The Castro area has more retail vacancies than most. Many of the vacancies are owned by a single landlord, last name is Natali I think. He kept the Patio Cafe s

The Castro area has more retail vacancies than most. Many of the vacancies are owned by a single landlord, last name is Natali I think. He kept the Patio Cafe space vacant for something like 15 years. Thanks to Prop 13 it costs him very little to do so and he has plenty of profit from the other buildings. There is a pattern of landlords raising rents to a level that existing businesses will not be able to afford, and then leaving them vacant. Supposedly there are big brands that will pay these rents, but they are kept out by a San Francisco law against chain stores. Without this law, the Castro would turn into a sort of high end rainbow themed mall. Some of the writing about Greenwich Village in NYC captures this dynamic better - there are national brands that can afford to run a flagship store in a tourist neighborhood, at a loss. The granolashotgun blogger has pointed out that in much of the US, there is simply more retail-zoned space than is necessary in the delivery age. I don't think that's what's going on in the Castro though. Prop 13 is a massive market distortion and the distortion is only growing, just as it was designed to do. That which is not sustainable must end, preferably before it gets worse.