5 ms·
I think some of the responses here are too gloomy. Look things are bad but SF does have a lot going for it and it's a lot less bad than some people think, just
by space_fountain 5y ago
I think some of the responses here are too gloomy. Look things are bad but SF does have a lot going for it and it's a lot less bad than some people think, just don't live in SOMA or the tenderloin and you'll be a lot better off. SF has lots of wealth and resources just waiting to be tapped into, a climate that's likely to get nicer over the next several decades (maybe ignoring smoke), some of the highest densities both of people and of parks in the US. Yes there are problems deep in the politics of SF, but none of them are unfixable.
- lhorie 5y ago> just don't live in SOMA or the tenderloin and you'll be a lot better off I mean, that's basically just saying "lalala can't hear ya". The entire point of calling SF dysfunctional is that a significant number of people in those areas (and others) are on the streets without access to needed psychiatric help and other basic needs. As a result, there's so much petty crime going unreported that any statistics on the matter are bogus.
- space_fountain 5y agoI think there's a certain kind of voice that's common on here who moved into SF. Got an apartment in one of the new apartments downtown and then experienced a concentrated blast of poverty which isn't representative of the majority of SF. It doesn't help that most new construction in SF has been in these parts of the city either. My point isn't that SF doesn't have huge problems, but that if you live in these parts of the city you'll be seeing a lot more of it on a daily basis than is maybe entirely realistic
- lhorie 5y agoEh, I agree that the problem is most visible to newcomers precisely due to the housing layout around Tenderloin/SOMA, but frankly even once you go past that, it's fairly obvious that north/west SF is where affluent neighborhoods are (the trailer city near Lake Merced notwithstanding) and the south/east side is poor. Correlating school ratings to geographic location, for example, makes that divide abundantly clear. FWIW, I've personally witnessed theft in inner Richmond - one of the nicer areas - and I know that it's an issue all the way out to the Safeway by Ocean Beach (I used to live in front of it and there were cops posted at the door all the time, and recently I've spotted tents in the parking lot)
- space_fountain 5y agoYep, for sure. My point isn't that SF doesn't have problems, but that people form misimpression's of just how bad they are and those views get concentrated in places like hacker news
- lhorie 5y agoI mean, the human feces thing is a pretty tired argument for sure. It's not like there isn't also a dog feces problem. The fact that the latter doesn't get brought up at all speaks volumes about classism... With that said, I don't think the property crime argument is being exaggerated at all. I have another comment highlighting my experience having lived in SF, Toronto and Sao Paulo (Brazil). I've also lived briefly in Brisbane (Australia). Nowhere else have I personally witnessed so much property crime as I have in SF.
- mixmastamyk 5y agoUnwilling to fix is a de facto unfixable. Until something major changes.
- space_fountain 5y agoWell, there is lots of working being put in by a lot of people to fix parts of it. For example CA is in the process of passing a law to upzone large swaths of single family housing. The YIMBY movement is gaining steam. I think one fo the saddest things in politics at least in the west is this sort of defeatism where large swaths of the electorate think that things are unfixable. I think especially as technologists we should recognize that real problems exist, but also that fundamentally they are all fixable and we should try to fix them.
- mixmastamyk 5y agoI agree they are fixable, not even particularly difficult. But there’s no political will.
- space_fountain 5y agoWell let's work on building the political will then? It is true that individually we're unlikely to have much impact, but there are organizations and groups working for change and they've been having results.
- mixmastamyk 5y agoI don’t know how to do that when extremists from “both sides” dominate the discussion. If you have any ideas or groups to link to.
- throw123123123 5y agoI get trying to ignore the TL, but the entire downtown is like this. Pretending a city doesn't have a downtown is a pretty big minus!