Every time I got to SF I'm surprised how far along they've gone in making the city look like Johnny Mnemonic. Just need to neurolink a dolphin to an LLM...
This is good one, thank you for the smile!
Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point
41–50 of 206 posts
Re: Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point
#42Housing shouldn't be an investment vehicle. It seems pretty obvious but no-one wants to give up their imaginary number. (Imaginary because most people have 1 or fewer houses and will always need to live somewhere, so they can't spend the paper value of their home).
The cost of rent feeds into everything, its such a clear drain on everyone's resources (apart from landlords). If you have time to give, please think about how to change things. Though I'm an internet rando so ymmv
Re: Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you think any "valley gazillionaires" are living in the tenderloin?
Of course not, I was going to say that, actually - they live on protected, isolated compounds. Logically they should not care about what is happening elsewhere, right? But they do, just not the stuff in their backyard. There are woke people in New York, you see! And they are the real concern.
You can see where it's headed by looking at some of the cities in Brazil or Johannesburg.
When you have money for security and the ability to travel in what are effectively armored cars, the rest of the city can go to hell.
Re: Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point
#44[deleted]
Re: Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point
#45Make housing affordable with denser mixed-use zoning: You solved 50% of the problem. Make public transport convenient. You solved another 30%. People needs to be able to stay frugal in rough times and socialize. It feels to me that many US cities make this impossible. If you had Spain levels of unemployment I have no idea how would you do.
Let's ignore that almost 100% of the homeless population in America is addicted to drugs. Having experienced drug abuse myself I know for a fact affordable housing is not going to do anything for these folks. They need treatment, and that unfortunately doesn't happen voluntarily when you are sick.
Were you born addicted to drugs?
People needs treatment and a path to become useful members of society again.
Affordable housing makes a lot of poor people able to save money and help their peers.
Re: Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point
#46Make housing affordable with denser mixed-use zoning: You solved 50% of the problem. Make public transport convenient. You solved another 30%. People needs to be able to stay frugal in rough times and socialize. It feels to me that many US cities make this impossible. If you had Spain levels of unemployment I have no idea how would you do.
If I read you correctly, the social fabric in spain (urban planning, gatherings) makes difficult times bearable ?
I'm quite interested in this because I anticipate we'll all need this when climate becomes too dire.
Re: Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is why one party rule is bad.
Just look at the bottom ten states for any measurable statistic people care about. Healthcare outcomes, standard of living, GDP per Capita, poverty, educational attainment, obesity, etc. All deep dark red.
Not sure if you meant this as a counterpoint or as confirmation, but let's be clear that that ALSO doesn't sound like solidly-entrenched one-party rule is good.
Re: Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point
#48Make housing affordable with denser mixed-use zoning: You solved 50% of the problem. Make public transport convenient. You solved another 30%. People needs to be able to stay frugal in rough times and socialize. It feels to me that many US cities make this impossible. If you had Spain levels of unemployment I have no idea how would you do.
Let's ignore that almost 100% of the homeless population in America is addicted to drugs. Having experienced drug abuse myself I know for a fact affordable housing is not going to do anything for these folks. They need treatment, and that unfortunately doesn't happen voluntarily when you are sick.
I wonder what the total cost of building drug cities in the middle of nowhere and just paying to have the hopelessly drugged far away.
Re: Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point
#49San Francisco and Oakland are facing combined close to $500 million budget shortfall and are requesting a federal tax payer bailout. The second major federal bailout in eight years. Oakland has one of the highest violent crime rates in the entire country and they just cut more public safety and health jobs. I can't see how anyone can look at the situation in the Bay area and not anticipate anything other than continu…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_b...
As of 2019, the stats show Oakland around the middle at 1,300 violent crimes per 100,000 people and San Francisco towards the bottom at around 700 per 100,000. The worst were around 2,100 violent crimes per 100,000.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_homicide_rat...
Puts Oakland towards the middle internationally (and domestically).
The second major federal bailout in eight years.
Re: Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point
#50What amazes me is that the Valley gazillionaires are not spending their fortunes to fix their own habitat. They can just BUY the city government they want. Instead, they are shoving mountains of cash to turn the United States into some perverted libertarian fantasy, where the government is weak, paralyzed, ineffectual, and out of their way OH WAIT.
They can't buy the government they want. They'd dump tons of money into candidates that would get crushed due to the insane progressive tilt of most SF voters or they'd get in for a term or two, which is not enough time