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I was there some 4 years ago, and I met some homeless folks for sure, but the city was nice.
They're already written off SF decades ago, has no one ever stayed at the Whitcomb?! SF has some of the worst hotels I've seen anywhere. So much hasn't been updated for decades and it definitely shows.
Town hall should house homeless in hotels as NYC and UK does. It would solve two problems and boost local economy!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's going to be interesting with the new ordinance to outlaw camping from dawn to sundown. If you camp during those hours, you face jail time. The theory is probably that this will separate hard core drug users from homeless people who aren't willing to go into a shelter. That'll be an interesting experiment.
A cruel experiment that will neither relieve suffering nor address its cause. America is insane.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's going to be interesting with the new ordinance to outlaw camping from dawn to sundown. If you camp during those hours, you face jail time. The theory is probably that this will separate hard core drug users from homeless people who aren't willing to go into a shelter. That'll be an interesting experiment.
A cruel experiment that will neither relieve suffering nor address its cause. America is insane.
People need support. This support requires funding. This funding comes from taxes, which requires business operations and such. Business operations are impacted by perceptions of safety and cleanliness, which also requires funding and scales with the number of people who need support.
Has San Francisco become that bad? My father lives in the city, but I've never heard him complain about the state of things.
IDK about living there, it's been ~6-7yrs since I last did, but San Francisco can be quite shocking to tourists/new arrivals (this article is about hotel stays which is a combo of tourists and business travelers). I remember feeling that when I first visited and the first thing I saw coming out of BART from the Airport was someone openly pissing next to the subway entrance, which contrasted weirdly with the beautiful…
> It's not like being a tourist/visitor in Manhattan
On this same trip some 2 weeks later I arrived in NYC, got to Jamaica Station from JFK to catch the metro, going upstairs on the elevators I take a round for the next flight of escalators and there's someone squatting close to the railing, taking a shit, naked, right there while dozens of people are passing by. Later in Manhattan I'm staying in Hell's Kitchen, very close to PABT, a guy tries to mug me when I'm going to a 7-11, I get away from the attempt just to get to a corner store and see a fight breaking out...
Just giving some anecdotes of just one of the trips I made to the USA, I had many other odd encounters during other trips, I have never experienced much of that (apart from the mugging when I still lived in Brazil) in other parts of the world I've lived at or traveled to.
Forgive my redundant point being repeated from a few days ago: Park Hotels borrowed $725MM interest only and bought property. They haven't been building equity. I believe these mortgages are non-recourse (at worst they can foreclose, not go after you for any extra money). If the property is worth less than the note, there is no reason not to send in the keys. I've seen the same news in the past couple of months in ot…
> They haven't been building equity. Per the docs, yes. But any capital improvements made are building equity and would affect the LTV of the loan when it comes time to refinance (or default).
Then refinance and-or sell.
Has San Francisco become that bad? My father lives in the city, but I've never heard him complain about the state of things.
What does “that bad” even mean? Like in some kind of relative sense, people still live there and go about their lives. Some of the things that made it a popular and pleasant city are intact. In an absolute sense, if you were to compare SF with Zurich, you would conclude that it’s a lawless mad max anarchy.
Is this the Bay Area population of HN expressing their frustration that there are many homeless people in SF? These posts come up from time to time. I was there some 4 years ago, and I met some homeless folks for sure, but the city was nice.
Congrats to SF politicians (and people who voted for them) for ruining this city.
I think it's a hard problem to solve.
AFAICT, it's a topic where different political ideologies suggest very different (and largely incompatible) solutions.