she's now some of these big name , you know, sort of marquee stores are exiting union square. one business that's doing gangbusters in that neighborhood is ross dress for less, and they are recording record numbers. so how much is a line? how much of this will change if macy's pulls out and it's a more of a ross atmosphere? how will that affect that neighborhood? >> you know, i think just vacancies in general affect the

neighborhood. and there are already a few. a lot actually. so i think that's already kind of the trend in that area. we're happy to have ross. we hope they stay. and you know, it's wonderful that that store is doing well. there are also other wins that recently came ikea opened up in the neighborhood. so there are new businesses that are coming in. we'll have to see how that goes. >> yeah. let's just i just want to show what mayor london breeze said about it. right she said the city will continue to work closely with macy's and any potential new owner to ensure this iconic location continues to serve san francisco for a decades to come. she also said, i'm also continuing to talk to leaders in retail, business and real estate about how we can continue to focus on the long terme success of this site and others, so for you to what opportunities do you think exist here? what are some other businesses that might replace it that would come in and give that area the experiential experience that people are looking for? >> i think that one thing that has been kind of the obvious

answer for downtown, that city leaders are trying to push through and, and really make happen, is entertainment, right? and more nightlife, more restaurants, more bars, really creating entertainment districts in downtown. and that was something even through the arts, bringing artists back. that was something that was brought up today. supervisor aaron peskin actually, whose district is whose district includes macy's, said that that property also has redevelopment potential. so he could somebody could come in and build something there as well. >> you know, for example, they've been talking for the last couple of years of maybe retail or entertainment on the ground floors around the area and then possibly hotels or residential on the top floor, sort of like how they have in europe. but it was historic. >> but yeah, correct me if i'm wrong. >> luxury real estate in san francisco is taking a hit as well, because people are working remotely. there's not that demand to be in the downtown. what? so what are the chances of redeveloping it into more of a santana road type residential business mix?

>> i think we have seen that when restaurants come into downtown, they generally do well. there's been a few examples lately of new business coming in as far as redevelopment into another use, if that's what you're asking, like housing or or a hotel, those projects are struggling right now. i think financing redevelopment projects is tough here and elsewhere, and i think that's just a huge barrier. >> look, no matter what comes in, maybe it's more ross's, maybe it's other things. how does this change? i guess san francisco, not just economically, but really spiritually. i feel like when you talk to old time san franciscans, it's like gump's is there for macy's. is there no, it's not right. or you know, it was they were right and they were defining like every year at christmas time, you brought your family, you went there, you looked at the windows, you looked at the pets. you carried your macy's bags. >> the problem was you only did it once a year, okay? it needs to be every week. people needed to be in the downtown every day. we have what is it stands right

now off return to work. is it 50? so half the people are still working remotely or two days less than that? >> that would be great. >> yeah, i think it's been stagnant at 40. >> we have a 36% vacancy rate in offices. tourism is not a what it was pre pandemic. it was a $10 billion industry. so this is a whole region. as you said it was a place to go. and for people to visit here to go all right. >> but then phil mayor brees said today this is not about san francisco. it is not about crime . do you think that's entirely the case? >> i think crime has a part of it for the neighborhood. it is about san francisco, like it or not, we bet heavy on tech on offices and tourism and to a certain extent on downtown retail for years and years, fed by tourists. and that it's all of this together. would you agree? >> i think there are many factors that are affecting downtown real estate and businesses, crime and quality of life issues are one of those factors. and, you know, i think

as far as retail goes, demand, consumer demand is also a big issue. whereas the demand going, what do people want? >> she did meet with neiman marcus and they're staying and she's talked with bloomingdale's and they're staying right for, for right now. this is a tough time for the mayor because she's up for reelection. people are already saying, what happened to that old san francisco? even she says she grew up in a different san francisco. well, welcome to the new one. >> right. >> and two of her opponents, daniel lurie and also mark farrell, were quick today to release statements actually countering that narrative that it's not about san francisco at all. and they're putting it partly on her. and of course, there are different views to look at that. but my question is, how much longer do we have with this macy's? when does it close? i know they said possibly not till the end of 2026. >> so i think the conversations that were going on today was giving macy's as much time and giving the city as much time. 2025 is the earliest that we've heard. >> the idea is to sell the building. they own the building. it's not like they have a lease. they can stay there for as long as they want. so we have to see

how much that a real next step is going to be, how much is the macy's building worth? >> worth? exactly. >> because that is the that's the point. >> and we know that values have been dropping. i mean buildings are selling at 70% of what they were worth. and these are office buildings. but you know, retail i imagine is the same. >> what kind of a buyer would you like to see? do you think will really help san francisco? >> you know, it's funny because we talk about the planning of it and why is the mayor doing or city hall says, we're going to do this. they really have no say in it. it's somebody that's going to be willing to risk a couple of hundred million dollars on something, and that's way out of my league. if you put our piggy banks together and we couldn't buy one tenth of it. >> yeah, we don't know those people, but hopefully they come. yeah. right all right. >> well anyway, well they came and they did the transamerica tower. they came in and they invested big in that iconic space. if there's a union square is still iconic, it's still known around the world, and there's a value in that. and san francisco has just got to try to do its best it can to keep it going. right. >> but investors are not created

equal, though, i think just to answer your question, patient capital is kind of what we've heard. >> you know, people who can really, as you said, spend that money and then wait and not expect a return on right away. yeah. and i think that's kind of how it's been in san francisco. and that is changing. >> laura waxman and phil matera, thank you both for coming on today and having us. >> they'll have they'll have the pet adoption and easter in macy's window. we'll take every last confirmed. well, we'll enjoy every last one we can get. >> thanks so much. thank you. all right. coming up next our week looking ahead to super tuesday continues. one of the biggest bay area races is the south bay congressional seat. meet one of the candidates lookin

conservative republican steve garvey is the wrong choice for the senate.

...our republican opponent here on this stage has voted for donald trump twice. mr. garvey, you voted for him twice... as your own man, what is your decision? garvey is wrong for california. but garvey's surging in the polls. fox news says garvey would be a boost to republican control of the senate. stop garvey. adam schiff for senate. i'm adam schiff, and i approve this message. next tuesday, californians go to

the polls on super tuesday along with 12 other states. there are two high profile congressional seats in the bay area up for grabs, so this week, getting answers will have conversations with some of the leading candidates. long time south bay congresswoman anna issue is retiring and not running for reelection in california's 16th congressional district. although the district has been redrawn, this essentially opens up a long held seat for the first time in 32 years. the district includes portions of san mateo, santa clara, and santa cruz counties. it extends from the southwestern bay area through the santa cruz mountains to the coast. we asked each of the three candidates who have raised the most funds and have previous government experience, to chat with us, and each has accepted our invitation to come on the show. the top two vote getters in march, by the way, will move on to the general election in november. joining us live now is district 26 state assemblyman evan low, assemblyman low, welcome to getting answers. >> kristen, great to be with

you. >> well, although you've been in bay area politics for a while now, tell our viewers the new voters a little about yourself where you grew up, how you got into politics. >> kristen, don't we as asian americans, don't we all aspire to become politician asians? no >> i think you meant to say doctors, but you misspoke. >> yeah, well, well, i said that tongue in cheek, because this is not something that traditions call for, which is becoming doctors, lawyers and engineers. but it is absolutely a time for new generations of leadership to answer this call for public service. i've served on the city council and as mayor for eight years in the city of campbell. and then now concluding my decade of service in the california state legislature here. so natural progression from local, state and now federal and helping to ensure that we reflect the values of protecting reproductive freedom, public safety, environmental change, and helping to make sure that we have an environment in society that we want to be conducive for everyday

californians. >> so why are you running for this seat right now? >> well, as i referenced earlier, this is a natural progression going from local experience on city council to state level and the state assembly to that of the federal level, we see that we need a new generation of leadership. we see so much dysfunction that is happening. the gridlock that exists. but at the same time, kristen, it's important that we reflect our values. look, the truth is that members of the most vulnerable are being targeted, whether it be on reproductive freedom, not just on abortion, but contra ception rolling back voting rights, lgbt rights of votes that are so important for each and every one of us to re-instill the support and the integrity of congress and actually delivering for everyday people. that's what we need to get past the partizanship chip and do the partnership. and that's why i'm excited about this opportunity to continue to bring the level of experience that i've provided to congress. >> all right. we only have less than four minutes, but i really

want to touch on some of the biggest issues for the south bay. just saw the headline today that buying a home near nvidia santa clara headquarters is nearly impossible. housing affordability is an issue throughout, i guess not just the south bay, but the peninsula and the santa cruz area, the entire district, even for people at pretty high income levels, what would you push for in congress to improve that situation? >> well, the answer is that of getting federal funding to support and utilizing the resources on housing vouchers and getting individuals in their homes. uh- the fact of the matter is that the national association of realtors said that $300,000 is the median income required to afford a single family home, and this community that is unacceptable, that is unattainable for the vast majority of californians living in this area. so how do we rectify this? and actually getting people in these homes? kristen, i'm a millennial and i struggle to live in the community that i grew up in. so the lived experience is important when we're talking about who will advance with deep

passion and commitment to addressing these issues, not just rhetoric, but because of it's lived experiences for this generation and futures to come. >> well, the valley is certainly dotted with a lot of i businesses, yet the industry poses various threats, even though it's a new opportunity as well. how would you propose regulating the industry? >> well, it goes to that of being human centered. that we talk about the displacement of jobs, the future of work that this must be human centered and not elimination of that of the worker, but rather the reskilling and retooling of individual capabilities to advance these technologies, helping to support our educational institutions, to getting individuals the skill sets to address these issues, while also not inhibiting innovation and threading that needle and making sure that we're supporting the innovation economy. but being human centered, human focused, and prioritizing public safety and consumer protection as well. >> all right. immigration is another big issue in the

district. it is a diverse melting pot. there what kind of immigration policies would you support in the house? >> well, we do need to absolutely address the issue of comprehensive immigration reform and helping to make sure that we're tackling these issues, which is, by the way, by partizan in nature and is that of the current speaker who has abdicated the responsibility to at least get the bill to a place of actual vote. and it's also important to remember is that % half moon bay, when we saw the recent shootings, we're talking about farmworkers. it's not just that of those who might be latino, but also asian americans and chinese as well too. so acknowledging and addressing that this is a diverse issue, to acknowledge that we need the workforce that so many americans will not take, while also ensuring that we have secure borders as well. >> all right. i'm going to leave it with this. you get a minute. what is your proudest accomplishment to date? >> well, my legislative accomplishment that i'm proud of is even here at district, at

home, we saw the stanford rape case in which there was much conversation about whether or not the judge gave too lenient of a sentence to the student who raped an unconscious woman and only got three months probation. and in fact, it has. people were talking about whether or not the judge should be recalled or not. i leaned in and partner with our district attorney to make mandatory sentencing to ensure that a rapist will not get away without repercussions, and that there will be responsive bility that we will not tolerate sexual assault on college campuses and we will stand up for the rights of women. and that's what i'll also do in congress. >> all right. assemblyman evan low, who is running for the congressional 16th district seat, thank you so much for coming on and joining us today. >> thank you. kristin in our meet the candidate chats. >> we'll continue all this week on getting answers. top contenders for the hotly contested south bay and east bay congressional seats will be joining us, so please tune in all week before you vote. next tuesday. all right. coming up,

homeless count confusion, a san francisco nonprofit, is accused of botching the numbers, which are critical to get federal funding. our media partner, the san francisco standard, will get to the bottom of are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for adults with hr positive, her2 negative metastatic breast cancer as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole. ibrance may cause low white blood cell counts that may lead to serious infections. ibrance may cause severe inflammation of the lungs. both of these can lead to death. tell your doctor if you have new or worsening chest pain, cough, or trouble breathing. before taking ibrance, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection, liver or kidney problems, are or plan to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding. for more information about side effects

talk to your doctor. thanks, mom. be in your moment. ask your doctor about ibrance. a pfizer product.

it's an estimate of the thousands of people living on the city's streets and it's required to access millions in federal funding. our media partner at the san francisco standard is reporting the count this year was botched, prompting city officials to order a redo and then backtrack. and there's an issue swirling with code tenderloin. one of the nonprofits that helped conduct the count. so joining us live now to break it all down for us is sf standard reporter dave shostak, who wrote the article. david, thanks for coming on the show today. >> thanks for having me. >> all right. so this count of the city's homeless took place on january 30th, right. can you tell us about it? who ordered

it? how often did they do it? why do they do it? why is it important? >> sure. so it's required by the federal government in order to access federal funding for homelessness? it doesn't necessarily affect how much money the city gets, but it's just a required element in order to receive funding and basically, the city gets all these different nonprofits, daetz volunteers, the mayor was out there, city officials, to go out and do a hand count of homeless people on the street. and this year, i went along. i've been covering the homelessness crisis for a few years now, but this was my first time going and i basically just depicted a lot of the confusion that was going on. groups were following different processes, and from there, i guess after the count was finished, a lot more controversy and chaos ensued, which was what our story today was about. >> can you tell me, what do you

mean by following different processes? because like you, our reporter, our building a better bay area reporter, lyanne melendez followed one of the teams out there and she told me that they were given very specific instructions on what they could ask, what they can ask, like, you can't ask for the name. you can't ask if you're homeless. i mean, there were very precise ways of doing things, which i assume not only did you, as reporters, get, but also each of the volunteers, each of the counters. right? right >> so you would think so. and i saw that story. it was great. and it kind of delved into what that group was instructed to do, which was to keep its distance, not ask people if they were homeless. and that was actually the correct way of doing it. but what we found was that some groups were actually engaging thoroughly with homeless people. they were providing them snacks, waters, and, you know, getting getting more demographic information on that, on that event. and that was kind of where the discrepancy came

about, i guess. >> right. >> so as a result of that, what happened? what did they do when they saw this data and figured out there was confusion and inconsistent sources? so according to the city, they actually recounted four areas in the tenderloin neighborhood, which is kind of the epicenter of the crisis. >> and that immediately prompted questions about how this data could be valid. it's supposed to be a one night count. if you're all of a sudden going back and counting an area again, you know , somebody might have moved into that area or somebody might have moved out. it just it didn't quite make sense to go back and recount it. and i guess after we started asking questions, the city came back and said, you know what? we're not going to use that recount data. we're going to use the initial data that we got that, you know, was initially thought to be, you know, uh- inconsistent with the methods that the other groups were using. >> all right. so they are using

the data that they doubted. after all. uh. okay. so let me ask you, are there absolutely no federal consequences with regard to funding if there are questions over the data? >> i haven't heard back from the federal government on this. i've asked that. and you know what? it's a good reminder to try to email them again and find out. >> yeah, i mean, i'm sure they don't make it that easy. >> but let me ask you, what does this mean then for code tenderloin? i guess that is the group that was implicated right? >> right. so yesterday code tenderloin told us that the city had completely stonewalled them following our first article. uh- they cut them off of communications and uh- the founder, dell seymour, had told me that they were effectively banned from participating in future counts. and dell, whose unofficially known as the mayor of the tenderloin, has been participating in that event for ten years. so he and his organization was pretty upset about that. the city didn't respond to our inquiries about that. and then this morning, we

heard that code tenderloin wasn't banned, and they were in good standing with the city. and so it's just kind of been back and forth on on every issue in this regard. >> when you zoom out a little bit and look at the broader picture, why is all of this concerning other than just getting this one count? i don't want to say wrong, but maybe, you know, not certain. >> right? so the city has a lot of different metrics that it uses to calculate how many homeless people there are and how much money it needs to allocate towards different services. but this one metric seems to be the most cited uh- in terms of evaluating progress. it's every two years the city decides whether it's made progress or not on homelessness by this one night count, where they're doing, you know, they're out there just determining whether people are homeless by uh. right. you know, a visual. yeah. and last time we saw a 3% decrease, i can see why it's important. >> david, we're out of time. thank you. people can rd your article on sf standard.com. we'll be ri

i see my husband... the father of our girls. i see a public servant. a man who served under secretary clinton in the state department... where he took on the epidemic of violence against women in the congo. i see a fighter, a tenacious problem-solver... who will go to congress and protect abortion rights and our democracy. because he sees a better future for all of us. i'm peter dixon and i approved this message.

tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. the tornado watch for chicago. tracking severe storms from the midwest, headed right into the northeast. also breaking right now, the images coming in tonight. major fires burning out of control. entire communities surrounded. the texas governor declaring a disaster. authorities saying in some places, there is no way out. winds whipping up the smoke and flames. one fire burning across 200,000 acres. roads closed tonight. residents urged to shelter