As a European with a lot of family and friends in the Bay Area, I have to say the place really does seem very clearly in need of fixing. Forty years I've lived

As a European with a lot of family and friends in the Bay Area, I have to say the place really does seem very clearly in need of fixing. Forty years I've lived in the rest of the world, saw a lady who was demented walking around in the street once, waited around until police came to help her. Seen a handful of people in need of mental health help shouting out loud aggressively, but it doesn't happen much at all. Never seen anyone poop on the street. I went to SF to visit a relative for about 5 days just before covid, put together maybe I've been there a month, and I saw all these things more than in the rest of my life. It seemed to be a reliable daily occurrence that I'd meet a shouting person. I visited Twitter HQ at one point yet not far away there were homeless people with no shoes. I saw tent camps. Not far from where I tried VR goggles for the first time, a lady was so desperate to eat she barged into where I had finished eating to grab my leftovers. A lot is said here on HN about what is wrong, but I just gotta say it's not just some ordinary large city level of problem, I've been to plenty of large cities that did not feel like this.