Lurie Banks on More Bars to Revive San Francisco’s Struggling Downtown

As San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie on Tuesday touted new state legislation that aims to draw more bars and restaurants to the long-struggling downtown area, he returned to a familiar refrain for his administration: The city is on the rise.

“If you’re a business owner, this is your moment to invest,” Lurie said, standing in Union Square, which is coming off an unusually busy weekend thanks to NBA All-Star Weekend and Lunar New Year festivities. “If you’ve stayed away, come back and experience everything our city has to offer.”

The new legislation, introduced by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D–San Francisco), would allow San Francisco to sell an additional 20 liquor licenses at face value to bars and restaurants operating in downtown. Businesses buying licenses on the secondary market can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars since California’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Act limits the number of general licenses that can be issued within a jurisdiction based on county population. The bill would make an exception to increase that number in a specified zone in San Francisco.

The area that would be eligible for more liquor licenses has to be determined through a city ordinance approved by the Board of Supervisors. Lurie indicated that it would be built around the blocks of Union Square, the Moscone Center and Yerba Buena — a tourist and business hub that has become a focus of his administration and is closely aligned with the boundaries that his newly formed “Hospitality Zone” police task force is meant to patrol.

“This bill will allow us to do even more for that hospitality zone, bringing more restaurants and bars to our shopping areas in Union Square and Yerba Buena Gardens,” Lurie said. “This work is urgent, and that’s the energy our administration is bringing every single day.”

San Francisco’s downtown district has been slow to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic. Retail stores and restaurants have closed, driven out in part by crime and increased drug use on the streets. San Francisco Centre, Market Street’s Westfield mall, now sits half empty, and Macy’s, once abounding with tourists, is looking for a way out.

Assemblymember Matt Haney said that without the foot traffic of workers who are required to be in office, the city has to give people a reason to visit the area.

“People now, in many cases, have a choice of where they go and how they spend their time,” he said at Tuesday’s Union Square press conference announcing the bill. “When they have places to go out in the evening that are enjoyable, where they can build community, where they can experience arts and culture, that’s where they want to be.”

Haney said downtown can’t primarily operate on “an eight-hour day” like it did before the pandemic but needs to have expanded attractions to survive.

Street festivals and events picking up this spring — like the Chinatown and Bhangra and Beats night markets and First Thursdays downtown parties — are part of that plan, according to Wiener. He said nightlife can be, too.

“We know that we need to reimagine downtown for the future and have more diversity so it’s not just [the] office, but more and more housing and retail and nightlife and food and drink, other kinds of recreation and entertainment,” Wiener said. “Nightlife is a key part of that strategy. We see that when you give people a reason to be downtown, they go downtown.”