San Francisco’s lax attitude toward crime continues to take a toll on local business, and it is certainly unsustainable.

Amanda Michael, the owner of four cafes in the city, detailed these problems while proclaiming her support for recalling District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Michael said that repeat offenders have continued to “harass customers and staff, steal food and personal belongings, deal and use drugs in our doorways, and create a hostile environment for customers.”

Repeat offenders have been the problem, as the San Francisco Police Department has acknowledged. The director of the retail crime division of CVS Health has called the city “one of the epicenters of organized retail crime,” and the pharmacy chain Walgreens has closed 17 stores in the city due to rampant shoplifting.

This is simply not a sustainable situation for businesses. It isn’t sustainable for residents either, who are seeing businesses close while also dealing with an increase in shootings and aggravated assaults in the city.

A lot of this stems from Boudin, but it is also the result of the choices of San Francisco residents. Boudin was elected by them, after all, as was the equally soft-on-crime George Gascon before him. Only San Francisco residents can fix this problem and, whether in a recall election or in the 2023 district attorney election, they will have an opportunity to do so.