San Francisco, buffeted by homeless encampments, rampant drug use and an office real estate crisis that has largely emptied out its once-thriving downtown, is attempting a makeover ahead of the giant Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit it will host next week. This week it’s been aggressively clearing out homeless camps that have been major eyesores, driving away tourists and infuriating local businesses. But is it too little, too late? 

Though San Francisco’s problems may not be unique to the city, its image has certainly been damaged by questions concerning safety and doubts about its economy. That’s why local officials are using the upcoming APEC summit as a chance to put the city’s best foot forward for the world to see.

Serving as 2023’s APEC host city, San Francisco will see thousands of visitors during the annual APEC Economic Leaders’ Week from Nov. 11-17. In attendance will be thousands, including President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, along with other leaders, delegations and CEOs from around the world. There may even be a highly anticipated meeting between President Biden and President Xi on the sidelines of the summit – the first engagement between the leaders of the world’s greatest economic powerhouses in a year full of tension between their respective countries.

“APEC will be a major moment that will live in our City’s rich history. We will show the world San Francisco’s unique ability to create a world-class experience where people continue to want to live, work, and visit,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed said in a news release by the City and County of San Francisco. “This is also a major moment for our small businesses, restaurants and hotels, who are ready to welcome thousands of attendees and global leaders from around the world. We know there will be impacts due to the increased security, but we are working with our residents and businesses so that APEC is a successful and safe event.”

Meetings for the event will be concentrated at the Moscone Center in the city’s  South of Market neighborhood. But the convention center is only about a mile from the Tenderloin – a San Francisco neighborhood notorious for open-air drug deals and homeless encampments. According to Bloomberg, drug overdoses have killed more than 100 people in the Tenderloin this year.

The city has also been plagued by homeless “encampments” plagued by drugs, public defecation, filth and rampant theft in the surrounding areas. For the last year, San Francisco has been hamstrung by court rulings that prohibited police from clearing camps unless there were sufficient beds in shelters. But this week, armed with an appeals court decision that “clarified” the definition of “involuntary homelessness,” the city is clearing many camps out, targeting seven different intersections around the Tenderloin. Key intersections near the APEC site are now clear of tents for the first time in months.

And just in time for the event, the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing is opening the Interfaith Winter Shelter. The yearly addition of 300 beds to the city’s shelter system will open on Monday, but the department said they would not be opening up any special shelter options for the APEC summit.

“When our community hosts events, like APEC, we want to put our best foot forward,” SFDEM said. “Dedicated outreach interventions will be focused on the conference vicinity and offering safe places for people experiencing homelessness will be a priority. The SF Homeless Outreach Team will connect people experiencing homelessness with services, shelter, and housing assessments in real time in the field.”

The city has also established a “security zone” area around the Moscone Center that will only admit APEC attendees and people who live in the area – a move that has raised concerns from people like Executive Director of the Coalition on Homelessness Jennifer Friedenbach. 

“As far as I know, they’re not evicting the housed people out of the [security] zone, but they will be evicting the unhoused people out of the zone,” Friedenbach said. “That’s a very unequal treatment of people.”

Friedenbach, whose organization currently stands at the heart of an ongoing legal battle against the city over its treatment of homeless people, has been highly critical of the city’s actions ahead of the summit.

“They’re spending so much money on this and there’s even an ad campaign,” Friedenbach told Bloomberg. “It would be so nice if they did something real for folks on the street.”

According to The San Francisco Standard, city officials and the California Department of Transportation, or Caltrans, are “rushing” to complete clean-up projects across the city that are happening explicitly for, as well as in conjunction with, the APEC event. Caltrans, for instance, is focusing on getting rid of graffiti along the highway.

“We don’t want dignitaries coming in on [Highway] 101 and seeing graffiti,” Cheryl Chambers, the Caltrans deputy district director of external affairs, explained.

Other projects include trash cleanup efforts, adding plants and murals to downtown’s Yerba Buena Gardens, painting a pedestrian bridge in the Japantown neighborhood, installing decorative crosswalks and reviving public landscaping. The city is even telling small businesses to “hang signs in your storefront window to welcome APEC delegates.”

Additionally, the city plans to increase security in the area with most of its reported $10 million of taxpayer money set aside for APEC going to extra law enforcement. The San Francisco Police Department says “increased local security measures” will be taken before, during and immediately after the event and adds that “vehicular, public transportation and pedestrian impacts should be expected in the downtown area around the Moscone Center, the San Francisco waterfront area and the Nob Hill neighborhood.”

“While an event of this size will undoubtedly impact the people of San Francisco, the goal of the Secret Service and our law enforcement and public safety partners is to provide a secure environment while minimizing impact and inconveniences to residents and businesses,” said Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jeremy Brown, the U.S. Secret Service’s APEC Summit Coordinator.  

Worries about the event’s impact on local businesses have also been brought to Ms. Breed’s attention by the San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors. Just last month, the board unanimously voted to push the mayor to use some public funds for financial assistance to businesses affected by the summit. 

Meanwhile, the city’s governmental website cites the San Francisco Travel Association when saying “the total local economic impact is projected to be approximately $52.8 million.” In other words, it’s hard to say whether the event will have an overall positive or negative impact on local businesses.

“APEC’s presence in San Francisco is viewed by some as a doom loop accelerator, due to its destructive impact on local businesses, some of which may not survive the security measures that would grossly curtail access to their services,” the board’s resolution reportedly read.”

The “doom loop” narrative, which infuriates city boosters, theorizes that the collapse of commercial real estate due to the tech industry’s shift to work-from-home, combined with accelerating urban squalor from homeless encampments and drug use, added to the lay-offs now plaguing the tech industry, plus California’s high taxes and prohibitive housing costs driving people to relocate to Texas, will lead to San Francisco’s demise. 

Still, many San Franciscans seem to be happy with progress being made. Henry Karnilowicz, for one, shared his satisfaction with the city’s removal of open-air drug dealing near his office ahead of the APEC event.

“They’ve been right on top it,” he said.

All of this comes as Mayor Breed prepares for a reelection campaign next year against high-profile opponents like San Francisco Supervisor Ahsha Safaí and philanthropist and Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie. Only time will tell if Ms. Breed’s handling of APEC  will have any impact on the tough race unfolding ahead.