You may have some stereotypes formed about the kind of San Franciscan who heads to the Playa every year with their fuzzy bikes, unicornmobiles, and crazy costumes. And it turns out those notions are probably right, at least according to a new map by Fortune that tallies up which neighborhoods in the city are home to the most Burners. In shocking news, it's not the Marina. San Francisco has the largest concentration of Burners in the country, and it turns out that most of them appear to hail from the city's southern, techie neighborhoods. Fortune determined this by using Square transactions to measure where commerce dropped the most during the week of Burning Man.
SoMa, home to a gajillion tech companies, topped the list with more than a 20 percent drop in commerce from the previous week. It was followed by the Mission (of course), Noe Valley/The Castro, and free-spirited Haight Ashbury/Cole Valley. The map may even underestimate the impact of Burning Man on those trendy techie neighborhoods since many San Franciscans who stay in town flock to the emptied-out Mission to take advantage of shorter lines and empty restaurant tables.
On the other hand, the less Burner-heavy Richmond and Outer Sunset actually saw big jumps in spending during Burning Man Week, perhaps because of Labor Day weekend. Neighborhoods that were unaffected included the much more buttoned-up Marina and Pacific Heights/Western Addition/Japantown. Polo shirts and boat shoes don't really fly on The Playa.
· Who Went to Burning Man? [Fortune]
· Here Now, 16 of the More Awesome Art Cars at Burning Man [Curbed SF]
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