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San Francisco’s Slow-Motion Suicide

nationalreview.com

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Re: San Francisco’s Slow-Motion Suicide

#41

Post by tvanantwerp »

leesalminen wrote: post #15
jostmey wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t even want to visit San Francisco anymore. Why would the writers want to? I’m making a point about how bad it’s become in San Francisco relative to the rest of the US

My partner and I visited SF last summer and were fairly shocked with all the homelessness, drug use on the streets and human feces scattered about. We won’t be back.

My wife and I had the same experience. As an east coast programmer, I was curious about what it would be like in SF and arrange a vacation to see it for myself. We spent a week there, and both decided that we never ever wanted to move to a place like that. Nothing looked clean (certainly nowhere smelled clean) nor inviting. It would've been a considerable decline in our quality of living to move there.

Re: San Francisco’s Slow-Motion Suicide

#42

Post by minikites »

typon wrote: post #25
dawhizkid wrote: post #10

Having lived in SF for a number of years now, I 100% agree that SF is just dystopian as hell. Trash everywhere downtown, human feces/needles/smell of urine all over downtown & SOMA, depressing mix of aggressive and zombie-like homeless, very few kids/families, very few minorities (especially African-Americans), barely functioning public transportation system, high rents forcing six-figure earners to live with 2 roomm…

The utopia created by hackers on this very site

Every action is political and ignoring that reality is how many of these problems are created in the first place. This is why many tech workers "hate politics", they hate having to be responsible for their actions.

Re: San Francisco’s Slow-Motion Suicide

#43

Post by floatingatoll »

cobbzilla wrote: post #3

“Up and down the city’s disorienting hills, you notice homeless men and women — junkies, winos, the dispossessed...“ Did the author ever actually walk in SF? The homeless mostly stay in the flats, the hills are fine (and higher rent of course).

I lived in SF for several years. The decline described was already a thing in 2005, and has been steadily worsening since. The flats are where businesses are, so doing business in the city means facing the despair of its homeless precisely as described. To quote the article about Florida and ocean level rise, it doesn’t matter how high you lift your house up above the water line if there’s nowhere left for you to go when you leave it.

Re: San Francisco’s Slow-Motion Suicide

#44

Post by api »

atom-morgan wrote: post #22
dawhizkid wrote: post #10

Having lived in SF for a number of years now, I 100% agree that SF is just dystopian as hell. Trash everywhere downtown, human feces/needles/smell of urine all over downtown & SOMA, depressing mix of aggressive and zombie-like homeless, very few kids/families, very few minorities (especially African-Americans), barely functioning public transportation system, high rents forcing six-figure earners to live with 2 roomm…

How is it that so much aggressive political rhetoric related to race and the tech industry is coming from this area if there are very few African Americans there in the first place? I live in Atlanta where the minority population is much higher all around and I don't get the sense at all that there's rampant racism or discrimination. Is this problem unique to the Bay Area or is this largely white guilt?

[flagged]

Re: San Francisco’s Slow-Motion Suicide

#45

Post by redm »

Although a bit overdramatic at times, there is so much truth on this article. I wish i could do more than upvote it.

“Crowded thoroughfares such as Market Street, even in the light of midday, stage a carnival of indecipherable outbursts and drug-induced thrashings about which the police seem to do nothing.”

This really touched me because the police in SF, if you ever see one, look disinterested at best.

Re: San Francisco’s Slow-Motion Suicide

#46

Post by Finnucane »

api wrote: post #28
AFascistWorld wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you heard of Boston subway's daily breakdowns?

Sorry I ninja edited with a better thesis. :P Yes I used to live there. The subway system in Boston and NYC is very badly run, but the city as a whole at least for Boston isn't bad. They do a better job with urban planning at least.

It is a conundrum that most American cities do not really support their public transit systems very well, and yet they seem to desire the kind of urban organization that basically requires a well-run transit system.

Re: San Francisco’s Slow-Motion Suicide

#47

Post by bluejekyll »

nkingsy wrote: post #30

The author draws a very unsubtle if not direct line between housing costs and homelessness. Is there any? I was under the impression that most of the homeless are mentally ill and/or transplants from other areas. What percent of them just can't afford the rent?

This is a popular myth.

https://www.sftu.org/2018/06/five-myths-about-the-homeless-p...

According to that, 71% of people on the streets of SF used to be homed, and aren’t on the streets due to drugs.

Re: San Francisco’s Slow-Motion Suicide

#48

Post by jseliger »

dev_dull wrote: post #34
szbalint wrote: post #24

It's weird that technology oriented people see code/IT in terms of infrastructure, but too little from a city as such. I'm living in Vienna, Austria which is a city consistently rated to be in the top 5 most livable cities by multiple independent evaluations. How did that happen? A strong sense of ownership and infrastructure thinking over a _century_. Just to mention the obvious, property prices do not exist in a va…

Cities like SF have a strong survival bias. People who disagreed, tried to change things, etc are leaving or already left. Over time you end up with a place that’s broken and a group of people who want it that way.

It's like watching Exit, Voice, and Loyalty play out in real time: https://www.amazon.com/Exit-Voice-Loyalty-Responses-Organiza...
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