our elevator in the middle of the night and the worst smell ive ever smelled was in a westfield (freight) eleveator. It was the cheesecake factory, ive never eaten there since... like thick, rotten trashy junkyard smell, mixed with animalic feces vibes, and this sour putrid week old puke smell, all mixed together. And there was a layer of grease on literally everything, if your body touched anything you got a pimple. That was the joke on the site. Microsoft paid for an entirely new freight elevator, it was that bad.
I think The City should purchase Westfield out of default, and run it as a mall. They can find another anchor tenant. But they would also have to crack down on the homelessness and shoplifting. Two hotels near Union Square are also going into default. I think The City should purchase these properties and run them hotels, also. Lots of jobs will be saved, and if these properties are run right, The City could make a tidy profit when they go to sell them when The City eventually recovers.
I live next door to a death mall, so i hear this refrain constantly. You don't want a massive space given over to homeless zombies. There's not enough money to support them along with all the havoc they create. If mayhem is your thing, just legalize all hard drugs (like Portland) and watch your local economy implode from chaos.
Why did we need a mall in SF downtown in the first place? And why did Westfield think it didn’t have to innovate to reflect changes in retail? Our only other mall, Stonestown, out in our western burbs, innovated and is thriving. Westfield refused to accept reality and it’s dying As it happens, this redundant mall may get a soccer stadium on its top floor, which would be a good first step But shouldn’t these politically motivated hit pieces be considered hate speech, given the very real effect they have on tourism and how that effect hurts local workers?
Uh...tourists don't avoid S.F. because of UA-cam videos criticizing S.F. They avoid S.F. because they don't like walking past homeless tent cities, see people defecating in the streets, drugs being sold on corners, drug addicts shooting up, mentally ill people screaming at them, someone doing a smash and grab at the shop they entered, having their items stolen from their rent-a-car. And the workers have been hurt by a lockdown that killed half the businesses in the city in 2020, and the soft-on-crime policies have only made things worse, costing businesses millions and making working conditions unsafe for workers. But go ahead and blame a video. Go ahead and label it "hate speech." California liberals love to call anything contrary to their ideological beliefs "hate speech," so they can try to get it canceled. I have been in and around San Francisco my whole life, and what is happening there is a complete disgrace. My wife grew up in San Francisco and refuses to go there unless absolutely necessary because of what it's become. Maybe you should worry a little less about UA-cam political "hit pieces" that offend you and a little more about London Breed and her corrupt cronies (about a half dozen of whom have been convicted of white-collar crimes in Federal court) who are running this once great city into the ground.
Unless you do not welcome tourists, foreign tourists like us enjoy hanging out downtown - staying at hotels closest to malls for food and shopping. Looking forward to the day when there is a big cleanup and we feel generally safe to return to your once iconic city. Our best wishes for SF.
Guys, you got to resurrect San Fransisco. Lovingly, bring it back to life. Everything a mall closes, it feels like dead cells in a body. You guys can resurrect America , and make it Great again. It will take money and huge effort, but try re-opening it like a candy store. It can be done. America has more than enough money to do it. Don't let your dream die! May God and bless your every endeavour. Jai Ram Shree Ram Jai Jai Ram.
Malls are dead people! We are all shopping online. Far less hassle. Get over yourselves. Meetings and conventions are a thing of the past. Disease forced us to think differently. Its not the crime, the crime fills the void left by changing ways of doing business. We can't afford the rent to live in San fran. We don't get paid enough to commute.
What’s strange is the NASL Earthquakes wanted to play in SF but moved to San Jose after they couldn’t get enough sales. Maybe both Bay FC and the Quakes move up then the second team plays in San Jose.
San Francisco has become a dirty, grimy, DANGEROUS place…..I’m NOT going there!! (Or Seattle, or Portland). ….Maybe San Francisco will rebuild, and I’ll visit again in 10-15 YEARS. …..Maybe. 🤔🤷🏼♂️
I owned a small shop in the Westfield San Francisco Center pre-covid. I left it in late 2018 when the lease renewal came up and they raised the rent requirement to the point where it was unrealistic to continue to stay there. I tried negotiating the lease but they would not budge, telling me that I either had to sign the lease and pay the rent or move on because if I don't then someone else would. I actually enjoyed being in this mall and it was very nice at the time, though you could start to see signs of deterioration already at the time with increased shoplifting and homeless people wandering freely around the mall (especially in the dining areas and rest rooms). While I feel bad for the people who had businesses and jobs lost from this, I also believe that the mall brought it on itself as well.
What they did to you turned out to be a blessing in disguise. You weren’t there for COVID and beyond.
So I hope the mall owners have enough workable clues, and will use them to restore it.
What a shame.
@@WanderingUkes Yes, absolute shambles! Don't you wish they had done their sums and allowed tenants to stay on? Sensible rents would have sustained the local economy. I sincerely hope they can come up with a sensible strategy and revive beautiful San Fransisco once again.
A beautiful, glorious landmark location, admired worldwide.
Same reason why Nordstorm left I think and in Brisbane, the same story with MYER & Vicinity Centres
I used to work two blocks away and would frequent the galleria during lunch breaks. I would also go Christmas shopping with a friend every year and have lunch at the top of Nordstroms. This stopped when my company eventually closed up and I got a job down the peninsula. Great memories.
As someone on a good but not abnormally high income, living in a city as expensive as San Francisco would be an impossibility. I simply could not even consider it. Without 'ordinary' people, how can shops survive? They need the money from normal people. The wealthy are not enough. Thank you for the video!
I have no idea if anyone else has been seeing this, but every time I look for hotels around Northern California rates for similar rooms are notably lower in the Bay Area than in Stockton, with San Francisco almost always having the lowest prices. I’ve been seeing this consistently for about year now.
I once managed to book a massive suite with a balcony that provided an unbroken view that started with Sutro Tower on one end leading the SF skyline, both parts of the Bay Bridge, the Oakland Skyline, the Coliseum, and then ended with the Oakland Hills for the same price I paid to stay at a Best Western in Stockton that looked nice on the surface but became super noisy at night
Execllent report. I was a real estate developer in the boom. Actually, when considering the loss of City revenue, is SF poised to go bankrupt? I cannot see how SF will ever recover.
Thanks for participating in the greedy corporate behavior that caused all of our problems
Come to
So sad and very sad 😢😢😢😢
So many beautiful memories when I used to work in downtown San Francisco and I used to hang out at the Mall during my break time and walked around powell street all the way to Embarcadero
Sometimes in San Francisco you're not quite homeless but sometimes you need to get out of where you're staying for a while and you have nowhere to go so you end up at the mall. You remember how cool it was in the Westfield center when you went to one of the top floors for the bathroom or something but then you get some mean texts and there you are in this cool place in the mall with the ceiling and railings and architecture features
When crime goes unpunished this is the result!!!
While those same politicians would try to steal Americans right to vote, then force them all to say M.A.G.A.T or "make america grieve again trump".
So malls elsewhere in the US are all still booming?
@@endeavourist5287👏🏾
@@endeavourist5287yes 😊
Well done overview of this mall. I always loved the design of this mall... the high-rise design, curved escalators and the classical design. Used to take BART in from the East Bay to shop with my parents as a kid, lots of fond memories.
Loved those curved escalators.❤❤❤
The failure of Westfield in San Francisco is a reflection on the city not the business model. Westfield is Australian, started by the Lowy family in Sydney in 1959 and has been operating successfully across the world. Chadstone is the biggest in the southern hemisphere and is expanding exponentially. Do your research before posting!
Except the Lowy family has since sold. I worked directly for Peter Lowy at the Los Angeles headquarters.
All the ones in the UK are failing too
17:55 Santa Clara is nowhere near San Francisco so I’m wondering why the video talks about Santa Clara’s COVID response while showing SF? Now, SF ultimately responded just as bad as Santa Clara did, but Santa Clara has nothing to do with SF in terms of Santa Clara COVID responses affecting SF.
There are NO SHOPPERS at this mall. No one wants to run the gauntlet of crime and filth to get there. Oh, and 😊the video forgot to mention the homeless people crapping inside the elevators.
That is simply not true. If you go down to the westfield or union square its full of shoppers. Property theft is definitely a motivator for pulling out but, if you actually went to this mall, you wouldnt know that because its usually busy.
@@kdog8658I was just thinking the same thing...I live in Chinatown btw
Thinking the same I love my city😢
In the elevators you say? WoW a real life shit hole.
"AND let's not forget,the blatant sheer disregard for all
human safety!!!"
Very informative video but as someone born and raised here, tech companies didn’t “come” here, they were born here in Bay Area garages.
Yup
Also San Francisco is NOT Silicon Valley for the love of god. I mean read the damn wiki lol.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley
Several days ago a community leader and some community members took a tour of the city and tried to paint a different narrative...well, heller, if you don't get rid of the crime and open use of drugs, this dystopia will spiral downhill some more😂😂😊
San Francisco isn't that close to stanford. San Jose is closer and it has fewer problems than San Francisco as a result. A lot of the people who left San Francisco moved into the suburbs, they didn't leave California completely.
Also as a result, stores and restaurants in the suburbs have seen a lot of growth as they received the demand that left downtowns.
With remote work, there's not really much of a reason for business travel and conventions so it seems unwise to base your entire downtown economy on those things.
UC Berkeley is closer to SF than Stanford is.
Stanford is closer to Stanford. (: Stanford Shopping mall is one of the Bay Area‘s meccas for shopping. And, AFAIK, there’s no crime nearby.
Great story, great editing, great content.
Can you PLEASE do a modern ruins video on Pittsburghs Century 3 Mall ? It’s one… well, interesting mall history to be told and now that it’s permanently closed I feel like it would be AMAZING if you did a video on it. Thank you!
Here's an interesting video on the Century 3 Mall..... ua-cam.com/video/_RuAVg-VgHo/v-deo.htmlsi=AC0YYa82ZSuEF6xy
I miss the old rooftop amusement park at Christmas time on top of the old Emporium-Capwell.
I love the Detroit optimism
I'm wondering about the other Westfield mall in San Diego. (Westfield-Horton mall) I think that one may have been the first to fall before San Francisco's, especially with it's history (of incidents).
There are a lot of bums near Horton Plaza (aka Homeless Plaza).
Downtown SD it's not in a bad shape right now, Westfield still has the UTC mall in SD and it's thriving
Another factor, not deflecting from the horrible results of local progressive policies, but Westfield's parent company has been identifying large retail footprints to get rid of for years now, so that probably sped that up.
The escalator was fun. RIP
I just shopped at Westfield. It is still there though shopping is down since COVID and in general malls are dying because of online shopping.
I live in the South Bay and the Westfield Valley Fair is doing better than ever. It is crowded all the time with new stores opening. BTW, SF will still have over 20 million visitors this year despite its problems.
This Nordstrom was in dire need of a full interior renovation. I’m sure this factored in. The building cannot be repurposed. It will likely sit vacant for years.
"vacant" as in full of crust punks and homeless people. Very silly to let abandoned properties sit and rot instead of creating transitional and long term housing out of them.
I heard they may put a College in it... Vacant for years ... ya right...
Why did it need an interior renovation? Seemed nice to me.
If you create policies that encourage crime, don’t punish the criminal and don’t protect the victims…
People will flee.
It’s very simple.
The politicians that you elected you need to unelect.
You need to put in responsible people that will enforce the laws and protect the citizens or they will go somewhere that does.
It’s very dangerous to run for office if you’re not in the club, I hate to say. It’s a totally controlled system when it comes to running for office. I have some experience with this going back to the 1980’s. You’re basically running against the mafia.
This is a naive take on what is going wrong in San Francisco. Homelessness on its own is not a crime. Being homeless INCENTIVIZES crime. So does being in poverty at all. The only effective way to truly reduce crime is to address poverty. There will always be criminals and derelicts in any society, we just seem hard pressed to pretend that the people currently commiting crimes, have no legitimate incentive to do so. You try being hungry. In the Great Depression, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, did whatever they had to do, to feed themselves and their families. I almost hope we have a great depression already so people who only make a living salary right now might realize that sometimes: shit isnt fair, life falls apart, and you have to steal. Crime is incentivized MAINLY not by lack of legal consequences but by hopelessness and poverty. Give people legitimate hope to get out of said poverty and many wouldnt continue to commit crimes.
Trying to find housing for a disabled person in SF takes years, trying to find general low income housing takes years, and yalls solution is to arrest people?
THAT IS THE PROBLEM.
the Westfield malls in Maryland USA are still open and operating
SF has turned into Mad Max. Evacuate Evacuate Evacuate.
The leaders and their ideology killed SF
GDP last year was over $236 billion. Not bad for a dead city. What's the GDP of your city?
@@frankmacleod2565😂
@@terejosh13 For comparison, the GDP of the biggest Republican city in the nation is 110 billion, less than half that of San Francisco. Jacksonville, FL has less than half the annual economic output of the "dead city" of san francisco
but Brad here has a photo of a woman as his icon, so we can't expect Brad to understand things like numbers, can we Brad
@@frankmacleod2565 Who cares what the GDP is when downtown is a ghost town, businesses are closing (empty Embarcardero Center), offices are empty, crime is rampant, cars are left unlocked for the looters, police don't respond to most calls, and people are leaving? Who's benefitting from this GDP? Certainly not the people of San Francisco. I guess, according to you, GDP and not quality of life is how you rate a city. BTW, I work downtown and have worked in S.F. for over 30 years and have lived there before, so I know whereof I speak.
The Westfields here in London UK are still going strong... Malls in USA don't survive long imo
I live 20 minutes from downtown SF and the Westfield Mall. Of the five closest malls to me, only one, Serramonte, is doing well. Tanforan is being redeveloped into housing and offices, Stonestown and Hillsdale are redeveloping from shopping malls to more mixed-use housing, restaurants and entertainment complexes, and you've already heard about Westfield in SF.
That’s because they are two different countries, with two different Political systems . The UK has a stronger social security system, whereas in the USA , if you haven’t worked, it’s almost near impossible to get unemployment benefits, onrental assistance and NO universal health care. Just some food stamps, if your lucky...In Australia, no Westfield mall has closed down either, although there are some shuttered shops and haven’t reopened since Covid began.
Why are you talking out your arse? London shopping centers are closing left and right.
I don’t understand why rent is so high if vacancies are so high? If vacancies are high, shouldn’t landlords be making monthly rent lower?
It’s common sense but not Westfield 🤔🤔🤔🤔😳👀😮😉 up goes rents what the 🤔
A lot of the tenants had leases that they couldn't get out of, so they had to keep paying high rents even if they vacated the premises. Landlords had no incentive to refill those vacancies as long as high rents were still being paid. It wasn't until leases started expiring, which is happening now, that rents have started falling.
Makes ya wonder who owns the property and what are their motives?
It's an impressive structure and hopefully will eventually be repurposed. Fascinating video Lee. Well done as always.
They closed?
I remember Westfield Center. One time I was on the escalator and I was overwhelmed by the smell of human feces. Remember it to this day.
you lie 😂
You've never been inside the place.
@@terejosh13no, that’s not a lie. The elevators are worse. Multiple times a week homeless use the elevators as a toilet
@@terejosh13cope
@@fixpacificacope as well
Do you really have to ask? The city is dying, and it’s the local governments fault. Twitter should move too
A GDP of $236 billion and you people think it's dying. Hilarious
@@frankmacleod2565 ahem: it was 221 billion as of 2021. However business is decreasing by evidence of the exodus of major businesses, the downtown vacancy rate it’s highest in 30 years, and even most annual conventions moving elsewhere for better cities. I bet YOU would not take your family to visit that city or live there. I sure wouldn’t.
@@richard09able Yes I would visit the city, I visit fairly regularly to see bands that don't make it out where I live. You clearly haven't been there and don't know what you're talking about. Yes, 221 billion dollar GDP in 2021, over twice the GDP of the biggest Republican city in the nation. San Francisco has a lot of decline to do before it's economic output is as low as that of the largest Republican cities in America. Your point about their failed policies and crime is valid, though they have figured this out and are changing those policies. I would never want to live in any city that big, I don't care what color hat they're wearing. City of nearly a million, on a tiny peninsula, no thanks
@@richard09able oh and the GDP in 2021 was 236 billion, not 221 billion, according to Wiki. difference of 15 billion dollars but who's counting
@@richard09able Oh and there's this. I didn't even bother looking up the GDP last year. Turns out it was up to $250 billion, up $14 billion from 2021. What were you saying about the city dying? Quarter of a trillion dollars last year, genius
I'd ask the same question about a thousand cities back east. San Francisco has an annual GDP of over 236 billion dollars and you people think its dead. Whats the GDP of your city?
I have a hunch that demolishing an old historical structure to build a new one with poor quality materials that soon lose their shine, that cannot easily be repurposed like the original one was, inevitability puts the voodoo on the businesses that locate there. Just a hunch, from observation. It’s easy to argue on a comment section but I would not risk any $billion investment on anything that begins by tearing down a beautiful old building, personally. Lol.
Yeah it really makes no sense. They want to build a womens soccer stadium and im like...... we couldnt keep the 49ers what makes you think we're gonna turn out so hard for womens soccer that it would "save downtown". Like come tf on.
What no one mentions about Nordstrom. They left their anchor store in San Francisco's other mall, Stonestown Galleria, in 2019 (pre-pandemic). After, they closed another store in nearby Pleasanton, CA, at Stoneride Mall. Online shopping and changing habits hurt them much further than what excuse they're providing for leaving Westfield SF.
people love half truths that fit narratives
Clueless ^^😂😂
@@billybob1620 says the dude that hasn't even left the country and lives in moms basement
Don’t forget embarcadero 1-4 all stores closed also
Man it sucks I last went in 2019 and it was still bustling hopefully someone new and competent becomes mayor and turns things around.
Then again idk NorCal people are wacky and I haven’t lived there since 2004.
So sad!
Yeah, no. The homeless are homeless because they'd rather be on drugs. Most of them have somewhere to go on the condition they get clean. So building more rabbit hutches for people to live in may lower rents a bit but it won't affect the homelessness.
A lot of ppl shop online along with the crazy dynamic in SF...so makes sense...
Nice overall documentary, but sadly filled with unrealistic amounts of copium and wishful thinking at the end. San Fransicko’s recovery is in great doubt. The quality of life in the Bay Area has declined dramatically. While the elites have somewhat stayed, and while the poor are trapped, it’s the middle class/families that have fled, and are continuing to flee. Nice weather doesn’t pay the bills. And when taxes are outrageously high, prices are even higher, and real estate prices are still astronomical, why would people move in. Especially, when dealing with the tents, drugs, thieves, carjackings, assaults, and all the rest. The quality of life is dead for the middle class and regular families in Bay Area. The Doom Loop is here to stay, in the neo feudalistic economy that the elites and their bought politicians have set up.
Content creator is incorrect about Valco Mall in Cupertino, the connecting bridge does not cross over a Highway, it crosses over a multi-lane Roadway/Espressway not far from a busy intersection, where speed limits are not highway speeds. I've lived in area since 2003 and that Mall was super dead back then. I stop watching after I heard that minor incorrect detail.
Decades of terrible leftist policy finally caught up with SF.
I loved those curved escalators and so did my kids.
Also it’s important to remember that San Francisco is 7 miles long and 7 miles wide and surrounded on three sides by water. Can’t infill Bay any more to create more land.
No I don't think the old retail model will ever go back, shopping habits of people have shifted. Cities should really look seriously into redevelopment of the once big shopping centers, those are fast becoming sxtinct.
"HATE TO SAY THIS!,REBELLION!,VIOLENCE!,AND BLATANT DISREGARD! FOR HUMAN SAFETY! DO NOT
MAKE A CITY GREAT AT ALL!!!"😢😢😢😢
Video starts at about 22:55
Personally have done business with the Westfield's ( an Australian Family owned Business with Corporate offices in NYC ) and they have Sold Off or are Selling Off All Properties
Only 300 million a year In profit .... .. I wish I had those types of problems..
The Nordstrom was great, getting there not so much.
They need to rebrand and use colourful advertising to get shoppers back
Do the Pacific Coliseum
Simple solution: Lower the rents and get the drug addicts, the mentally ill, the criminals, and the homeless off the streets.
In the Classical Greek and Latin noun, there are 5 or 6 cases. To do the declension, one declines the noun. When there is a Doom Loop, where the desperation of the street fights against the interests of the city and its businesses, the nouns better not be the businesses in the area. Currently, there are enough vacant businesses for 3 Salesforce buildings to be inflated with emptiness. The witch that sent the emptiness will explode when Bastian wishes for her to have a heart, according to Neverending Story 2. The Nothing is first, formlessness. The emptiness is second, void. Darkness was over the face of the deep. Where is God to take his clueless beginning back to himself so that he is alone and dropping the circumstances to us from the future? Is there a televised dream weaver that God uses when we find in the TV so many hopes and dreams and possibilities? Who is in our way that keeps us from wanting to achieve the most for ourselves, with a channeled and disciplined self-interest that includes the welfare of all others as we seek to do for ourselves, sharing with others and supporting the poor as we prosper?
Simple solution. Enforce no loitering like every other city in the world and rid the streets of drug addicts.
From the top Tony....
..........🎼🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶 I left my turd in San Franfeceeeee.
And no mention of Proposition 47. The San Francisco and California electorate brought all of this madness on to itself. They got what they voted for.
Besides rent being $7k month and homes $4 million? You can live in Utah now.
Then we’ll have Mormons banging on our doors every weekend...😝
It’s not called Nordstrom’s
Ironically - 'last one out, turn off the lights' ! 💀 🇺🇸 🤔
So the High and Mighty weren't
so high and mighty.
Westfield is or was one of the largest mall companies nationwide. I worked building various stores in malls across america. It felt like half of them were westfield malls.
Ive had a naked lady jump in our elevator in the middle of the night and the worst smell ive ever smelled was in a westfield (freight) eleveator. It was the cheesecake factory, ive never eaten there since... like thick, rotten trashy junkyard smell, mixed with animalic feces vibes, and this sour putrid week old puke smell, all mixed together. And there was a layer of grease on literally everything, if your body touched anything you got a pimple. That was the joke on the site. Microsoft paid for an entirely new freight elevator, it was that bad.
I always thought the Westfield branding was so tacky.
Ikr. Their logo always reminded me of Kmart or Woolworth's or something like that.
Woolco
First job outta college was at The Shorenstein Company. Was incredibly archaic technologically with typewriters and carbon paper.
westfield australia is now owned by scentre group
I think The City should purchase Westfield out of default, and run it as a mall. They can find another anchor tenant. But they would also have to crack down on the homelessness and shoplifting.
Two hotels near Union Square are also going into default. I think The City should purchase these properties and run them hotels, also.
Lots of jobs will be saved, and if these properties are run right, The City could make a tidy profit when they go to sell them when The City eventually recovers.
Nah, your country is too busy spending billions(with a B) to ukraine and other foreign aid.
this must be the new normal good ol gavy stated, way to go shutting down commifornia , reap your rewards
Make all dieng malls homeless shelter God help them all amen 🙏
I live next door to a death mall, so i hear this refrain constantly. You don't want a massive space given over to homeless zombies. There's not enough money to support them along with all the havoc they create. If mayhem is your thing, just legalize all hard drugs (like Portland) and watch your local economy implode from chaos.
talk about Chinese cars manufacturers international expansion
San Francisco is a dying zombie city...too bad
You don't live there so have no clue what you are talking about
@@RafiCamacho Too bad steam coming out of your ears 😂
Why did we need a mall in SF downtown in the first place? And why did Westfield think it didn’t have to innovate to reflect changes in retail? Our only other mall, Stonestown, out in our western burbs, innovated and is thriving. Westfield refused to accept reality and it’s dying
As it happens, this redundant mall may get a soccer stadium on its top floor, which would be a good first step
But shouldn’t these politically motivated hit pieces be considered hate speech, given the very real effect they have on tourism and how that effect hurts local workers?
To get people to come to Downtown moron…. I used to shop there all the time when I worked downtown.
Uh...tourists don't avoid S.F. because of UA-cam videos criticizing S.F. They avoid S.F. because they don't like walking past homeless tent cities, see people defecating in the streets, drugs being sold on corners, drug addicts shooting up, mentally ill people screaming at them, someone doing a smash and grab at the shop they entered, having their items stolen from their rent-a-car. And the workers have been hurt by a lockdown that killed half the businesses in the city in 2020, and the soft-on-crime policies have only made things worse, costing businesses millions and making working conditions unsafe for workers. But go ahead and blame a video. Go ahead and label it "hate speech." California liberals love to call anything contrary to their ideological beliefs "hate speech," so they can try to get it canceled. I have been in and around San Francisco my whole life, and what is happening there is a complete disgrace. My wife grew up in San Francisco and refuses to go there unless absolutely necessary because of what it's become. Maybe you should worry a little less about UA-cam political "hit pieces" that offend you and a little more about London Breed and her corrupt cronies (about a half dozen of whom have been convicted of white-collar crimes in Federal court) who are running this once great city into the ground.
Thank you for answering this censorship advocate saying it’s hate speech to tell the truth about a stupid mall. Unbelievable.
Unless you do not welcome tourists, foreign tourists like us enjoy hanging out downtown - staying at hotels closest to malls for food and shopping. Looking forward to the day when there is a big cleanup and we feel generally safe to return to your once iconic city. Our best wishes for SF.
I was in sanfrancisco in january 2024 the westfield mall is there and running well it isn't gone new name emporium
From macys Nordstrom rack virgin America store play station store GameStop office depot etc permanently closed
Have you ever been to San Francisco and there was no vacant hotel rooms, so you considered asking someone on the street can you sleep in their tent?
Homeless tent as a new Air B&B, I like your concept ! 😊
No
Guys, you got to resurrect San Fransisco. Lovingly, bring it back to life.
Everything a mall closes, it feels like dead cells in a body.
You guys can resurrect America , and make it Great again. It will take money and huge effort, but try re-opening it like a candy store. It can be done. America has more than enough money to do it. Don't let your dream die! May God and bless your every endeavour. Jai Ram Shree Ram Jai Jai Ram.
Not mad about its demise.
Hope the BRICS nations don't
neutron bomb San Francisco.
Nah. Not most desolate and other sounding. /
How to destroy a city that could've been one of the most beautiful and innovative in US if not the world.
SF already in a big hole.
I'm sorry did you blame covid? LOL!
Malls are dead people! We are all shopping online. Far less hassle. Get over yourselves. Meetings and conventions are a thing of the past. Disease forced us to think differently. Its not the crime, the crime fills the void left by changing ways of doing business. We can't afford the rent to live in San fran. We don't get paid enough to commute.
They might be turning it into a downtown soccer stadium probably for the San Jose earthquakes
What’s strange is the NASL Earthquakes wanted to play in SF but moved to San Jose after they couldn’t get enough sales. Maybe both Bay FC and the Quakes move up then the second team plays in San Jose.
Put the homeless in the mall, that way they are not in the streets. That’s how you put this mall to good use.
We the SF voters voted for the liberals who screwed this beautiful city and ourselves. Accept it or not, it hurts.
house the city's homeless in it
Gavin newsom's California
San Francisco has no heart
The chronology is all wrong.
🤣
great job democrats!
Heheheheheh😊oh well 🤷
San Francisco has become a dirty, grimy, DANGEROUS place…..I’m NOT going there!! (Or Seattle, or Portland). ….Maybe San Francisco will rebuild, and I’ll visit again in 10-15 YEARS. …..Maybe. 🤔🤷🏼♂️
Why do yoU enunciaTE everY singLE woRD liKE thAT????
bad video. too many errors. thumbs down
What happened? This is what leftists wanted.
Bubye, the site will be turned into stadium for homelessness