If, for some reason, the city saw fit to cease advertising for booze at SFO, it'd create an odd situation in which the city benefits from the sale of booze at the airport but declines to allow booze advertising -- which would, in theory, spur the sale of booze and benefit the city.
The airport's duty-free shops, it turns out, hand over a percentage of their gross income to the city as a term of their lease agreements. As anyone who has ever walked through a duty-free shop knows, they ain't making their money through the sale of chewing gum. Yes, you can buy a Toblerone large enough to serve as a nightstick. But, going out on a limb, much of the stores' money is made hawking booze and cigs -- and that cash is passed on to the city.
Our calls to Mirkarimi and SFO's manager of governmental affairs, Cathy Widener, have not yet been returned. Hopefully neither of them has metamorphosed into a roach, either.
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