San Fran is collapsing. Schools are failures, businesses leaving town. Crime is everywhere and the homeless have taken over major portions of this once great city.
“In 2021, there were 8.7 Salesforce Towers’ worth of vacant office space in San Francisco. That’s 12 million square feet, just sitting empty. That’s space that could be put to better use in a way that truly reflects the post-apocalyptic reality we inhabit today. That’s space that no bitcoin startup wants, that no wellness app is taking, that no fintech bros are playing topless cornhole in.”
This is just one company! Buses and trains are empty, street are empty and whole streets are closed down. Will the last person that leaves San Fran please turn out the lights.
With All This Empty Commercial Space, Maybe it’s Time to Start Squatting
By Ernst Schoen-Rene, Z-Rants, 2/3/22
Former site of the Paradise Lounge on the corner of 11th and Folsom. The club once hosted over 1500 acts a year in what grew to be a three stage club, before expanding into the space next door. The expansion turned into the nightmare that killed the enterprise.
With the money running out and the uncertainty of the eviction moratoriums, I’m sure many San Francisco renters are wondering where they will go when it all comes crashing down. Those with a good grasp of history will find inspiration from the past, and in San Francisco, that past is clear: squatting in vacant commercial real estate is the answer.
In 2021, there were 8.7 Salesforce Towers’ worth of vacant office space in San Francisco. That’s 12 million square feet, just sitting empty. That’s space that could be put to better use in a way that truly reflects the post-apocalyptic reality we inhabit today. That’s space that no bitcoin startup wants, that no wellness app is taking, that no fintech bros are playing topless cornhole in.
There is a long and vibrant history of squatting commercial real estate in San Francisco. One of the great squats of San Francisco was the Vats. If you’re in tune with punk rock history, you’ve encountered the influence of the Vats, where bands including M.D.C., The Dils, D.O.A., The Dicks and D.R.I. performed or stayed…(more)
Déjà vu : This takes us back to the 1970’s and the white elephants in the Mission and SOMA that ushered in the renaissance of art in SF. The author’s version is a bit truncated. The true history of how the artists moved in, cleaned up the unwanted industrial zones and then got kicked out is too long to go into here, but, suffice it to say, not all were squatters. Many creative tenants were welcomed by the landlords sitting on the worthless real estate at the time.
Live-work was popular until people decided to the deal was too good for people who didn’t deserve it. Imagine being able to live and work in one place legally? Rents and utilities were paid and the system lasted through a series of dotcom booms and busts. The great demise of the club scene started in 2001 when the condos went up around Folsom and 11th.
Gentrification started when they killed the music clubs in SOMA. Next they went after the live music rehearsal spaces and the rest is history. Before we knew it we had the Twitter Tax breaks and the demise of the downtown businesses was well on its way as land values sky-rocketed. Good for land owners bad for renters.
Hint, land values need to be controlled before any rents or housing prices will go down. All we need to hear from candidates who claim concern over inflation is how they intend to engineer that.
