marissa rodriguez, executive director of the union square alliance, says foot traffic is up 135% from holidays. in fact, black friday saw a record number of people since 2020, since the pandemic. >> reporter: after a covid christmas of minimal in person shopping last year, retailers were in desperate needs of crowd returning this year. for some, the officers on every corner are reassuring. >> i feel great. we have the police all lined up in front of macy's. yes. >> every corner, every couple of feet. they are very helpful. people feel safe at least. it is a great feeling when you walk around. >> reporter: she brought her 2- year-old son down here to see santa. >> i am a bit more cautious lately. i am always checking my surroundings, and i make sure i am not here out past 5:00. yeah. i definitely am taking more safety precautions. >> reporter: the union square alliance says they have been pushing for a larger police presence in union square for quite some time, and that they are happy that the extra officers are there. andria borba, kpix 5. >>> right now on kpix 5 , and streaming on cb

my name is marissa rodriguez and i am formerdirector of the office of cannabis of san francisco . i have recently been executive director of san francisco so a little bit about my background. prior to my role as director of the office of cannabis i take this process very seriously and in that role i brought that standard to the office of cannabis.i did so with the important purpose of rolling out regulatory schemesin that capacity . so san franciscans could feel safe knowing that a framework was set up for that work. and i am here today because i appreciate that capacity of the ethics commission and this process and certainly would not want there to be any appearance of impropriety ever. we with that, i want to speak a little bit about the office of cannabis. the office of cannabis as we can tell is a very niche and specific area of work in law that oversees the regulatory process for our permitting here in san francisco. we work solely on the issue of cannabis. however there was a premise which was an equity premise one that we want to ensure an ethical processfor our permits . a