A San Francisco city commissioner organized a "doom loop" tour to highlight the city's problems. It received a lot of media attention so he felt compelled to cancel it, and then resign.

It turned out he is an executive in a real-estate company. Naturally he would perceive civic issues in terms of profit in the real estate market. Not the best sort of person to appoint to a municipal office in a city where high rents are devastating low-wage workers, as ell as many niche businesses that would employ them. San Francisco has a real housing crisis and saying things are just fine will not help.

San Francisco needs to find a way to let people use the abandoned office buildings and stores as housing — fast! Even if it means relaxing or substituting, for these conversions, some codes that apply specifically to residential buildings. In this case, the perfect is the enemy of the good.