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The weirdest thing I noticed moving to the bay area wasn't SF (have been there a couple times and only saw a little bit of the craziness), it was how different

The weirdest thing I noticed moving to the bay area wasn't SF (have been there a couple times and only saw a little bit of the craziness), it was how different South Bay/Peninsula are from the city I expected the same SF problems you hear about to be issues in that area, and they really aren't (at least where I live) Idk if I would ever move into the city tbh, it just seems like a shithole. I'm sure it's less boring, but I like not having to deal with theft or BS politics I remember asking someone from the area at my job orientation if I should live in SF, and they pretty much said "no it's a literal shithole it isn't worth it" and it was such candid advice I took it Also another weird thing is I expected all the locals around here to be super progressive, but a lot of the people I've talked to were pissed off about what's happened to SF Also a question for people who know the bay area: where do you guys recommend to live for both commute and safety?

birdyrooster 4y ago
Come to downtown San Jose and you will see a lot of the same issues. It has a lot to do with scale. The peninsula Nimbys have successfully kept any scale from being realized there. We have rampant theft, breakins, unsolved shootings and stabbings, shit and piss needing to be regularly cleaned from the sidewalks. We have few sideshows luckily but plenty of streets lined with ppl strung out on drugs and no prospects.
- cr4nberry 4y ago
  > Come to downtown San Jose and you will see a lot of the same issues I went there once for the library and it just seemed really sketch. I never thought I would say this but maybe the nimbys aren't all bad :/ also should have clarified original comment, but what I meant was the suburban stretch from like Burlingame to Sunnyvale
  - blululu 4y ago
    It’s a totally rational response that is also horribly selfish. You kind of see this sentiment any time discussion of San Francisco comes up. A bunch of people who have voted to consistently take funds out of the city will jump to attack it as if it were some hated foreign country. Meanwhile the voters of California restricted local taxation to be massively regressive. The voters or America consistently give handouts to rural places. But when it comes to pitching in and helping a once great city, people would rather sit smug about how smart they are to have expelled their homeless people somewhere else.
    - _skel 4y ago
      The problem is not lack of money. There is plenty of money and it's being wasted. The root of the problem is the political views of the people who run the city and the voters who put them there.
  - novok 4y ago
    It's an american disease, maybe even californian. Go to many other cities in the rest of the world and they have denser, better cities with none of the literal shit. IMO I would barely call most of the bay a city, just a semi-dense suburb for the most part beyond a few pockets.
    - systemvoltage 4y ago
      There are very specific criminal justice reform and soft-on-crime policies that lead to this. If you go to Tokyo, you'll be put in jail for doing drugs. Most likely extremely tough prison sentence of a decade or more. It prevents people from doing drugs and getting trapped in the spiraling destruction of self. Here in America, we have NYC and SF opening clinics to comfortably allow people to shoot heroine in the comfort of a shelter: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/30/nyregion/supervised-injection-sites-nyc.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/30/nyregion/supervised-injec... Moral underlying reason? We don't want people to overdose. We're saving lives. I'd say, Tokyo's policies are far more moral. They'd save thousands of lives vs. 2 overdose lives in a reactionary measure.
      - giantg2 4y ago
        Eh, I don't think it's so causal. In my mind it's the culture that keeps crime low and the laws have merely been created to reflect the values of that culture.
      - threatofrain 4y ago
        There’s a famous Bay Area town with no police dept, sizable population, somewhat wealthy, very low murder rate, amazing schools and no homelessness, and neither democrats or republicans have any meaning in local town politics. The nearby towns are similar. I wonder if it's possible to buy this in any other part of the country. Things are easier when you have a good start.
        birdyrooster 4y ago
        Probably Bentonville, Arkansas, I’m kidding mostly bc I don’t know if they have a police department but it’s sorta the same idea as Cupertino. Also I think Santa Clara fire fights and polices for them.
stevenwoo 4y ago
Almost everyone I know who drove from Peninsula 10-15 years ago into city had stories about smash and grabs in the city, but nowadays my Nextdoor on the Peninsula (Mountain View/Los Altos) the top three stories are suspicious person walking around the neighborhood, someone getting their catalytic converter stolen, someone getting everything taken from their car locked or unlocked. It could just be the algorithm driving these stories to the top, though. I have had my unlocked car rifled through multiple times. I lived inside the loop in Houston for five years in the 1990s and had my car broken into multiple times as well (even inside apartment complex gated garage) so it's just an easy crime to commit and multiple targets in very small area in urban places.
- cr4nberry 4y ago
  > I have had my unlocked car rifled through multiple times. I lived inside the loop in Houston for five years in the 1990s and had my car broken into multiple times as well (even inside apartment complex gated garage) so it's just an easy crime to commit and multiple targets in very small area in urban places. Where I'm from this is pretty much unheard of. It's yet to happen to me in bay area, but also my car isn't super nice and I never leave anything in it. Hoping it doesn't happen
deleted 4y ago
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birdyrooster 4y ago

Come to downtown San Jose and you will see a lot of the same issues. It has a lot to do with scale. The peninsula Nimbys have successfully kept any scale from being realized there. We have rampant theft, breakins, unsolved shootings and stabbings, shit and piss needing to be regularly cleaned from the sidewalks. We have few sideshows luckily but plenty of streets lined with ppl strung out on drugs and no prospects.

cr4nberry 4y ago
> Come to downtown San Jose and you will see a lot of the same issues I went there once for the library and it just seemed really sketch. I never thought I would say this but maybe the nimbys aren't all bad :/ also should have clarified original comment, but what I meant was the suburban stretch from like Burlingame to Sunnyvale
- blululu 4y ago
  It’s a totally rational response that is also horribly selfish. You kind of see this sentiment any time discussion of San Francisco comes up. A bunch of people who have voted to consistently take funds out of the city will jump to attack it as if it were some hated foreign country. Meanwhile the voters of California restricted local taxation to be massively regressive. The voters or America consistently give handouts to rural places. But when it comes to pitching in and helping a once great city, people would rather sit smug about how smart they are to have expelled their homeless people somewhere else.
  - _skel 4y ago
    The problem is not lack of money. There is plenty of money and it's being wasted. The root of the problem is the political views of the people who run the city and the voters who put them there.
- novok 4y ago
  It's an american disease, maybe even californian. Go to many other cities in the rest of the world and they have denser, better cities with none of the literal shit. IMO I would barely call most of the bay a city, just a semi-dense suburb for the most part beyond a few pockets.
  - systemvoltage 4y ago
    There are very specific criminal justice reform and soft-on-crime policies that lead to this. If you go to Tokyo, you'll be put in jail for doing drugs. Most likely extremely tough prison sentence of a decade or more. It prevents people from doing drugs and getting trapped in the spiraling destruction of self. Here in America, we have NYC and SF opening clinics to comfortably allow people to shoot heroine in the comfort of a shelter: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/30/nyregion/supervised-injection-sites-nyc.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/30/nyregion/supervised-injec... Moral underlying reason? We don't want people to overdose. We're saving lives. I'd say, Tokyo's policies are far more moral. They'd save thousands of lives vs. 2 overdose lives in a reactionary measure.
    - giantg2 4y ago
      Eh, I don't think it's so causal. In my mind it's the culture that keeps crime low and the laws have merely been created to reflect the values of that culture.
    - threatofrain 4y ago
      There’s a famous Bay Area town with no police dept, sizable population, somewhat wealthy, very low murder rate, amazing schools and no homelessness, and neither democrats or republicans have any meaning in local town politics. The nearby towns are similar. I wonder if it's possible to buy this in any other part of the country. Things are easier when you have a good start.
      - birdyrooster 4y ago
        Probably Bentonville, Arkansas, I’m kidding mostly bc I don’t know if they have a police department but it’s sorta the same idea as Cupertino. Also I think Santa Clara fire fights and polices for them.

stevenwoo 4y ago

Almost everyone I know who drove from Peninsula 10-15 years ago into city had stories about smash and grabs in the city, but nowadays my Nextdoor on the Peninsula (Mountain View/Los Altos) the top three stories are suspicious person walking around the neighborhood, someone getting their catalytic converter stolen, someone getting everything taken from their car locked or unlocked. It could just be the algorithm driving these stories to the top, though. I have had my unlocked car rifled through multiple times. I lived inside the loop in Houston for five years in the 1990s and had my car broken into multiple times as well (even inside apartment complex gated garage) so it's just an easy crime to commit and multiple targets in very small area in urban places.

cr4nberry 4y ago
> I have had my unlocked car rifled through multiple times. I lived inside the loop in Houston for five years in the 1990s and had my car broken into multiple times as well (even inside apartment complex gated garage) so it's just an easy crime to commit and multiple targets in very small area in urban places. Where I'm from this is pretty much unheard of. It's yet to happen to me in bay area, but also my car isn't super nice and I never leave anything in it. Hoping it doesn't happen

deleted 4y ago

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