On March 17, 2020, San Francisco was brought to a halt by the Covid-19 virus. Former Mayor London Breed mandated that residents of San Francisco stay home and only go out for essential needs.
A lot of focus about the pandemic’s effect on San Francisco has been about downtown, but how did other neighborhoods deal with the shut down? KALW asked residents and workers in the Mission district about their memories and experiences when the shut down was announced.
Jeffrey, a bartender from Delirium, recounted the time he spent, inside and outside his home.
"I was supposed to work that St. Patrick's Day and then lock down. Like, I couldn't believe that I couldn't do my job, you know. Couldn't leave my house, couldn't go shopping. Very strange. Yeah, I was like, well, for how long? Who knows? "
Paulina, at the store Therapy, talked about the first week and the impact on her mental health:
"I remember the shutdown was supposed to only be a week. It lasted for almost two years. I drank and smoke a lot with my friends. And we kind of just like quarantined together. I live in the Sunset area. And I live alone. Lived alone at the time too. So I was like very lonely. I dug myself into a very, very big hole. That took a lot to get out of. I feel like I'm finally back. I feel like myself again. The city feels like itself again."
Community Thrift manager Clint talked about bike riding through a quiet city.
"Well, getting COVID sucked. But beyond that, you know, I had time, the city became kind of empty and I had time to explore it more on my bicycle, which was cool because I went to all these different pockets of neighborhoods that I didn't normally go because there wasn't a bunch of traffic and I had time to do so, so it's kind of like almost like a weird time out."
"You know, but at the same time, you know, it's spooky too, because it's just like, oh, commerce is not happening and stuff like that, I think it gave me a little time to catch up with myself and just my surroundings, whereas, you know, working 40 hours a week, constantly doing stuff. You don't have time to take out to actually enjoy a lot of times the city you live in. I mean, even though it’s kind of like shut down, it was fun to explore."
Mission district resident, James, remembered the dark times in the neighborhood.
"Right across the street there, that funeral home there, I was walking by there during the shutdown. And they had all this stuff stacked up in the back. And about six months later, I found out there were bodies from the pandemic."
"And they must have had like two, three hundred bodies stacked in the back. They didn’t have no room. I just didn’t realized how serious it was, you know."
San Francisco’s shut down originally was set to end on April 7, 2020, but lasted until late January 2021.
