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Why San Francisco’s city government is so dysfunctional
21–30 of 441 posts
Re: Why San Francisco’s city government is so dysfunctional
#22I was thinking of making the move to SF for the higher income. Seeing the past few years of the city have completely changed my mind though. Chesa Boudin physically makes my head hurt so much.
Re: Why San Francisco’s city government is so dysfunctional
#23"Nor are the police blameless. In the fourth quarter of last year, the “clearance” rate for robbery (which measures the share of reported crimes that result in an arrest) was half that of New York City. The police are notoriously unresponsive."
This. Not only do I RARELY see a police officer in SF, but when I do, they look "beat down" or ambivalent. I'm sure years of police being the political "whipping boy" has taken its tole.
Re: Why San Francisco’s city government is so dysfunctional
#24> Matt Haney, who represents the troubled Tenderloin neighbourhood
I love the characterization of the neighborhood as "troubled" like it was an accident: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrific_Street#Demise
Re: Why San Francisco’s city government is so dysfunctional
#25A lot of my family has lived in SF for decades, all of them have moved out in the past 4 years. It's a monstrous dystopia now. The ultra rich completely insulated from the human misery sprawled out in every direction around them while their peasants toil away as tiny ants looked down upon with pity from their gleaming towers.
Huh? The primary issue with San Francisco is that you are in fact not insulated from human misery at all. If you want insulation, check out Atherton or Woodside 20 miles down south.
In addition, the wealthy of San Francisco live in giant single family homes. It’s not a big skyscraper culture.
Re: Why San Francisco’s city government is so dysfunctional
#2627 year San Francisco resident here. The government here is dysfunctional because that's what people voted for. The fact that people pay so much to live here says that people are willing to put up with a lot in exchange for living in a diverse and beautiful city.
> people are willing to put up with a lot in exchange for living in a diverse and beautiful city.
You mean in exchange for living in a city with high paying tech jobs?
Re: Why San Francisco’s city government is so dysfunctional
#27>As it is, the city has been safely Democratic for 40 years and seems allergic to choosing a Bloomberg-type figure from one of the big tech companies to try something different. San Francisco is what New York City would be like if it only had the UWS, Village, and Wall Street/Midtown. To put another way, if the Bay area had been unified a century ago as "San Francisco" including the Peninsula and East Bay, things wou…
There's definitely dysfunction caused by lack of planning at a metro level; many of the problems are arguably burdensome for any one county to address, but aren't high enough priority to attract attention to force coordination at a state level. Merging all the counties into one is certainly one approach to solving it, and would make the governance more addressable to a larger number of people who work in the area, versus the much smaller number who live there.
Re: Why San Francisco’s city government is so dysfunctional
#28Per my own experience SF is not a bad place to live. But the homelessness has gotten worse so I had to get out.
> Per my own experience SF is not a bad place to live. I have the opposite view. In SF, your risk of the following occurring is non-negligible and in some cases, shockingly quite likely: - Being mugged/robbed - Having your car broken into - Being harangued or even assaulted by someone who is mentally ill and/or under the influence - Witnessing public urination, defecation, drug use and grab and go retail theft - Step…
I've lived in Toronto, SF and Sao Paulo. In 18 years living in Sao Paulo, I've witnessed one gun-related incident and was victim of robbery once (I lived near Heliopolis, one of the largest slums in the city). In 18 years living in Toronto, I was involved in zero. In my first 2 years in SF, I was harassed twice and witnessed retail theft 2 times.
SF is "not bad" in the sense that you won't get shot in the face. It is however quite bad in the sense that the amount of petty crime is so off the charts that you can't even compile accurate statistics because security personnel at retail stores don't even bother reporting it anymore.
A few months ago, I witnessed another theft in inner Richmond (one of the nicer neighbourhoods), the security guy did a half-ass attempt at running after the guy but gave up and came towards the customer support desk I was at. I asked if that was common, and the security guy literally just shrugs.
Re: Why San Francisco’s city government is so dysfunctional
#29I will note that California seems to be America's dumping ground for the nation's homeless problem. There are also long-standing federal and state housing policies impacting San Francisco.
I have no idea how dysfunctional the local city government is in this case, but there are things going on here beyond its control. It's not fair or reasonable to act like the condition the city is in is entirely due to local government stuff.
Re: Why San Francisco’s city government is so dysfunctional
#30>As it is, the city has been safely Democratic for 40 years and seems allergic to choosing a Bloomberg-type figure from one of the big tech companies to try something different. San Francisco is what New York City would be like if it only had the UWS, Village, and Wall Street/Midtown. To put another way, if the Bay area had been unified a century ago as "San Francisco" including the Peninsula and East Bay, things wou…
The Peninsula is generally much better run than SF.
It kind of helps that it isn't one big city. It forces the cities to compete and makes the democracy more direct and participatory. It also limits the blast radius of bad decisions.
Also, because of the greater percentage of kids, the parents often vote based on what is best for their kids.
The issues are much more mundane. Better roads, funding for schools, etc...