San Francisco businesses waiting to see what changes remain after APEC Summit clean-up
SAN FRANCISCO — With the APEC Summit over, San Francisco's cleaned-up image has started to fade, one business owner said.
"The basic principle of life is to keep the body moving — your arms and your legs," said Tenderloin restaurant owner Tony Pankaew.
Owning a business just off of U.N. Plaza does keep Tony Pankaew moving.
"I just had to put the glue on," he said of one broken window. "I can't keep claiming the insurance."
As for the recent push to calm and clean the plaza, he said it worked.
"Yeah, they cleaned up the people, they cleaned up the street to make the city look good, and look impressive for the foreigners, for the politicians," Pankaew said.
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A few days later, he said many of those problems have started to return.
"And now, now they'll start coming back," he added. "Slowly, but surely, in a couple weeks, they'll be back to where they were before."
"They made a big push for it during Covid, to get people housed," said Jeff, who has been living on the streets, off and on. "A lot of people were into it. And then they started doing it again, where they're really trying to get people into SROs."
Jeff, who has been accepting help from the city, puts the recent changes in a broader context, and he thinks months of work is starting to show some results.
"It looks like they have made somewhat of a dent in it," he said. "I think. If you've been out here you notice, it's gotten a lot better with that kind of thing."
Pankaew is hopeful that some of the changes stick and bring more customers. Giving up, he said, is not an option.
"I have to keep going," he said. "With the hope that it's going to turn around."
So, some changes, like the revamped plaza, will stay. Others, like that huge law-enforcement presence, that is all winding down.
The big question now is what will carry over.