San Francisco used to be a beautiful city. However, it seems to have changed in an instant. You could be enjoying a stroll through a beautiful street with chic cafes and suddenly find yourself in the middle of a crowd of dangerous homeless drug addicts.
After decades of misrule by the far-Left, which has accelerated in the wake of the COVID hysteria, the dirty, dangerous, and degrading areas of the city are rapidly growing and taking over the entire place, and the remaining sane residents are fleeing. Golden Gate City’s end is close: its ruins are about to bear silent testimony to how Leftism destroys societies. A luxury hotel chain has left town in anticipation of this day.
Can you blame Park Hotels & Resorts Inc.? It owns the Hilton San Francisco Union Square, with 1,921 rooms, and the Parc 55 San Francisco hotel, which has 1,024 rooms. Thomas J. Baltimore, Jr., the Chairman and CEO of Park Hotels & Resorts, who is inaptly called, announced on Monday that the company would stop making payments for a $725,000,000 commercial mortgage-backed security (CMBS) secured by the Hilton Union Square Hotel and Parc 55. The two hotels are closing down unless someone takes them over. Their shells will be new monuments of the cost of electing leftists to lead cities.
All the points he made go back to the same root cause. Why is San Francisco suffering from “record high office vacancy” and a “lower return to office than peer cities”? Because people don’t want to work in a place where they could have their car broken into and their possessions stolen, only to have police dismiss the incident as a “basic city experience.”
Why are there “concerns over street conditions”? Because in San Francisco today, people die of drug overdoses on the street virtually every day. At any given moment, people walking down the street could be menaced by violent drug addicts, and once again, the cops will do nothing. Why is there a “weaker than expected citywide convention calendar through 2027”? Because no one wants to attend a convention in a city where there are actually maps to help people avoid stepping in all the human excrement that is all over the city sidewalks.
Baltimore said, “Unfortunately the burden of these assets on our balance sheet and operating results is too great to justify continuing to own and subsidize them.” The city is not only dying while the disease that is killing it thrives. San Franciscans, however, seem to prefer the illness to the cure. They keep electing Pelosi, and other far-Left political figures who have turned the city into a literal cesspool.
If a politician were to come forward who promised to reverse socialism, clean the streets and reduce crime through institutionalizing mentally ill people, drug addicts, and violent homeless, they would lose by a wide margin (this is San Francisco after all).
Some people refuse to see the writing on the walls in San Francisco. Alex Bastian is the president and CEO of the Hotel Council of San Francisco. He was full of defiant hope, stating that “The Hilton Union Square and the Parc55 are open for businesses and will remain open for businesses.” As we move closer to the high season of summer tourism, with an increase in visitors from abroad, they are more important than ever.
Hotel ownership changes are not unusual. We fully expect that new ownership will come forward, even though the timing may not be ideal. It hasn’t happened yet and, given the state of San Francisco’s economy, he shouldn’t be surprised. Why would a hotel chain want an expansion there at this time?
San Francisco is a stunning city. Archaeologists will love it.
