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Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

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Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#171
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well to do people who can afford to leave also complain about homeless shelters in their neighborhood. I wasn't suggesting leading a reform but attacking the root cause by changing your opinion and the opinions of others.

There’s a homeless shelter 2 blocks away from me, and I’m perfectly fine with it. The residents are great people as far as I can tell; I smile and wave when I see them, and I don’t begrudge the occasional panhandler or guy mumbling to himself. I mention all that to be very clear about what I mean when I say, I wouldn’t agree to live near a San Francisco homeless shelter either. I just can’t tolerate people screaming…

This needs to upvoted higher. My anecdotal experience living in SF near homeless shelters for years is that there is a stark contrast in the homeless population in SF compared to other major US cities. I don’t claim to know why, but my big take away is that there isn’t a one size fits all strategy to addressing homelessness as it varies from region to region.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#172
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Semantics, we all know what the poster meant. Whatever the cause, the homeless make large swaths of San Francisco unappealing, especially for people with young families. BTW, quite the irony that the most liberal city in the country has the biggest homeless problem. Whatever they're doing isn't working, maybe they should try something different?

Again, its society and its lack of compassion does it. Not "the homeless".

If SF decided to show compassion and start spending the massive amounts of money needed to help the homeless via education or mental health facilities, every other municipality in the country will start shipping people in.

This isn’t a problem any city or state can address. It’s only solvable on a federal level, and that’s only because there is a military to enforce borders.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#173
post #146
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hiking/cycling/camping can be crazy socially distant and probably one of the best things you can do for your own mental and physical health right now. A ride up Tam isn’t going to be any more or less dangerous than it was before. Outside of a few extremely popular spots it is not restricted in Washington, at least to my knowledge. If it is in the Bay/CA then it is news to me. In any case, that stuff will still be the…

Er, there's plenty of natural beauty, hiking/cycling/camping, & peaks higher than Mt. Tam east of Rockies, and even east of the Mississippi. Otherwise, your point about there still being plenty of healthy ways to get out of the home, both practically and in accordance with official guidelines, is well-made.

I’m aware that there is but heavily biased towards the diversity and depth of the natural beauty of the West Coast.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#174

I am living in SF now and this confirms a very clear pattern that I have seen emerging, particularly of tech workers. I would say that >50% of the people I know who were living in the city have left, or are in the process of leaving. Some examples (there are countless): 1) All three of the roommates that I had are choosing to leave either permanently or temporarily. 2) A friend who works for google who is going on a…

I've seen the same. The misconception is that people are leaving because the housing is too expensive and its not worth it anymore. Almost everybody I know that moved out had no problem affording housing (high earners / home owners / rent controlled). People are leaving because quality of life has fallen dramatically and the only thing keeping people in SF was their offices.

About half of the tech people I know have moved out. Of those about half have left permanently, the other half are on the fence depending on long term WFH ability / if the city is able to get the quality of life issues under control / plus a lot of complaints about taxes.

-In my 6 unit building in Nob Hill (5 of which are owner occupied). 3 units including myself have moved out permanently. 1x to Austin. 1x to Palm Springs. 1x to East Bay. -5 of my 6 best friends in rent controlled units have moved out. Mostly to other cities in California. In 10 years living in SF I've never seen people willingly give up rent controlled units like this. -Other friends that were looking to move to SF that have cancelled those plans. In particular employees at large companies that were impacted by layoffs (Uber).

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#176
As a native San Franciscan, I can only say, “bye Felicia!”

With all the techbros and bankers fleeing home to connecticut or wherever it is they’re from, we can rebuild our destroyed community.

Hopefully this will spread to San Mateo County and the Santa Clara valley.

Startup brats have turned oir vibrant, freaky, hippy, radical home into a bedroom community for the most boring rich people in the world.

Covid is a godsend.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#177
post #168

Not sure why anyone would choose to live in SF except for geographic-specific opportunities. It's a dirty, overcrowded and high tax pit, and everyone living there that isn't in tech or finance hates you for your success.

It's still got pockets of extreme beauty where you can for the most part ignore the problems, there's also a strong contingent of "lifers" who would go down with the ship if a small comet was headed to destroy the city. Also a lot of people hanging on to their property values as their entire nest egg.

Oh yea, I agree the natural beauty is astounding. It's the extreme left wing, near Bolshevik culture and attitude that has destroyed it for me. I say this as a lifelong democrat.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#179
post #24

It seems very tough to draw any conclusions on this just yet. The media has clearly latched onto a storyline of a mass exodus from American cities, but the reality is probably much more complex. It seems plausible that SF already had such low inventory numbers that any change would look huge on a chart like this, though that doesn’t appear to be the case in the other highly competitive markets seen here. I’d love to…

Anecdotally, I've received a huge number of DM's, emails, and even, texts, somehow, about people wanting to know the details about how I moved out of the US. I've met some very interesting people, all but one moving from the bay area.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#180
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Semantics, we all know what the poster meant. Whatever the cause, the homeless make large swaths of San Francisco unappealing, especially for people with young families. BTW, quite the irony that the most liberal city in the country has the biggest homeless problem. Whatever they're doing isn't working, maybe they should try something different?

Again, its society and its lack of compassion does it. Not "the homeless".

San Francisco has a lack of compassion? News to me.
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