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Something that might not be obvious to onlookers is the extent to which these problems are concentrated in only Downtown SF. Though the situation downtown is un

by _jab 3y ago

Something that might not be obvious to onlookers is the extent to which these problems are concentrated in only Downtown SF. Though the situation downtown is undoubtedly bleak, many other neighborhoods in SF have been surprisingly lively lately, such as Mission Bay, Hayes Valley, and Dogpatch. A lot of people, myself included, still like SF, just not the downtown. It's a shame; SF doesn't have any other retail hub, and every store that closes feels like a loss. The question will be to what extent can the damage be contained to downtown, and whether other neighborhoods can help make up for the decay of downtown. I'd consider myself cautiously optimistic.

omginternets 3y ago
Why are you optimistic?
erickhill 3y ago
I lived in SF/East Bay across 10 years (eventually owned a house in El Cerrito) and moved up to Seattle in 2011. I love both the Bay Area and Seattle deeply. What's happening to SF is very similar to what has become of Portland. That, my friends, is not a downtown I would recommend anyone visit until something changes. Simply walking around any time of day it becomes immediately obvious that if you're walking downtown you're either a hapless tourist or homeless. Most of the locals seemingly drive into downtown, jump in and out of stores and restaurants that are still in business, then they drive back home. The suburbs and surrounding areas are gorgeous, but large sections of downtown are just ... terrible. (And often scary.) Seattle was teetering on this fate, but Amazon forced their enormous workforce to come back to the office. And, it produced a lot of blowback from the employees. But, local employees went back. What has that done? It has created a TON of downtown traffic. Not fun at all. But it has also injected the downtown core with (you guessed it) lots of people and money, keeping small businesses downtown alive in some areas. At least for now, Seattle seems to have dodged the ghost town blues that have befallen beautiful SF and Portland.
subsubzero 3y ago
This is not concentrated in only downtown, break ins and store robberies are happening across the entire city. I was there in March and market square and Union square were like something out of a mad max film. My friend who lives in the Marina of all places just left the city for good and had his car broken into multiple times as well as was hit by a car with a driver who was high on drugs. My brother visited golden gate park to ride his bike and when he got back his roof rack was broken by vandals trying to steal it(in broad daylight!). The mission and SOMA are also dangerous and I think really only the sunset is somewhat normal although thieves still target porch packages and break into cars there. I can't vouch for mission bay or Hayes valley so maybe not all parts are terrible but the good areas are not as safe as they used to be.
- TMWNN 3y ago
  >I was there in March and market square and Union square were like something out of a mad max film. From a May 2023 article on the decline of the city <http://web.archive.org/web/20230510153958/https://www.curbed.com/2023/05/san-francisco-doom-loop.html http://web.archive.org/web/20230510153958/https://www.curbed...>: >A note to my fellow San Franciscians: I’m sorry. I know. There’s always some story in the East Coast press about how our city is dying. San Franciscians hate—HATE—these pieces. You’re a stooge and a traitor for writing one. When I set out reporting, I wanted to write a debunking-the-doom piece myself. Yet to live in San Francisco right now, to watch its streets, is to realize that no one will catch you if you fall. In the first three months of 2023, 200 San Franciscans OD’d, up 41 percent from last year.“It’s like a wasteland,” the guard said when I asked how San Francisco looked to him. “It’s like the only way to describe it. It’s like a video game — like made-up shit. Have you ever played Fallout?” >I shook my head. >“There’s this thing in the game called feral ghouls, and they’re like rotted. They’re like zombies.” There’s only so much pain a person can take before you disintegrate, grow paranoid, or turn numb. “I go home and play with my wife, and we’re like, ‘Ah, hahahaha, this is SF.’”
dmarcos 3y ago
Not only downtown. I’ve been living in the Castro (Castro & Market) for a decade. 30% of commercial real estate closed / boarded-up, plenty of tents around and see people smoking crack every day. Not even trying to hide. It was not like this 10 years ago.

by _jab 3y ago

omginternets 3y ago

Why are you optimistic?

erickhill 3y ago

I lived in SF/East Bay across 10 years (eventually owned a house in El Cerrito) and moved up to Seattle in 2011. I love both the Bay Area and Seattle deeply. What's happening to SF is very similar to what has become of Portland. That, my friends, is not a downtown I would recommend anyone visit until something changes. Simply walking around any time of day it becomes immediately obvious that if you're walking downtown you're either a hapless tourist or homeless. Most of the locals seemingly drive into downtown, jump in and out of stores and restaurants that are still in business, then they drive back home. The suburbs and surrounding areas are gorgeous, but large sections of downtown are just ... terrible. (And often scary.) Seattle was teetering on this fate, but Amazon forced their enormous workforce to come back to the office. And, it produced a lot of blowback from the employees. But, local employees went back. What has that done? It has created a TON of downtown traffic. Not fun at all. But it has also injected the downtown core with (you guessed it) lots of people and money, keeping small businesses downtown alive in some areas. At least for now, Seattle seems to have dodged the ghost town blues that have befallen beautiful SF and Portland.

subsubzero 3y ago

This is not concentrated in only downtown, break ins and store robberies are happening across the entire city. I was there in March and market square and Union square were like something out of a mad max film. My friend who lives in the Marina of all places just left the city for good and had his car broken into multiple times as well as was hit by a car with a driver who was high on drugs. My brother visited golden gate park to ride his bike and when he got back his roof rack was broken by vandals trying to steal it(in broad daylight!). The mission and SOMA are also dangerous and I think really only the sunset is somewhat normal although thieves still target porch packages and break into cars there. I can't vouch for mission bay or Hayes valley so maybe not all parts are terrible but the good areas are not as safe as they used to be.

TMWNN 3y ago
>I was there in March and market square and Union square were like something out of a mad max film. From a May 2023 article on the decline of the city <http://web.archive.org/web/20230510153958/https://www.curbed.com/2023/05/san-francisco-doom-loop.html http://web.archive.org/web/20230510153958/https://www.curbed...>: >A note to my fellow San Franciscians: I’m sorry. I know. There’s always some story in the East Coast press about how our city is dying. San Franciscians hate—HATE—these pieces. You’re a stooge and a traitor for writing one. When I set out reporting, I wanted to write a debunking-the-doom piece myself. Yet to live in San Francisco right now, to watch its streets, is to realize that no one will catch you if you fall. In the first three months of 2023, 200 San Franciscans OD’d, up 41 percent from last year.“It’s like a wasteland,” the guard said when I asked how San Francisco looked to him. “It’s like the only way to describe it. It’s like a video game — like made-up shit. Have you ever played Fallout?” >I shook my head. >“There’s this thing in the game called feral ghouls, and they’re like rotted. They’re like zombies.” There’s only so much pain a person can take before you disintegrate, grow paranoid, or turn numb. “I go home and play with my wife, and we’re like, ‘Ah, hahahaha, this is SF.’”

dmarcos 3y ago

Not only downtown. I’ve been living in the Castro (Castro & Market) for a decade. 30% of commercial real estate closed / boarded-up, plenty of tents around and see people smoking crack every day. Not even trying to hide. It was not like this 10 years ago.