San Francisco still hops as Burning Man pops
Like playa dust whipping through Black Rock City, late August gives rise to a whir of relief among San Francisco residents as a temporary metropolis rises in the distant Nevada desert. Isn’t it nice to enjoy the city without all those ... people around?
“Dear Burning Man, thank you,” Mikael Rogers tweeted. “There are no lines for brunch this week.”
“Easy parking, chill traffic ... why can’t every week be Burning Man in San Francisco?” wrote Ben Austin.
But data shows the Burning Man effect is more myth than reality. The arts festival, which began in San Francisco 30 years ago and moved to the Nevada desert four years later, attracted 67,564 people last year. According to a census of attendees, 39 percent hail from California. That means the local contingent is a tiny slice out of a Bay Area population of 7 million.
While some startups do shut down the week before Labor Day, acceding to the reality that many of their employees have packed up their RVs for Nevada, most of the city stays in town for work, enjoying the Bay Area’s usually balmy weather. Tourists pick up any slack that Burners leave. Restaurant owners said they saw little to no decrease in business. And parking? Availability at centrally managed lots looked the same Monday as other summer weeks.
If any coffee shop would
feel Burning Man’s impact, it’s the Creamery, where venture capitalists and startup founders chat about deals. Tech workers, CalTrain commuters and SoMa residents account for about 75 percent of the restaurant’s business — they’re regulars, said general manager Ivor Bradley. Tourists make up the other 25 percent.
Bradley said they’ve noticed no decrease in activity this week. In fact, he said the restaurant saw an uptick in business after school started two weeks ago.
“We’re seeing new faces every day,” Bradley said.
The Chronicle spoke with 10 restaurant owners and managers in San Francisco. Of those, eight said they noticed no change in business — likely dashing the hopes of locals who are counting on scoring hard-to-get tables.
A few said that while business did not decrease, their customers changed. Rich Table in Hayes Valley sees more tourists than neighborhood regulars in the summer months, said spokeswoman Madeline Janning. The Progress in the Fillmore also sees visitors fill any gaps.
“If there is any attrition for our regular diners, that’s filled up by tourists, which is wonderful,” said Elizabeth DePalmer, business director of State Bird Provisions and the Progress.
Alta CA in Mid-Market near Twitter’s headquarters prepares for a dip this time of year, but attributes it to both Burning Man and Labor Day vacations.
Panos Gognas manages Evvia, a Greek restaurant favored by tech investors in Palo Alto. He said reservations are steady this time of year. If there’s any drop, he said, “I don’t think it’s Burning Man. This is vacation time.”
Parking and traffic also appear unaffected by the flight to Nevada.
SpotHero, a Chicago-based company, makes an app that allows users to reserve parking spots; its software is also used to manage garages and parking lots, including 145 in San Francisco. SpotHero CEO Mark Lawrence compared the number of spots it rented in San Francisco on Tuesday with the past five Tuesdays. The data showed no change in parking rentals.
Inrix, a provider of traffic data based in Kirkland, Wash., analyzed 2,000 roads in San Francisco for The Chronicle. Its research showed no change in traffic congestion during the week of Burning Man for 2014 and 2015.
“You’re not going to notice it on a drive,” said Bob Pishue, a senior economist for Inrix.
The myth of Burning Man may be borne out of the tightly knit social networks of attendees, many of whom work in the tech industry. For those who know many Burners, the Burning Man effect may be noticeable — even if it’s not statistically quantifiable.
Loaded vans departing for Gerlach, Nev., and dusty cars cluttering the neighborhood a week later were a routine memory for Sam Houston, who works in tech and lived in the Mission District for five years. The 28-year-old used to work for Couchsurfing, a company that connects travelers with unoccupied divans. The company was “basically built on Burning Man,” he said. It shut down for the week three years ago so its employees could attend.
Houston knows about 30 people headed to the desert this year.
“Happy Burning Man Week, San Francisco!” he tweeted Monday. “May your restaurants be emptier and your public parking be easier.”
It’s a nice thought. But chances are it won’t happen.