There’s a buzz of energy in downtown San Francisco from a source that has been missing for years: occupied storefronts. One of those shops is Paper Son Coffee, a roaster with flavors popular among Latin and Asian American communities that has been operating in the South of Market neighborhood since June. “People who work or live in the neighborhood stop in and are like, ‘Wow, there is something here!’” said Alexander Pong, an owner of Paper Son. “They’re excited.”Paper Son is part of an initiative to help San Francisco return to the days before it became a devastating example of what could go wrong with U.S. cities during the pandemic. Downtown San Francisco has the highest concentration of vacant storefronts in the city.

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