5 ms·
This is what happens when a city neglects basic quality of life issues, and allows petty crime to thrive. It happened to New York in the 1970's and took roughly
by tharne 6y ago
This is what happens when a city neglects basic quality of life issues, and allows petty crime to thrive. It happened to New York in the 1970's and took roughly three decades to recover from. Good luck, San Francisco.
- shuckles 6y agoI don't think New York in the 70s can be explained by its own governance alone, so I object to your characterization of New York in the 70s being the result of its own failings. The state and federal governments basically abandoned the place ("Ford to City: Drop Dead"), and something similar is happening to San Francisco as well. What a loss for the country, as the next Silicon Valley, if there is one, likely won't be in the United States.
- throwaway0a5e 6y agoBecoming so hated that people want you to fail is arguably "the result of its own failings" regardless of whether the subject is NYC then or SF now.
- shuckles 6y agoThe urban vs. rural culture war in politics has little to do with inherent value and everything to do with resource allocation in an government system that allocates highly leveraged influence to the individuals on one side.
- throwaway0a5e 6y agoThis isn't about urban vs rural. Thinking SV is such a joke it must be run by clowns is one of the (few, but these kinds of people have more in common than you'd think) things that inner city types and people from the panhandle of any state that has a panhandle have in common.
- shuckles 6y agoComments like this make me wonder if the end of SV meme is some kind of psyops campaign.
- tharne 6y agoIt's not. It really is just that disconnected from the everyday realities of the rest of the country.
- shuckles 6y agoSilicon Valley has a single major drawback, cost of living, which is downstream of land use and transportation policy that’s virtually identical throughout the country. Basically every large and growing metropolitan area in the nation sees the same relative price trends. Famous low cost alt-SV Austin has seen its Case-Schiller index move within 15% of San Jose. To argue that its governance is especially backwards or selfish and, thus, deserving of failure is to indict the entire nation.
- throwdour 6y agoI think many people prefer petty crime to tech elites. With the upward pressure on rents over the last 10 years, even having your bike stolen every few weeks is cheaper than getting evicted and/or having to find a market rate dwelling. Of course, it's better to have neither exploding costs nor petty crime, but at the end of the day, dealing with petty crime is more affordable. EDIT: Getting downvoted to oblivion but I'm not wrong. https://sf.curbed.com/2019/12/12/21001080/san-francisco-sf-rent-prices-end-decade-2010s https://sf.curbed.com/2019/12/12/21001080/san-francisco-sf-r... "In 2010, a two-bedroom SF apartment on Craigslist averaged $2,893 (per historic data compiled in 2016 by Eric Fischer), or $3,396 after inflation. At the end of 2019, similar units on the same site sit at a median of $4,300, up 26.6 percent." It would have taken a lot of petty crime to amount to that $12K per year in inflation-adjusted (i.e. real) increase.
- seibelj 6y agoGuy drives past in a lambo vs. screaming person pooping on sidewalk after shooting up. It’s a tough call!
- throwdour 6y agoMaybe it is a tough call, because the guy shitting on the sidewalk isn't living in your previous apartment at twice the price.
- shuckles 6y agoRich people don't want to live in your 100 year old apartment with 50 year old finishes. Unfortunately, in San Francisco, they don't have any other choice.
- throwdour 6y agoThat, I agree with. San Francisco should have built more housing to accommodate the growth. Though if people are leaving already, I can also see why developers might have been reluctant to bet too big on new construction.
- pvarangot 6y agoThat's a San Francisco issue, the South Bay is doing much better in that regard.
- standardUser 6y agoIt's not just SF, it's the region and it's inability/refusal to act like a cohesive region. But SF has certainly suffered the most.
- abeppu 6y ago5 Bay Area counties coordinated in going into lockdown earlier than the state required. Sometimes we do act like a region.
- pmalynin 6y agoYea....except for how many decades have we struggled to build Bart into Menlo Park and south?
- abeppu 6y agoI get it. I would settle for a smooth timed transfer between Bart and Caltrain at Millbrae. In some ways, the exceptional cases where we do act more like a coordinated unit make the normal cases more exasperating because we know what is possible.
- umeshunni 6y agoYou bring up the perfect example, because in the current lock down San Mateo county refused to participate in the shelter in place mandate that their 2 neighboring counties opted in to. So, you cannot dine outdoors in Palo Alto, but can walk 1/2 mile north to Menlo Park and dine at a restaurant.
- boringg 6y agoPretty sure NY had a pretty heinous violent crime streak in the 70s. If memory serves SF was pretty gritty in the 70s/80s as well. The thing with SF is that the media and a large portion of the US loves to hate it - theres a narrative that keeps getting the replay button. They always will, and it will always die just like Silicon Valley is over and the next Silicon Valley will be in (insert any city, or china). These stories have been around forever, and they will continue forever. Yes SF will go through a down cycle as a result of pressure being taken off of the rental market, and it will fill right back in when people want to live in the city again and the pandemic has passed. Pretty sure college is going to be in person again (UCB, UCSF, Stanford) as are the National Labs. The media has overhyped this ... of all sources Business Insider.
- mrzimmerman 6y agoI felt the same way about the source. Business Insider is pretty far from a serious news source. I know a couple of medium sized VC people who are going to start living outside of SF proper (not the Valley), but the people I know who live in the city love being in the city of San Francisco. The people who are leaving the bay area were probably always going to leave some day if they weren't happy there. And you're dead on about schools and research centers that require in person. Hardware or R&D need a physical space for work and security. And some people do like a cool office experience. Anyway, tl;dr I agree with you, ha ha.
- boringg 6y agoI agree with your agreement with me :)
- headsupftw 6y agoCrime or not, NYC seems to be doing pretty well. Top dog in the entire country for the past decades and the foreseeable future.
- boringg 6y agoDepends on the metrics you are ranking by.
- loco5niner 6y agoHello from Portland (Oh boy, here it comes)