Attendees of Dreamforce in San Francisco comment on state of the city

By Max Darrow

When a conference like Dreamforce comes to the city, Max Gueli, the longtime manager of Working Girls’ Café on New Montgomery, says it’s obviously good for business.

“When we have conventions in town, our sales pretty much double,” he said. “It helps the local economy tremendously. All the restaurants are booked, all the hotels are booked.”

But looking at the bigger picture?

“It’s an opportunity for people to come in and see our city,” he said.

A city in the midst of a years-long battle between perception and reality. Gueli will be the first to acknowledge, the reality of 2020, 2021, and 2022 in San Francisco was rough. But he says that reality has changed significantly in recent years.

“The streets are much cleaner, much safer, and people are coming back – office people are coming back,” he said. “In the last three years or so, there’s been a major improvement in cleaning the area, especially around here. We used to have a lot of homeless people around, especially in this area, but now you don’t see them as much. I think that’s a big improvement.”

So, he’s hopeful Dreamforce will present all of the out-of-towners with an opportunity for a perception correction.

“It’s not just for the conventions. It’s been like this for the whole year,” he said.

Dreamforce brings around 50,000 people to the city for the conference. It generates around $130 million in revenue for the city.

Nicolas Vazquez is here from Minnesota for his second Dreamforce convention. He’ll be leaving town with new tools for his business and a new impression of San Francisco.

“Based on what the media shows you about San Francisco, it doesn’t paint a really good picture,” he said. “But overall, I’ve walked around today and yesterday and have noticed that the city is a lot cleaner, actually.”

Haley Tuller is here from Florida.

“I love San Francisco. I know that it’s gotten a lot of bad press in recent years, and I understand the challenges. But I’ve always had a lovely time here,” she said.

She is a frequent visitor.

“I’ve seen San Francisco when it does not have its Dreamforce face on – so it’s definitely different. You can see that they are making an effort, if that’s the term we want to use,” she said.

Adam Williams is from the Pacific Northwest, here for Dreamforce.

“I live in Seattle, and we get some of that same punching bag treatment,” he said. “I think a lot of our cities with these reputations have taken an upswing in the past few years, post-COVID, and don’t really get the credit for it.”

Skye Tyler, from North Carolina, says she always enjoys coming to the city.

“Every year that I get to come to San Francisco, I consider myself really lucky,” she said. “There is no city, area, state, region, that is free from some of the challenges that are thrown at San Francisco. But, anytime you see or hear those stories about the downsides or the challenges, I would challenge you to look for the helpers.”

Gueli said while the reality in his neighborhood has changed for the better, the city still has a lot of work to do.

“Other parts have not been as successful as us. But hopefully it’ll spread out for the whole city,” he said.

However, he thinks momentum is building.

“Keep going on the path we’re going on right now? We’ll be in really good shape about a year from now,” he said.