131–140 of 441 posts
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Can confirm. In general, unless you actually step into them, human feces are not a problem. Just watch your step and be alert. How difficult can it be?
Your bar is so low it's on the ground - watch your step.
I 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.
Other than car crime, other forms of violent crime in SF are mostly non-existent and rare statical anomalies.
27 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.
There's human feces everywhere outside the tourist/financial districts, and the entirety of the inner city (Tenderloin) is disintegrated and full of poverty, homelessness and crime - and it's predominantly people of color who accumulate there. If that's "diverse" and "beautiful" then I'd hate to think what "monocultural" and "dull" looks like...
This is not accurate. The Sunset, Richmond, Parkside, Presidio, Marina, and many other parts of the city are very clean (or at least not notably dirty for a city). Perhaps the Marina/Presidio could be called tourist areas but the Sunset and Richmond certainly are not.
27 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.
There's human feces everywhere outside the tourist/financial districts, and the entirety of the inner city (Tenderloin) is disintegrated and full of poverty, homelessness and crime - and it's predominantly people of color who accumulate there. If that's "diverse" and "beautiful" then I'd hate to think what "monocultural" and "dull" looks like...
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I grew up in SF and still have family sticking it out there. I don't completely disagree with the sentiment here but last I heard I thought SF had a pretty serious diversity problem. Is that no longer the case?
What do you mean by a "serious diversity problem"? Not white enough, or what?
Just because we have a black female mayor does not mean the real racism of SF is gone, just as electing Obama did not miraculously cure the US if it’s racism.
I asked him what he thought would be needed to bring him out of homelessness and keep him inside society. He said he didn’t want that, he said he enjoyed being homeless. He was sleeping in a squat house, he was able to score enough cash from tourists to support his drugs habit, the police left him alone because he didn’t look out of place, he was clean, groomed etc.
How does society help someone with that view?
Here in Glasgow, Scotland we have a relatable challenge. There’s 14 people who refuse accommodation. They are long term homeless, all of them have mental issues and most have addiction problems. There’s over 100 people most nights take up access to a homeless shelter in Glasgow but they accept the help available and on average only spend 3 nights before going into proper accommodation and no longer need the shelter’s help. So It’s not that there’s no systems in place but that hardcore of 14 people who want to live on the streets have no obvious way forward.
It’s played on my mind many times over the years, how do you help someone in that scenario?
I did a short stint with a charity who supports some folks who have been given emergency housing. I was in one of the blocks of flats in Paisley one day helping deliver some food shopping, they’re only just habitable these emergency apartments - extremely basic inside. I understand why, they get trashed often by residents and so the council can’t afford to make them nice. It’s quite a bleak outlook for these folks even if they did decide they want to live indoors again.
This is a long post to say the reality seems like there’s no quick fix or easy win. If you do nothing you make things worse. If you do something, it might not be wanted.
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The housing crisis is perpetuated by a lack of coherent planning. It's also why transit is suboptimal. It definitely doesn't help that it isn't one big city, it's actively detrimental.
Maybe the best solution is some sort of regional association or federation of governments working on multi-jurisdictional concerns. Representing an entire area you could say.
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San Francisco was brilliant before tech, and will be shining in the next boom. Some things are bigger than now, and maybe bigger than we can fully understand. Here’s some enjoyable reading for those with a few minutes to spare: http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/early.html To me the confluence of cultures, like the brackish waters of the bay, are it’s hallmark. The issues around sudden wealth, excess, limited housing, and…
San Francisco had a declining population from 1960 until 1990: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_San_Francisco So according to people voting with their feet: no, San Francisco was not a brilliant place before tech. Or at least it wasn't brilliant enough to attract a net increase in population.
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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...
The housing crisis is perpetuated by a lack of coherent planning. It's also why transit is suboptimal. It definitely doesn't help that it isn't one big city, it's actively detrimental.
The proximal problem is that the SF government is too inefficient and slow. BART is actually more efficient than SF is at building stations.
Why would you want drag more SF politics into something that runs better than it?