The Nordstrom follies: How bad laws and whiny neighbors are slowing SF’s comeback
Opposition could keep a prime retail space from being filled on Fillmore St. It's another example of the city's out-of-control kvetchocracy.
Editor-at-large, The San Francisco Standard
Published May 19, 2025 • 6:00am
Two years ago, when Nordstrom shuttered its once-gleaming flagship store in Westfield San Francisco Centre, the city convulsed with anxiety over the demise of local shopping and overall business vitality.
Given that continued state of existential angst, you’d think news of Nordstrom proposing a new store in San Francisco would be warmly greeted. But you’d be wrong — at least in the case of a group of residents loudly opposing the company’s desire to move into their neighborhood.
The kerfuffle is playing out at the San Francisco Planning Commission, where the Seattle retailer is requesting approval to put a concept store called Nordstrom Local into a long-vacant storefront on Fillmore Street. The commission on June 5 plans to consider Nordstrom’s request for “conditional-use” authorization. That Nordstrom needs permission at all to fill a retail space that’s been empty since before the pandemic is a perfect illustration of the city’s outdated and restrictive approach to “formula retail,” or what normal people call chain stores.
Frustratingly, it’s yet another example of how San Francisco’s kvetchocracy all too often reigns over a commonsense approach to governing and doing business.
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