"How are you, really?"
This question was posed by one of my favorite ad campaigns, created by the artist We’re Not Really Strangers and painted by Overall Murals.
It's a question that now arises whenever I visit the Bay Area to see my parents in Marin County, where I grew up.
How are you, really, San Francisco?
Although I wasn’t born in America, I arrived at SFO from Thailand at just six months old and was raised in San Rafael, a suburb 18 miles north of San Francisco. Despite its reputation as one of the most beautiful places to grow up, it was also boring to a teenager. And in the mid-90s, San Francisco was the epicenter of cool. My friends and I would skip school to ride the bus or hitchhike into the city to get piercings, buy vintage clothes and collect rave flyers. Once we got our own cars, we would either drive to the beach or head to the city to party and find diverse groups of people.
When it was time for college, I moved to the University of San Francisco dormitories, where more days were spent getting to know the city. After graduation, I stayed for a couple more years, exploring every neighborhood—even Bayview-Hunters Point—before moving east for grad school. There, I became an annoying Californian in Boston, touting my roots and how much “better” things were in San Francisco.
Today, as a New Yorker, I make a point to always land at SFO when visiting my original "home." When I near the airport exit, a deep-seated anxiety overcomes me, hoping the city I hold so dear is doing well. I had never worried about San Francisco until the pandemic hit. It seemed that overnight, the well-known, affluent, techy, sports fan-heavy, historically and naturally beautiful city with a “golden” bridge is now practically considered a third-world country by many, near and far.
The news of San Francisco's downfall spread like a California wildfire. It signaled to the world that San Francisco had been forsaken by those who once enriched and elevated it. Now, it is seen as a city plagued by crime, earning the nickname "Bip City" rife with drug issues (but not in the iconic Haight Street way of the 60s and mid-90s) and overwhelmed by a relentless, belligerent homeless population. Once one of the most posh and expensive places to live, San Francisco has now seen its real estate prices plummet to the lowest levels in years, experiencing the greatest drops in the nation. No one wanted to be here, live here, nor invest here.
Since moving to the East Coast in 2005, I have visited San Francisco at least three to five times a year. This includes having my wedding in the city and visits during the pandemic in 2020 and post. Pre-pandemic, the streets were dense with crowds of both Bay locals and tourists. The city was thriving. My business, Overall Murals, was booked solid on every one of our mural walls, from the Marina to SOMA. San Francisco was a lucrative playland, and things could only go up from there.
From 2020 to 2021, the city was hit hard. While it was bleak everywhere, San Francisco was knocked out, landing in the ICU with an unknown discharge date. Downtown San Francisco became a wasteland, with tech and finance professionals opting to work remotely from exotic locales or moving back to their hometowns or somewhere cheaper but still trendy like Austin.
Once somewhat tolerable, the Tenderloin (the TL) became the life source of any travel YouTuber’s “San Francisco is F’d” content, scaring potential future tourists for years to come. Those who stayed watched as the world simply lost hope on them.
From my perspective, the dark smoke of the bad news is beginning to clear. I first noticed the blue sky peeking out in 2022, when mega promoter Golden Voice put on the first annual The Portola Music Festival at Pier 80, showcasing worldwide electronic music talent. My husband, a bunch of local friends and I checked it out. That weekend, we found the hotels were fully booked, there was hardly any breathable standing room on BART, downtown restaurants were full of diners past midnight, and the festival was a ton of fun. The two-day concert is returning for its third round this year and sold-out within its first week of ticket sales.
Last summer, after attending a wedding in North Beach, I surprisingly found nearby bars packed and people lining up at the surrounding restaurants. Earlier this year, while touring wallscapes in the Marina District and Cow Hollow there was a noticeable vibrancy; tourists filled the area, making it difficult to find a seat for lunch, even on a late Wednesday afternoon. In February this year, we painted a mural in Union Square for the Lunar New Year, attracting thousands of people celebrating at the parade beneath it.
The sky is definitely becoming clearer in Northern California.
In fact, ABC News reported in April 2024 that downtown San Francisco is showing signs of a rebound. Tenancy demands are creeping back up, and companies are expanding their downtown footprints. Earlier this month, on June 2, Skrillex and Fred Again, two huge electronic music producers, played a last-minute sold-out outdoor show at the picturesque Civic Center, drawing 25,000 people to the city’s center. Shortly after that, I noticed a LinkedIn post by Rick Robinson, CEO of PJX, who, after a market ride there, proclaimed, “San Francisco is bouncing back!”.
These events are particularly eye-opening as they demonstrate that the city has not been forgotten as a cultural mecca, which is the foundation for economic development and attracting new residents. Historically, San Francisco has been the financial center of California since the Gold Rush and is associated with Silicon Valley, the Summer of Love and being a trailblazer for social change.
Whenever I’m back in "The City", my favorite part is driving across the Golden Gate Bridge. It never fails to awe with its grandeur alongside the oceanside’s natural beauty. The bridge, standing at the entrance to San Francisco Bay, was built during the Great Depression and symbolizes American ingenuity and resolve. A die-hard San Franciscan once described the city to me as akin to the City of Atlantis, a utopia on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea known for its abundance.
But unlike Atlantis, San Francisco has found its way back. It may not be the same as it once was, but what city is? Some of my fondest memories are from here, and I’m excited for my next visit and am optimistic about the city’s future.
So, finally, to answer the question: San Francisco is doing well, really.