Since 1839, Market Street has been the major transportation spine of San Francisco. It runs diagonally at the intersection of the city’s two street grids stretching from the bay’s edge southwest through the Financial, Tenderloin/Theater, Civic Center/Van Ness, and Hayes Valley/Lower Haight districts, and finally, the Castro/Upper Market area. Today it is still the main transit spine of the city, with regional and city lines running both below and on the street. Unfortunately, since the pandemic, it is not only car-free, but has yet to fully regain its former vibrancy.

San Francisco has experienced the greatest lag nationwide in commuters returning to in-person work, leaving the Market Street corridor as a shadow of its former self. This has created a negative ripple effect, with regional transit delivering less than half of the pre-pandemic daily population to this area. Not only are office vacancies at record levels, but service retail, parking garages, public transit, and convention bookings have all dropped dramatically, hollowing out the previously busy Market Street area. With the absence of workers, shoppers and shops, theater goers, and tourists in this zone, the vitality and joy of the public realm is missing.