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Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point

economist.com

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Re: Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point

#71

Post by riffraff »

truckerbill wrote: post #42

Housing 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 abou…

The number is not imaginary if you have kids, the idea of leaving your children some of your wealth is dear to many people, and most often they will have acquired their own place by the time you die.

It is arguable that inheritance taxes should prevent accumulation of wealth, but point is, real estate survives you.

Re: Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point

#72

Post by RhodesianHunter »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #47
RhodesianHunter wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I wasn't sure if the person I was responding to was expressing a sincere belief, or just one of the conservatives that love hypocritically pointing out SF's flaws. Figured with this we'll find out.

Re: Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point

#73

Post by Hydraulix989 »

Mizoguchi wrote: post #33
spaniard89277 wrote: post #26

Make 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.

Did you ever experience homelessness though?

Re: Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point

#75

Post by swexbe »

bilqis wrote: post #40
higo wrote: post #32

[flagged]

Well it’s capitalism. End goal of all actors in this economic system is not public good, it’s profit.

Profit should be aligned with public good. That's where the system is currently failing majorly. Most people in all economic systems will strive for self-gain. The great thing about capitalism is that it realizes that this will always be the case and tries to co-opt this basic human desire into something good.

Re: Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point

#76

Post by PaulHoule »

As anathema as it may seem to some people I think the real answer has to involve dispersing the homeless population in SF.

The SF chronicle did a series on the efforts to house people in shelters and one major problems was that a person who wanted to get clean from opioids is just surrounded by temptation and is just one dose of Fentanyl away from death.

Thus these people are more dangerous to each other than they are to anyone else. Not only is there the paradox of warehousing the poor in the most expensive place in America but also that of warehousing them in the most dangerous place in America insofar as fentanyl is concerned.

Re: Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point

#77

Post by thriftwy »

truckerbill wrote: post #42

Housing 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 abou…

Perhaps housing was always an investment vehicle. St. Petersburg is full of 4-5 storey buildings, initially with apartments for rent, most of whose were built to provide {Surname} with a stable income in the old age.

Re: Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point

#78

Post by throwawaaarrgh »

shafyy wrote: post #58
bilqis wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it’s capitalism. End goal of all actors in this economic system is not public good, it’s profit.

Well. There's capitalism, and then there's whatever the fuck the US is doing.

Super duper capitalism?

Honestly we have a fair bit more regulation than we had in the past, and other capitalist nations don't have the problems we do. It's a lot more than just economic policy.

Mostly I think the problem is our death cult of individualism and exceptionalism. Half the country thinks everyone should either pull themselves up by their bootstraps or die.

Re: Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point

#79

Post by jakeinspace »

idlewords wrote: post #38
RhodesianHunter wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You're not going to find open-air downtown drug markets, public defecation and decriminalized theft in Mississippi or Arkansas. For that, you need to visit one of our progressive West Coast cities.

That’s stuff you only find in cities anyway. Virtually all American cities vote Democrat. This is simply a correlation.

Re: Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point

#80

Post by PaulHoule »

spaniard89277 wrote: post #26

Make 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.

A cure for schizophrenia is another 80% of the problem.
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