Studies in the economy of downtown San Francisco

The best commentary on this book is the the first paragraph of the introduction which I wrote in 1963. "Six individual studies--employment, retail trade, the department store, investment in buildings., office space and the location of activities--are combined in this volume to provide a sense of that complex activity, the economy of Downtown San Francisco. While recognizing that an exhaustive description of the economy is not within the scope of these studies, their value lies in the insights they afford into the structure of business activity Downtown, the general direction of Downtown economic trends, and the role that Downtown plays and will play in the metropolitan region developing around the City." In doing this study, I chose to use S.I.C. (Standard Industrial Classification) categories in order to make use of available Federal and State data, an invaluable resource. I am happy to write that nearly fifty years after its publication, the conclusions reached still hold. My regret is that computers had not reached the stage where the data and maps could have been stored and revised to reflect the changes that have occurred.