The Zombie Building That Ate San Diego

Can the Rest of California Learn From the City Losing Millions on an Empty Office Tower?

As Californians figure out what to do with thousands of buildings made empty by pandemic and recession, we should hold ourselves to a baseline standard: Let’s not be as scared and as stupid as San Diego.

In recent months, America’s Finest City has seen its most civic-minded brains eaten not by zombies, but by a long-empty downtown office building. Perhaps compensating for the absence of typical Halloween rites, San Diegans have grown so frighteningly obsessed with the horrors at 101 Ash Street that they sometimes seem incapable of discussing anything else.

“Are …