Monthly Events Don’t Revive Neighborhoods. Many San Francisco neighborhoods are still struggling. None have revived through the city’s prioritizing monthly events that bring large crowds. Yet these highly promoted public parties seem to have replaced more targeted investments whose neighborhood benefits continue after the party ends.
Why? After all, the neighborhood commercial districts that are booming post-Covid — Chestnut, Clement and Irving Streets for example– rely on strong retail businesses, not monthly events.
UN Plaza Night Market
I’ve been skeptical about these “Downtown First Thursday” type strategies since 2015 when the city held Friday Night Markets at UN Plaza. They were a huge success. People came to UN Plaza on Friday nights who otherwise never would have been there.
But the Friday night events did not attract new businesses to the area. Nor did they make people feel safer in UN Plaza when the Night Markets were not operating. The Night Markets also required significant city staff time and money. Yet UN Plaza remained troubled on the other six days of the week…