S.F. touts tourism after move by Oracle
After software giant Oracle announced it was relocating its annual businessnetworking conference from San Francisco to Las Vegas, in part due to squalid street conditions, officials sought to reassure wouldbe travelers Monday that the city is taking their concerns seriously.
In front of the enormous, glinting Christmas tree in Union Square, Mayor London Breed pledged to clean up the city’s streets and care for the homeless living on them. She was joined by at least a halfdozen department heads and representatives of the city’s business and tourism sectors.
The press conference was in part an attempt at damage control following Oracle’s decision, shared publicly Dec. 10, to move its OpenWorld conference out of the city for the first time in two decades. The move will cost the city an estimated $64 million a year in economic activity. Breed acknowledged the need for greater investments in street cleanliness and services — priorities she said would be reflected in her upcoming budget.
“San Francisco ... is a worldclass city. We attract people from all over the world. They come here because not only is it a beautiful
city, but it’s an enjoyable experience,” Breed said. “Wherever you walk in San Francisco, it should be a good experience, and I am committed to working with all of the folks here to make sure that we make those experiences a lot better.”
This year, Breed said, San Francisco drew around 26 million visitors traveling for business and pleasure, creating an estimated $9 billion in economic activity for the city’s hotels, restaurants and other sectors.
But the fetid state of the city’s streets, unaddressed homelessness, openair injection drug use and untreated mental illness has cast a harsh spotlight on San Francisco and kindled anxieties about the potential ripple effects those conditions might have on tourism. Increasingly vexed residents have repeatedly expressed feeling unsafe walking around the city, despite rates of violent crime dropping.
But in addition to street conditions, Oracle appears to also be motivated by the high costs of holding a convention in San Francisco. Breed brushed off the loss of the OpenWorld conference.
“We have conventions booked up in this city for years to come. So trust me, we have maybe lost one large convention but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t someone ready to take their place,” she said. “So let’s not be discouraged by someone choosing in this one particular instance to move their convention because we are going to make sure that we work with those others who are waiting in line to be a part of San Francisco.”
Rodney Fong, president and CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, called on city officials at the press conference “to dedicate every spare dollar to improving our streets here in San Francisco.”
The chamber, he added, planned to launch a program — dubbed StreetCareSF — aimed at assisting small businesses in merchant corridors install safety measures, like extra lighting and window protection.
“We must take care of our city. This is — as the mayor said — a worldclass city, a sophisticated city. Let’s treat our streets with that same level of sophistication,” Fong said. Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa