I think rent still accrued while eviction and without getting into whether that is right or wrong (landlords didn't get an expense moratorium), I think whatever

I think rent still accrued while eviction and without getting into whether that is right or wrong (landlords didn't get an expense moratorium), I think whatever specific solution may of applied to this instance due to the pandemic is beside the point. The issue was there prior to the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, I saw a boba tea shop in our SF neighborhood take well over a year to open (only then to have the pandemic crop up); there's a small specialty grocer is going into the second year of construction and waiting on city issues, there are other shopfronts where they started work and just stopped not to speak of empty storefronts that just never even rent for years at a time and all of this prior to the pandemic. This in a neighborhood which still gets some decent foot traffic. From my perspective, and I do have a fair amount of experience in retail, I wouldn't touch San Francisco as a small independent proprietor; it's risky without these hurdles and with them you'd better be packing substantial investment, be already well connected within the city bureaucracy, and have some sort of prior reason to think you'd be successful in the market (business already known from elsewhere, famous chef, etc. )