“A war zone,” President Donald Trump has called it. “A drug-zombie apocalypse," was Elon Musk's verdict. One Fox News columnist dubbed it "a rancid drug-ravaged pit of human misery.”

But to Peter Quartaroli, who manages the 158-year-old Sam's Grill and Seafood Restaurant in downtown San Francisco , it's just the neighborhood — and one that's steadily improving.

"I don't know that I’m of the camp that says, 'We're so back, baby'. But I think we are definitely heading in the right direction," Quartaroli told The Independent in the restaurant's old-fashioned wood-paneled interior last Friday.

"I watch the neighborhood filling up. I watch people going into the offices. I see it in the parking garages, on the [metro trains]."

He paused for a moment. "And there's that feeling, you kn

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