City economist, task force co‑chair tell Planning Commission San Francisco faces prolonged, uneven recovery

SAN FRANCISCO — The Planning Commission heard stark new data on the economic fallout from the pandemic on Thursday, as the city’s economist and the co‑chair of a 100‑member recovery task force outlined deep job and sales losses and a menu of measures to help small businesses and vulnerable residents.

“Ted Egan from the controller’s office” told commissioners that the San Francisco metropolitan division lost about 175,000 jobs between March and April, and that the August recovery still left the region roughly 100,000 jobs below its pre‑COVID level. Egan also said sales‑tax receipts for the three months ending in June fell about 43 percent from a year earlier — a quarter worse than other California counties — and that restaurant customers and transit riders remain far below normal.

The data, Egan said, show the crisis is hitting low‑wage industries — accommodation, food services and arts/entertainment — the hardest, worsening long‑standing inequities. He warned that a slower return to transit and tourism would pose structural risks to downtown and to the many local jobs tied to those sectors.

Carmen Chu, San Francisco’s elected assessor and co‑chair of the Economic Recovery Task Force, presented the task force’s outreach and preliminary ideas. “We have received about 200 emails and surveys from members of the public,” Chu said, and the task force has run “probably now over 60 to 70 public meetings.”

Chu highlighted the shared‑spaces program, which allows businesses to operate outdoors on sidewalks, in parking lanes or on closed streets. “We’ve received over 2,000 applications so far, and over 1,700 permits have already been approved,” she said, calling the program a popular short‑term lifeline for retail and food businesses.

The task force’s emerging recommendations — Chu said roughly 40 policy proposals are under development — range from immediate operational relief (fee deferrals, streamlined permits and industry‑health feedback loops) to longer‑term priorities such as affordable‑housing production, job‑training and preserving arts and cultural infrastructure.

Public commenters and commissioners pressed for details: how the task force will measure success, how recommendations will be sequenced into immediate, midterm and long‑term actions, and whether climate resilience was sufficiently integrated. Several speakers urged the city to prioritize equity for Black, immigrant and low‑income residents.

Planning staff said a formal task‑force report and an implementation framework will be delivered to the commission in the next month for discussion in November, and staff emphasized this hearing was an early step in a longer conversation.

What’s next: The Planning Commission is scheduled to receive the formal task‑force recommendations and a staff framework in November for deliberation and to advise the department on priorities.