San Francisco city officials hoping Super Bowl 60 will help restore its image

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco is in a tireless effort to restore its image. Just watch the barrage of Instagram posts by the current Mayor, Daniel Lurie. The Super Bowl next month is expected to attract half-a-million people to the region- many of them will flock to events in the City by the Bay, where leaders are hoping to combat the narrative that San Francisco is a "failed" city. It's been tried before.

The Super Bowl will be played in Santa Clara, but everyone knows San Francisco will host most of the parties and events.

By having a global spotlight, San Francisco is the branding itself as the "comeback city."

To change hearts and minds, San Francisco will continue to use the clean up strategies adopted during APEC and Dreamforce.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff had this reaction in 2023.

MORE: Everything to know about Super Bowl Experience, Pro Bowl at Moscone Center in San Francisco

"Everything is perfect, spiffy, cleaned up, nice, I mean I went down Howard Street and like, what did they do, pour fresh cement? Everything, people, you could eat off the sidewalk, it's incredible," expressed Benioff.

"One of the things we deployed during APEC that we will also be doing during Super Bowl 60, is utilizing our Emergency Operations Center and what that is- is a coordinated location where we have people from all over the city there and coordinating all the different operational responses that are required to make the city clean, safe and successful," advanced Adrienne Bechelli of the Department of Emergency Management.

The city is expected to make a visible effort to clean up troubled areas like the Tenderloin, only a few blocks from Moscone Center, a major hub for Super Bowl 60.

We asked long-time Tenderloin resident Lawrence Thomas to weigh in.

"Ah, for one thing I would clean all the feces that is around here, everywhere you look," said Thomas.

But in fairness to the Tenderloin Community Benefit District, most people will tell you the clean up teams do more than what's expected of them.

MORE: San Francisco eyes new strategy to put an end to drug markets: Here's what we know

For them it's like a game of whack-a-mole.

"You can come out one day and say, but it looks great and by the afternoon it doesn't. People always say to me how does it look? There's no consistency," said Randy Shaw of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic.

In 2016 during the last Super Bowl here, San Francisco was criticized for forcing the homeless to move from areas hosting fan events in an attempt to improve the image of the city.

After the Super Bowl they all returned and many arguing, nothing improved.

"We're not intending to make anybody disappear. Every single day we work with people on our streets who are in need, trying to connect them with the resources that are available," promised Bechelli.

But many reject any kind of help because they have a right to say no, just like a man we found passed out on the sidewalk.

MORE: Mayor Lurie talks affordability, homelessness and bringing business back to the SF

Just a few minutes before, a security guard and an Urban Alchemy person had made sure to keep him from nodding off before paramedics arrived.

Resident Lawrence Thomas said it's time to tell the rest of the world that it's not as bad as we've seen it before.

"I would say you would have to come to take a look for yourself because everything is not always made worse that what t is an it's coming from another person, a person's point of view, especially if they've never been here, a day in their life and they don't know what it's like to live out here, you know what I'm saying?" asked Thomas.

How does one know if San Francisco's image has improved?

The answer suddenly came to me. Right in front of me was the J.P. Morgan Health Conference which recently brought in people from all over the country, in fact, the world.

"I'm from Colombia," said Maria Josefina Pulido of Laboratorios Vejarano in Colombia.

MORE: Venture firm rents bus to hold private meetings during crowded JP Morgan Conference in SF

"What do you know about San Francisco?" ABC7 News reporter Lyanne Melendez asked.

"I know that it is a very well-known city for startups but also about the fentanyl, like the problem that you have," said Josefina Pulido.

"I've seen the good times and not-so-good times. You've not going to flip a switch and make it better again. I think it's about consistency. You look at it now, it's clean, now I was here a month ago, two months ago, it's pretty clear that you clean up the city for the conference, why not keep it clean? said John Dellisanti, CEO of Sampled.

"How do you combat theft in the stores? How do you combat the homeless problem? There are things that have been tried that haven't worked and I think they are trying new things," added Michael Pine of Pine Health Strategies.

Here's why Mayor Lurie recently told people during his State of the City address: "It's time to put our foot on the accelerator. Our recovery is underway. The work now is to make it durable for everyone."

The bigger challenge is to make that effort consistent.

If you're on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live