Economy insight

Okay -- maybe I begin to get it. For the last couple of years, economic surveys have reported that a majority of Americans feel positive about their own financial position, but think "the economy" is going to hell. (That link is a couple of years old, but current opinion research largely agrees.)

Yes -- there has been inflation, but, in general, wage growth has been exceeding price increases to consumers for months so we ought to feel better. And housing has become insanely expensive. But most of us, most of the time, aren't really in the market for housing. So what's the beef?

Today the shrunken San Francisco Chronicle passed along some local data that might be a contributing cause of our discontent. In much of the city, too many neighborhood businesses have not come back from the pandemic. 

Businesses in most S.F. neighborhoods are still struggling to bring back customers. ...

Four years after the beginning of the pandemic, consumer spending in most San Francisco neighborhoods still hasn’t recovered to anywhere near pre-pandemic levels, according to city data.

Citywide, sales tax revenue from April to June this year was down 34% compared to the same period in 2019, adjusting for inflation. In over half of neighborhoods, revenues are down more than 25% compared to before the pandemic, according to a Chronicle analysis of city data.

Actually my home turf, the Mission, is doing a little better than the city at large, down only 25 percent. But it is dotted with empty storefronts like the one pictured above, steps from my house. It sure doesn't feel as if small businesses are thriving.

So, even if we're personally doing okay, we are constantly visually reminded that something is amiss.