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Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

sfgate.com

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Re: Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

#131

Post by five_alive »

ddevault wrote: post #125
martin_a wrote: post #103

Can someone very briefly wrap this whole "SF is broken"-situation up for somebody from Europe? I only ever read that it's "because of the policies" and there are lots of rather disturbing videos about SF making its rounds on YouTube. But what exactly happened? Did they just remove all the police? Did they gave out free drugs to everybody? I'm not interested in blaming political parties, I just want to get a quick gra…

Many of the other comments are missing the point. It's ultimately because there are a lot of desperate people in SF. The bay area has the highest homelessness incidence in the country. Mental health services are poor to non-existent. The city is full of people with no options, no healthcare, and no support system. We could criminalize homelessness even more, and brutalize the desperate with more police interventions,…

You’re putting a lot of stock into SF’s failures, but keep in mind that other cities ship their homeless to SF, and as a result, SF gets a disproportionate share of homeless.

Re: Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

#132

Post by patife »

martin_a wrote: post #103

Can someone very briefly wrap this whole "SF is broken"-situation up for somebody from Europe? I only ever read that it's "because of the policies" and there are lots of rather disturbing videos about SF making its rounds on YouTube. But what exactly happened? Did they just remove all the police? Did they gave out free drugs to everybody? I'm not interested in blaming political parties, I just want to get a quick gra…

I see a lot of comments about how it’s gotten terrible recently etc.

I’m not from the US, but I’ve been to SF a number on times (>5). The first time was in 2006 for apple WWDC, as a student, and back then I already witnessed a number of people wandering in the streets, mostly passed out or wandering, but I also saw peopoe shouting at the air, and defecating and throwing stuff.

At the time I was told this was a legacy from the post-Vietnam era, where many veterans flocked there due to the dem leaning of the city which provided an expectation of help, and also mostly the nice weather, but ultimately they did not get support.

From that point on things developed. Veterans from other wars, and then generally any people with life issues, were attracted to that location which fits their unfortunate, crazy situation - drugs, a barebones support network that provides food (?), and the fact no one bothers them anymore..

At least that’s what I was told.

In recent years I’ve noticed more of the situation, but tbh nothing that surprises me from the earlier observations. I didn’t see ANY numbers so that may or may not be the case.

I am interested in someone validating or correcting my perception

Re: Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

#133

Post by ryan_lane »

tomandrews88 wrote: post #100

Funny how people try so hard to show/prove/argue that SF is safe. If it was, these discussions wouldn’t exist. You won’t see these threads about Zurich, just saying.

You're seeing this story because it's about someone related to the tech industry, specifically someone like you.

The murder rate in SF is extremely low. Violent crime as a whole is extremely low.

If a tech founder got stabbed in Zurich, you would indeed see a story just like this.

Re: Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

#134

Post by [deleted] »

martin_a wrote: post #103

Can someone very briefly wrap this whole "SF is broken"-situation up for somebody from Europe? I only ever read that it's "because of the policies" and there are lots of rather disturbing videos about SF making its rounds on YouTube. But what exactly happened? Did they just remove all the police? Did they gave out free drugs to everybody? I'm not interested in blaming political parties, I just want to get a quick gra…

[deleted]

Re: Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

#135

Post by RGamma »

ronanyeah wrote: post #126

Americans clearly have very low expectations for their standard of living. As demonstrated by the amount of insane 'actually the murder rate isn't that bad' comments in this thread.

The decades of internal and self-violence are quickly forgotten when something happens to a tech bro. I simply can't take that country seriously anymore...

Re: Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

#136

Post by subsistence234 »

ddevault wrote: post #125
martin_a wrote: post #103

Can someone very briefly wrap this whole "SF is broken"-situation up for somebody from Europe? I only ever read that it's "because of the policies" and there are lots of rather disturbing videos about SF making its rounds on YouTube. But what exactly happened? Did they just remove all the police? Did they gave out free drugs to everybody? I'm not interested in blaming political parties, I just want to get a quick gra…

Many of the other comments are missing the point. It's ultimately because there are a lot of desperate people in SF. The bay area has the highest homelessness incidence in the country. Mental health services are poor to non-existent. The city is full of people with no options, no healthcare, and no support system. We could criminalize homelessness even more, and brutalize the desperate with more police interventions,…

In addition to the year-round mild climate, SF's local laws (and enforcement or lack thereof, e.g. legalizing theft of less than $1000 or intentionally spreading HIV) attracts desperate people, as well as people who simply enjoy the lifestyle, from all over the US, by rewarding them for doing what they do.

Basic "supply and demand" also applies to crime, playground needles and sidewalk turds: if you lower the "price" (punishment) at constant demand (people who want to steal or shoot up in public), the supply increases.

Re: Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

#137

Post by inferiorhuman »

rainy59 wrote: post #112
martin_a wrote: post #103

Can someone very briefly wrap this whole "SF is broken"-situation up for somebody from Europe? I only ever read that it's "because of the policies" and there are lots of rather disturbing videos about SF making its rounds on YouTube. But what exactly happened? Did they just remove all the police? Did they gave out free drugs to everybody? I'm not interested in blaming political parties, I just want to get a quick gra…

In fairness, downtown SF SJ and Oakland were always a tad dicey even back in dot com days so most startups preferred to be in more expensive PA MV Even East PA was the hood. Oakland was famous for riots SF governance has always been terrible. Real estate has gotten so expensive that startups anxious to conserve runway are pushing deeper into bad neighborhoods that were once unthinkable

East Palo Alto is a separate city, in a different county, from Palo Alto.

Re: Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

#139

Post by Rob_Middleton84 »

martin_a wrote: post #103

Can someone very briefly wrap this whole "SF is broken"-situation up for somebody from Europe? I only ever read that it's "because of the policies" and there are lots of rather disturbing videos about SF making its rounds on YouTube. But what exactly happened? Did they just remove all the police? Did they gave out free drugs to everybody? I'm not interested in blaming political parties, I just want to get a quick gra…

As a UK resident, I asked this very same question the other day on Twitter. I didn't get a reply. I'd be interested to hear a precis too

Re: Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

#140

Post by Hoyadonis »

threatofrain wrote: post #115
martin_a wrote: post #103

Can someone very briefly wrap this whole "SF is broken"-situation up for somebody from Europe? I only ever read that it's "because of the policies" and there are lots of rather disturbing videos about SF making its rounds on YouTube. But what exactly happened? Did they just remove all the police? Did they gave out free drugs to everybody? I'm not interested in blaming political parties, I just want to get a quick gra…

SF homicide rate is close to the national average.

That strikes me as a cherry-picked statistic. San Francisco is one of the most crime-ridden cities in America.

> San Franciscans face about a 1-in-16 chance each year of being a victim of property or violent crime, which makes the city more dangerous than 98 percent of US cities, both small and large.

https://www.hoover.org/research/why-san-francisco-nearly-mos...

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