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The Tech Community Must Invest More In San Francisco

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Re: The Tech Community Must Invest More In San Francisco

#51

Post by seanmcdirmid »

LordHumungous wrote: post #50
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The techies like SF's culture more than NYC's. Maybe they actually like a city run eclectically vs. the stod and boring north east style. I've never noticed anything very disfunctional about SF: the police seem to work out, the public transportation seems to work out, there is a homeless problem but not an entirely huge one, tourists seem to be safe, the city has great parks. Maybe you just don't like Californian lib…

http://www.sfweekly.com/2009-12-16/news/the-worst-run-big-ci...

Nothing in that article harks at serious disfunctions that would cause me to avoid living there.

I would rather live in San Francisco than anywhere in Idaho (despite Idaho being a nice place to visit). Or any city in the south for that matter.

Re: The Tech Community Must Invest More In San Francisco

#52

Post by seanmcdirmid »

jcnnghm wrote: post #30
newnewnew wrote: post #29

San Francisco needs an income tax. So many people enjoy the benefits of living in SF but pay little for its upkeep.

San Francisco has double the budget of some states for 600,000 people, do you really think money is the problem? 40% of the city revenue goes to non-profits as it is. The problems the city has is due entirely to mismanagement, incompetence, and a misguided do-gooder populace.

Comparing SF to Wyoming...why its like comparing England to Uganda.

Re: The Tech Community Must Invest More In San Francisco

#53

Post by rayiner »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #51
LordHumungous wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.sfweekly.com/2009-12-16/news/the-worst-run-big-ci...

Nothing in that article harks at serious disfunctions that would cause me to avoid living there. I would rather live in San Francisco than anywhere in Idaho (despite Idaho being a nice place to visit). Or any city in the south for that matter.

The article isn't about wanting to live there or not. That's largely a function of things that have little to do with the city government (climate, night life, etc). The article urges tech companies to invest in San Francisco, and the issues raised in the article are totally relevant to evaluating why they might not want to. Who wants to pour money into a city that is so badly mismanaged?

Re: The Tech Community Must Invest More In San Francisco

#54

Post by aidenn0 »

protomyth wrote: post #5

I am a little confused, not living in SF (visited once by accident in the 80's). If I read this right, most of the tech companies are not in SF, but the employees really like to live in SF. So, the tech companies bus their people on exclusive transportation to the tech company. Is part of the problem that the suburbs (that I would imagine benefit tax-wise) are not doing a good job at being an attractive place to live…

I've visited SV a few times and the impression I got is that a lot of it is all of the worst parts of suburbia turned up to 11. Lots of strip-malls, largely unwalkable and concrete as far as the eye can see.

That's not all of SV, but quite a bit of it.

Re: The Tech Community Must Invest More In San Francisco

#55

Post by simoncion »

pnathan wrote: post #48
simoncion wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that the beggars were aggressive. Does this mean that they asked everyone for change, and even asked you whenever they saw you, or does it mean that they would touch you and/or get in your face and speak violently to you? If the latter, I'm terribly sorry for your bad experience. I've been living here for nearly three years now and hope that you find some comfort in the knowledge that your experience was a ra…

They were... I guess the word is rude? Hustling with an edge? A sort of enterpenurial, even. This is not common in my experience with beggars. No violence, mind you. Just real pushy to close their deal. I'm glad to hear that the meals organizations are effective. There were so many homeless. :-/

Honestly, there are so many homeless in the city in part because of the "effectiveness" of the various homeless outreach programs. (Don't get me wrong. I'm very glad that there are very few people in the city that go unfed or unclothed.)

Re: The Tech Community Must Invest More In San Francisco

#56

Post by simoncion »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #47
simoncion wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that the beggars were aggressive. Does this mean that they asked everyone for change, and even asked you whenever they saw you, or does it mean that they would touch you and/or get in your face and speak violently to you? If the latter, I'm terribly sorry for your bad experience. I've been living here for nearly three years now and hope that you find some comfort in the knowledge that your experience was a ra…

They are panhandling for drug/alcohol money probably, given that food is not that hard to come by. The same is true in almost any big city, though. Aggressive panhandling to me is having little kids grab onto my legs and try to drag me. That only happens to me in non-developed countries.

Some are very likely panhandling for drug money. Others are probably panhandling for better food than they can find from the outreach shelters. (I've seen many folks in this coffee shop that I frequent from the nearby homeless shelter.)

I would be supremely unhappy if some little kid latched on to my leg and tried to drag me. How is one supposed to handle that sort of situation?

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