The author reminisces about the decline of San Francisco's Market Street, which they claim has been destroyed by several factors including the city's decision to close streets to cars, a crime wave in the early 2020s, and the pandemic. According to the article, these events created a "Doom Loop" where empty streets led to more property crime, forcing stores to close and further reducing foot traffic. The city's reliance on remote work, particularly due to its tech industry, exacerbated this issue as downtown areas became increasingly deserted. The collapse of Market Street culminated in the closure of the San Francisco Centre mall in January 2026.
Written by the local model on 2026-08-26,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
I still remember the first time I set foot on Market Street.
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I → remember → Street
It felt like I was swimming through an ocean of foot traffic; the towering shops and hotels seemed like they were built by giants.
That Market Street is gone now.
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Street → feel → giants
In its place is a giant empty field of asphalt in the center of San Francisco — a desolate gray waste baking in the sun, empty except for the occasional bus and a tiny smattering of bicycles.
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field → bake → bicycles
On either side of this yawning wasteland are giant sidewalks with only a few pedestrians, boarded-up stores, and the occasional small, sad retail chain.
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sidewalks → yawn → pedestrians
At midday on a Monday, what was once the bustling commercial heart of San Francisco feels abandoned.
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was → feel → Francisco
What happened?
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What → happen → ?
In fact, Market Street was destroyed by several things:
The city’s decision to close the street to cars (but not buses), enacted in 2019
The crime wave of the early 2020s
The pandemic, and the shift to remote work
The second and third of these, together, are known as the “Doom Loop”.
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second → destroy → Loop
It’s been talked about a lot, so let’s just cover it briefly.
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’s → talk → it
The pandemic, and the economic and social changes it brought, came out of the blue.
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it → bring → blue
As in many American cities, 20th century urban planning and zoning rules concentrated office buildings in the downtown area and put housing farther out.
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rules → concentrate → housing
This meant that once people stopped going downtown for work, the neighborhood was just a lot more empty, because almost no one lives there.
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one → mean → work
This is in contrast to big cities in Europe and Asia, where downtown neighborhoods are typically mixed-use.
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neighborhoods → mix → Europe
(SF also had a stronger shift to remote work, because of the heavy presence of the tech industry.)
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SF → have → industry
Although SF escaped the destructive rioting that hit other West Coast cities like Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles in 2020, it had plenty of looting in downtown areas — especially around Union Square and the San Francisco Centre mall on Market Street.
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it → escape → Street
Even after the pandemic ended, San Francisco suffered especially hard from the statewide wave of “smash-and-grab” store thefts.
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Francisco → end → thefts
It got so bad that American Eagle actually sued the San Francisco Centre for being negligent toward crime, reporting over 100 serious incidents of violence and harassment in its downtown store.
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Eagle → get → store
Crime and emptiness fed on each other.
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Crime → feed → other
Less foot traffic meant fewer “eyes on the street” to discourage property crime.
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traffic → mean → crime
Property crime and reduced foot traffic forced stores to close.
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crime → reduce → stores
Fewer stores meant less foot traffic, and so on.
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stores → mean → traffic
The collapse of downtown culminated in January 2026 with the closure of the San Francisco Centre, the iconic mall that had formed the commercial heart of Market Street, but which had been gutted by the Doom Loop.
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which → culminate → Loop
It now stands as a looming, empty, boarded-up structure dominating the area around the Powell Street train station:
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It → stand → station
The intersection of Powell Street and Market Street, once bustling and alive with tourists, shoppers, and street vendors, is now virtually empty, except for a forlorn line of people waiting to get on the iconic streetcar:
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intersection → bustle → streetcar
But recent years have seen the first glints of recovery from the Doom Loop.
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years → see → Loop
For one thing, crime has begun to fall.
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crime → begin → thing
2025 alone saw a 27% decrease in property crime, including a 29% decrease in burglaries, a 22% decrease in larceny (including retail theft), and a 24% decrease in robbery.
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2025 → see → robbery
2026 has seen further drops.
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2026 → see → drops
The reasons for this are interesting, but I’ll go into them another time.
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I → go → them
Suffice it to say that this has made downtown SF feel much safer and more orderly.
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SF → suffice → it
The stereotype of SF as being overrun by drug addicts and dangerous vagrants still holds true of a few areas of the city, but from Powell Street to the bay, the city no longer feels like a post-apocalyptic movie.
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city → overrun → movie
Meanwhile, the business district is showing a few sluggish signs of life.
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district → show → life
The AI boom is causing a (modest) rebound in the demand for office space.
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boom → cause → space
Some office buildings are being converted to housing, raising hopes that SF’s downtown can finally become a mixed-use neighborhood.
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downtown → convert → hopes
A concerted effort to revive Union Square after the devastation of 2020 is beginning to bear fruit.
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effort → revive → fruit
And both companies and the SF city government are mandating return-to-office policies.
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companies → mandate → policies
And yet Market Street remains a dead zone.
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Street → remain → ?
Weekday foot traffic is still down by half compared to 2019:
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traffic → compare → 2019
The wounds inflicted by the Doom Loop will take lots more time and effort to heal.
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wounds → inflict → time
Retail businesses have to be encouraged to open.
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businesses → have → ?
Defunct buildings have to be torn down and rebuilt.
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buildings → have → ?
…and 57 more, not listed.
