California's downtowns have had varying levels of success in rebounding from pandemic shutdowns — while San Diego has almost fully recovered, San Francisco is concerned about a potential 'doom loop.'
In the Columbia District, Allyson Samfilippo, co-owner of Kuma Cafe, which caters largely to downtown’s office workers, has had to raise prices and switch to leaner operations. Customers have told her their businesses are relocating. The climate feels different now, she said. “I was 25 when we started this and was ready to go,” said Samfilippo, who opened Kuma in 2016 with her husband. “Now I’m just looking around to see where the chips are going to fall.
Downtown Los Angeles relies in part on the spending of employees who fill the skyscrapers in the city’s core. But office occupancy rates are at 47% of pre-pandemic levels, and rental rates are below 2019 levels. Before the pandemic struck, downtown L.A. was ascending. Since the late 1990s, a watershed of residential units helped the population balloon from 20,000 to more than 85,000. It became a tourism magnet. Celebrity chefs opened restaurants and bars.“Downtown Los Angeles was booming,” resident James Lee said as he played with his dog, Buster, a 13-year-old terrier mix, in a mud-covered park in the Historic Core. The restaurants, the culture and walkability gave downtown its own vibe.
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