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Hotel Owners Start to Write Off San Francisco as Business Nosedives

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131–140 of 163 posts

Re: Hotel Owners Start to Write Off San Francisco as Business Nosedives

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have had authentic Tacos and I do love them and real Mexican food ... but there's something visceral, nostalgic, about Taco Bell. It was the first meal I can remember we ever had growing up that wasn't cooked at home (we never ate out, we always had home cooked food and then one day mom was just tired and we hit up the local TacoBell and I was hooked ever since). And then the only happy memory with my Dad was at a…

Perhaps you have a Dutch vacation coming soon! https://tacobell.nl/en/ I have similar fond memories of Taco Bell. The 59, 79, 99 cent menu sustained me as a teenager. As it turns out I am forming a BV and working on moving to Utrecht in the next few months. Ireland was good to me as well, but has not been a great place to raise kids.

Is a BV like an LLC or something? If you’re starting a company then all the best! I hope it works out!

Re: Hotel Owners Start to Write Off San Francisco as Business Nosedives

#132
I believe that SF hotel occupancy is down, but it's not for the typical reasons that are fanned around: there are numerous South San Francisco hotels that are MUCH cheaper, 15-20 minutes away, and have free shuttles to the airport (SFO).

A lot of these SSF hotels are new and close to a quite a few ex-SoMa tech companies now in Oyster Point.

Apropos of nothing, on a 3 day trip, I did see a man, minding his own business walking, get "ride-by" assaulted by a mentally ill bicyclist in the marina. I think this fits with what I'm hearing about not prosecuting that type of thing there. Other than that event, the areas in SF I saw seemed cleaner/safer than it was pre-covid.

Re: Hotel Owners Start to Write Off San Francisco as Business Nosedives

#133
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL that SF politicians created the COVID pandemic and drove the WFH policies that emptied out the business district. SF suffers from many of the same problems that other much-more-conservative cities suffer from, but you don’t hear about them as much because it doesn’t fit a narrative. I live in NYC, and visit SF often for work. I’m fascinated in the similarities and difference between the cities. For example, pre-p…

Do you have any citations to back up “SF is just as bad as X city?” I travel a lot as work out of a SF office. It really is a lot worse than say Los Angeles which is a high bar to cross. I think the biggest difference between SF and other cities is that SF supports criminals. Car break ins are not investigated. Shoplifting is legal. Drug use is effectively legal. Physical assault/robbery is effectively legal for some…

Looking at this table from 2019: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-...

SF has much more property crime than Los Angeles, but lower violent crime than Los Angeles (and most other big cities).

Re: Hotel Owners Start to Write Off San Francisco as Business Nosedives

#134
post #85

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Oh for goodness sake. He felt safer than when he was walking. Renting a car to drive a block and a half is just ridiculous - unless maybe he's displaying obvious signs of wealth? I stayed in the hilton union square in Feb and yes there are a lot of homeless people and addicts around but none of them even looked at me crossways

I don't know SF all that well personally, so I really can't say. I do know that where the person I know stayed was in the Mission District, which was (and still is) widely known to be among the more dangerous parts of San Francisco. I also know he was routinely coming and going at odd hours, 23:00 or later. I also know that he had a permit to carry a gun, which (at the time) was near impossible to get in California,…

People love the Mission, move there for the night life specifically. It's lively and fun at 11pm.

This person sounds like they have some mental issues.

Re: Hotel Owners Start to Write Off San Francisco as Business Nosedives

#135

Wolf Richter rips on this article pretty hard: https://wolfstreet.com/2023/06/12/ive-had-it-with-stupid-stu... > Park Hotels failed to pay off a $725 million interest-only non-recourse mortgage that matured last November. The mortgage was secured by two run-down mega-hotels in San Francisco, the 1,921-room Hilton San Francisco Union Square and the 1,024-room Parc 55 San Francisco. > Park Hotels only owns the properti…

The Hilton is absolutely run down. It's a very old building with some expensive decor inside. Walking in through an archaic vestibule and you see how dated it is. Look at the room photos in that link. The bathrooms have "granite" vanities but the floors and wall covering are so dated.

Even before COVID, other Bay Area cities have been building up convention space to compete with SF. SF hotels kept raising their prices and wonder where the customers are...

Re: Hotel Owners Start to Write Off San Francisco as Business Nosedives

#136
post #41

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.

Major US cities are mentioned almost daily in right wing media especially cable news. So there's a knee jerk reaction to repeat those talking points among people who want to be VCs or law enforcement.

Re: Hotel Owners Start to Write Off San Francisco as Business Nosedives

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not SROs! Hotels should be fully compensated at commercial rate! Maybe slight discount for long term stay could be negotiated. Even $500 per night would be cheaper than current policy!

You want taxpayers to pay $500 per night for homeless? I would be furious to be paying confiscatory taxes and have those taxes go to literally putting zombie drug addicts in hotels. Very unfair to those of us that work hard to pay all those taxes. Perhaps build work camps in the Mojave instead and ship them there. Start making intentional homelessness arduous and you’ll see less of it. Prosecute illegal drug dealing…

>You want taxpayers to pay $500 per night for homeless? I would be furious to be paying confiscatory taxes and have those taxes go to literally putting zombie drug addicts in hotels. If my memory is working they are paying about $60k a year per homeless person to address it now, which is $160+ per night now. Yes $500 is high, but the $165 is closing in on a "nice" hotel room per night now.

Re: Hotel Owners Start to Write Off San Francisco as Business Nosedives

#138
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived there for around 8 years, and specifically near City hall for around 6 of those. My neighborhood near City Hall became increasingly unsafe over time, and after witnessing a couple of incidents such as an unarmed robbery which resulted in a physical altercation with an employee at my local Walgreens, an accidental fire started in the encampment outside of my building which partially set fire to the building an…

The drugs are a nation wide issue though? I've seen videos of parts of Philadelphia full of people on fentanyl.

People also move from all cities to the suburbs all the time and have done so for generations. The complainers feels it's because their freedom is being taken away rather than just living where they're most comfortable.

Re: Hotel Owners Start to Write Off San Francisco as Business Nosedives

#139
post #92
post #35

Congrats to SF politicians (and people who voted for them) for ruining this city.

TIL that SF politicians created the COVID pandemic and drove the WFH policies that emptied out the business district. SF suffers from many of the same problems that other much-more-conservative cities suffer from, but you don’t hear about them as much because it doesn’t fit a narrative. I live in NYC, and visit SF often for work. I’m fascinated in the similarities and difference between the cities. For example, pre-p…

This is a really good point. Many people who want city life no longer need to be in the Bay Area and can live in NY. That does dampen street life and makes it less attractive for conventions or vacation.

SF was a place to cosplay city life for people who commuted into Silicon Valley. Recently the VC network seemed to claim it but that's by definition small numbers.

Re: Hotel Owners Start to Write Off San Francisco as Business Nosedives

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting accosted several homeless people in a short stretch feels unsafe, especially to the sort of out of towner who is not inured to it, in a way that driving does not. Both have a very low risk per unit of travel, but in the moment we have no way of qualitatively measuring that risk. I stayed in SF for a few nights, it was pretty shocking to me the amount of homeless people (euphemism creep: temporarily unhoused)…

Maybe instead of complaining about homeless people we should complain about how capitalism creates homelessness.

You’re right. For example in Soviet Russia – no one was homeless or unemployed, since everyone was guaranteed a place to live and a place to work. Granted, gulags did not have the most comfortable accommodations, and you had to work long hours for free to live there, and potentially could end up in a mass grave, BUT at least you didn’t have to be accountable for your decisions like in these pig capitalist societies.
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