31–40 of 229 posts
Is there anything worth blogging about here? The linked article is more interesting.
This person spent a few weekends in SF a decade ago and doesn't recognize their "once-beloved city".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't put SF in the great cities list. Maybe it had something back in the 80's or 90's - it's own charm or soul. But for the past 15 year's it's slowly turned into a soulless, charmless, no character city where everyone is in tech and thinks the same. I may be in the miniority on this site - but frankly I think it's sucked for a while now. I've had much better times in other big cities worldwide.
People move to a city because they want to be more like the people who already live there. But if too many move in too fast, the city instead becomes like them.
SF had an abundance of jobs that paid a boat load of money, and people moved there to take those jobs.
Not because it's close to Muir Woods and has the best weather in the world, and the people at cafes wear cool t-shirts (although nearly everyone who moves to SF tries their hardest to convince themselves this is the real reason, not the job and the money).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So the thing holding back California is that they don't get enough taxes? There must be something more nuanced i'm missing, but it almost feels like a comedy sketch thinking of a California college professor explaining to people that California not taxing it's citizens enough is the thing holding it back.
Hi, welcome to the conversation, I can tell this is the first time you've engaged with this topic, so I'd love to introduce you to the economic dynamics at play. When property taxes don't rise, people are disincentivized from selling their home because if they buy a new home they must pay property taxes at the new rate, not the grandfathered one. This creates a bottlenecked supply of housing because no one sells. Gro…
https://journal.firsttuesday.us/home-sales-volume-and-price-...
https://njar-public.stats.10kresearch.com/docs/lmu/x/EntireS...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So the thing holding back California is that they don't get enough taxes? There must be something more nuanced i'm missing, but it almost feels like a comedy sketch thinking of a California college professor explaining to people that California not taxing it's citizens enough is the thing holding it back.
The nuance is that with restrictions on property tax there is absolutely no disincentive for citizens to support local policies that restrict housing development. You are incentivized to keep the housing supply as low as you can possibly get it, because raising the price of your own property has zero downsides. This creates homelessness due to a restricted supply of housing.
You are absolutely correct that this is the problem. But the solution is not to disincentivize home ownership with a tax, it is to fix zoning itself. Homeowners will still have an incentive to restrict housing supply even with a tax.
However if you restricted the power of local zoning boards to tell people what they are allowed to build on their own land, then you would fix the housing crisis virtually overnight. There is a strong incentive for developers to build as densely as possible because they can make more money per acre, but the problem is that local zoning boards stop most development.
https://www.almanacnews.com/news/2023/02/01/atherton-guts-mo...
>The council removed multifamily housing plans that were met with ire by residents, and softened changes to a lot on Oakwood Boulevard in Golden State Warriors' star Steph Curry's neighborhood
^ that is just one of a million examples of what I'm talking about. This has been going on for decades and the housing crisis we have now is the result.
You're seeing this everywhere. Chicago, Philadelphia, and so on - although the problem may be worse in San Francisco. Cities are struggling in the post-pandemic era as the rising cost of living due to inflation in food and other essentials has driven more criminal activity, mostly around theft. This is happening at the same time where many cities are also trying more progressive, reform-based approaches to policing a…
This is a big assumption. Do you have anything that backs this up? I'd be incredibly surprised if the FED jacked up interest rates, the Federal government cut expenditures or increased taxes to curb inflation we'd see a large fall in crime.
You're seeing this everywhere. Chicago, Philadelphia, and so on - although the problem may be worse in San Francisco. Cities are struggling in the post-pandemic era as the rising cost of living due to inflation in food and other essentials has driven more criminal activity, mostly around theft. This is happening at the same time where many cities are also trying more progressive, reform-based approaches to policing a…
Wouldn't it make more sense and be potentially more cost effective if the focus was on giving people food and other essentials so they could survive without having to steal scooters? Police and prison are super expensive. You're going to be paying for the food, lodging and industrial grade military complex vs food, lodging and maybe some green spaces and public works projects.
It could well be that the only difference between the author and the people who "accept" crime is a few months. Is the author going to do anything about the problem other than restate it? If not, he might also shrug when someone arrives in town and states what everyone knows.
Instead the majority seem to believe that locking up criminals is not the best way to deal with crime. Instead there need to be social programs, community service, a focus on rehabilitation and reintegration into society rather than punishment.
The intentions are good but unfortunately these policies don't seem to be working. Criminals are quickly realizing there is very little repercussion for certain crimes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't put SF in the great cities list. Maybe it had something back in the 80's or 90's - it's own charm or soul. But for the past 15 year's it's slowly turned into a soulless, charmless, no character city where everyone is in tech and thinks the same. I may be in the miniority on this site - but frankly I think it's sucked for a while now. I've had much better times in other big cities worldwide.
People move to a city because they want to be more like the people who already live there. But if too many move in too fast, the city instead becomes like them.
> And yet, San Francisco, like other great cities worldwide, has its unique charm and a sense of elitist smugness, a conviction that living here is a coveted opportunity. As a fellow lover of big cities, I respect this attitude. That's quite introspective, and might explain a lot of the commentary on hacker news when urban/suburban/rural discussions come up.
I wouldn't put SF in the great cities list. Maybe it had something back in the 80's or 90's - it's own charm or soul. But for the past 15 year's it's slowly turned into a soulless, charmless, no character city where everyone is in tech and thinks the same. I may be in the miniority on this site - but frankly I think it's sucked for a while now. I've had much better times in other big cities worldwide.
I remember coming close to a decade ago when I'd be chastised for suggesting that SF is dumpy because there's human poop, bins overflowing with rotten food waste, large packs of rats, and junkies sniffing lines in broad daylight all over the place there, but today few here will deny this anymore.
I want to love SF, and I'm not just saying that. Yet, every time I visit, it's visibly worse and I often end up in some bizarre verbal altercation with a BART employee or resident of the streets. Los Angeles, the city where I live today, has its own issues, some of which dwarf that of SF, but not nearly as often do I arrive home at night with a story to tell. And somehow we manage to have less poop.
> And yet, San Francisco, like other great cities worldwide, has its unique charm and a sense of elitist smugness, a conviction that living here is a coveted opportunity. As a fellow lover of big cities, I respect this attitude. That's quite introspective, and might explain a lot of the commentary on hacker news when urban/suburban/rural discussions come up.
I wouldn't put SF in the great cities list. Maybe it had something back in the 80's or 90's - it's own charm or soul. But for the past 15 year's it's slowly turned into a soulless, charmless, no character city where everyone is in tech and thinks the same. I may be in the miniority on this site - but frankly I think it's sucked for a while now. I've had much better times in other big cities worldwide.