City Hall will finally fully return to office this Monday

The Facts

Starting Monday, August 19, an additional 8,000 San Francisco city workers will return to the office for at least four days per week. According to the city's Human Resources Department, 24,000 city employees (70% of the workforce) already work in-person five or more days weekly.

SFMTA has prepared strategic service improvements, adding trips on the 1 Express and 30X lines to accommodate returning workers while reducing crowding. Current Muni ridership recovery stands at 77% overall, with 72% on weekdays and 92% on weekends, according to Luz Pena at ABC7 News.

The Context

The mandate was originally announced in February 2025 with an April 28 start date, but was delayed to August after negotiations with two unions: the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 21 and Service Employees International Union Local 1021.

The policy comes as San Francisco's downtown continues recovering from pandemic-era remote work policies that devastated foot traffic and local businesses.

The GrowSF Take

The return to office mandate is vital for effective government and a healthy downtown economy. We're glad the Lurie administration didn't back down from this deadline, though we wish it had resisted union opposition to begin with.

This mandate creates positive momentum: more workers downtown means more customers for local businesses, increased transit ridership, and stronger tax revenue from economic activity.