5 ms·

I visited San Fransisco in the late 90s, it was a fantastic place, one of the best cities I went to in th US. What happened? What caused it to get so bad?

closeparen 3y ago
San Francisco ia a sideshow. America is a suburban country and the Bay Area is a suburban place. There are ten times as many people in the metro area as in the city. Only Salesforce and Uber are in the city; the rest of Big Tech is in the suburbs. The social and physical infrastructure is built for someone who has a family and works in an office to live in the suburbs. American postwar suburbia has a well-oiled machine for metabolizing growth, but it has to be fed with virgin land. The Bay Area long ago ran out. The growth kept on going, so it manifests in house prices and dysfunction instead.
- milkshakes 3y ago
  airbnb, adobe and apple, are in sf. and that's just the As
  - resolutebat 3y ago
    Apple HQ is in Cupertino, Adobe HQ is in San Jose, and while Airbnb is still in SF, they've cut a lot of real estate there.
    - milkshakes 3y ago
      in fact, all three still retain substantial footprints in SF
- dontupvoteme 3y ago
  The problem was the centralization of a certain brand of tech. If they had started making semiconductors in 1 or 2 other places in America this wouldn't have happened.
malablaster 3y ago
I went there for the first time a few months back. It’s one of the filthiest, smelliest, homeless cities I’ve seen. I hate it.
downWidOutaFite 3y ago
He's talking about "Silicon Valley" which is an hours drive south of San Francisco. As for San Francisco itself, I still love it here. Downtown has been dead since the pandemic but I don't really go there so it doesnt affect me much. And outsiders seem to have ramped up their anti-SF propaganda quite a bit but that doesnt affect me much either.
ethbr0 3y ago
Dutch disease atrophying SF's non-tech economy.
yieldcrv 3y ago
You can have fun on a weekend and it has unique look I hate it though People there act like or want to be categorized in the same tier as NY, London, Hong Kong and has nothing to cater to that tier except for the people that already wanted to check out to anytown USA with a high achieving leaning, but it doesnt have the self awareness to realize that

closeparen 3y ago

San Francisco ia a sideshow. America is a suburban country and the Bay Area is a suburban place. There are ten times as many people in the metro area as in the city. Only Salesforce and Uber are in the city; the rest of Big Tech is in the suburbs. The social and physical infrastructure is built for someone who has a family and works in an office to live in the suburbs. American postwar suburbia has a well-oiled machine for metabolizing growth, but it has to be fed with virgin land. The Bay Area long ago ran out. The growth kept on going, so it manifests in house prices and dysfunction instead.

milkshakes 3y ago
airbnb, adobe and apple, are in sf. and that's just the As
- resolutebat 3y ago
  Apple HQ is in Cupertino, Adobe HQ is in San Jose, and while Airbnb is still in SF, they've cut a lot of real estate there.
  - milkshakes 3y ago
    in fact, all three still retain substantial footprints in SF
dontupvoteme 3y ago
The problem was the centralization of a certain brand of tech. If they had started making semiconductors in 1 or 2 other places in America this wouldn't have happened.

malablaster 3y ago

I went there for the first time a few months back. It’s one of the filthiest, smelliest, homeless cities I’ve seen. I hate it.

downWidOutaFite 3y ago

He's talking about "Silicon Valley" which is an hours drive south of San Francisco. As for San Francisco itself, I still love it here. Downtown has been dead since the pandemic but I don't really go there so it doesnt affect me much. And outsiders seem to have ramped up their anti-SF propaganda quite a bit but that doesnt affect me much either.

ethbr0 3y ago

Dutch disease atrophying SF's non-tech economy.

yieldcrv 3y ago

You can have fun on a weekend and it has unique look I hate it though People there act like or want to be categorized in the same tier as NY, London, Hong Kong and has nothing to cater to that tier except for the people that already wanted to check out to anytown USA with a high achieving leaning, but it doesnt have the self awareness to realize that