So what's really going on in San Francisco?

[hueymahl]

Any residents have first hand experience? Is the media blowing it out of oroportion re drugs, crime, etc?

[kimbutgar]

1. I just read an awful Vanity Fair article about how California is doomed and SF is the worst

Life long citizen of San Francisco. The city has gone though many ups and downs in my lifetime. I remember downtown market street being kind of crummy, then it got better and the pandemic hurt it again. There is crime and one has to be vigilant the biggest crime victims are those walking around with their noses buried in their cell phones and they experience assaults and robberies. We do have a drug problem is certain parts of the city but most of the regular neighborhoods are ok. I remember as a kid Haight Ashbury was kind of rough in the 60’s and a lot of druggies on the streets as well.

That said, I think the pandemic did a lot damage to all states and major cities not just SF.

[Mr.Bill]

2. I think the police chief summed it up

pretty well (regarding crime, particularly cell phone grab and run) at a recent press conference. He said if you are in an area where you would not openly hold a handful of hundred dollar bills while counting them, then don't walk through that area with your cell phone in your hand, because it's pretty much the same thing.

I have never lived in San Francisco, but I've lived in proximity of it for 60 years. I go there still for baseball games, and to see live music in night clubs etc. I don't go to the tenderloin or other sketchy neighborhoods. I haven't been there since the pandemic happened, but in my numerous visits there, I have never seen shit on the sidewalk, I have never been mugged, I have never had my car broken into, I have never seen anyone sticking a needle in their arm, etc. I have no doubt these things take place, but I also have no doubt they happen in every big city in the country if one knows where to look for it.

This chance that Ron DeSantis saw all of these things within 20 minutes of arriving there, as he said, are slim to none and slim just left town.

The last large influx of homeless people there was known as the Summer of Love. I observed that, too.

[usonian]

3. Not a resident, but I worked in SF and keep up with it at a distance.

Like every city, SF is evolving with the times. It changed pretty radically when Silicon Valley overflowed into its streets and buildings, and that tide has turned.

The tech wave (both ebb and flow) and covid have greatly exaggerated SF's problems.

AND, given that SF has always been at the leading edge of social change, it's the target of choice for RW'ers.

Nobody is immune to problems. Some just get more pub.

It’s not only NY, LA, San Francisco. Retail crime has hit a bustling Kansas metropolis
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/02/business/organized-retail-crime-wichita-kansas/index.html

New York
CNN
—
A local Victoria’s Secret lost $30,000 a month to theft, authorities say. The Cabela’s has reportedly lost more merchandise than any other in the nation. They’re not in San Francisco, Chicago or New York, the way some might assume. They’re in Wichita, Kansas.

A pattern of store thefts - not just one-off petty shoplifting incidents, but more serious planned and brazen heists from pricey luxuries to everyday products – has retailers on edge across the country. In some cities like San Francisco, retailers are closing up shop, pointing the finger at crime.

But it’s not just big coastal cities grappling with the problem. In America’s Midwest, a bustling, mid-sized metropolis, known for its rich entrepreneurial heritage as home to both Pizza Hut and The Coleman Co. is also wrestling with the gravity and pervasiveness of retail theft.

Republican Kris Kobach, Kansas’ attorney general, said retail crime is a “spiraling problem” in his state, adding that Kansas and Missouri are among the top 10 states in the nation for volume of retail crime. Kansas lost approximately $642 million in stolen goods in 2021, he said.

Are "Libs" responsible for crime? Not really.
Big cities, SF in particular, are just leading-edge.

But as they say in the dogsled business:
"Only the lead dog gets a change of scenery"

[HeartachesNhangovers]

4. Don't take anyone else's word for it. Go there and see for yourself.

I was in SF daily for 26 years until I retired. I visited a couple of months ago. But everyone sees it differently.

[Retrograde]

5. Western part of the city seems

to be the same as it ever was. Haven't been downtown since the start of the pandemic (noted that some of my favorite restaurants are now out of business), but the Sunset seems to be its usual low-key self.

[IbogaProject]

6. Red controlled cities are worse

These things are all worse in Miami, with maybe the cops arrest more aggressively. Miami actually has a map of where there is human excrement so you can try and avoid it.

[hunter]

7. Somebody hopes to profit from the chaos, real or perceived.

I've been a frequent visitor to The City all my adult life, to neighborhoods wealthy and neighborhoods very rough. I'm not seeing any exceptional changes. Displaced people have always sloshed around the city, as is typical for every U.S. city where the police don't overtly exclude them. (I grew up in a city that was 99% white and affluent and kept that way by police harassment and informal, but still unlawful, redlining, etc.. )

I wouldn't be at all surprised if a few billionaires are colluding for some churn-and-burn redevelopment opportunities. They do own much of the media and tell us stories they want us to believe.