December in San Francisco would usually bring throngs into the city for shopping and celebrating. On weekends hotels would be full and sidewalks, stores and malls around Union Square would be packed with people. Police would be at intersections directing pedestrians and traffic in an effort to keep things moving on the gridlocked streets. Restaurants and bars would be booked with company holiday parties. Theaters all over the city would be bustling with movies, concerts and performances. And then, in the middle of December on one of the busiest weekends of the year, Santacon, an annual city-wide pub crawl, would bring thousands of inebriated young people dressed in various Santa and holiday themed outfits into town leaving a trail of bottles, barf and other debris of drunken debauchery.
This year, nothing is as it should be. There were some holiday shoppers, but only a fraction of what you would expect to see in a normal year. Already under stress from online shopping, many retail stores have permanently closed. Some restaurants seemed to be making a comeback with outdoor dining, but on December 3, California Governor Gavin Newsom launched a regional stay-at-home order, and the next day, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced a new lockdown to start December 6. This closed all outdoor dining, spas, salons, barber shops, gyms, museums, and reduced retail to 20% capacity. Along with it came a 10pm to 5am curfew. On the weekend before the lockdown, I walked around and noticed that a lot of people were out taking advantage of a last chance to grab a bite at an outdoor table or get a haircut in a salon.
Even under the lockdown, San Francisco has plenty of eye candy to photograph. And despite the hard times, people and businesses kept up with the Christmas decorating to create a festive feeling, even when streets are mostly deserted. Here are a few photographs from the first two weeks of December.
One of my favorite street artists in San Francisco is Kate Tova. She has been painting beautiful, colorful hearts on boarded up buildings all over the downtown area. This piece on California near Polk Street is a tribute to California’s firefighters & all of those affected by the recent wildfires.
The city had mandated that bars needed to serve food in order to operate outdoor dining. Many bars partnered with restaurants to build outdoor dining structures. In December, quite a few of these outdoor dining structures we decorated up big time for Christmas. This one, outside Pacific Cocktail Haven on Lower Nob Hill, came complete with presents.
More evidence that Pacific Cocktail Haven was having a jolly good time were these Christmas decorations out front.
Another example of a festive partnership is this outdoor dining structure on Polk Street for Cinch Saloon and El Capitan Taqueria.
Every year the city puts up a giant metal Christmas tree in Union square. This year I walked past it while it was being constructed and was surprised to that it had been delivered in shipping containers like you see on cargo ships.
The Moncler store on Stockton Street featured a claw crane arcade game theme in their window display this year.
Cyclamen flowers in Union Square shining brightly in the December sunshine.
Although our offices are closed due to the pandemic, I got to go in one afternoon to take care of some tasks not possible working from home.
With some many businesses closed, empty signs on buildings are everywhere. Someone has been posting really strange art on them.
Crocker Galleria features designer shops in an atrium spanning three floors topped by a glass dome. Already struggling, many shops in this beautiful venue have closed permanently under the COVID-19 lockdown.
This is the entryway to the Hunter–Dulin Building at 111 Sutter Street. 25-stories tall and completed in 1927, The building served as the West Coast headquarters for the National Broadcasting Company from 1927 to 1942. The building was also the fictional location of the "Spade & Archer" detective agency in Dashell Hammett's famous 1930 book, "The Maltese Falcon". According to Hammett, Sam Spade's office was located on the 5th floor.
Looking down a mostly deserted Market Street towards the sunset on a Sunday evening.
Festive pine cones decorate 525 Market Street Plaza.
Probably my favorite holiday window display this year was the Dior store on Post Street.