San Francisco’s Mid-Market corridor has plenty of space to spare. The city has needs. One city official says it’s time to connect the two and is making a rather bold pitch: Move San Francisco’s main criminal justice facility into the neighborhood’s surplus of empty buildings.
While the concept is in its infancy, it raises some intriguing possibilities. Could San Francisco’s famous decommissioned downtown mall become the next Hall of Justice? What about the former Twitter headquarters abandoned by Elon Musk after the pandemic? Or the utilitarian structure at Market and South Van Ness where disgruntled San Franciscans now line up to contest parking tickets?
In recent months, Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who represents the beleaguered neighborhood that connects City Hall to the Financial District and Embarcadero, has made it his mission to help repopulate the failed tech hub with city workers. He argues that a major public agency could serve as a stabilizing force for Mid-Market, a district that has struggled to recover from the pandemic…