Letters to the Editor: Former San Francisco resident sees reasons for hope in city’s future

To the editor: As a former San Francisco resident, I have followed the news (“‘The vibe shift is’ real. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie becomes his hometown’s hype man,” April 14) about the troubles my former town has had with homelessness, graffiti, trash and business vacancy with interest. Last week, I spent five days visiting San Francisco and walked all over downtown, from the Ferry Building to the U.N. Plaza at City Hall and the Castro, all of my old haunts. I found the city remarkably clean with little graffiti and few visible homeless people. Not so true in the Tenderloin, but even there I saw few camps, just people congregating on the sidewalks.

I was relieved to see that the city seems to now be on the right track in presenting itself in a better light, more like it was when I lived there in the 1980s and 1990s. Yes, there continues to be many vacant retail locations in downtown and near Union Square, but if you can create a clean and safe environment, it will lure back retail businesses when they can see increased pedestrian foot traffic.

George Meyer, Long Beach