As if it ever left:

By almost every measure, San Francisco is in far better economic shape than it was when [our Mayor] took office in 2004 and faced a nearly $350 million budget deficit. The city has recovered from the double whammy of the dot-com bust and the tourism crash that followed the Sept. 11 attacks and is moving forward, experts say.

Unemployment has dropped from 6.7 percent in 2003 to 4.2 percent this year. Airport passenger traffic is up 22 percent since 2003, and tourism rose by 8.4 percent from 2003 to 2006. The hotel occupancy rate has risen from 58 percent in the first quarter of 2003 to 70 percent in the first quarter of 2007. The vacancy rate for office space is 10 percent today, compared with 21 percent in 2003.

And from “Kenny”:

Did you see the Chronicle today? SF is doing great

financially. Unemployment down, office spaces at 90%

full, revenues up, tourism up, stem cell campus

operational, etc. etc. And of course, R.E. is chugging

right along.

–Booming S.F. economy good for Newsom but leaves some out in the cold [SFGate]