- Renderings show 55-story condo tower proposed for S.F.’s west side San Francisco Chronicle
- Renderings show 50-story skyscraper proposed for this San Francisco neighborhood ABC7 News Bay Area
- Skyscraper Plans Revealed for San Francisco’s Ocean Beach: 712 Homes, 50 Stories The San Francisco Standard
- 712 condominiums, 50 stories: inside the updated plans for Sloat Garden Center site – San Francisco Business Times The Business Journals
- Renderings show 50-story skyscraper proposed for San Francisco’s Outer Sunset neighborhood KGO-TV
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: SFs
Renderings show 55-story condo tower proposed for S.F.’s west side – San Francisco Chronicle
- Renderings show 55-story condo tower proposed for S.F.’s west side San Francisco Chronicle
- Skyscraper Plans Revealed for San Francisco’s Ocean Beach: 712 Homes, 50 Stories The San Francisco Standard
- 712 condominiums, 50 stories: inside the updated plans for Sloat Garden Center site – San Francisco Business Times The Business Journals
- Renderings show 50-story skyscraper proposed for San Francisco’s Outer Sunset neighborhood KGO-TV
- A skyscraper proposal in the Outer Sunset is facing pushback | Housing San Francisco Examiner
- View Full Coverage on Google News
New drug ‘tranq’ could make SF’s fentanyl crisis even worse
As San Francisco struggles to tackle its fentanyl-driven overdose crisis, officials are on high alert that another drug colloquially known as “tranq” — an animal sedative typically used in large cattle — could infiltrate the street supply and cause more death and disability.
The pharmaceutical drug xylazine has already appeared in East Coast cities, further devastating those communities. The drug can increase the risk of overdose, worsen withdrawal and boost the risk of wounds leading to amputation for those who inject it.
While it has not yet landed at obvious scale in San Francisco or California, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner told The Chronicle Tuesday that it is developing a method for universal xylazine testing that it will begin using early this year for all fatal drug overdoses. The office also plans to retrospectively test all 2022 suspected overdose cases to see if the drug was present in any of the deceased.
“It’s certainly on our radar,” a spokesperson for the Medical Examiner said in an email. “We have been in communication with our colleagues at the San Francisco Department of Public Health as well as colleagues at other forensic laboratories in California.”
San Francisco sees one to two overdose deaths daily on average, largely from fentanyl, the super powerful opioid that’s highly addictive. The introduction of xylazine into the city’s drug supply could be a catastrophic new phase in the city’s opioid epidemic, which has already overwhelmed public health officials and divided city leaders on how to address it.
Those on the ground say they’re keeping an eye out for any reports of xylazine being mixed into the drug supply, and several drug users interviewed Tuesday in the Tenderloin — a neighborhood with the highest concentration of drug use, dealing and overdoses — said they are aware of the risks and are becoming increasingly worried about it.
Cosmo, 65, who lives in the neighborhood and declined to give his full name, said he plans to be more careful about what he injects because his drug of choice — crack cocaine mixed with fentanyl — is what xylazine is commonly mixed with on the East Coast.
“If it’s back East, you can bet it’s here already,” he said. “I’m going to have to be very careful about what I buy.”
In East Coast drug hot spots like Philadelphia, the veterinary tranquilizer is being mixed into fentanyl and has made the impact of the highly potent opioid even more horrific. The sedative, which is also an analgesic and muscle relaxant, can cause devastating skin wounds that, if left untreated, can lead to amputation. Because xylazine is not an opioid, the overdose reversal drug Narcan doesn’t work for it.
That means that if someone were overdosing on both fentanyl and xylazine, the Narcan would reverse the effects of the fentanyl, but not of the xylazine.
Entering recovery could also be more difficult if xylazine enters the supply. A Drug Enforcement Administration report says “users may develop a physical dependence to xylazine itself, with some users reporting the withdrawal symptoms from xylazine as, or more, severe than from heroin or methadone; symptoms include sharp chest pains and seizures.”
With reports circulating about the infiltration of xylazine in the East Coast drug supply, San Francisco officials are in a tricky position of both not overplaying — or underplaying — the potential risk. Since it is has not shown up in any noticeable way, officials are still in the early stages of planning for it and mostly focusing on increasing surveillance and education.
At the same time, though, the drug crisis on the East Coast tends to be a bellwether for what is to come on the West Coast. For example, fentanyl showed up on the East Coast a few years before it took over San Francisco’s drug supply.
Now, the opioid has been found in the majority of all overdose deaths in San Francisco.
“Because we are in the late stages of the fentanyl epidemic… people are becoming tolerant and (drug dealers) are going to combine it with other drugs,” said Daniel Ciccarone, a professor of family community medicine at UCSF. He said that’s particularly alarming because “we still haven’t figured out the overdose crisis that we’re in.”
The San Francisco Aids Foundation, a harm reduction nonprofit, said it’s drug-checking program tested a street drug sample this fall that contained a “trace amount” of xylazine in it. While it was just one sample among hundreds tested over the past six months, the discovery led the foundation to increase its education and monitoring, knowing that the drug supply could shift at any moment.
Xylazine “is something we’re super mindful of and have an eye out for,” said Ro Guliano, senior director of health services for people who use drugs at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “Just like what happened when we had that big shift to fentanyl, this would inform how we do health education for people who use drugs, including overdose prevention.”
Currently the San Francisco AIDS Foundation has two machines that people can use to test their drugs before they take them. These machines, which cost about $70,000 each, give people a clear picture of what is in the street drugs they’ve taking and also provide officials a snapshot of trends overtime. One of the machines is in a mobile van, while another will operate in their SoMa site in February.
The Department of Public Health said in a statement that it is “closely monitoring the situation” and it is also continuing to collaborate with organizations around the city and “preparing in the event it becomes more rampant.” Officials are also working on developing care options, including treatment that are specific to xylazine.
Still, while the city prepares for the potential new phase of the opioid epidemic, the shortcomings in the current system have become even more evident. San Francisco does not have enough treatment options and the city’s law enforcement agencies and criminal justice system have struggled to address the drug dealers that operate openly.
Mayor London Breed has also reportedly backtracked on opening a safe consumption site in the city. Such a site would provide a place for people to use drugs around medical professionals who would help reverse overdoses and save lives.
Guiliano, of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, said the risk of xylazine adds more urgency to the need to open up one of these sites.
“The larger issue is how is the city providing healthcare for these large numbers of people who are also experiencing homelessness?” she said. “You can’t speak about one without the other.”
The DEA report said the presence of the drug in fatal overdoses may be more widespread than reported because many labs don’t include it in their toxicology tests.
The San Francisco medical examiner’s decision to retroactively test overdose cases from 2022 will help officials gain a better understanding of how widespread the drug currently is in the city, if at all. But increased real-time testing of the current supply would help outreach workers respond faster to any shifts, Guliano said.
In the Tenderloin, Andy Berger, 31, said Tuesday that he’s afraid he may have injected xylazine — which he said is sometimes referred to as “zombie drug.” While it’s unclear whether he has inadvertently taken the drug, he said he has developed oozing, widespread abscesses along his legs, arms and hands in the past few months that are different from anything he’s had before.
He said he’s been to three different hospitals or clinics since September for treatment of the sores, “and they always tell me it’s cellulitis or something like that. They say they haven’t heard of zombie drug.”
Berger sat in a red tent near the corner of Leavenworth and Ellis streets, and rolled up his left pant leg to show a cluster of deep, angry red abscesses. He held a syringe ready for his next hit in one hand, but it was hard to grip because of the gaping, swollen sores on his fingers.
“I’ve been using a long time and never had anything like this,” he said, referring to his wounds. “I know other people who have this too…. I don’t know what to do. It’s pretty freaky, man.”
Trisha Thadani and Kevin Fagan are is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: tthadani@sfchronicle.com, kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TrishaThadani, @KevinFagan
Downtown S.F.’s condo market is cratering, with units selling at reduced prices
San Francisco’s listless, post-COVID recovery is hammering the downtown condo market, with owners increasingly willing to sell at a discount amid ongoing tech layoffs and office closures, according to a new report from the real estate brokerage Compass.
Median condo sales prices in the greater downtown and South of Market district — which includes Civic Center, SoMa, Mission Bay, Yerba Buena and South Beach — are down 16.5% from a year ago, according to the report. Since December of last year, the condo median sales price dropped from $1.475 million to $1.23 million in those neighborhoods.
The drop in the median prices in downtown neighborhoods was double that of other parts of the city. Outside of downtown, median price of condos dropped 7% in the last year, while single family homes dropped 7.5%.
While real estate brokerages tend to be rosy in their marketing materials, the Compass report doesn’t sugarcoat the current situation. It concludes that the drop in demand is being driven by “a triple whammy of economic, demographic and quality-of-life issues.”
“I knew that market segment had weakened but I didn’t realize the degree to which things had changed,” said Patrick Carlisle, chief market analyst for Compass. “It was a bit shocking.”
The problems are both macro and micro.
On the national level you have a declining stock market, rising interest rates and inflation. Meanwhile downtown San Francisco is lagging other cities in office occupancy, and the lack of foot traffic is crippling small business and making the streets feel less safe. The highrise housing that sprouted South of Market Street over the last 20 years was meant to serve the hundreds of thousands of workers who flooded into the city each morning. With those jobs gone remote, demand for housing has waned.
“San Francisco went from being the hottest office market in the world to just about the weakest,” said Carlisle.
Two recent reports of sales at Lumina, a two-tower luxury complex South of Market, show how the market has shifted, according to an analysis by Socketsite, an online publication that tracks San Francisco real estate.
The first involves a 1,791 square foot, three-bedroom, three-bath unit on the 32nd floor of the tower at 338 Main St. That unit sold for $3.25 million in May of 2016 and then traded again in August of 2019 for $3.5 million. In September of this year it hit the block again with a listing price of $3.15 million, before finally selling in November for $2.68 million, a drop of 23.4% since 2019.
Meanwhile a two-bedroom unit in the same tower is being marketed at $2.6 million, which, if it sells at that price, would represent a 21% decrease from its 2016 price of $3.295 million.
While the current market presents an opportunity for buyers, the rise of interest rates to a 20-year high offsets whatever savings might be gained through the lower price point, Carlisle said. But for buyers with cash for a down payment, or those willing to gamble that they will be able to refinance at a lower interest rate down the road, there are opportunities.
“This is a great time for buyers to negotiate extremely aggressively,” he said. “If you see a unit you like just ignore the asking price and decide what you are willing to pay for it. There are a lot of sellers who just want to move on. If they are able to close a deal, they will, even if it is far below expectations.”
Realtor Kevin Birmingham of Park North Real Estate said the report is consistent with what he is seeing around the city. He just sold one condo in the Twin Peaks area that was marketed at $695,000. It closed at $680,000. The seller expected to get $800,000.
As such, many would-be sellers are looking to rent their units. “Listing are getting withdrawn and going straight onto the rental market,” Birmingham said.
Gregg Lynn of Sotheby’s International Realty, who focuses on the luxury condo market, said the optimism of 2021 — when San Franciscans were getting vaccinated and starting to feel comfortable in crowds again — has given was to uncertainty.
Some families who bought before the pandemic expecting to split their time between San Francisco and wine country or Tahoe have found they don’t have much reason to come to the city. Others bought downtown condos to be near their children and grandchildren, only to have their offspring leave the city.
“A lot of our clients are not using their condos as much as they thought they would,” he said.
J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen
Hijacked Muni bus careens through S.F.’s Mission District in wild ride
San Francisco police say they have arrested a man who assaulted a Muni bus driver, hijacked the vehicle and hit several cars while driving it in the Mission District on Friday night.
Police identified the suspect as Rickey Dancy, 36.
Just before 8 p.m. Friday, Dancy allegedly assaulted the Muni driver and commandeered the vehicle at Cortland and Mission streets. From there, he drove more than a mile north to 19th and Guerrero streets, hitting several other cars along the way, said San Francisco police public information Officer Robert Rueca.
Officer Raj Vaswani tweeted Friday night that about 10 cars had been hit by the bus. There were no passengers aboard at the time.
Video of the incident obtained by KRON4 shows the empty Muni bus swerving in the middle of the street, crossing over into the opposite lane, and cutting off cars as it made wide right turns.
Delaney Rua, who was working at Delfina in the Mission on Friday night, said that from the restaurant she saw several sirens and six to eight police cars parked along 18th Street up to the intersection with Guerrero, as well as two or three more blocking the intersection from the Guerrero side.
The bus, she said, was parked diagonally across that intersection with “EMERGENCY CALL POLICE 911” flashing on the display above the windshield that would normally identify the line.
Rueca said police took Dancy into custody after the bus was stopped. Police did not provide any possible motive for the hijacking.
An ambulance responded to the scene to treat the bus driver and another motorist for what Rueca said appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries. The incident is under investigation.
By 10 a.m. Saturday, there were no signs of damage at 19th and Guerrero, witnesses said.
Danielle Echeverria is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: danielle.echeverria@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DanielleEchev
Salesforce, SF’s largest employer, lays off hundreds
On Monday, Salesforce laid off hundreds of employees, the San Francisco tech giant’s second round of layoffs this year. It follows an earlier round in October, when 90 people — primarily contract workers in the recruiting department — lost their jobs.
Salesforce did not disclose how many San Francisco employees were laid off. Most of those affected were part of the company’s sales department, Axios reported. Salesforce has also frozen hiring until January 2023.
“Our sales performance process drives accountability,” a Salesforce spokesperson said in a statement. “Unfortunately, that can lead to some leaving the business, and we support them through their transition.”
With approximately 10,000 employees in San Francisco, the company is the city’s largest employer. As of August 2022, Salesforce had 73,542 employees in offices around the world.
During Dreamforce, the company’s annual conference, co-CEO Marc Benioff hinted at “some level of normalization” after previously seeing significant customer demand and growth during the pandemic.
“Everything is still bigger, but there is definitely some overage that has to be dealt with,” he said of Salesforce’s growth in a press conference during the event. “I don’t think anyone will disagree with that.”
That return to “normalization” and slower growth has seen many tech companies reduce their head counts. During the past week alone, payment company Stripe laid off more than 1,000 workers, ride-hailing giant Lyft cut more than 500, and digital bank Chime laid off 160. Twitter laid off 3,700 employees, half of its workforce, after billionaire Elon Musk acquired the company.
And in the largest round of layoffs affecting the tech industry so far, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is cutting 11,000 workers today.
Tech editor Joshua Bote contributed to this article.
Frustration, anger in S.F.’s LGBTQ community over government response to monkeypox outbreak
As the city of San Francisco declared a state of emergency Thursday in response to rising cases of monkeypox, members of San Francisco’s LGBTQ community expressed frustration and anger over the government’s response.
Referring to the population most affected by the outbreak so far, Health Officer Susan Philip on Thursday said officials wanted “to affirm our commitment to the health of our LGBTQ communities in San Francisco, as we have historically always done as a city.”
But among LGBTQ residents, lines with hours-long waits for the vaccine and a shortage of education about best practices to avoid transmission have been common complaints, as well as a shortage of the vaccine itself. A lack of centralized information about vaccination appointments has also been a concern.
“Information is trickling down in a lot of different ways, and it’s not getting to the people that really need it the most quick enough,” said drag performer and LGBTQ activist Juanita More.
Monkeypox in the Bay Area
A well-known organizer in the city’s queer scene, More was able to get an appointment for a first vaccine dose through her physician. But she said she worries that because of the lack of information, others in the nightlife community, as well as sex workers “who are in contact with people all the time,” are not being prioritized.
Anyone can get monkeypox, but during the current outbreak it has been spreading largely through male-to-male sex.
S.F. Health Officer Dr. Susan Philip (left), city Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax, and Mayor London Breed address the monkeypox outbreak.
Scott Strazzante/The ChronicleOutside of Strut, the Castro district wellness center run by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, 68-year-old Tom Lappin said he had hoped he would receive the vaccine Thursday afternoon — after his doctor encouraged him to do so because he has cancer — but was told the waiting list had more than 1,000 people on it.
“I’m feeling apprehensive,” Lappin said, adding that the dearth of clear information about the virus and the disorganized response are making him and his husband think twice about things like sharing laundry machines with their neighbors. He said many residents like him are hearing echoes of the AIDS crisis, and questioning whether the current mindset is, “It’s just affecting gay people, and we don’t care, so we’re not shipping vaccines?”
In a report Wednesday, San Francisco officials said that 261 people had confirmed or probable monkeypox infections, with more than 30% of cases affecting Latinos across the city. Health officials also said that they anticipate cases will continue to grow in the coming weeks.
Honey Mahogany, chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party and candidate for District Six supervisor, was blunt in her assessment of the official response:
“I feel like our government across the board has really failed us in this response to this outbreak,” she said, prior to the announcement of the state of emergency.
“We should have learned our lessons from the HIV and AIDS crisis: that just because it affects one community doesn’t mean it can’t quickly spread to affecting everybody else,” said Mahogany.
“Additionally, I don’t think that we’ve learned our lesson from COVID-19,” she said. “We have just been through this, many of these systems haven’t even been completely dismantled yet. Why couldn’t we have used these systems to get people to (the) monkeypox vaccine?”
After San Francisco’s announcement, she said it should be followed with action on the federal level: “It’s about time! We need a local, but also a national emergency to be called so we can effectively nip this in the bud. We know how to do this, and we have the tools at hand.”
Tyler TerMeer, executive director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, said Thursday that while he applauded the decision to declare monkeypox a public health emergency, the foundation — and San Francisco’s queer community — had been ringing the alarm about the rapid spread of monkeypox since May, and vaccine access is still severely lacking.
More than 7,300 individuals are waiting for a vaccine at the foundation’s sexual health clinics in San Francisco, he said, and added that there is no end to that demand in sight.
The emergency declaration “could have happened sooner, but at the end of the day I believe this is the appropriate moment,” said TerMeer. “Anything beyond this would have been too late.”
Juba Kalamka, community health care services director at the St. James Infirmary, a nonprofit health care organization in San Francisco focusing on Bay Area sex workers, said he “appreciates the urgency” of the declaration.
“The state of emergency gives us the opportunity as people who are working with more marginalized communities to have a very specific and grounded conversation about monkeypox,” he said. “So I think it’s a good thing.”
Jupiter Peraza, director of social justice initiatives for the Transgender District, also saw the declaration as a positive development: “We are definitely very pleased to hear that the city of San Francisco has officially declared a public emergency for monkeypox,” she said. “We think that that was a step that the city needed to take mostly because of their large and prominent LGBT population that the city possesses.”
Strut, a Castro district health center, has provided resources during the monkeypox outbreak.
Ethan Swope/The Chronicle
The city’s announcement came just a few days before the “Up Your Alley” leather and fetish event on Sunday, also known as Dore Alley because of its South of Market neighborhood location. On Monday, the Tubesteak Connection party that was planned for Thursday evening announced its postponement due to concerns over lack of vaccine availability.
Organizers of Saturday’s Sneaks party at Club Six advised guests on their e-vite page to “Take care of yourself, think about what level of risk you are comfortable with, keep an eye out for symptoms and should you unfortunately suspect exposure or infection, take care not to spread it to others.” Although they are not canceling the event, they also noted “We accept refunds — please stay home if you are not well and we will see you next time.”
Bob Goldfarb, the executive director of the Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District in the South of Market area, said the organization was using its social media accounts to put out information about the virus ahead of the Dore Alley events this weekend.
“I think that there is a lot of confusion about methods of transmission and the actual impact of an infection itself,” said Goldfarb. “The Department of Health recommends if you’re going into a crowd that you be fully clothed and covered to avoid skin to skin contact, which is apparently the primary method of contracting the disease.”
While Goldfarb noted that there will be gatherings and dance parties this weekend “where it is atypical to be fully clothed,” he has spoken to people who are taking various degrees of caution.
“Some people are avoiding events and some people … are just diving in as carefree as ever. (But we) are very happy to see people who are taking precautions to minimize that skin-to-skin contact and the risk of transmission.”
Todd Janzen, 60, says he is planning to go to the Dore Alley Fair on Sunday, but added that his risk calculation felt different as a married man no longer “on the meat market.”
Ethan Swope/The ChronicleDiamond Heights resident Todd Janzen, 60, said he was still planning to go to the main street fair for “Up Your Alley” on Sunday, but added that his risk calculation felt different as a married man no longer “on the meat market.”
Still, the chaos surrounding the outbreak brought back memories of the AIDS crisis, which he lived through as a San Francisco resident in the 1980s, he said.
“I lost a lot of very close friends,” Janzen said. “To me that was a far more scary time. We didn’t know. We had no idea. People were dropping like flies.”
The fact that monkeypox is rarely fatal has come as a grounding comfort to many other queer San Franciscans who acutely remember the AIDS crisis and the city’s response.
Lower Haight resident Jack Davis, 71, said he and his friends are wondering if it’ll be the third pandemic they’ll live through — while they’re still coping with PTSD from the past two.
“This is not our first rodeo,” said Davis, adding he’s now asking his friends if he can hug them, out of concern for how the virus is spreading. “Everyone I talk to is aware of it and concerned about it. Some people are changing their sexual behavior and some people are not.”
In response to the emergency declaration, podcast host and adult film performer Kristofer Weston said that he is glad that the increase in cases is now being addressed.
“I’m noticing lots of gay men are quickly trying to find out where they can get the vaccine or at least get the first dose,” said Weston. “I’m also noticing a few dropping out of events this weekend, out of caution.”
San Francisco’s Castro district has a large population of gay men, who have been particularly hard hit by monkeypox.
Ethan Swope/The ChronicleWhile he has seen some confusion over the vaccination rollout and transmission of the virus, he also believes that the LGBTQ community has been good at getting the message out as quickly as possible. Weston has had one vaccination as said that although he will still attend Dore Alley, he is changing his plans somewhat.
“I’m avoiding events where there’s high volumes of skin to skin contact, like sweaty, shirtless men,” said Weston. “I’m not so concerned about the fair itself because it’s outdoors and I can cover up if I want to. I’m not so concerned about just casually getting it in a crowd.”
Just after Thursday’s announcement, the atmosphere along Castro Street seemed as jovial as any other day.
Groups gathered inside the district’s storied saloons and bars for midafternoon ales, tourists gawked at the street’s plethora of phallic cookies, a well-known San Francisco porn star strolled up toward Harvey Milk Plaza, and two men efficiently pasted posters up and down the block for “X-Rated,” a Dore Alley party scheduled for Saturday night at Space 550.
LGBTQ activist and AIDS Memorial Quilt founder Cleve Jones said that while he is disappointed by the federal response to the virus, he believes San Francisco “has done a relatively good job.”
Of concern to Jones, however, are both what he sees as the unserious nomenclature associated with the term “monkeypox” and ongoing labeling of the virus as a “gay disease.”
“That gives power to those who would like to ignore it or mock it as it only happens to other people,” said Jones.
“Because we thought of HIV as a gay disease, tens of millions of heterosexual, men and women and their children would lose their lives,” he said. “The stigma associated with this is powerful, it gives people an excuse to not be concerned, it gives people an excuse to not take precautions. It gives government leaders an excuse to hesitate and hold off. “
“We’re already seeing an abundance of this coming from the right wing,” he added. “It just seems like every time we have a public health crisis there are certain elements who want nothing more to do than mock the people that are afflicted to minimize the urgency.”
Tony Bravo and Annie Vainshtein are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: tbravo@sfchronicle.com, avainshtein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TonyBravoSF, @annievain
Luka Doncic hits SF’s Underdogs before Warriors-Mavs Game 2
Whether or not he was actually up all night sick after a Game 1 beatdown at the hands of the Golden State Warriors, Luka Doncic was feeling well enough hours before Friday’s Game 2 to continue his tour of San Francisco bars and restaurants.
Doncic had lunch at Underdogs Cantina just after noon on Friday, SFGATE confirmed. Game 2 is slated for another early 6 p.m. start.
Underdogs is part of a group of popular Mexican restaurants and sports bars in San Francisco. The Cantina location where Doncic and friends grabbed lunch is across from where the Giants play and about a mile from the Warriors’ Chase Center home.
An Underdogs employee said that Doncic’s party had Baja fish tacos and an Impossible burrito, although they were unsure what Doncic personally ate. (Doncic previously revealed he’s not really a fish guy, so the Impossible burrito seems like a safe bet, though sadly we may never know for certain.)
Doncic, Boban Marjanovic and Mavs assistant coach Igor Kokoskov were spotted at Sens in the Embarcadero Center on Tuesday, casually sipping a beer the day before Game 1.
Our tipster did say that unlike Doncic’s visit to Sens the day before Game 1, he only ordered water, no beers.
TNT play-by-play announcer Kevin Harlan claimed that Doncic was “up most of the night and ill” after his middling Game 1 performance in a blowout loss to the Warriors on Wednesday night, though he immediately qualified that by saying that his sources weren’t inside the Mavericks or Warriors organizations. However Doncic was feeling on Friday morning, it was well enough to leave the team hotel to grab some Mexican grub a few hours before Game 2. Props to him for checking out some more local spots.
Police were out in force in S.F.’s Union Square for Black Friday. Shoppers weren’t
Black Friday began slowly in San Francisco’s Union Square, which has been hammered by the pandemic, a shift to online shopping and most recently, the brazen mass robberies of the Louis Vuitton store and other businesses in the city’s famed downtown shopping district.
Traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year, Black Friday has long been known — pre-pandemic — as a ritual that draws huge bargain-seeking, post-Thanksgiving crowds to stores that open early and lure shoppers with sales. The day has been considered a harbinger for the fortunes of retail merchants during the holiday season.
On Friday morning, as the blackness of night faded and a beautifully sunny day began, police seemed to outnumber shoppers in some blocks around Union Square. On Geary Street, sandwiched between Union Square and Macy’s, there were at least 10 police officers, five patrol cars and a large RV-sized mobile emergency operations center at about 8:30 a.m. A handful of shoppers intermittently trickled in and out of Macy’s.
The police presence was also noticeable around the square and on adjoining streets with popular stores. Officers were stationed on every corner and in front of some stores, and patrol cars were parked throughout the shopping district and tourism destination.
In front of the St. Francis Hotel, where before the pandemic, a doorperson with a whistle hailed taxis for guests, the long line of cabs was replaced with a queue of San Francisco Police Department vehicles.
“They’re everywhere,” said an excited boy, about 5, as he posed for a picture in front of the mobile operations center.
Crowds in the streets around Union Square were light, and many of the shoppers carried coffee cups rather than shopping bags. But people wandering the streets said they were reassured by the law enforcement presence.
“There’s a lot of police here,” said Sara Twas, a janitor who lives in San Francisco. “It feels very safe.”
Sara Twas (right) and a friend carry bags of Black Friday deal items while browsing through Union Square in San Francisco.
Jessica Christian/The ChronicleIf shoppers welcomed the overt presence of police, so did the Union Square Alliance, a property-owners group.
“The ice rink is full. The stores are bustling,” Marisa Rodriguez, executive director of the alliance, said in an emailed statement. “We are pleased with the added police and security presence around BART, parking garages and on the street to make us all more comfortable and safe.”
Isaac Muradanes, a 42-year-old San Franciscan, carried an Old Navy shopping bag as he headed up Powell Street past several stores vacated during the pandemic. The street’s wide sidewalks, usually packed elbow-to-belly-button with shoppers, offered plenty of room to move. Several police officers cast watchful eyes on the small crowd.
Muradanes was not surprised to find Macy’s far less crowded than Old Navy on Market Street on Black Friday, he said, “especially because of what happened around the corner,” where the Louis Vuitton store is located. In addition to the police on the streets, several stores also had security guards stationed just inside their front doors.
Tim Dick, a Montana attorney, visited San Francisco on a Thanksgiving weekend shopping and sightseeing trip with his wife, who works in public health. He said they chose to come to San Francisco because travel prices were low and the city’s vaccination rate high. With most people on the streets wearing masks and restaurants checking vaccination records before allowing people to dine inside, the city seemed more welcoming, he said. The increased police presence was comforting, too, he said. On earlier visits, he said, they noticed a lot more homeless people on the streets and far fewer police.
But he had expected to see bigger crowds of shoppers this year.
“We were expecting it to be a lot busier,” he said.
Jasmine Woodard wears a festive outfit while shopping for Black Friday deals near Westfield mall in San Francisco.
Jessica Christian/The Chronicle
Crowds were also smaller than usual in North Beach and Chinatown, where the only noticeable lines were at restaurants and coffee shops. Along Market Street, where several stores had boarded up windows, the Westfield mall came closest to being crowded, though the throngs of Black Fridays past were absent.
The crowds, inside stores and in the streets, picked up noticeably after 10 a.m. Skaters filled the Union Square ice rink and the number of people posing for photos in front of the Christmas tree grew.
But the classic Black Friday vibe, that mix of excitement and annoyance, was mostly missing — along with the crowds.
Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan