Of decades of experience from ktvu. Fox two news. This is the four city leaders right now searching for solutions as San Francisco flagship macys store in union square prepares to shut its doors after nearly 80 years. That store is expected to close by next year. Welcome everyone to the four this afternoon. Im alex savage and im jana katsuyama. San francisco is not the only city notified of the closures. The iconic location is one of 150 macys stores that the retailer says it plans to shut down. It is hard to imagine union square without macys, but it is now a reality. The city, the businesses and the area are having to deal with, the company, announced its restructuring and Christien Kafton is live there in union square to tell us all the details. Christian yeah, exactly. This is a new reality that businesses, the city, everyone really coming to grips with. Right now. The Company Announcing that it is in fact restructuring to address new financial realities. In a statement, the company said that it is, quote, focusing resources by closing approximately 150 underproductive locations, including approximately 50 by the end of the fiscal year. Macys union square. Has now been confirmed to be one of those underproductive locations that will be shuttered. San Francisco Mayor london breed saying. For macys, this was not a safety issue, but came down to dollars and cents. Macys made a business decision to close 150 stores all over the country, and they are selling the property at union square. The Union Square Alliance released a statement saying the closure hurts the head of the Union Square Alliance, saying that she believes that we should work toward a solution that allows macys to keep this iconic store open. However, if that does not come to pass, our expectation is that a new owner for this iconic site will come forward to continue a fresh and vibrant vision at this critical location. San Francisco Mayor london breed also saying she hopes to work with the new owner. Whoever that is, to adapt this site to meet the citys needs. Now, it is unclear at this time is an exact timetable. Various sources that have been in contact with macys say it will not be among the first 50 to close down this coming year, but that will likely be here for at least a year, maybe two. And that the store will remain open until macys can find a new buyer. Guys christian. Obviously macys a mainstay and a Flagship Store and anchor store there in union square. What are other nearby businesses looking at here with this closure and how it might affect them . Yeah so thats a great question, alex. Weve actually talked with some of the surrounding businesses. You heard from the Union Square Alliance, which represents a lot of the businesses. They say that theyre hoping that they can pivot and we talked to a local restaurant thats been here for more than 100 years. They were here before macys arrived. And it looks like theyre going to outlast macys. They say theyre really going to miss the retailer being here. They say a lot of their visitors to this iconic restaurant johns grill nearby, say that they made a holiday tradition of coming out here to see the tree shop at macys and then going and having a bite to eat in the area. They say traditions like that are going to go by the wayside, but theyre saying that theyre looking to try to find out whats next, hoping to adapt for the next great thing again. Theyre hoping that another retailer will move in here, or that there will be some other use that generates a lot of excitement and a lot of business in this area. So thats right. They certainly have a big footprint there. Christien kafton live for us in San Francisco at union square. Thank you. Turning to politics now, californias primary election and super tuesday is just one week away. Voters ours will be deciding who to send to washington with some very rare openings for bay area congressional seats. Yeah, retirements and representatives seeking new office have created openings for a new group of politicians. It also means a loss of decades worth of experience. Ktvu political reporter greg lee is here. And greg, we are going to see some generational change. Yeah, alex, gianna, we will see some fresh faces representing the bay area for the first time in decades. As you said, with experience comes influence and knowledge of how to navigate the halls of congress. And no question, whoever ultimately fills these seats will have big shoes to fill. When bay area voters have their votes counted on super tuesday, they will see a changing of the guard. Longtime bay Area Representatives either retiring or running for new offices and taking with them decades of experience science. Thats thats a lot of, uh, brainpower. People know who the district know how to get things done in congress. Youre were losing that. It began with congresswoman jackie speier, who chose not to run in 2022 after 15 years in the house. Oakland representative barbara lee is running for senate, vacating the position shes held for 26 years. And Silicon Valley congresswoman anna eshoo will retire after 32 years in congress, representing really, uh, what i think is the most distinguished Congressional District in the country, uh, has just been the honor of my life as she was first elected in 1992. And what was dubbed the year of the woman, 47 women were elected to the house, 24 for the first time, and women won an additional four seats in the senate. Among them the late senator dianne feinstein, who served 31 years in the upper chamber. The representation is so important, uh, because right now we have more African American women. We have, um, uh, gay women, we have hispanic women. We have native american women. Uh, and, you know, their voices, um, are so important. We are losing a huge generation of seniority, and especially in the us senate, seniority is everything. So, uh, california is definitely going to be, um, you know, were not going to have those impact players, these rare vacant seats in the bay area have set off a mad dash to fill them. Nine people are running for lees seat. 11 are competing to succeed. Sue while the candidates may be novices in congress, as she says, they all bring their own valuable perspective to give. There is a variation of experience, some in local government, some local government and combined with work in the state legislature, nature, some never having Held Public Office but have done an a wonderful things in their lives. The bay area has had a long standing relationship with a lot of its politicians. The names are very familiar household names, but there comes a transition, a transition that could potentially define a new era. 33 of house members from california are women, and theres a possibility that that could shrink to even smaller numbers. And more than half of the voters are women. And so its this is going to be a loss of, uh, female power. It very could very well could be as the age of politicians continues to come under scrutiny, some experts say the open positions represent an opportunity. Ive always believed that its important to bring in newer thinking, younger people and i think thats basically what a lot of people are craving in politics now. As voters weigh in on who will have the opportunity to fill these giant shoes, as you gives this advice for the next generation person number one put country first. Always put your country first. Our country first. Uh, dont vote out of fear now, representative, she points out when she first ran, there were 32 women in congress. Now there are 151. She gives much of that credit to former speaker nancy pelosi, who is, of course, running for reelection to represent San Francisco for another two year tum. Youve certainly seen that demographic change when it comes to gender. You mentioned age as a factor that weve seen both as a positive with seniority, but also some people are saying as a negative, did congresswoman su have anything to say about what her thoughts are . Yeah, she was very adamant. She said, do not mock experience because experience requires time to acquire and often that leads to age. She said she knows much more now than she did in her first two terms. So she said experience is certainly a quality that people should revere and hope for in their elected officials. Yeah, and as we heard joe garofoli say, i mean, seniority means a lot in congress and gets you a long way. Yeah. And so much power has emanated from bay Area Representatives, bay area senators, because of that experience. They have carried a lot of weight. Look no further than as she said, former House Speaker nancy pelosi. Really whipping her caucus constantly. So they know what it takes. And we certainly see a lot of older people fit and in a very different kind of state than, you know, we might have in the past. Yeah, definitely. All right. Thank you so much, greg. All right. Well we are just one week now until the march 5th primary election here in california. And there are signs we may be seeing record low voter turnout, according to the latest numbers from Political Data inc. Of the 22 million ballots mailed out to california voters, just 8 of them have been returned to Election Officials so far. Thats roughly 1. 7 million ballots. Yeah, and so we want to get a sense of why we are seeing the numbers shape up this way at this point in the game. And to do that, were joined by paul mitchell, the ceo of Political Data inc, a california based voter data firm. Paul always good to see you. We appreciate your time. Where would you expect that we would be in terms of turnout at this point, one week away from election day, how far behind are we lagging . Yeah, i would think that we would be at least at around 2. 2 million ballots, having been returned so far, which is around 10 of ballots. We still have a lot of people who vote late. And then obviously some people who choose to vote in person or on election day. So theres still more to come. But this is incredibly low. Its low compared to prior president ial races. Its probably going to be the lowest turnout president ial primary. The states ever seen, and its low even compared to the most recent gubernatorial election, where in that primary election we saw 33 turnout. So so, um, its low and whats important to note, especially looking back at the story you just had, the electorate changes when you get to real low turnout election. So low in that district like anna, you seat were talking about will it be a new generational leadership . Will 58 of the voters whove cast ballots in that district are over 65 . And were seeing an older, whiter and more conservative electorate in this low turnout environment. One thing that you had mentioned in an article that i was reading was a change this year, a first year when all californians are receiving a vote by mail ballot and im wondering if you anticipate that having any impact on the number of early voters so far, people may be waiting since they have a ballot. How could that be impacting your data . Yeah. So um, this is the first president ial primary weve had. Uh, everybody receiving receive a ballot in the mail. We also had it in the gubernatorial primary in 2022, but it does make it hard to do direct apples to apples comparisons. You could say, well, 1. 7 million ballots. That was more than we had in 2016 or 2008. But of course, back then, half of voters maybe were voting by mail and so the numbers really to get real apples to apples comparison, were looking mostly at a comparison to the two years ago gubernatorial primary, 33 turnout and were way behind those numbers right now. Yeah. You just mentioned the president ial race. And obviously that sort of feels to a lot of voters like a foregone conclusion that President Biden and former President Trump will be the nominees for their respective parties. How much does that fact sort of, you know, the lack of enthusiasm and urgency around that president ial election, how is that likely affecting turnout across california . And a lot of those other races . I think thats the whole ball game. Essentially. I think that we have an environment where democrats have essentially punted the primary, uh, and are renominating the incumbent and republicans, uh, have effectively settled on trump after four states. And so as a function of the lack of competitiveness at the top of the ticket, were seeing real low turnout. Its similar to 2012, when obama was a democratic nominee and mitt romney had already won the. Republican nomination by the time that primary came to california in june of that year. Thats actually when california decided, hey, lets move our primaries to march. So were more likely to matter. But even with a march primary, a super tuesday primary, still, the republican race was decided before it comes to california. And that really is depressing turnout. It will have a big impact on down ticket races. Everything from the Us Senate Race to a local City Council Race will be affected by this low turnout. And one thing im wondering about is we are seeing in the senate race a republican being competitive. Oftentimes in those statewide races. Um, it seems like republicans dont feel like they really have a say in a, in a very democratic leaning state. Are you seeing differences in terms of turnout based on location, on region as a result of some of these races that were seeing . Yeah, definitely. I think youre really right to point to the fact that steve garvey, you know, california is a state that hasnt elected a republican statewide in almost 20 years, since 2006. And uh, steve garvey is right now poised to make the runoff in that big, high profile Us Senate Race. That means a couple of things. One thing is that if voters thought they were going to wait to the general election and have a choice between two democrats, they might be mistaken. There might not be that choice in november. And then also down ticket, youll see races around even the bay area where you have maybe a handful of democrats running for the legislature and folks think, oh, were going to get to choose between these democrats in november and theyre a republican, slips in to the second spot and all of a sudden its a republican versus a democrat in november. And in heavily democratic districts like the bay area that essentially is a race thats over. So it will have an impact in a lot of those races. Yeah. Sounds like this low turnout could really shake things up in this primary election. I appreciate your insight. Good to see you. Paul mitchell from Political Data inc. Thanks for doing it. Thank you very much. Absolutely. Well, San Francisco voters will have a hand in deciding how to improve Public Safety in the city proper. Mission b would set a new minimum staffing level for the police department. That increases annually for five years. Recruitment for those new officers would be linked to new taxes or changes to existing taxes. We spoke with mayoral candidate supervisor asha safai, who is in favor of proposition b. He says its a fiscally responsible way to respond to the citys Police Staffing shortage, which could be result in new taxes on san franciscans. No, no, theres not one line in this that says there will be anything that raises taxes on small businesses, on homeowners is what it says is we will in the future, identify a responsive source. It could come from the existing funds. It could come with reorganizing existing taxes. Opponents, including mayor london breed and supervisor matt dorsey, disagree with sapphire. They have branded prop b as a, quote, cop tax and say the sfpd can increase staffing using the citys existing. 14. 6 billion budget. Up next here on the four today, the state addressing the drug crisis with a multi Million Dollar bust in the federal bureau of investigation making major arrests of its own. And across the bay area this afternoon, temperatures running very seasonal for this time of year. Subtle changes expected for tomorrow, followed by big changes on thursday. Ill have a look for you com g democrats agree. Conservative republican steve garvey is the wrong choice for the senate. Our republican opponent here on this stage has voted for donald trump twice. Mr. Garvey, you voted for him twice. As your own man, what is your decision . Garvey is wrong for california. But garveys surging in the polls. Fox news says garvey would be a boost to republican control of the senate. Stop garvey. Adam schiff for senate. Im adam schiff, and i approve this message. Overflowing with ideas and energy. Thats the San Francisco chronicle endorsing democrat katie porter for senate over all other options. Porter is easily the most impressive candidate. Known for her grilling of corporate executives. With deep policy knowledge. Katie porters housing plan has bipartisanfriendly ideas to bring homebuilding costs down. And the chronicle praises her ideas to end soft corruption in politics. Lets shake up the senate. With democrat katie porter. Im katie porter and i approve this message. 2023. That new data announced by Governor Newsom now making for a record in the state the hallmarks a 1,066 increase from 2021. The California National guard says its recovered just over 5,300 pounds of fentanyl that year. Total fentanyl seizures, seizures for last year amounted to a street value of 649 million. The amount of that opioid pulled enough to kill the entire global population nearly twice over a group of honduran nationals allegedly linked to the sale of fentanyl and other drugs in San Franciscos tenderloin neighborhood are now in custody. Earlier today, the justice department, the fbi and the dea announced these arrests and the seizure of weapons and property purchased with that drug money. Officials say the dea assisted honduran L