22 ms·

I 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 c

I 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 ago
Eh, 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 ago
  Yep, 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 ago
    I 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.

lhorie 5y ago

Eh, 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 ago
Yep, 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 ago
  I 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.