Marc Benioff, CEO of San Francisco-based software company Salesforce, said the city’s downtown is “never going back to the way it was” before the pandemic, saying workers will not commute every day again.

The city needs to “rebalance downtown,” Benioff said, according to the Associated Press. He recommended San Francisco convert office space downtown into housing and hire more police officers.

Rampant crime and rising homelessness have driven people and businesses out of California cities, with some leaving the Golden State entirely. The city’s downtown has lost half of its businesses since the start of the pandemic. Old Navy announced in May it would close its flagship store in downtown San Francisco. Nordstrom announced in the same month it would be closing both of its downtown locations this summer, and Saks OFF 5th said its only location in San Francisco would close in the fall. Whole Foods closed its “flagship” location in San Francisco in April, citing the “safety” of its employees.

Over half a million residents fled California in the two years after the pandemic’s start, according to the New York Post.

San Jose clothier owner Daud Shuja told the Associated Press new customers live far away from downtown and that he plans to open a new location closer to the suburbs in Palo Alto next year.

“They just don’t want to deal with the homelessness, with the environment, with the ambiance,” Shuja said.

The post Tech CEO Says San Francisco Will Never Recover From Downturn appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.