SAN FRANCISCO, NOT REGION, HURT BY RESTRUCTURING Corporate mergers and acquisitions in and around San Francisco over the past seven years have had only a modest effect on the metropolitan area's economy, a leading business-backed organization said. The Bay Area Council, a group of more than 300 business firms, said that a study of corporate restructuring in a nine-county area found that San Francisco itself had suffered some ill effects from corporate shake-ups but that surrounding communities had not. Seventeen of the 32 Fortune 500 companies in the area left due to corporate restructuring between 1979 and 1986, but another 21 firms were added to the list. Ten of the departing companies were based in San Francisco. During the period, only six located in the city achieved Fortune 500 status. Ted Hall, a council director and local managing director of McKinsey and Co. which conducted the survey, said the study grew out of concern that mergers and acquisitions had seriously hurt the economic climate of northern California. However, Hall said that only about 36,000 jobs had been lost in the region, while more than 600,000 new jobs were created during the period. At the same time, he said, the region experienced a greater rise in per capita income and lower unemployment than the rest of the United States and California. Council President George Keller, who also is chairman and chief executive officer of Chevron Corp., told a news conference that the region had difficulties in persuading companies to locate there because of a fragmented local political system. But he said that because of the amenities of living in San Francisco, he was the envy of many chief executives in other metropolitan area. "It's a great place to run a business," he added, "but it's a hell of a place to do business with government." The study concluded that Chevron, which mergered with Gulf Oil in 1984, would benefit in the long run from the restructuring activity. Among the corporate headquarters lost during the period were Crown Zellerbach, Memorex, Southern Pacific, Castle & Cooke and Rolm. Companies that grew enough during the period to make the Fortune 500 list included Apple Computer, Pacific Telesis, McKesson, Tandem Computer, U.S. Leasing and Amfac. The study by the management consulting firm said that, partly due to corporate restructuring, the rate of job growth in San Francisco has slowed since 1980. In addition, it said that the loss of corporate leadership had adversely affected some of the Bay Area's civic and charitable activities.