A day after San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced that the Safeway in Fillmore District — previously slated to close in March — would stay open until 2025, San Francisco residents expressed concerned about what comes after that.
On Jan. 4, Safeway announced its plans to close the Webster Street store this upcoming month. Align Real Estate purchased the land, intending to turn it into housing and commercial retail space.
On Tuesday, community members and elected officials held a rally to voice their opposition to its closure. Without this Safeway, Fillmore District and Japantown would no longer have a full-service grocery store.
At the rally, San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton confirmed the importance of having a grocery store in the community.
“We have to make sure that the things that are pivotal to survival and community remain in community,” Shamann said. “So we will continue to fight, together, to make sure that not only we get that extension, but that we have something long-term in place, to make sure that we do not become a food desert, right here in Fillmore.
San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston expressed his plans to introduce a law that would address this problem. The legislation would require grocery stores to give six month notice for closure and have meetings with community members to ensure that they don’t lose their grocery stores.
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