It’s lunch hour in downtown San Francisco . The food court at the troubled San Francisco Centre mall is nearly deserted . Slices of pizza wilt under heat lamps, and some restaurants have their shades rolled down.
Outside on Fifth Street, half a dozen men are loading sacks of grease-spattered food onto mopeds and e-bikes, and preparing to haul them across town.
They belong to a burgeoning gig work ecosystem that’s breathing life into otherwise decrepit downtown shopping malls and their dozens of fast-casual restaurants …