It’s hardly news that San Francisco is in the grips of a “doom loop,” a term that describes the city’s apparently unbreakable spiral of empty offices and unaffordable housing. The mood is pessimistic, amplified by homelessness, drug abuse and crime. The city is struggling to find a way out, but this moment of desperation should not fill us with despair.
Since they originated about 10,000 years ago, cities have been besieged by wars, pandemics and technological change, but they have always been able to reinvent themselves. Few cities in world history have adapted like San Francisco; innovation is in its DNA.
Now, today’s crisis in the Bay Area could make room for new ideas to take hold faster than in other places. If the city seizes its moment, learning from its venture capital (VC) sector, San Francisco could also seize the future.
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We need to come back together – downtown
Of course, the problems of empty offices, unaffordable housing and extreme poverty are not unique to the Golden City. The same challenges are appearing in urban areas from New York to Minneapolis. But San Francisco faces a daunting office vacancy rate of more than 30%, which is about 30 million square feet of unused space.
However, the “downtown doomers” are not thinking long term, past or future. Our recent research at MIT shows that without in-person…
