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SF is full of vacant commercial spaces b/c the landlords jacked the rent on old—sometimes decades old—tenants and then couldn't find anybody to pay the new rent. And/or rotating vacancies. This seems both wrong and dumb, even from the landlord perspective.
Also, we need zoning reform so that some of these endlessly empty storefronts can be turned into housing.
We should repeal Prop 13 overall. But if we repeal Prop 13 for (some kinds of) commercial properties, it would restore some sense to the world where right now landlords face little penalty to letting things sit and hoping for a real estate unicorn.
And I don't know what regulatory fix would help here, but man, we should find it:
.@LondonBreed and other mayors have proposed fining commercial landlords that let things sit vacant. Which seems good but would need to be joined with a more agile permitting process.
Here’s a brand new @sfchronicle piece on the permitting drag on commercial vacancies sfgate.com/bayarea/philma…
