The vast majority of restaurants in San Francisco have been vandalized in the last month, a new survey suggests.
The survey by the Golden Gate Restaurant Association found that of 74 respondents to a survey of restaurant owners in the city, just 3 percent said they had not experienced vandalism or property crime in the last month.
Owners are struggling with vandals defacing their property as the city sees property crime rise, the San Francisco Chronicle reported:
While far from a new problem, graffiti and property crime contribute to the sense that running a small business in San Francisco feels like "death by a thousand cuts," said Hanson Li, who is a partner in San Francisco’s Lazy Susan, Humphry Slocombe and Horsefeather.
Owners are painting over graffiti on their days off. They’re crowdsourcing the best cleaning solutions on social media. They’re spending thousands of dollars to clean graffiti and fix smashed windows while their margins are tighter than ever.
In the last six months, San Francisco’s 311 call center received 10,000 reports of graffiti on commercial buildings and sidewalks.
The survey's findings come as the city continues to lose businesses because of crime.
Three Target stores are shutting down in the San Francisco area. The city's office market hit a record 33.9 percent vacancy rate in the third quarter, according to data from the real estate company CBRE reported by the Chronicle. Almost 30 million square feet is listed for lease or sublease in the city.