Shop reopens after theft lament
Cotopaxi reverses decision to close, apologizes for politicized post
An upscale apparel chain reopened its Hayes Valley location Thursday, as the company’s founder apologized for inflaming a tense political debate in San Francisco when he announced the store’s closure three weeks ago — another victim, he said, of rampant retail theft in the city.
“We had many jumping to our support, some who felt offended by my post, and a few who politicized our store’s closure (because these are the times we live in, unfortunately),” Cotopaxi CEO Davis Smith wrote Thursday on LinkedIn, the same social media site he used to write an instantly viral post about lawlessness and chaos forcing him to close the business, weeks before a tense midterm election.
“To be clear, I never anticipated that our decision to close our Hayes Valley store would become entangled in political discourse,” Smith continued. “I recognize that with the emotions I was feeling that day, I used some harsh words to describe our experience in SF. I’m not someone who likes conflict or controversy, so for that, I apologize.”
He went on to say that “after productive and positive meetings with Hayes Valley Merchants Association, the Board of Supervisors, and SFPD, measures have been put in place to allow us to reopen our storefront once again.”
Chief among the new safeguards is full-time private security. Additionally, a company spokesperson said, Cotopaxi made “an agreement with local police to increase supervision in the area.”
The spokesperson credited Smith for launching a “muchneeded” dialogue about safety in the neighborhood, after he published the scorching screed on Oct. 18, saying his store was beset by repeated thefts, perpetrated by crews who managed to outwit all his security measures.
Laden with dramatic language and harrowing descriptions of these capers, Smith’s post quickly went viral last month, announcing what would apparently be a three-week closure. Though the store is once again open for business, Smith’s complaints about unchecked crime linger on social media, fueling a narrative that has electrified San Francisco politics — and made the city a caricature on national cable news.
Several Hayes Valley merchants say Smith’s post underscored a problem that has gripped their neighborhood since the pandemic lockdowns of 2020, when cars began circling the blocks, letting out a group of passengers at once to swarm a store.
At a town hall meeting held in a Hayes Valley eyeware boutique, a week after Smith’s post went viral, shop owners proposed a variety of solutions to a panel of city leaders that included district Supervisor Dean Preston and San Francisco police Capt. Derrick Jackson.
Some asked for officers’ cell phone numbers, ostensibly to bypass the city’s 911 system when they need to report an incident at their stores. One bistro chef said he carries a Taser during work hours.
Residents and shoppers who were passing by Cotopaxi’s Hayes Street boutique on Thursday afternoon expressed similar feelings of unease.
“There are basic ways of assessing whether a neighborhood is growing or in decline,” said Alexander Podolsky, who lives nearby and said he was troubled by open-air drug use near the patio seating at local bistros and bakeries, and security guards posted outside of stores.
Podolsky also said San Francisco’s 911 infrastructure has failed to meet basic expectations: He called once to report a person attempting to break into people’s cars and was placed on hold for two minutes before he could speak with a dispatcher, he said.
Other people echoed his concerns. Scott Fortin, another bystander who was running errands Thursday on Hayes Street, said he’s felt a sense of respite since moving from downtown to the Inner Sunset. Postal carriers can leave parcels on his front porch without fearing they will be swiped, Fortin said. He’s also less worried people will burglarize his car.
“That’s a big quality-of-life improvement,” Fortin said.
Cody Goodman, a worker at a nearby clothing store, had seen bursts of property crime in the area. For him, the problem hit home during the pandemic, when people smash the windows of his former workplace once a month, even after employees boarded them up.
“I don’t know if it’s the wage disparity,” Goodman said, grasping for the root cause of these thefts. “What I’ve learned about San Francisco is there are really rich people and really poor people, and nothing in between.”
Despite these anecdotes, Hayes Street seemed calm Thursday as Cotopaxi reopened its doors to customers, about 10 of whom were browsing the racks of lightweight puffy jackets and nylon daypacks on Thursday afternoon. A security guard stood outside the entrance, and four police officers nonchalantly patrolled the block, stopping to chat with neighbors at Patricia’s Green.
The shop next door to Cotopaxi appeared to lock its door during business hours, posting a sign that asked customers to knock — a precaution many Hayes Valley merchants are now taking to fend off break-ins.
Data on larceny and thefts in the Hayes Valley area is inconclusive. Records culled from the San Francisco Police Department show that the number of reports of such incidents jumped from 13 in February 2021 to 23 the next month, and 30 in April, before dropping to 21 in May. Some merchants at the town hall speculated that only a fraction of these crimes get reported, and that the true number is far greater.
Preston said in a recent interview that while his office hasn’t seen consistent crime trends, it’s possible that certain businesses are preyed upon — particularly those that sell clothing or other goods that are valuable and easily fenced. He pushed back on a notion shared among some business owners, that string of break-ins in Hayes Valley might represent a citywide trend.
Smith ended his most recent LinkedIn missive in an upbeat tone: “We hope that if you’re in the Bay Area that you will come by our Hayes Street store and give our team a warm hello,” he wrote. “They’ve been through a lot this last year, so I want to thank them for their resilience, leadership, and hard work to get this store open again.”