The General Services Administration rejected calls to shut down the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in San Francisco, insisting the crime-ridden property is safe enough for government employees to show up for work.
In a letter to Sen. Joni Ernst, Iowa Republican, GSA said agencies are free to make their own decisions about letting employees work from home over safety concerns but doesn’t see a reason to shutter the building.
“The building is a safe and secure space for Federal employees and the visiting public,” GSA said in the letter, which The Washington Times has reviewed.
San Francisco’s crime data shows 20 criminal incidents on the street in front of the building in February alone, including a strong-armed robbery, three grand thefts and an assault with serious bodily injury.
“Federal employees shouldn’t have to fear for their lives trying to get to and from work. That is why I am calling on the GSA to shut down this building until it no longer poses a threat to public safety,” the senator told The Times in a statement.
The situation spiraled over the summer. Employees complained of muggings and having to push their way through open-air drug markets to reach their offices.
It was so bad that the Department of Health and Human Services, one of the federal agencies that occupies the building, urged employees to telework.
“Sometimes I come home and cry after seeing what I see,” a federal employee told The San Francisco Standard this fall.
Ms. Ernst demanded answers from GSA in late October.
San Francisco’s crime map shows 92 criminal incidents outside the building since then, including seven weapons offenses, one robbery, one serious assault, five frauds, 10 grand thefts, three sex crimes and a host of drug and alcohol cases.
GSA headquarters in Washington is relatively safe in comparison. The capital city’s crime map shows just two incidents of theft in the surrounding streets during the past four months and no assaults or robberies.
The Times asked GSA whether it tracks crime data and how it makes decisions on building security. The agency didn’t respond to those inquiries.
A 2017 report by the Congressional Research Service said the government struggles with evaluating risks at its buildings.
A brief comparison suggests the Pelosi building is a significant outlier in terms of crime.
The Times looked at some of the agencies with offices in the San Francisco building and compared them with their headquarters buildings in Washington and found that, like GSA, their employees in Washington were far safer.
The crime map for the streets around HHS headquarters in Southwest Washington shows just one criminal incident since November, a theft. The Agriculture Department also recorded just one theft around its Washington headquarters.
The Transportation Department was somewhat more troubling, with 12 incidents, including one robbery, from November through late February. The other incidents were thefts of some sort or another.
The Times reached out to labor union representatives at the American Federation of Government Employees, representing many who work in the building, but did not receive replies.
HHS also didn’t respond to questions about its current work posture at the Pelosi building.
In GSA’s Feb. 15 letter to Ms. Ernst, Associate Administrator Gianelle Rivera said the agency has made safety enhancements.
Officers from the Federal Protective Service, a Homeland Security Department division that polices government buildings, have stepped up patrols and now man “secure checkpoints” at the building. The service adds more manpower during the morning and afternoon commutes to help employees get into and out of work safely, Ms. Rivera said.
She said GSA and the Federal Protective Service hold biweekly meetings to discuss the building. GSA runs a monthly safety meeting with the federal agency tenants and has contracted with a firm to suggest other security improvements, she said.
In a symbolically freighted move, the Federal Protective Service added fencing to block off some areas.
A Homeland Security agency’s use of a fence has drawn scorn because the department has opposed similar fence-building exercises on the southern border.
Ms. Rivera said fencing works.
“The purpose of the fencing is to change the behavior of people in the immediate vicinity of the building,” she wrote.
That is the same reasoning Border Patrol agents give for supporting President Trump’s border wall construction. They said it changes migrants’ crossing patterns and funnels them into areas where agents can catch them.
Homeland Security didn’t respond to a request for comment for this report.
The San Francisco building opened in 2007 at the corner of Seventh and Mission streets. The design was supposed to be groundbreaking, with “sustainability” features, a “democratic layout” for employees and a special focus on letting the public have access via a large plaza.
Congress added Mrs. Pelosi’s name to the building in 2022 as a parting gift when she finished her history-making second term as speaker of the House.
Mrs. Pelosi maintains a district office in the building.
Ms. Ernst said, “Perhaps it’s fitting that this over-imposing building plagued by theft and criminal activity, where little — if any — work is being done on behalf of the people, stands as a memorial to the legacy of the former speaker of the House.”
Reached this week, Mrs. Pelosi’s spokesperson Aaron Bennett pointed to a statement from the summer, when the HHS work-from-home directive was first issued, saying they had met with the U.S. attorney’s office to discuss safety.
“Federal, state and local law enforcement — in coordination with public health officials and stakeholders — are working hard to address the acute crises of fentanyl trafficking and related violence in certain areas of the city,” Mr. Bennett said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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