>out out of the five days, we might have two good days. >> remember when downtown san francisco look like this? >> it is not the same as before. >> restaurants struggling. business is boarded up. >> they are looking for solutions to increase foot traffic. >> what is the answer? >> san francisco has the luxury of being able to try to diverse itself, take a chance and be creative. >> improving either housing or work, offices around the area will improve our business a lot. >> we are looking at the road to revitalization. >> mixed-use downtown is a vibrant downtown. >> i am investing in downtown.

this is cbs news bay area with elizabeth cook. >> thank you for joining us. i'm devin fehely in for elizabeth. we would like to think of san francisco as a bustling big city, plenty of businesses and restaurants and entertainment but acquitted still struggling to recover from the pandemic. today, we will dive into the city's efforts to bring that shine back and to bring people back in. today, let's catch up on today's headlines. o.j. simpson has died at the age of 76. the san francisco native was famously acquitted in the 1994 killing of his ex-wife nicole and her friend ronald goldman. and one of the biggest moments in television history, millions watched police chase his white bronco on ellie's freeways. what followed was dubbed the trial of the century. before all of this, simpson grew up in public housing in san francisco and played 11 seasons in the nfl, first with the bills and in the niners. in his earlier years, simpson played at galileo high school and

graduated in 1965. he went on to attend city college of san francisco before transferring to usc in 1967. his family says that he died from cancer, surrounded by his family. the chp says one lane of traffic has been reopened on northbound 238 to southbound 880 in san lorenzo . the roadway had been completely closed for hours after a semitruck toppled over this morning. no injuries have been reported. firefighters and san joaquin county have this massive fire near treacy under control. it burned for hours at a pellet recycling company, causing nearby homes to be evacuated. in san francisco, health officials say 200 residents have died from accidental drug overdoses so far this year. that is slightly less than the same time last year. the city recorded a record 806 accidental overdose deaths in all of 2023. in san jose, the city says it is easier than ever to report a stolen car or street

hazard. the mayor says that people can call 311 and that the city has streamlined the process for faster response times. the city says that callers can track the progress of their request on the 311 app or website. the port of oakland could vote today on the proposal to rename the oakland airport to san francisco bay oakland international airport. they say that it will give travelers more context as to where they are landing but san francisco officials say it is trademark infringement. moving to our first alert weather now, don't let the blue skies will you. next storm system is right around the corner. meteorologist jessica burch is timing it out in the virtual studio. >> it is a beautiful day in the bay area with above average temperatures widespread

throughout the bay. this feels similar to yesterday. for example, 80s down into the santa clara valley, 80s near livermore and stretching up into antioch and concord. we have beautiful clear skies today with 70s in the forecast near napa and sonoma with 60s into san francisco. if you take a look at the next seven days, this is an interesting forecast. we have above average temperatures in areas like concord and san jose by 12 degrees but heading into this weekend, look how cool it starts to get. 50s by saturday. temperatures drop quick and rain chance start to increase. the reason why is we have another cold front moving in from the gulf of alaska, bringing in windy conditions friday evening, gusty conditions into the overnight hours with rain and then cool temperatures throughout saturday. let's time this out. a blanket of clouds in the forecast all throughout the afternoon hours tomorrow. it is into the overnight hours on friday night, early saturday morning where we initially see the first band of rain move in with the area of low pressure. you can see the center of it just offshore. as i advance the clock into saturday morning, you can watch more rain role in

from offshore all throughout the coastline. there will be brakes in this rain system. keep in mind, it will amount to a lot as we head into saturday and sunday too. in total, we are getting close to an inch of rain all throughout the bay area. let me drop this real fast and talk more about the next seven days. we now know that it will be cool and wet as we head into saturday which is so different from today. this is a reminder to take advantage of the forecast. we have 80s today, 60s tomorrow and we continue to see them saturday average out and dry up after saturday evening with sunnier skies into next week with 70s around the corner. if you have been to downtown san francisco lately, it is not exactly dead but it might feel like it needs a lifeline. the city has though not a lot of ideas to bring back that big city feeling. one of those efforts is a new food whole that opened today called sal u-haul. it is located right next to you kia -- ikea on market street. it will house 11 food concepts in all including

a cooking school, bars, and event and entertainment services. mayor london breed is hoping that the different flavors and offerings will attract people from everywhere. while there are openings like that to celebrate, office space vacancies are at an all-time high in the city. commercial real estate firm cbre says that 36% of san francisco's office space is sitting empty. that is due in large part to post pandemic rise of remote work. experts say the city has a lot of potential to bounce back this year and one small downtown business tells our kelsi thorud, it cannot happen soon enough. >> this mediterranean has been here at the corner of pine and alvin in the financial district since 2018. manager nancy madrigal says when they first snagged this location, they were ecstatic. >> this is for store number four. it was pretty busy. >> nancy says they would have

lines out the door during the weekday lunch rush. then, of course, the pandemic hit. >> it was not the same as before. >> nancy says even all these years later, since the peak of covid, the crowds just are not coming back. >> out of the five days, we might have two good days. >> so many businesses continue to struggle, especially those downtown. the trend toward work from home has gutted many high-rises in the area, taking away a huge chunk of these restaurants' clientele. that is why mayor breed and several other city officials are pushing the state to pass laws that will make it easier to turn those vacant spaces into housing and other mixed-use venues. president and ceo of the san francisco chamber of commerce says he is fully on board with the mayor's vision. >> i think covid taught us not to put all of our eggs in one

basket. we need to diversify ourselves. we need to expedite, create incentives to take chances and be creative. >> nancy told me she too likes the idea of getting more people back into downtown. she just hopes those people will visit her restaurant as much as those did before. >> improving either housing nor from the housing action coalition. about how they think it could make a real difference. plu more work, offices around the area will improve our business a lot. san francisco voters just approved a ballot measure that the mayor says will help the downtown recovery. still ahead, we talk live with a representative from the housing action coalition about how they think it could make a real difference. papa businesses spurring for traffic in san francisco. the incentive program helping them test the waters in downtown.

( ♪♪ ) you made a cow! actually it's a piggy bank. my inspiration to start saving. how about a more solid way to save? i'm listening. well, bmo helps get your savings habit into shape with a cash reward, every month you save. both: cash reward? and there's a cash bonus when you open a new checking account to get you started. wow. anything you can't do? ( ♪♪ ) mugs. ♪ bmo ♪

san francisco is still waiting to see if prop c will live up to its promise of revitalizing the city's downtown. the ballot measure supported by mayor breed won approval from voters in march.

prop c ways the city's me today. 1 of the advocates for prop c. let me get your take on why this was the right move for san francisco, right now. >i think we've seen in the post. pandemic transfer tax for properties that are converted from commercial to residential use. supporters say this will help convert more empty office space buildings into housing. opponents doubt that it will be effective. joining me now is thwas the right move for san francisco right now. >> i think we have seen, in the post pandemic error that flexible work is here to stay and we are not going to be a 9:00 to 5:00 office environment in downtown and prop c was an acknowledgment that we need to be a more mixed-use, vibrant area of the city. >> basically, if i am hearing you correctly, you are saying that some of the changes that were accelerated by the pandemic, the fact that we can work from virtually anywhere, depending on the nature of our

job, that it is almost wishful thinking to think that those are just going to reverse themselves and people will come back in the same numbers over the same frequency into downtown as they did before the pandemic. >> yeah. that is about right. we know that flexible work and remote work is very popular, particularly within the bay area and we are not able to rely on office commuters coming in from all of the region in the way we once were. >> explained to me the mechanism. does prop c work? how does it accelerate then the changes that we need to make for the downtown so that we can bring some of the people in the energy and the revenue back? >> prop c waives the transfer tax for projects that are converting from office buildings to housing. the transfer tax as folks might recall llama -- recall, was passed in 2023 and passes a

tax on residential property. it was very cost prohibitive for any office building to be converted and this is just waving one of those financial factors. >> okay. it just past. we don't have a ton of data about how this would work but if you were to project out two, three, five years, would you see a lot of these places that are sitting empty and idle now, have been converted into housing? is that the hope? >> that is the hope that we are not under any illusion that prop c will turn every vacant office building into housing. it is still very expensive and costly and time-consuming but if it converts three to five to 10 office buildings into housing, that is a big boom. we only have 315 residents living in downtown full time. just a few projects really brings a lot of foot traffic and vibrancy into the neighborhood. >> i am going to go ahead and say the word that i imagine that you and mayor breed and people at city hall hate but i am going to go with put it on

the table which is, doom spiral. so, what that indicates is, you lose some of the people from the offices, the trickle-down effect as you lose some of the restaurants and some of the other entertainment venues because of that and you get into the spiral where there is less and less reason for people to visit the area. do you think that that is an actual phenomenon? if so, how do you reverse that? >> reports of the doom loop or the doom spiral might be a little overblown at this point. i think we are seeing downtown coming back already. part of the acknowledgment has to be that what downtown looked like in 2018 is not what it can look like going forward. we have to reimagine downtown. part of that is making it more of a neighborhood. it will not be 9:00 to 5:00 office with 100% office capacity. we need to make it a neighborhood. to

answer your question about the doom spiral or the doom loop, it is a real thing that we have to be concerned of and all of the above approach is what is needed to address it. >> part of the narrative, part of that story is the loss of retail. i have seen a lot of retail abandon the downtown corridor. >> as in housing and adding residents into downtown helps with that. more foot traffic, that can no longer be allied from office workers can be replaced with full-time residents who are here not just 9:00 to 5:00, but all day. >> when we hear the fact that 35 to 36% or more of the office spaces are empty, one out of every three, it is a staggering number. this measure in the short term robs the city of some revenue but i am guessing that if you think if we make this conversion and bring people back up to add to the vitality of downtown, that it

begins to even out or exceed what we are currently giving. >> i would agree with that. i would say it only robs the city of revenue if there were going to be conversions in the first place. with this tax as it stood before prop c, we were not going to see that. >> thank you for your time today. it is a fascinating issue and obviously the future of the city and many others is being written in this post pandemic error. >> thank you for having me. that is jake pries with the housing action coalition. still ahead, success stories as san francisco works to recover post pandemic. why some businesses say now is the right time to get in. you can watch us anytime, anywhere on our streaming service, cbs news bay area. catch all of our live newscasts blessed -- plus news and weather updates throughout the day.

>paz. energy is so in for us. to do what we do. every single morning. and like a family. we're building each other. other up. how can we get the best read? how can we get the best gianna and of course, the best. jessica and nicole. i just want to make sure that every single day our viewers tune in and they're getting something. authentic. genuine and real. what you see on air. that's me. that's read. that's gianna. that's who we are. when the light are turned off.

today we look at the challenges in downtown san francisco as the city tries to get more businesses and people to come here. now we turn to what is working. anne makovec joins me now with that part of the story. >> we will start with mayor london breed 's vacant survivors program. it launched last year with the goal of helping small businesses move into storefront spaces and publications. this year, many business owners are renewing leases. the devils teeth baking company was already established in the outer sunset. the owner took a shot at a downtown

location as one of the initial 17 pop-ups in vacant vibrant businesses got three months of free rent to fill vacant spaces downtown. >> the doom loop has been blown way out of proportion. we were stunned at the amount of traffic that we have had. >> this is the executive director of sf new deal which is helping spearhead the pop-up program. they are just a piece of the puzzle. >> it is not a silver bullet. it is a contribution in this crisis of downtown, needing to recover. there is also an opportunity for small businesses from san francisco neighborhoods, cultural organizations to come downtown and put the statement away that they could not have before the pandemic. >> another business diving into downtown san francisco , the established shop with a loyal following claimed to have three

new locations in san francisco at the end of june including one on market and battery. the presidio heights location is already open. this is the perfect opportunity to position for the years ahead and what she sees as the inevitable san francisco rebound. >> i am investing in downtown. >> the bagel shop has gone from being a single store to becoming a bay area institution and just four years. it has locations in berkeley, palo alto, clarksburg and now san francisco. another bright spot for downtown san franciscans, bringing more tourists back to the city and what would keep them from coming here from all over the world.

she's super fun. jessica is right. i like the idea of being able to serve the northern california people out doing search and rescues helping out with cal fire missions, and i also feel like i have a heart for service also when it comes to forecasting for our local area. i mean getting people prepared for their day. that's a huge importance for me. - [narrator] at kpix, we're taking weather to the next level. - we can show not just what's happening at ground level, but we can show what's happening in the upper levels of the atmosphere. let's lift the clouds off of ground level and talk... - it really spotlights how unique the geography is here. - it's dynamic. it's different. as i lift this, you can actually see it in real-time. this is shaking it up for me as an meteorologist. - [narrator] the bay area's only virtual weather studio. next level weather. only on kpix and pix+.

coming up tonight on

the cbs evening news. the breaking news app o j simp. has died at a battle with cancer. i look back at the murder trial of the century coming up tonight, the breaking news that o.j. simpson has died after a battle with cancer. we look back at the murder trial of the century that divided the nation and the nfl players infamous legacy. those schedules and more tonight. as san francisco fills empty storefronts, there is another bright spot to talk about. tourists are coming back to the city and spending their money here. the san francisco travel association says the city attracted a record-breaking 23.1 million visitors in 2023. from 2022 to 2023, there was an 82% increase in hotel bookings. that is thanks to big events at the moscone center like the aipac conference, visitors spending $8.8 billion in san francisco. the manager on the embarcadero says the influx of tourists has played a pivotal role in their success and recovery from the pandemic. >> much more foot traffic, especially in the spring and

summer. we can see that it is happening. >> when we don't have the foot traffic, the vacancies, it is boring. we need the lively environment from the moment we open till the moment we close at night. >> we are really excited and very hopeful that it will ramp up. one key driver behind the surge in tourism is san francisco's convention calendar. in 2023, the moscone center hosted 24 events and with events like dream force and the apex summit, bringing people in from around the world. another effort to spur economic growth is san francisco mayor london breed's upcoming trip to china. her office says she hopes to expand tourism, grow diplomatic and cultural ties between china and san francisco. the mayor also plans to meet with the mayor to promote san francisco's 45 year sister city relationship .

she takes off on saturday. before that, a popular night market series is returning to san francisco chinatown after a similar event attracted massive crowds to the neighborhoods last year. organizers decided to bring it back on a monthly basis starting at 5:30 tomorrow evening. local merchants will set up booths, running up and down grand street, selling food and souvenirs. we want to thank you so much for joining us for an in-depth look for the efforts to revitalize san francisco and we invite you to share your thoughts on social media using the hashtag #kpix. the cbs evening news is next , local news continues on our streaming service, cbs news bay ♪ ♪ >> orenthal james simpson not guilty of the crime of murder. >> norah: o.j. simpson dies at 76 from prostate cancer. >> if it doesn't fit, you must acquit. >> norah: the controversial legacy of the former football star who was acquitted