There is plenty of density there. It's probably the area of San Francisco that has the highest combination of housing and large grocery stores. This is by San Francisco standards because yes, there are lots of large and small company offices and kinda vacant lots or underutilized buildings.
From a density point of view it's as much as you are likely to find in San Francisco. There is not much point in hoping for much more.
This combination of large supermarkets and combination home goods stores makes it actually an area that other San Franciscans might drive to for groceries! Safeway, Target (a second one with parking lot closed recently), Trader Joes (two, one with free parking lot), Costco (with free parking lot), Foods Co (free parking lot), Rainbow Grocery (free parking lot), Whole Foods (a second one with parking closed recently), spread all around mostly at the periphery of that area. There are enough people to sustain all these stores.
So that I don't think the "still densifying" argument applies. It's been long enough and there are lots of people who live there. Certainly more dense than most other areas in San Francisco.
This is also in the area of San Francisco that is central from a transit point of view. It is very well served. Easy (but slow and certainly not comfortable) to come from other areas by transit.
No, I think mostly there are sooooo many of these empty "street level retail" - and of course more being "required" in new construction. We are not getting there from here.
("sea of old warehouses" - actually no, the area is very walkable. For one, it's fairly flat, for another, it's
not all that large, and the weather is nice. And the highest density of street mental health issues is toward the Mission district and toward Market street rather than in the core of SOMA. Even then, many San Franciscan's still walk through the Market area.)
From a density point of view it's as much as you are likely to find in San Francisco. There is not much point in hoping for much more.
This combination of large supermarkets and combination home goods stores makes it actually an area that other San Franciscans might drive to for groceries! Safeway, Target (a second one with parking lot closed recently), Trader Joes (two, one with free parking lot), Costco (with free parking lot), Foods Co (free parking lot), Rainbow Grocery (free parking lot), Whole Foods (a second one with parking closed recently), spread all around mostly at the periphery of that area. There are enough people to sustain all these stores.
So that I don't think the "still densifying" argument applies. It's been long enough and there are lots of people who live there. Certainly more dense than most other areas in San Francisco.
This is also in the area of San Francisco that is central from a transit point of view. It is very well served. Easy (but slow and certainly not comfortable) to come from other areas by transit.
No, I think mostly there are sooooo many of these empty "street level retail" - and of course more being "required" in new construction. We are not getting there from here.
("sea of old warehouses" - actually no, the area is very walkable. For one, it's fairly flat, for another, it's not all that large, and the weather is nice. And the highest density of street mental health issues is toward the Mission district and toward Market street rather than in the core of SOMA. Even then, many San Franciscan's still walk through the Market area.)