CHANGE MY LOCATION
Local
California News
Multimedia News
Survey says: S.F. residents upbeat
SEE HOW THIS STORY DEVELOPED
Related Topics: SAN FRANCISCO
SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - A majority of San Franciscans give Mayor Gavin Newsom high marks and say The City is on the right track despite ongoing concerns about homelessness, the cost of living and crime, according to a new poll.
The survey of 500 registered voters was commissioned by San Francisco’s Chamber of Commerce and conducted by local pollster David Binder. The results were announced Monday at a San Francisco Marriott luncheon attended by business leaders.
Forty-one percent of those surveyed said homelessness and panhandling topped their list of concerns, although 28 percent said the situation was better. In 2003, only 2 percent said the situation was improving.
The cost of homes and rents in San Francisco were also significant worries among those surveyed. Crime, drugs and gangs was also a notable concern for nearly one-fourth of those surveyed, up from 3 percent in 2003.
Of those surveyed, 72 percent said they approved of the job the mayor is doing. Those numbers, compiled in early March, remain high despite well-publicized scandals in February involving Newsom’s affair with a former top aide’s wife and his drinking problems.
Fifty-six percent of those polled said The City is on the right track, compared with 33 percent in 2003.
Newsom, who spoke at the Chamber of Commerce-sponsored luncheon, highlighted The City’s economic strength, including a drop in unemployment, an increase in companies moving to San Francisco and booming tourism, The City’s No. 1 industry.
More than 66,000 San Franciscans count on the tourism industry for employment, Newsom said, adding that visitors to The City bring in $418 million annually in tax revenue.
Those revenues “fund the programs, parks, playgrounds, potholes and people of this city,” Newsom said. “We cannot lose sight of that.”
Regarding the concerns about homelessness, Newsom said that although The City has found permanent housing for 4,795 formerly homeless persons, many San Franciscans weren’t seeing the results because many of those housed were still panhandling.
“Panhandling … continues to drive so many of the frustrations that each and every one of you share, as well as our visitors share,” Newsom said. “We haven’t solved the poverty issue.”
Newsom did not address the issue of crime, but he told reporters later in the day that he believed respondents were concerned about news that crime was spiking regionally, not just in San Francisco.
