4 ms·

23% of people don't feel safe getting around San Francisco -- wowza.

thatfrenchguy 6y ago
That's around the number of people who've lived all their lives before moving to SF in suburbs I would say ? Coming from any other big city, San Francisco doesn't feel more unsafe.
- viklove 6y ago
  Coming from Chicago, SF felt a lot less safe to me. Would not even consider living there even though I've lived in a big city for 5+ years. Chicago has a homeless population, but it's nowhere near as large or as emboldened as SF's.
  - cam0 6y ago
    It's a different world if you just avoid the eastern half of the city.
    - ghaff 6y ago
      I think a lot of people, especially in the tech industry, get a somewhat distorted view by the cesspool near the Moscone and Market Street. Not that there aren't problems elsewhere but the area that conventioneers are exposed to is especially awful.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
  - eindiran 6y ago
    Having lived in Chicago and SF, one big difference is how the problem areas are distributed geographically. In Chicago, the high foot-traffic areas (eg the Loop, Logan Square, Wicker Park) where tourists are likely to end up are very nice; you only end up in problem territory if you go wandering off into the Westside or Southside. In SF, the problem areas are the high foot-traffic areas where tourists are generally going: Union Square, anywhere touching Market, etc. In the past, I probably would have still felt safer walking around eg the Tenderloin than some areas of Chicago's South/Westside. But beginning a few months after the pandemic began, the streets in SOMA/FiDi/Union Square emptied out (no more tourists or commuters) and SF has started to feel much, much less safe in those areas. In the last few months, my partner has been attacked on the street twice, and I narrowly avoided being mugged with a screwdriver in Union Square itself. That is much worse than anything I ever experienced in the Southside of Chicago.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- nelsondev 6y ago
  Coming from NYC, San Francisco feels much more unsafe. I’ve been randomly attacked by a deranged stranger on a busy street (16th and Guerrero in the Mission). I never felt so paranoid when walking around NYC.
- thaumasiotes 6y ago
  > Coming from any other big city, San Francisco doesn't feel more unsafe. Speaking from years of living in Shanghai, that didn't come close to passing the laugh test.
taylorlapeyre 6y ago
Worth nothing that the article clarifies that this is in reference to driving — as in "nearly a quarter didn't feel safe on San Francisco's roads at all"
- ghaff 6y ago
  One would need to know how this compared to other cities. As someone who used to visit SF a lot (though rarely drove much in the city),I'm not sure how it's notably bad. Sure there are the hills. But with an automatic transmission, that doesn't really make a big difference. And it's mostly grid-ish. It's not a particularly easy city to drive in but compared to NYC, Boston, DC, Seattle, etc., I'm not sure how it's especially awful.
- caturopath 6y ago
  I love how "on the roads" is taken to mean the same thing as "driving a car", rather than the vulnerable road users outside of cars who are hurt and killed the most on SF streets.
dmode 6y ago
Is that traffic safety or other safety ? I honestly go to SF all the time, and it doesn't feel unsafe at all, unless I am in TL and some parts of SOMA. Places like Marina, Crissy Field, North Beach, Valencia, Noe, Richmond, Sunset just feels like beautiful suburbia with nice retail corridors, with a ton of people out and about.
- throwawaysea 6y ago
  I have to assume it is about general safety on the streets. Traffic-wise I've never felt unsafe there, but the article's claim about safety is ambiguously worded. It says "Worryingly, nearly a quarter didn't feel safe on San Francisco’s roads at all." But if you look at the question they asked in their infographic, I think people would have answered with general safety in mind more so than just road safety. As for feeling safe - I used to also feel that most of the neighborhoods are 'fine' (although they seem to increasingly have trash and tents). But then I was physically attacked by a drug addict unexpectedly in broad daylight. And then had friends held up at gunpoint. And now if I ever have to visit SF, I am on high alert and can't turn off being on guard. I feel sad because I used to love SF but now I try to avoid it, both for personal and business tasks.
  - taylorlapeyre 6y ago
    It says in the article that these questions were specifically in reference to driving around San Francisco in a car.
buzzert 6y ago
I wonder what subset of that is folks who are afraid of the virus and “don’t feel safe” taking public transportation or human driver-based ridesharing.

That's around the number of people who've lived all their lives before moving to SF in suburbs I would say ? Coming from any other big city, San Francisco doesn't feel more unsafe.

viklove 6y ago
Coming from Chicago, SF felt a lot less safe to me. Would not even consider living there even though I've lived in a big city for 5+ years. Chicago has a homeless population, but it's nowhere near as large or as emboldened as SF's.
- cam0 6y ago
  It's a different world if you just avoid the eastern half of the city.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    I think a lot of people, especially in the tech industry, get a somewhat distorted view by the cesspool near the Moscone and Market Street. Not that there aren't problems elsewhere but the area that conventioneers are exposed to is especially awful.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
- eindiran 6y ago
  Having lived in Chicago and SF, one big difference is how the problem areas are distributed geographically. In Chicago, the high foot-traffic areas (eg the Loop, Logan Square, Wicker Park) where tourists are likely to end up are very nice; you only end up in problem territory if you go wandering off into the Westside or Southside. In SF, the problem areas are the high foot-traffic areas where tourists are generally going: Union Square, anywhere touching Market, etc. In the past, I probably would have still felt safer walking around eg the Tenderloin than some areas of Chicago's South/Westside. But beginning a few months after the pandemic began, the streets in SOMA/FiDi/Union Square emptied out (no more tourists or commuters) and SF has started to feel much, much less safe in those areas. In the last few months, my partner has been attacked on the street twice, and I narrowly avoided being mugged with a screwdriver in Union Square itself. That is much worse than anything I ever experienced in the Southside of Chicago.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
nelsondev 6y ago
Coming from NYC, San Francisco feels much more unsafe. I’ve been randomly attacked by a deranged stranger on a busy street (16th and Guerrero in the Mission). I never felt so paranoid when walking around NYC.
thaumasiotes 6y ago
> Coming from any other big city, San Francisco doesn't feel more unsafe. Speaking from years of living in Shanghai, that didn't come close to passing the laugh test.

taylorlapeyre 6y ago

Worth nothing that the article clarifies that this is in reference to driving — as in "nearly a quarter didn't feel safe on San Francisco's roads at all"

ghaff 6y ago
One would need to know how this compared to other cities. As someone who used to visit SF a lot (though rarely drove much in the city),I'm not sure how it's notably bad. Sure there are the hills. But with an automatic transmission, that doesn't really make a big difference. And it's mostly grid-ish. It's not a particularly easy city to drive in but compared to NYC, Boston, DC, Seattle, etc., I'm not sure how it's especially awful.
caturopath 6y ago
I love how "on the roads" is taken to mean the same thing as "driving a car", rather than the vulnerable road users outside of cars who are hurt and killed the most on SF streets.

dmode 6y ago

Is that traffic safety or other safety ? I honestly go to SF all the time, and it doesn't feel unsafe at all, unless I am in TL and some parts of SOMA. Places like Marina, Crissy Field, North Beach, Valencia, Noe, Richmond, Sunset just feels like beautiful suburbia with nice retail corridors, with a ton of people out and about.

throwawaysea 6y ago
I have to assume it is about general safety on the streets. Traffic-wise I've never felt unsafe there, but the article's claim about safety is ambiguously worded. It says "Worryingly, nearly a quarter didn't feel safe on San Francisco’s roads at all." But if you look at the question they asked in their infographic, I think people would have answered with general safety in mind more so than just road safety. As for feeling safe - I used to also feel that most of the neighborhoods are 'fine' (although they seem to increasingly have trash and tents). But then I was physically attacked by a drug addict unexpectedly in broad daylight. And then had friends held up at gunpoint. And now if I ever have to visit SF, I am on high alert and can't turn off being on guard. I feel sad because I used to love SF but now I try to avoid it, both for personal and business tasks.
- taylorlapeyre 6y ago
  It says in the article that these questions were specifically in reference to driving around San Francisco in a car.

buzzert 6y ago

I wonder what subset of that is folks who are afraid of the virus and “don’t feel safe” taking public transportation or human driver-based ridesharing.