Mayor London Breed has fired back at a claim in Good Morning America that San Francisco is “too dangerous” to film in the city’s downtown area.
The mayor claimed such criticism is hampering the city’s efforts to bounce back from the Covid pandemic even as police data from this year showed an increase in crimes like robberies, homicides and grand theft auto.
In recent years, many prominent employees of news networks have expressed concerns about San Francisco’s increasing crime rate and the departure of several stores from the downtown area.
On Wednesday, ABC News reporter Matt Gutman told viewers he was advised against appearing live from downtown San Francisco for a Good Morning America show due to the area being deemed “simply too dangerous”.
“It is worth mentioning that we are not at Union Square or the Westfield Mall this morning because we have been advised that it’s simply too dangerous to be there at this hour,” he told viewers.
But the mayor denied claims that the area is dangerous and said critics have not told the whole story.
“Sadly, some of the news coverage conflate the reasons or do not provide the full picture of why big retailers and other businesses in San Francisco are deciding to leave or transfer ownership of their operations,” Ms Breed’s office said in a statement to San Francisco Gate.
“Lacking foot traffic in our downtown areas as a result of work-from-home habits, as well as challenges stemming from shifting shopping trends that have persisted for years were exacerbated by the pandemic.”
“Although there is a lot of work ahead of us and we will continue to focus on our economic recovery and public safety, the reality is that the number of violent crimes in the Downtown and Tenderloin is down so far this year when compared to the same period last year,” the statement said.
“San Francisco also has an overall violent crime rate that is lower than other cities,” she claimed.
According to police data, criminal activity, including robberies, arson, grand theft auto and homicides, have increased by over 5 per cent in 2023 compared to the previous year.
There was a 14.7 per cent rise in robberies, while homicides increased by 10 per cent and drug-related deaths surged by 41 per cent in the first quarter of 2023.
The number of homeless people has also exponentially increased, with more than 7,000 people living in tented shanty towns, according to the last official count in 2022.
Westfield Mall, the latest in the area to shutter its business, announced last week that it took the step due to “declines in sales, occupancy and foot traffic” because of “challenging operating conditions in downtown San Francisco”.
This was the latest in a spate of closures of businesses after Nordstrom last month shuttered its stores and others, including Whole Foods, Old Navy, Gap and Office Depot, announced they were closing.
An alarming viral video recently showed an entire section of the city’s commercial hub with abandoned businesses.
Elon Musk tweeted that many Twitter employees “feel unsafe” coming to work in downtown San Francisco and have experienced incidents of car windows being smashed.
“They also got such a null response from the police that they rarely even bother reporting crimes anymore, because nothing happens,” Mr Musk said.
