In the last two decades, the percentage of San Francisco’s per capita government revenue consisting of rent and concessions has dropped by a large margin (even adjusting for inflation). This is evident in the screenshot above from the California Common Sense San Francisco data transparency portal, a series of interactive data visualizations that help San Franciscans to understand their governments’ finances.

In 1991, rent and concessions accounted for 3 percent of San Francisco revenue. By 2007, that number had dropped to approximately half at 1.5 percent. Since then, the percentage has returned to 2 percent. There is an ongoing debate in San Francisco about what the city should charge – or if the city should charge at all – to use public assets. Here is some data to add to that debate.