One of the most dramatic, and problematic, changes in San Francisco over the past 30 years has been the conversion, legal and illegal, of light industrial space to offices.
Some of us warned many years ago that when you put all of the city’s economic eggs in one basket—downtown offices—you put the entire economy at risk.
Which is exactly what has happened.
The new structure would soar over I-280 and bring a lot of trucks to an areas with serious air-quality issues. Planning Department illustration.
So when I saw that the Planning Commission was considering a proposal from a developer to add 2.1 million square feet of what’s known as Production, Distribution, and Repair (or PDR) space on the edge of the Bayview, it seemed to be a fine plan. That project would create blue-collar jobs in a neighborhood where people need those jobs.
It would, according to the…
