yeah. waiting for the tourists that come and for the season. to really get going. >reporter>downtown san francisco desperate for foot traffic, >the thing that has died is the international tourists >reporter>across the >bay. adds color. and vibrancy to the city is actually the small businesses and the people behind these businesses >reporter>and down the freeway. >completely empty space. and now being able to make it our own and, you know, spice it up. we're so blessed >reporter>new >>life. >>today. we're looking at what's driving people to different downtown. >or >>keeping them away. >customers are afraid to come to oakland, but we're really hanging our hat on that it's going to be good and tourism is going to come back. people are going to want to go out and spend money.

>liz>hi there. thanks so much for joining us today. we know it's not 1 size fits all for tourism across the bay area. take san francisco, for example. tour busses are everywhere, but it's been on the struggle bus lately, at least downtown. different story, however, down south right now, san jose is enjoying a bit of a boom today we're asking an expert about the big picture of all this and how some cities are drawing people in while others are struggling to attract visitors. will have that conversation in just a few minutes, but 1st look at your news headlines, california regulators just approved, adding a fixed monthly fee to your electricity bill. it ranges from $24. for high income earners to 6 to $12. for lower income households in exchange the price per kilowatt hour will fall a few cents the change goes into effect here in 2026. a fire towards several

cars and hayward also burned dangerously close to some homes. here's a look from our chopper but fire broke out in a neighborhood at poppy would court and silverthorne place. it also burned a tree and a fence. it's unclear how that fire started. no word on any injuries. and in san jose, investigators say they found 25. fentanyl pills stashed under a baby's crib. the d a s office says it's 1 of the largest opioid seizures and santa clara county. history. the baby's parents face drug and child endangerment charges. the final vote to rebrand the oakland airport could happen as soon as today. the port of oakland is considering changing it to san francisco bay, oakland international airport. they say it will help out of towners with geographic awareness. san francisco is threatening a lawsuit claiming trademark infringement of sfo. president joe biden is scheduled to arrive in the bay area today. he took off from joint base, andrews just about a half hour ago. he'll land in san francisco this evening,

first lady jill biden is also expected to join him on the benda to reelection fundraisers 1 in palo alto, the other in portola valley. this is the president's 2nd visit to the bay area this year. our all right, let's go right to our 1st alert weather now parts of the bay area are under a heat risk right now, and it's going to get even hotter in some spots. it's about 80 right now in san francisco, which is pretty unbelievable. we spotted plenty of folks. along the embarcadero enjoying this gorgeous weather 1st alert, chief meteorologist jessica burch looks at our warm temperatures and some wind to she is in our virtual view studio. hey, jess. >reporter>well, we are sitting in well above average temperatures as we head into this afternoon and those offshore winds even though they were gusty or this morning, they're still sticking around as we head into the afternoon and evening hours tonight to add that we're also sitting well above average for those daytime highs as high pressure continues to build over us throughout the next couple of days, it will be a little bit cooler along the coast with some cloudy conditions by the weekend, but we're still seeing a warm set up in our inland

areas, and we're also under a moderate heat risk anywhere from san jose, all the way up into the east bay and for our friends up in the north bay to highlighted in that, or the color. so what does that mean for us? well, daytime highs are above average. the air is dry. we're seeing plenty of sunshine. so if you work outside or if you have outdoor activities take it slow out there. i mean, just 2 days ago, we were sitting in the 60s in san francisco and now we're hitting the 80s and as fun as that could be for outdoor activities. of course you want to wear sunscreen. and drink lots of water to we're seeing blue skies over us here in san francisco, no matter which direction you look. and we're going to see that as we head into the next couple days to now. notice how we sit in the upper 80s, all the way from livermore over into antioch, san jose similar trend we're going to hold on tight the upper 80s as we head into the next couple of days if you live in those inland areas, and then we slowly start to cool down into the low 80s by sunday and then partly cloudy skies by monday with some upper 70s around the corner and speaking of those partly cloudy skies we're also seeing a similar trend in areas like the base san francisco and oakland as early as saturday where we will cool down into the upper 60s

and lower 70s this weekend, and that that how we're going to kick off next week, too. >liz>we're getting a new snapshot on how downtowns across the bay area are doing when it comes to visitors 2 of our biggest cities are enjoying an uptick over the past year. well, 1 is seeing a pretty big drop visits to downtown san jose jumped more than 28%. downtown oakland visits jumped more than 20%. but visits to downtown san francisco actually fell about 21%. that's according to a report from the university of toronto, which analyzed cell phone data. san jose is hoping to build on its momentum by filling some of its vacant storefronts. five new pop up shops are open for business along paseo de san antonio between 3rd and 4th street, not far from san is a state ramirez looks at the new program meant to breathe life into empty spaces and gives small business owners a boost. >reporter>yeah. yeah. yeah.

cutting the ribbon and bringing down the barriers. it's all part of a big idea in downtown san jose to activate vacant storefronts and give 5 businesses are helping hand. >to see the growth from making these in my kitchen to now, having a retail opportunity and not only to sell my handmade candles but also teach them >reporter>marcelina castro started making candles in 2018. g sarah candle shop is now 1 of the pop ups that just moved into 2 vacant. in storefronts. on el paseo de san antonio. she shares space with la paloma imports. and casitas contreras across the paseo plants, ... and bad witch crystal share a space all 5 businesses are women >own. actually here when, 3 weeks ago this was a completely empty space. and now being able to make it our own. and you know, spice it up. it's we're so >reporter>blessed program is called moment percio. it's a collaboration between the city of san jose in the downtown association. to help businesses

get started and hopefully generate a buzz and foot traffic. the association pays the rent and the businesses pay back a portion based on their sales. >it's kind of almost like uh, ah, trial pad, you know for small, very small micro businesses to experience what it takes to run a business and whether they could potentially go bigger and eventually lease market rates space and have a big space on their >reporter>own. but it's not without challenges. that businesses must stay open a minimum number of hours and if another business paying full rent wants their space pop ups might have to move out first day sales were good. but businesses will soon find out what it takes to survive on the streets. long term and if they can go from pop up to up and coming >liz>san jose mayor met mehan says there are about 70 vacant storefronts in the downtown area, and that's down slightly from 80 a year ago. san francisco has its own version of a pop up program to boost

its downtown recovery. is called vacant to vibrant. and it launched last fall, leading to 17, pop ups in 9 storefronts. some of which have now transitioned to long term leases and mayor london breed just announced a new lineup of local businesses that will be taking part in the program ranging from coffee. ice into ice cream. that sounds good, like they would like today floral shops and social clubs. meantime, oakland is seeing an uptick in downtown foot traffic, even though many offices remain empty, and crime concerns continue. our dahlin spoke to small business owners working to draw people in >reporter>yeah, at this downtown oakland. bar. it's wine with a twist. >women only. make up. 5%. of the industry. and people of color eye makeup, probably 3% and black producers make up 1%. and the wine industry is a multibillion dollar industry. so what i wanted to do is reverse engineer the industry and provide retail space.

specifically for the underrepresented winemakers and give them a platform to my audience from barcelona >reporter>business owner alicia kids all the lines at her tasting print are made by women and people of color >to bring the wine country napa and sonoma to oakland. >reporter>to our wine shop and bar opened at the corner of 13,000 webster streets in december of 2022. alicia says business initially got off to a very strong start. >crime. it has my business has decreased in sales, but it's slowly trending upward. now that you know, there's some spring and summer is >reporter>coming many owners say the biggest challenge is crime. some experienced repeated burglaries and robberies. >impacted my business. in a sense that customers are afraid to come to oakland, so i've had to invest. thousands of thousands of dollars in marketing to get customers to come >reporter>elected leaders say they hear them in are working to reduce crime, many here say

they chose to invest in the city. and despite all the challenges they still believe in oakland. >what adds color to in vibrancy to the city is actually the small businesses and the people behind these businesses. >reporter>alicia greece and says thriving businesses. is a reflection of a thriving city. >increased safety, you know, invest in security. i think that's the number 1. i think safety is the ultimate concern because customers are not going to come if their cars are being broken into >reporter>business owners continue to urge people outside of oakland to come shopping and and dine here. some businesses even reimburse, lift and uber rides with the purchase. >liz>still ahead, we take you across the bridge for a look at san francisco's downtown. why even the most popular places are still struggling to get visitors to come. and how the city is pulling out all the stops to try to change that. >

look at that kind of the golden gate bridge. the south afternoon. we're diving into new numbers. on down. visitor activity in our big cities. san francisco saw a drop of more than 21 per in the 12 months ending in march. according to a report by the university of toronto. but it may depend on where you're looking for. dahlin headed to 1

very popular sf tourist spot to see how it compares their versus the rest of the city. >yeah. >>yeah. live jazz warm >weather >>and happy visitors. >>yeah. >>this is music to the ears of pier 39 business owners. coming from london, reed just landed yesterday. business activity is buzzing up here. 39. that's not the case everywhere. >waiting for the tourists to come, and for the season of really get going, and and as you can see, on a sunday afternoon brunch it's not happening. >reporter>mack library of pure 23 cafe says they are surviving not thriving. in fact, he says business was down about 25 to 30% in 2023. compared to 2019. people coming through the door. to survive and when they're not coming, it's it's hard to keep

the doors open. not alone. many small businesses complained there's is still recovering from the pandemic >on >>this 1 here, the owner of san francisco deluxe tourist tells me his tour bus businesses is down about 40% in 2023. compared to 2019. the oldest guy out here at 77. operator corral niantic, says his business is down at least 20%. we've been having to work harder for less cash. basically 2019 was good 2020. three. you know the thing that has died is the international tourists and that's what industry leaders are blaming specifically, the asian market. scott back, the ceo of san francisco travel, says only about 50% of the chinese tourists have returned and traditional, he says chinese visitors spend big money in san francisco. pandemic. china was our largest long haul overseas market over $2 0 a year of spend in our market right >now >>tax by the governments of the

us and governments of china. air services capped right now it's 50% of pre pandemic levels. so we can't get back to the normal what we would call normal baseline visitation because you do not have the seats in the airplanes to make it happen. ella gets a lot more than messed iq visitors and the domestic visitation has pushed the southern california tourism industry well beyond the 2019 levels. experts say so cow strong rebound is what's driving up the entire states towards tourism spending. >record breaking tourism numbers last year, 150 0 >reporter>0. the governor made the announcement on top of the iconic golden gate >bridge. yeah. >reporter>the ceo of pier 39 says they've been fortunate their sales were flat compared to 2019. convention business is still down and for 24, you know we expected to be down and really not rebound. until 25 and beyond. max tourism spending is trending in the right direction. san francisco

still has a lot of work ahead. especially on its image and reputation. we're really hanging our hat on that it's going to be good and tourism is going to come back and people are going to want to go out and spend money. >liz>dallas, says san francisco industry experts predict the number of chinese tourists to return to the 2019 levels by 2026. san francisco is also trying to get folks downtown with new events like 1st thursdays. festival. several blocks on 2nd street south of market where shut down last week while people ate food from local vendors. it's always really fun and dance to music and enjoyed the art. and maryland and breed wants to turn part of the financial district into an entertainment zone. it would even allow controlled public drinking during outdoor events and activities on front street between california and sacramento street. still ahead field trips to the state capitol aren't the only draw to sacramento these days. we look at the events and entertainment, making it a

downtown. destination. and remember, you can watch us anytime anywhere on our streaming service, cbs news bay area catch all of our live newscast, plus news and weather updates throughout the day. you can find us on the free cbs news app or on pluto tv. - lift the clouds off of... - virtual weather, only on kpix and pix+.

>liz>this half hour. we've been talking about what? drawing. visitors. to the bay. area these days. especially the downtown areas. joining me live now to help us get the bigger picture of all this is jeff bellisario, the executive director of the bay area council economic institute. thanks for joining us, jeff >reporter>thanks >>for having me all right, let's start with the good news. what's driving the uptick in visitors to downtown san jose and oakland? >reporter>part of this is just a rebound, right? like those, both of those areas were down over the past 3 or 4 years, so and i think both downtowns have really made an effort around. retail. nightlife. experience. really drive people into those cities. and i think that works as we think about cities across our region. it's almost about creating something that's instagram a bill right? it's not relying people to just showing up coming to work. you

don't want to go out to dinner. you really have to create those experiences and those places where people want to be, and i think that's driving some of that recovery >liz>today. so what's going on in san francisco tourism down 21%. that's a big number. >reporter>well, i i do think as you dig into the numbers, a lot of that's based off of cell phone movement out of that study. so part of that is still a decline in office workers and office workers not coming back and spurs, you know. of that is tourism being down part of that that convention business still being down. in san francisco you know, as we think about tourism visitation downtown recovery, that really is the epicenter of a lot of the challenges in our region today. >liz>yeah, i mean, it has the benefit of the name recognition, right? you can go anywhere in the world. you say you're from san francisco. they know exactly what you're talking about. but how much did the negative narratives that at the city's received recently talking about homelessness, crime? how much does that impact folks decisions to visit here? >reporter>i think that is a big part of it. i mean, a big part

and just economics in terms of flights here and, you know, people cutting back on spending generally across the us, but i do think when tourists and visitors and making those costs benefit. benefit equation san francisco has a relatively high cost place to visit. seeing in the news, depending on which media outlet san francisco has drug use is everywhere. homelessness everywhere. crime is everywhere. none of those things are actually true, but that does tend to be the media narrative nationally and globally. and that can drive, you know changes in visitor rates, and we've seen that have an impact. i think the bigger impact that is really around conventions when meeting planners are looking for cities to the book conventions no, they want to make sure that they can get hotel >liz>rooms, >>but that they're there are people are are safe and happy on the streets. and i think that is a concern for many people nationally today when they think about san francisco >liz>so how does the bay area ranked when it compared to other parts of the state? say los angeles or for the country, for that matter, when it comes

to tourism in downtown foot traffic? >reporter>yeah. we're towards the bottom, right? and i think that's that's going to be. you know, if we look where we were pre pandemic so as a percentage change, right? we really taken the biggest hit of any place from where we were in 2019. now we're still a global gateway global tourist destination, but we have seen the biggest shift whether you look at a hotel occupancy. flights coming in and out. the price of those hotels are activity downtown. we generally ranked near the bottom there, and that's the very negative view right if you compared to 2019 that's the glass. as half empty. half full is that that we are coming back in a bit, and i do think in san francisco in the bay area that media narrative has shifted a bit we've had some great news in the past year coming out of a pack. we were kind of in the national spotlight their reduced the those international tourists coming back, but all the data points to you know, cheaper, warmer places are winning right now it's the phoenix and the austin and the denver those tend to be the

vacation tourism hotspots of the day and not quite san francisco and i think we can get back to where we were in 2019. and i think it does take it. take some time to change >liz>that. hopefully it continues. upward trend hopefully, as the other cities have all right, jeff bellisario, thank you so much for joining us. >reporter>thank >>you. to our north in the sacramento area. it's all about food and entertainment lately, everything from rock concerts to food festivals to conventions are providing a big boost to their local economy. visit, sacramento says the impact that tourism brings there is over 4 billion 0 >in 2023 visit sacramento generated 332,000. hotel rooms light that's the most we generated in our 97 year history. >liz>nearby, plaster county, focusing on hosting sports tournaments to draw and visitors. they can draw more than 5000. people a day and bring in people from out of state >between volleyball basketball, even pickleball

every weekend. we have some sort of tournament happening here. we've been doing quads ball, which is a spinoff of the quidditch game and harry potter books. >liz>i'm dying to play quad ball. i don't know what it is, but it sounds really fun. sacramento and plaster both say they could host even larger events if more tourism infrastructure was added, like more hotel rooms and facilities. we'll right back.

it is wildfire preparedness. we here in cal. coming up. tonight at 5. we'll get an inside. look at the special team called in to reach the fires that others just can't get to check out our ride along with the smoke jumpers. that story and more with ryan hamamoto and myself coming up tonight at 5. and thank you so much for joining us for today's conversation on our downtown visitor trends across the bay area, we love to hear what you think. post your thoughts online using the hashtag kpi x, the cbs evening news is next right here. on cbs news bay area, local news continues. on our streaming service. i'll see you at 5. >> norah: tonight, contentious cross-examination of stormy daniels. >> after two and a half weeks, and i think you'll see some very revealing things today. >> norah: donald trump's lawyers grilled the