Bay Area boarding up for tense election night
Bay Area governments and businesses are boarding up windows, drafting emergency plans and scrapping vacation days, bracing for what they fear could be a raucous night of protests after Tuesday’s presidential election — no matter the outcome.
San Francisco police have canceled discretionary days off for officers, anticipating needing more personnel. Salesforce Tower was blanketed with plywood boards. The Union Square Business Improvement District is estimating that 75% of stores in the highend shopping area will board up by Sunday.
Concerns are brewing all over the Bay Area, including unexpected places. Fera Hashemi, owner of Arya Steakhouse in Redwood City, said her landlord sent a mass email warning tenants about civil unrest, though she opted not to board up.
Mounting apprehension over the election comes on the heels of a historic summer of activism and civil unrest, when thousands of people in the Bay Area and across the country took to the streets in protest of the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other people of color.
While the demonstrations were mostly peaceful, some nights devolved into confrontations with police and bursts of looting, rioting and arson, leading to what Alameda County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly calls “a sort of posttraumatic stress” leading up to the election.
In Oakland, a city known for activism, businesses are preparing for a repeat of this past summer.
“During Black Lives Matter, we had trash cans on fire right in front of our restaurant, which wasn’t even open yet,” said Justyna Wilson, who opened Daughter’s Diner in Uptown in September with her husband.
Cat Brooks, an Oaklandbased community activist, said several groups around the deepblue Bay Area are planning different actions during election night. There will be organized responses if President Trump wins reelection, Brooks said, but noted that she didn’t discount the prospect of agitators.
“You can have whatever you have planned, but the people are going to do what they’re going to do,” she said. “In Oakland, the message is ‘ this is not the America we want to live in, and gear up for four years of a fight.’ ”
Preparing for civil unrest wasn’t on the Wilsons’ minds until a health inspector dropped by and advised them to board up before the election, according to Wilson. They plan to erect the boards on Monday and invite a local artist to paint a mural over them.
Union Square businesses also aren’t taking chances, said Karin Flood, executive director of Union Square Business Improvement District.
“Given the heightened attention and emotion around this year’s election, many businesses out of an abundance of caution are boarding up their entrances and windows in case of public unrest or protests across the political spectrum,” Flood said. “Given events of this past spring and summer, it is not an unexpected precaution.”
Other business owners, like Danny Stoller and Marc Schechter of Square Pie Guys in SoMa, said they’ll take their chances. While the pair remember the Black Lives Matter protests outside their restaurant well, they think boarding up makes a business more of a target.
“You never know what’s going to happen during a protest, but usually aggression is toward big corporations, not small restaurants,” Schechter said.
Alameda sheriff’s officials aren’t advising businesses to board up, Kelly said, fearing it would send the wrong message about what has historically been a peaceful election process in a peaceful country.
“But we can understand why people are doing that,” he said. “Some of those businesses are hanging on by a thread ( due to) the coronavirus. They can’t afford $ 5,000 in window costs.”
Kelly said Sheriff Greg Ahern
has been in talks for weeks with police chiefs throughout the area, discussing how police forces can get a handle on riots if they erupt in multiple cities, as they did during the George Floyd protests.
Lawenforcement officials aren’t as concerned with election day as they are about the days after, Kelly said.
“It’s been widely speculated that we may not see results for days, if not for weeks, and it may become very contested,” Kelly said. “So we’re worried about that part of it.”
Oakland as well as San Francisco police plan to boost staffing on election night.
“The Oakland Police Department continues to participate in a citywide, interdepartmental planning effort in anticipation of the upcoming 2020 election,” Oakland police spokesperson Officer Johnna Watson said in a statement.
In Vallejo, where the National Guard was called in after chaotic nights of crime and looting in June, officials are activating what they call a “partial” emergency operations center to coordinate responses if things go awry. The center will include a director, officials from the police and fire departments, and communications officers to relay information to city departments and the public. Christina Lee, communications officer for the city of Vallejo, stressed that the emergency operations center was a precautionary measure.
“There’s no anticipation of any civil unrest or upheaval,” she said. “We just want to make sure that all the key people are in place and the strategy is thought out, in the event that our community needs extra service.”
Brooks said there will be a quieter response if former Vice President Joe Biden wins, “unless Trump does something stupid, which I anticipate he will.” Trump has repeatedly sown doubt about whether he’d accept the results of the election, should he lose.
“I think he’ll feel confident in challenging the election results,” Brooks said. “And then I think you have the response of, ‘ get ready for a fight now, because you’re leaving one way or another.’ ”
Megan Cassidy, Janelle Bitker and Shwanika Narayan are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: megan. cassidy@ sfchronicle. com, janelle. bitker@ sfchronicle. com, shwanika. narayan@ sfchronicle. com Twitter: @ meganrcassidy, @ JanelleBitker, @ Shwanika