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“A war zone,” President Donald Trump has called it. “A drug-zombie apocalypse," was Elon Musk's verdict. One Fox News columnist dubbed it "a rancid drug-ravaged pit of human misery.”

But to Peter Quartaroli, who manages the 158-year-old Sam's Grill and Seafood Restaurant in downtown San Francisco, it's just the neighborhood — and one that's steadily improving.

"I don't know that I’m of the camp that says, 'We're so back, baby'. But I think we are definitely heading in the right direction," Quartaroli told The Independent in the restaurant's old-fashioned wood-paneled interior last Friday.

"I watch the neighborhood filling up. I watch people going into the offices. I see it in the parking garages, on the [metro trains]."

He paused for a moment. "And there's that feeling, you know?"

open image in gallery Two remotely-piloted robots prepare to rumble at an Ultimate Fighting Bots show in San Francisco, August 2025 — one of many new events sparked by the tide of young A.I. wizards flocking to the city ( Ultimate Fighting Bots )

That feeling seemed vindicated last week when Donald Trump unexpectedly (and uncharacteristically) paused his plan to flood San Francisco with federal agents — for now.

Citing backroom pleas from local tech barons and the city’s new Mayor Daniel Lurie, he lauded its “substantial progress” on “fighting crime” and said he would “give [Lurie] a chance.”

It’s a testament, certainly, to the power of San Francisco’s tech elite. But it also illustrates how much San Francisco has changed its fortunes — or, at least, its image.

Just a year or two ago the city was a national punching bag, depicted by c