Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Downtown S.F. on the brink: It’s worse than it looks

sfchronicle.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 272 posts

Re: Downtown S.F. on the brink: It’s worse than it looks

#191

Post by ctvo »

mertd wrote: post #145
burlesona wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prop 13 ensures that once you’ve bought in you feel no more pain from the housing crisis, and thus most Californian voters would have to vote against their own individual self-interest to do anything positive on housing, which just won’t happen. By contrast, in Texas there is no income tax but high property tax, and as prices have shot up recently most homeowners have reason to be worried about it and to vote to take…

I stand to benefit from Prop 13; yet I would vote against Prop 13 without a second thought. It is causing enormous and unjust human suffering. People vote against their self interest all the time, if you convince them that it is for the greater good.

A system that requires self sacrifice isn’t ideal, especially in a heterogeneous society like the US where cohesiveness is lower than say … Japan.

Crafting the message, targeting the various groups, etc. Yes, there are folks like you who may do it, but convincing the majority is an uphill battle.

Re: Downtown S.F. on the brink: It’s worse than it looks

#192

Post by epistasis »

0xFACEFEED wrote: post #182
mertd wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stand to benefit from Prop 13; yet I would vote against Prop 13 without a second thought. It is causing enormous and unjust human suffering. People vote against their self interest all the time, if you convince them that it is for the greater good.

Would voting against Prop 13 result in you having to sell your home/condo? I've wondered this myself and if I'm perfectly honest... I'm not so sure. Voting against my self interest when all it does is affect my bank balance? No problem. But if it forces my kid to change neighborhoods (and therefore schools) while giving up a home I plan to retire in... that's harder.

It's hard to imagine a situation where property values rise would kick me out of my home, were Prop 13 repealed. If the home is going up massive in value, a 1-2% tax on the value of the home is dwarfed by the increase in property value. Refi or whatever to take care of it. The tax portion of a mortgage isn't that big anyway.

And if property values are rising so quickly that I even notice an increase in the property tax, then every single renter is completely screwed by comparison.

The only way that property value increases could cause somebody to lose their house is if they are completely financially incompetent, as far as I can see.

Re: Downtown S.F. on the brink: It’s worse than it looks

#193

Post by _-david-_ »

piperswe wrote: post #141
Overtonwindow wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started to think that, but actually the last section of the article, is about crime. I think it’s quite weak however, crime is in my humble opinion the very central reason for the decline of downtown San Francisco.

Why do you say that? May 2022 had 14.9% less crime than May 2021 according to SFPD: https://public.tableau.com/shared/HP3P97STJ?:display_count=n... Source for that Tableau dash: https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/stay-safe/crime-data/crim...

It had 14.9% less reported crime, not necessarily less crime. San Francisco also had a decline in population so dropping crime numbers makes sense.

Re: Downtown S.F. on the brink: It’s worse than it looks

#194

Post by jhbadger »

bscphil wrote: post #157
trashface wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In-office work can make a comeback. All big tech has to do is tell new college grads "you have to work in our office." They will agree. After a few years and all the remote workers are sidelined and not important.

This strikes me as a very strange take. Isn't it like saying "The 6 day workweek can make a comeback. All employers have to do is..." The issue is that once a particular practice in relations between capital and labor becomes ingrained, conditions of competition make it very difficult to shift the balance. You would effectively have to have a non-competition agreement between big tech companies over this clause, beca…

Not really. It's kind of what eroded the power of US industrial unions. In the 1970s many companies started hiring (with the grudging acceptance of the unions if their existing members got to keep their benefits) new workers with less benefits and less job security than previous workers. Within a generation the expectations for health plans, retirement, and paid vacations were reduced and the new workers if anything resented the older workers rather than their employers.

Re: Downtown S.F. on the brink: It’s worse than it looks

#195

Post by xboxnolifes »

piperswe wrote: post #141
Overtonwindow wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started to think that, but actually the last section of the article, is about crime. I think it’s quite weak however, crime is in my humble opinion the very central reason for the decline of downtown San Francisco.

Why do you say that? May 2022 had 14.9% less crime than May 2021 according to SFPD: https://public.tableau.com/shared/HP3P97STJ?:display_count=n... Source for that Tableau dash: https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/stay-safe/crime-data/crim...

Why are we cherry picking a single month? Every other month this year has seen ~25% increase in theft over the previous year.

Re: Downtown S.F. on the brink: It’s worse than it looks

#196

Post by jinto36 »

mgsouth wrote: post #92
greggman3 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I don't know what it would take to retrofit but don't NYC and LA have lots of old office buildings turned into tready lofts? The Financial District and especiallyunion square area could be amazing if it was zoned for residential with commercial on the first floor. Parts of it could easily rival some of the nicer neighborhoods in Europe. For the larger buildings, make every 6th floor a shared space, put a res…

The site seems to have a very odd sprinkling of English headings and words. Not enough for a non-Japanese reader, and no visible option to switch to an English version of the pages, so clearly targeted Japanese-only. Is this common?

Yes- very, particularly in advertising, presumably because it stands out. The longer answer is that Japanese has a few different writing systems, and one of those is already used most often for transliterated "loanwords" that came from other languages. There are a ton of English words that get written in katakana and are used quite frequently, like hamburger (ハンバーガー) and premium (プレミアム). For some of the English words that are likely to be the most well-known, it's not a crazy step to use the latin character set instead to write them, for extra emphasis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gairaigo_and_wasei-eig...

Re: Downtown S.F. on the brink: It’s worse than it looks

#197

Post by ironmagma »

jeffbee wrote: post #162
ironmagma wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corrupt DPW that accomplishes fuck-all, for one. Subsidizing car ownership and driving in general. Rent control is arguably unsustainable as well. Don’t forget paying people to be homeless and shoot up in the BART station. Allowing people to get on BART without paying. Anyone else who has lived in the area could probably think of half a dozen more.

"Allowing people to get on BART without paying" is probably San Francisco's least important problem, as compliance with BART fares is > 99% among BART riders, which puts it above the federal income tax (~85%) and far ahead of parking meters ( Also FYI BART is not a city agency and it has its own police force.

> BART says that fare evaders are costing the agency as much as $25 million a year

https://www.kron4.com/news/thousands-cited-for-evading-bart-...

To say that it’s the least important problem ignores a pretty wide swath of ostensibly less significant problems (cigarette misuse near buildings, litter, speeding, unlicensed drivers, unlicensed panhandlers, take your pick). I’m going to need a citation on that claim.

Re: Downtown S.F. on the brink: It’s worse than it looks

#198

Post by [deleted] »

julianeon wrote: post #24

I live in SF & read these articles, which all have a tone of “What is to be done?” They seem reluctant to draw unpopular conclusions, even if those conclusions are inevitable. So here, I’ll tell you what’s going to happen. Downtown as a healthy fully occupied business district is dead. Cause of death: remote work. You can wait 50 years if you want and see if it comes back, but it never will; there’s no going back. Yo…

[deleted]

Re: Downtown S.F. on the brink: It’s worse than it looks

#199

Post by jeffbee »

ironmagma wrote: post #197
jeffbee wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Allowing people to get on BART without paying" is probably San Francisco's least important problem, as compliance with BART fares is > 99% among BART riders, which puts it above the federal income tax (~85%) and far ahead of parking meters ( Also FYI BART is not a city agency and it has its own police force.

> BART says that fare evaders are costing the agency as much as $25 million a year https://www.kron4.com/news/thousands-cited-for-evading-bart-... To say that it’s the least important problem ignores a pretty wide swath of ostensibly less significant problems (cigarette misuse near buildings, litter, speeding, unlicensed drivers, unlicensed panhandlers, take your pick). I’m going to need a citation on that claim.

BART collected half a billion dollars in fares in 2019 so again, it has way higher compliance with the user fee scheme than other competing services like street parking and bridge tolls and vehicle license fees.

Re: Downtown S.F. on the brink: It’s worse than it looks

#200

Post by infamouscow »

mbgerring wrote: post #184
infamouscow wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chesa Boudin lost his recall election unopposed. That's pretty damning evidence crime is bad and the people are right to dismiss strawman arguments as deranged nonsense.

> unopposed Do you know what “recall” means

Chesa Boudin lost his recall election unopposed.

> If a majority of the votes on a recall proposal are “Yes,” the officer is removed and, if there is a candidate, the candidate who receives the highest number of votes is the successor to the unexpired term of the recalled officer.

(Cal. Const., Art. II, Sec. 15; Elections Code §§ 11381(c), 11384, 11385)

https://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/recalls/recall-procedures-g...

Post reply on HN