4 ms·

I got my booster shot scheduled in one of the Walgreens about a week before it closed (300 gough st), this is anecdotal but it's what it felt like there. I liv

I got my booster shot scheduled in one of the Walgreens about a week before it closed (300 gough st), this is anecdotal but it's what it felt like there. I live in dogpatch and like SF (the area I live is nice). The shelves were 90% empty (likely because they were closing shortly), what remained on the shelves was entirely locked down. They had one security guard. Behind the counter in the pharmacy was a sign that said "we will get through this together" that looked like it had been put up by the employees (it wasn't some corporate poster, but something that looked printed). The lighting was harsh, the employees seemed stressed out. The tiny room they took us into for the shot was dirty, and the entire place was in generally pretty poor shape. This was one of the ones that got hit a lot by people with garbage bags emptying shelves repeatedly. Relatedly the raids in Union Square also looked pretty extreme and there are lots of pictures of boarded up retail to try and prevent future raids. There's also a ton of car smash and grabs and you see a lot of window glass on the street walking around. I think London Breed's response is the right one, hopefully she's able to do what she says. This is controversial off topic politics for HN, but lots of police presence in the tenderloin, a strong crack down on dealers, and giving addicts on the street an option of treatment or prison seems like the way forward (in addition to building a lot more housing to increase supply/lower costs generally).

CodeGlitch 5y ago
I live in the UK, and what you describe sounds like a 3rd world country, and yet the US is an incredibly wealthy country. Why do you put up with this? It's pretty depressing. (Not that I'm blaming you personally in any way, I meant us citizens).
- gonehome 5y ago
  The US is a big and varied place and the culture is interesting - though I’m biased. People are free to meet their ambitions and achieve great things without as much cultural cynicism. That said, even across states that have wildly different politics, there’s a unifying cultural thread that makes Americans more similar than different (it’s easier to notice after spending some time out of the country). There are regional quirks though and problems with incentive structures that can lead to bad outcomes nobody wants. The politics in SF right now are pretty bad, but there are 2 recall elections coming up that are likely to pass. Hopefully things are starting to turn around. The UK isn’t immune to these issues either I remember looting in 2011 or so? It’s hard to get the full picture from these kinds of snippets.
  - CodeGlitch 5y ago
    > The UK isn’t immune to these issues either I remember looting in 2011 or so? That's right we did. It was due to the killing of Mark Duggan by the police : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_England_riots https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_England_riots It only lasted a few days, as the police came down hard on the criminals. Think of it as a precursor to the BLM riots.

CodeGlitch 5y ago

I live in the UK, and what you describe sounds like a 3rd world country, and yet the US is an incredibly wealthy country. Why do you put up with this? It's pretty depressing. (Not that I'm blaming you personally in any way, I meant us citizens).

gonehome 5y ago
The US is a big and varied place and the culture is interesting - though I’m biased. People are free to meet their ambitions and achieve great things without as much cultural cynicism. That said, even across states that have wildly different politics, there’s a unifying cultural thread that makes Americans more similar than different (it’s easier to notice after spending some time out of the country). There are regional quirks though and problems with incentive structures that can lead to bad outcomes nobody wants. The politics in SF right now are pretty bad, but there are 2 recall elections coming up that are likely to pass. Hopefully things are starting to turn around. The UK isn’t immune to these issues either I remember looting in 2011 or so? It’s hard to get the full picture from these kinds of snippets.
- CodeGlitch 5y ago
  > The UK isn’t immune to these issues either I remember looting in 2011 or so? That's right we did. It was due to the killing of Mark Duggan by the police : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_England_riots https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_England_riots It only lasted a few days, as the police came down hard on the criminals. Think of it as a precursor to the BLM riots.