I was overcome with great shock and sorrow last week upon learning that Nordstrom will be closing its glorious store at the Westfield San Francisco Centre in August. I am not one who obsesses with retail therapy, but this is my favorite American department store and I have many happy memories from my shopping there. It sounds corny, but I took the news of its closing as the equivalent of the loss of a cherished friend.
But this closing was not based on the challenges facing the retail sector – it had nothing to do with losing sales to e-commerce or the resonance of the pandemic’s disruptions or consumer trends drifting away from what the store had to offer. Rather, the store is closing because of a preventable situation that should never have been allowed to metastasize.
“Decisions like this are never easy, and this one has been especially difficult,” said Chief Stores Officer Jamie Nordstrom in an email to his staff, which was published in The Washington Post. “But as many of you know, the dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past several years, impacting customer foot traffic to our stores and our ability to operate successfully.’”
However, the mall’s management was willing to address the manner in plain English rather than coded euphemisms – they issued their own statement to the Washington Post that cited a “deteriorating” crime situation in downtown San Francisco that created “unsafe conditions for customers, retailers, and employees.” And while it is now too late to save Nordstrom, the mall also demanded city leaders do something about the absence of law enforcement in addressing the “rampant criminal activity” which has disfigured San Francisco.
According to the San Francisco Standard, Nordstrom is not the first major retailer in the city to cease operations due to abnormally high crime – or the second retailer, or the third, or the fourth, or the fifth. Over the past three years in the Union Square shopping district where Nordstrom can be found, 17 top-name retailers have either exited or plan to exit because the city cannot get a handle on the rise of crime and the deterioration of the quality of life. Whole Foods, Office Depot, Anthropologie and Crate and Barrel are some of the companies who aren’t leaving their hearts – or their cash registers – in San Francisco.
But this situation is hardly unique to San Francisco. In Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City and Washington, D.C., retailers – both major chains and mom-and-pop stores – have opted to close because local crime has gotten out of control. And this isn’t a situation that popped up overnight. Last summer, Starbucks closed 16 locations across five cities, citing safety concerns in the communities where they were operating.
Last fall, a friend of mine shared a video taken on a Saturday at 6:00 p.m. from a section of lower Manhattan that used to be abuzz with vehicular and pedestrian traffic – but in this case, the streets were empty and there were very few cars and bicyclists on the road. I asked my friend where all of the people went and he informed me that most of the stores in that area are now closing earlier because of the rising level of crime. The closed stores created a domino effect that resulted in fewer people venturing out into what was once a buoyant neighborhood.
But no one in charge of the cities seems to think anything is wrong. Last month, when a massive mob of violent teenagers terrorized downtown Chicago, looting stores and attacking residents, Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson sided with the young hoodlums and lectured the media covering the riot that “demonizing children is wrong.” Huh?
When I learned of the San Francisco Nordstrom story, I checked the websites of the San Francisco Association of Realtors and the California Association of Realtors to see if they offered any public comment on the upcoming loss of this major fixture in the Bay Area’s retail sector. There were no public comments. Of course, I shouldn’t be picking only on those two groups – unless I am mistaken, I have yet to see any organization representing the real estate industry complaining out loud about the spike in crime in America’s cities.
Why has the real estate industry been so silent on this matter? Are the industry’s professionals afraid of antagonizing elected officials if they call them out for doing a dismal job on fighting crime? Are they afraid of being seen as anti-cop if they question why the police departments in the major cities are unable to put a stop to this out-of-control situation?
If any industry suffers as a result of urban crime, it is real estate. Brokers won’t be able to find clients willing to lease stores if an area is considered unsafe. Property managers won’t have tenants and will be stuck paying high property taxes without a secure source of revenue. And no serious developer would dream of coordinating construction projects in an area where stores are routinely burglarized and people are getting robbed, assaulted or worse on the street.
Somebody has to say something about the rise of urban crime. This wretched situation must not take root as the new normal. If the trade associations representing the industry refuse to speak up, then the individual professionals within the industry need to make their voices heard.
As long as the real estate industry remains silent on how crime is destroying America’s cities, then those within the industry are accessories to this crime wave. It’s time to push back against this situation.
Phil Hall is the editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at [email protected].
;
Amazon is happy about this!
Great Op-Ed article Mr. Hall.
Where is the political voice of ICSC in all of this? I don’t see or read all of their newsletters, so I may have missed this one. With the amount of money they collect from brokers and developers, they should lead the charge on this with a consistent and loud voice. If you you collect fees and claim to be an advocate for the industry – then advocate.
That being said, all CRE related industries, including publications, major brokerage firms and their associates need to do become more vocal. We discuss internally, time to consistently take the conversation to City Hall. Nothing good will happen w/o pressure put on policy makers – politicians.
Your story is compelling, and I definitely agree with some of your statements about increasing crime everywhere.
However, the end of your article is incorrect and misleading. If you are contacting the California Association of Realtors & San Francisco Association of Realtors, you are contacting Realtors who are federally prohibited to comment to the general public about crime in areas by the Federal Fair Housing Act.
The key word there is “housing”. Most Realtors sell residential houses, not commercial properties. Therefore, they would not be speaking out about the commercial woes of which you are speaking. You would need to reach out to commercial real estate agents, rather than residential agents. (There are Realtors who do both residential and commercial, but they are much more in the minority of the members of any Realtor Association. Licensed commercial real
estate agents are not required to be Realtors. Neither are residential real estate agents. I would suggest you do some research on what a Realtor is versus someone who holds a real estate license but is not a Realtor.)
You cite the Federal Fair Housing Act. Nowhere does it say that criminals are a protected class. Nowhere does it say that Realtors higher levels of restricted speech vs. non-Realtors.
Over the last few years, Realtors nationwide have been advised to avoid discussing crime rates with clients out of an abundance of caution. But complaints to city officials about crime (which are public comments) are completely appropriate.
Poverty is the driving issue behind most crime. Parents who are working 2 or 3 jobs to keep a roof over their children’s heads and food on the table are not going to have the time/energy to devote to supervising their children. People will do what they have to do to survive. More policing won’t change Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need when the poor are getting poorer.
Very goo point Elaine.
BS! Poverty has nothing to do with it. There are poor neighborhoods elsewhere across America. What they all have in common is they are and continue to be been run by Democrats. Elections have consequences! You get the government that you deserve
Exactly correct! Most people including the media will not say this but it’s spot on. Don’t believe Brian though, look up who’s running those cities and who they’re blaming for the issues too is pretty funny. When you wanna “defund” the Police or tell them not to do their jobs, raise felony theft to $1,000, release those arrested and don’t prosecute then this is what you get. Stop voting for free stuff and put the right people in there, I bet most of you wished the mean tweeting orange man was in there still. Wasn’t like this then was it?
Spot on!!!
It has very little to do with being poor and everything to do with the breakdown of the criminal justice system. When laws aren’t upheld, when criminals can get out of jail freely and not have to worry about being punished for breaking the law and when parents and schools don’t teach kids the proper values of life, this chaos is what ensues.
You are oh so right, Kriste. It is certainly a bad state of affairs. We just has another mass shooting in the DFW area of Texas! This is happening all over our wonderful country. I want to say a word about our police officers. They are on the front lines and are getting less and less support. This may sound like a right turn away from the subject of downtown crime & empty streets, but the city government MUST support their police to control the crime. AND our schools MUST provide the education our children need to help them not turn to crime. We are all accountable. Parents, teachers, city officials, government leaders. We must all work together to protect our way of life and the future of our country. I’ll get down off my soapbox now. God bless America!!
All I can say is realtors can’t even say there is a ‘master bedroom’ anymore.
We are muzzled. We are puzzled. We are all complicate in how crime has
soared and people are feeling desperate.
But as Realtors and Real Estate Agents we are also Fathers and Mothers and have family members. We all need to be proactively involved in community affairs. Will it cost us something? Yes. But we can’t compromise our freedom for safety.
I agree with the story.
Although, thankfully, I don’t see my market area being destroyed by damages and vandalism, something desperately needs to be done in those areas that are suffering. NO, NO,,,,SOMETHING MUST BE DONE TO CORRECT THE SITUATIONS IN THOSE AREAS.
I agree 100% with Phil Hall. Soft on crime policies are a disaster. Enforce the law.
I appreciate the article, and many more like this are needed. However, calling out the real estate industry for not speaking up? Please. How about anyone in government? Where are the good guy/gal-politicians who should be doing something? Where is the media? Oh, that’s right – they’re one-sided, and controlled? Why are we giving billions of dollars to Ukraine and other countries (which is constitutionally illegal) while that money could be so much better used here, and for those paying for that money? We are certainly in a sad state of affairs.