A lush green plaza where children and families gather, an outdoor concert hall with sparkling lights and a bustling night market selling sizzling food for tourists.
That’s Mark Farrell’s vision for San Francisco’s downtown — at least, according to a rendering of the mayoral candidate’s idea. On Wednesday, the former interim mayor and supervisor, who touts his private sector background as a venture capitalist, unveiled his ambitious — some would say pie-in-the-sky — plan for the city’s downtown recovery.
“As the only candidate with significant and successful private sector experience, I will be bold, creative, and proactive in bringing this vision to life,” Farrell said.
Over the course of 20 years, Farrell wants to overhaul the downtown waterfront by converting some buildings to mixed residential and commercial use, providing tax incentives for companies with in-office work mandates and establishing a government agency to oversee the area’s recovery.
Specifically, Farrell wants to transform the Embarcadero Plaza, a spacious outdoor area that’s home to the dilapidated Vaillancourt Fountain, into a bustling new park. He also wants more police, denser housing and private vehicles back on Market Street.
He blasted Mayor London Breed’s downtown recovery plan as “a throw-spaghetti-at-the-wall approach,” saying many of her ideas are going nowhere. Breed has suggested building a soccer stadium at Westfield Mall, as well as a new University of California campus, which the university administration has rejected.
However, Farrell’s approach partially overlaps with what Breed has been doing to boost San Francisco’s lagging downtown. Breed has worked to incentivize office-to-housing conversions, establish tax credits for businesses and improve public safety in the area. The mayor has also proposed outdoor partying zones featuring open-air alcohol sales and introduced pop-up shops in vacant storefronts.
In a statement, Breed’s campaign mocked Farrell’s idea of the 20-year vision, describing it as ChatGPT-generated content, and said Breed is taking bold action now.
“Humans will land on Mars and flying cars will be traversing the city by the time Farrell’s plan is complete,” Joe Arellano, a spokesperson for her campaign, said in an emailed statement. He also criticized Farrell’s plan for creating another layer of city bureaucracy.
The question of how to revitalize San Francisco’s downtown in the age of remote work is one of the most contentious topics in the mayor’s race.
A full recovery could take decades as the office vacancy rate remains high. But studies show that the downtown area’s nightlife is coming back with many night market and music events expected to draw big crowds.