5 ms·

They Can’t Leave the Bay Area Fast Enough

37 points by DLay 6y ago

mdaniel 6y ago
It looks like the NYT URL changed, evading the dupe filter: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25778795 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25778795 has 28 points and 6 comments as of right now
diogenescynic 6y ago
The combo punch of a DA like Chesa Boudin and the economy are a double whammy for San Francisco. It's become a complete lawless hellhole. You're free to use drugs or commit property crimes and violence with virtually no consequences. I truly feel bad for the people who can't leave.
- ng12 6y ago
  Yeah, I really don't understand it. I lived in a peaceful out-of-the-way neighborhood that I absolutely loved -- but every day I had to go down to the Tenderloin (I'm sorry, "Mid Market") and battle through god knows what on my way to the office. It blows my mind that three of the most valuable tech companies (Twitter, Uber, Square) all set up shop in the most miserable few blocks of the whole city. Eventually it was enough of a drag on my psyche that I gave up and moved down the peninsula.
  - diogenescynic 6y ago
    Same. I was able to put up with taking BART with people openly smoking meth and shooting heroin but it was my wife's safety that finally was the breaking point. We lived on the edge of Glen Park and Noe Valley and once my wife became pregnant we could no longer live in SF and feel safe. Every day I had to walk my wife to her car because we had constant trespassers in our building garage that the SFPD refused to address. The law protects criminals in SF, not the middle class. Want to go into Walgreens and steal all the makeup and fence it on Market Street? No one will stop you, but god forbid you ask the cops to remove a criminal on your property--no one will lift a finger.
    - genericone 6y ago
      It doesn't just affect BART within SF, it affects BART all throughout the Bay Area lines. Just my own personal anecdote: for a while I was taking the BART from the Millbrae stop to the Warm Springs Fremont stop (>1 hour ride), and the frequency of aggressive money-askers walking up-and-down between carriages talking to themselves became too much to handle and I returned to driving my gas guzzling car in rush hour traffic.
      - mleonhard 6y ago
        BART has an app that you can use to report beggars and other disruptive people on the train. Did you try using it?
        diogenescynic 6y ago
        That app is less than useless. Have you ever tried?
  - tanseydavid 6y ago
    "Mid-Market" that is really funny. I had not heard this 'realtor-euphemism' before. I suppose you could describe the 'TL' as being a lively and fragrant neighborhood too (and you wouldn't be lying).
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
mleonhard 6y ago
Companies have little incentive to give equal opportunities to remote workers and on-site workers. So on-site workers will continue to have the best opportunities. As soon as the pandemic ends, the most ambitious and hard-working folks will move back to the SF area. The brain drain will resume, reversing the exodus.
- davidw 6y ago
  I'm not sure. It kind of looks like the horse has bolted from the barn. I'm sure some people will be back in SF, but this is a great excuse for a lot of other people to get away from their dysfunctional politics. And I don't mean that in a left/right way, to be clear: top of the list is their inability to add enough housing, as is very clear in the article.

37 points by DLay 6y ago

It looks like the NYT URL changed, evading the dupe filter: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25778795 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25778795 has 28 points and 6 comments as of right now

diogenescynic 6y ago

The combo punch of a DA like Chesa Boudin and the economy are a double whammy for San Francisco. It's become a complete lawless hellhole. You're free to use drugs or commit property crimes and violence with virtually no consequences. I truly feel bad for the people who can't leave.

ng12 6y ago
Yeah, I really don't understand it. I lived in a peaceful out-of-the-way neighborhood that I absolutely loved -- but every day I had to go down to the Tenderloin (I'm sorry, "Mid Market") and battle through god knows what on my way to the office. It blows my mind that three of the most valuable tech companies (Twitter, Uber, Square) all set up shop in the most miserable few blocks of the whole city. Eventually it was enough of a drag on my psyche that I gave up and moved down the peninsula.
- diogenescynic 6y ago
  Same. I was able to put up with taking BART with people openly smoking meth and shooting heroin but it was my wife's safety that finally was the breaking point. We lived on the edge of Glen Park and Noe Valley and once my wife became pregnant we could no longer live in SF and feel safe. Every day I had to walk my wife to her car because we had constant trespassers in our building garage that the SFPD refused to address. The law protects criminals in SF, not the middle class. Want to go into Walgreens and steal all the makeup and fence it on Market Street? No one will stop you, but god forbid you ask the cops to remove a criminal on your property--no one will lift a finger.
  - genericone 6y ago
    It doesn't just affect BART within SF, it affects BART all throughout the Bay Area lines. Just my own personal anecdote: for a while I was taking the BART from the Millbrae stop to the Warm Springs Fremont stop (>1 hour ride), and the frequency of aggressive money-askers walking up-and-down between carriages talking to themselves became too much to handle and I returned to driving my gas guzzling car in rush hour traffic.
    - mleonhard 6y ago
      BART has an app that you can use to report beggars and other disruptive people on the train. Did you try using it?
      - diogenescynic 6y ago
        That app is less than useless. Have you ever tried?
- tanseydavid 6y ago
  "Mid-Market" that is really funny. I had not heard this 'realtor-euphemism' before. I suppose you could describe the 'TL' as being a lively and fragrant neighborhood too (and you wouldn't be lying).
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

mleonhard 6y ago

Companies have little incentive to give equal opportunities to remote workers and on-site workers. So on-site workers will continue to have the best opportunities. As soon as the pandemic ends, the most ambitious and hard-working folks will move back to the SF area. The brain drain will resume, reversing the exodus.

davidw 6y ago
I'm not sure. It kind of looks like the horse has bolted from the barn. I'm sure some people will be back in SF, but this is a great excuse for a lot of other people to get away from their dysfunctional politics. And I don't mean that in a left/right way, to be clear: top of the list is their inability to add enough housing, as is very clear in the article.