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Controller: Two long construction zones tied to double-digit sales drops; city outlines targeted supports
Summary
A controller analysis found Castro and West Portal corridors experienced statistically significant retailer sales declines (~12–13%) during prolonged construction; departments described outreach and a new OEWD support package including up to $10,000 for directly impacted businesses. Supervisors pressed for faster, cash-based relief and asked the controller to add closure counts to the final report.
The San Francisco city controller told the Government Audit & Oversight Committee that an interim, business-level analysis of six construction zones found mixed effects on merchants but clear harm where projects lasted longest.
“Two projects with the longest construction periods — West Portal and Castro — show a statistically significant loss of revenue of approximately 12 to 13 percent in each district,” City Controller Ben Rosenfield said, describing the study’s regression methodology and its limits. Rosenfield cautioned that the analysis uses taxable sales as a proxy and therefore underrepresents service-sector firms that do not collect sales tax.
The controller said he reviewed six sample projects and compared businesses in affected corridors with neighborhood benchmarks. In the two longest-duration cases, he said, losses during construction were clear; in four shorter projects, the analysis found “no statistically significant loss of revenue.” He also reported mixed post-construction results: Balboa showed…
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