Union Square Felt Surreal During APEC

Yoda knows and sees all. (Paolo Bicchieri)

Tramping up the steps from Embarcadero station, I saw brilliant rays of light shining at a sharp angle all the way past Twin Peaks with so much stability it seemed like Mario could hop on a tiny car and Rainbow Road his way to the galaxies. I walked along Market Street to Union Square. No transit lines seemed delayed, nor any more a lack of clientele in businesses and bars than I’d already seen fall off thanks to the pandemic. It was the sixth night of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the night after Gwen Stefani cut a rug with President Joe Biden as United States-funded military operations turned Gaza into what the World Health Organization call a “death zone.”

But it was a stellar night in Union Square. I made it there at about 5 p.m. and the city’s skating rink was lit up with nervous-kneed teens, cafe tables filled like they were stationed outside the Shakespeare and Company shop. Cable cars chugged up Powell Street and the hotels and department stores were buzzing. It seemed like tons of people were coursing through the area at any given moment, and it struck me as surreal. As someone who lives in the city, I tend to write Union Square off as boring, manufactured fun. This felt exciting, though, like if I left the scene for too long I’d miss some great event, possibly San Francisco itself rising from a much-conjured pyre.

What’s less clear is how it came to be. In anticipation of such a major event, San Francisco city officials rallied strength and resources to put together a bonafide joyful and safe environment when locals and tourists alike have been asking for just such investment for years. SFGATE reports Governor Gavin Newsom confirmed that leading up to APEC he worked with the city to give the area a facelift. “I know folks say, ‘Oh, they’re just cleaning up this place because all those fancy leaders are coming into town,'” Newsom said. “That’s true, because it’s true.”

Christmas has hit downtown. (Paolo Bicchieri)

Looking around the area on Thursday, November 16, just before the final day of APEC’s Leader’s Week, it seemed to me that Newsom was right on the money. The new kiosks from celebrity chef Tyler Florence were still selling sterling macarons and buttery croissants at nearly 6 p.m. People swirled around the enormous Christmas tree taking selfies like it was the ball dropping in Times Square. And there were stupendous art pieces in the area which could be brand new or just polished for the event; even after living in San Francisco for five years, I couldn’t have told you before that night if there was a Yoda-decorated giant heart in Union Square or not.

Newsom was right on the money, though, because a dystopian undertone girded the whole scene. I can’t overstate: The few blocks I walked were securitized to the teeth. Police walked in groups of two and three up and down the steps across from Neiman Marcus, chatting with a woman walking a Great Dane and with a few men lighting up. Big Escalades with tinted windows barreled around corners and sirens broke out of the otherwise pleasant din over and over again over the course of an hour and a half. Further strange, no one seemed to find this odd. It reminded me of traveling through European airports where personnel stroll the grounds with full tactical gear and assault rifles.

A fight broke outside the CVS across the street from Corzetti, the new Italian restaurant from supergroup Back of House and my destination for the night. Two employees were chasing a young person in an audacious purple cowboy or pilgrim hat who, seemingly, had caused some commotion, telling the would-be rabble rouser to go to a library if they needed to be somewhere indoors. The assailant cursed them out, told them they were trash. Feeling my eyes on the back of their head while I took in the event, the rowdy CVS squatter took me to task before heading down the street. Another person asked anyone who walked by for help. Those scenes could have played out in any city in the world, I reminded myself, and I was thankful despite all the heavy-handedness in the area that nothing scary or violent went down.

I maintain the minority opinion that downtown San Francisco is doing better than some think, and I thought that before APEC. I’m not sure it needed a small militia of heavily armed cops and security details; just a few weeks before, one of the city’s new orange vested guides stood nearby a poetry reading a friend hosted on Market Street and the small group of us in attendance felt more than safe. I’ve written before how much I appreciate the city’s investments in Urban Alchemy and the San Francisco Tourism Improvement District Management Corporation as these programs arm locals with self-reliance and community care values and skills while tending to tourists, too. APEC is a lousy excuse to show up for Union Square, as cool a night as I may have had taking in the splendor of what the major event wrought.

Panna cotta from Corzetti in Union Square. (Paolo Bicchieri)