4 ms·

There are multiple leadership issues, but ultimately there is no single fix. The mayor has little power in SF compared to other cities. My understanding is the

There are multiple leadership issues, but ultimately there is no single fix. The mayor has little power in SF compared to other cities. My understanding is the Board of Supervisors is more distributed than a typical City Council. Housing: A single person in SF has managed to thwart 1/3 of all building development (source: some anti-NIMBY transparency website), which means NiMBYs have an extraordinarily strong Heckler’s veto. Very little development means supply for dwellings stays far below demand. Rent control ordinance from 1979 has meant that market rate units cost 3x what rent controlled units cost. Tenants in Cali and SF have very strong rights compared to landlords, so people aren’t rushing to invest in SF rental properties. Crime: The state changed the thresholds between misdemeanors and felonies about 8 years ago and most people blame SF for something that a majority of Cali voters did. As far as I can tell, the SFPD is sitting on its hands. As much as they complain about being short staffed, my larger city is nearby and has far fewer officers per resident and still manages to answer more calls. I never understood the argument that officers are slow walking because criminals would be back on the street without the prosecutor pressing charges. The patrol officer doesn’t know or care. This is more likely a “blue flu” thing where police are punishing people for their government’s liberal policies. SF suffers from lots of “bridge and tunnel” criminals. The area around Oakland and Vallejo (across the Bay Bridge) is where lots of the thieves and shooters come from. People don’t tour the East Bay like they do SF and the affluent are more likely to live in SF, so the criminals go to where the money is. Coordinated thief gangs for catalytic converters, store-mob thieves, car theft rings, etc are mostly issues that can’t be solved by SFPD — they all require multi-jurisdiction task forces. Post-pandemic: SF had some of the harshest lockdown policies in the US and there was no policy push to reopen and announce the reopening. The jails were overcrowded during COVID and the Sheriff Department (staffs the jails) is very understaffed, so there were lots of incentives to keep jails from filling up. SF’s city government spends more per capita than pretty much everywhere else in the US on social projects. They vastly overspend on homeless mitigation, health clinics, public bathrooms, etc. It seems to me there is no political consensus in the city for a single plan.

simoncion 3y ago
> Rent control ordinance from 1979 has meant that market rate units cost 3x what rent controlled units cost. Point of order: Without those rent control ordinances, all units would cost right around the current market rate. The thing driving costs is failure to build to meet demand. > Tenants in Cali and SF have very strong rights compared to landlords, so people aren’t rushing to invest in SF rental properties. Another point of order: The NIMBYs are the primary reason people aren't rushing to develop residential rental buildings in SF. Or, if you were referring to the fact that oh so many rentals are massively overdue for essential repairs, then that's a combination of * Because your renter is almost certainly already renting the best place they can afford, and because it's almost certain that nothing cheaper will appear on the market, you -as a landlord- have no incentive to do more than the legal minimum. * Because Prop 13 fixes your property value reassessment at something tiny (like 2% per year) until your property changes hands, and because any major improvements to that property are assessed at their current market rate, and then added in to your tax assessment, you -as a landlord- are __seriously__ disincentivized to improve your property.
- seanp2k2 3y ago
  They can’t fix anything in SF because then it would ruin the aesthetic of ticky tacky faded pastel colored wall-to-wall vinyl sided two story houses with those single-car-garages-with-uselessly-steep-driveway-angles. At least the people who bought those for $60k back in the 60s get to pay about 1/20th of what the next owner would in property taxes so they can stay to witness the city crumble around them. Don’t want to mess up the feel of the neighborhood, you know.
pasttense01 3y ago
"In California, a misdemeanor, by definition, is a criminal offense for which the maximum penalty is no more than 364 days in county jail and a fine of not more than $1,000.00." I think that 364 days in the county jail is more than enough to deter people from shoplifting, etc. So the problem isn't the penalty; the problem is that the laws aren't enforced.
- thephyber 3y ago
  I also don’t have big issues with the felony/misdemeanor transition, but the cop in my family does. > The problem is that the laws aren’t enforced I would argue that legal punishments only work well when they are consistent and swift. The US legal system has failed on both accounts. Violent crime closure rates are abysmal, and the end of that funnel is just that someone was charged, not the right person being convicted. In practice, the IS legal system depends on leaning hard on anyone who might be a criminal (especially with bail bonds, the slow time to trial, the failure of public defenders to handle their caseload competently, and the overwhelming dependency on plea bargaining — which was unethical in this country until after the Civil War). Also, saying “the laws aren’t being enforced” seems naïve to who isn’t enforcing the laws and why.

simoncion 3y ago

> Rent control ordinance from 1979 has meant that market rate units cost 3x what rent controlled units cost. Point of order: Without those rent control ordinances, all units would cost right around the current market rate. The thing driving costs is failure to build to meet demand. > Tenants in Cali and SF have very strong rights compared to landlords, so people aren’t rushing to invest in SF rental properties. Another point of order: The NIMBYs are the primary reason people aren't rushing to develop residential rental buildings in SF. Or, if you were referring to the fact that oh so many rentals are massively overdue for essential repairs, then that's a combination of * Because your renter is almost certainly already renting the best place they can afford, and because it's almost certain that nothing cheaper will appear on the market, you -as a landlord- have no incentive to do more than the legal minimum. * Because Prop 13 fixes your property value reassessment at something tiny (like 2% per year) until your property changes hands, and because any major improvements to that property are assessed at their current market rate, and then added in to your tax assessment, you -as a landlord- are __seriously__ disincentivized to improve your property.

seanp2k2 3y ago
They can’t fix anything in SF because then it would ruin the aesthetic of ticky tacky faded pastel colored wall-to-wall vinyl sided two story houses with those single-car-garages-with-uselessly-steep-driveway-angles. At least the people who bought those for $60k back in the 60s get to pay about 1/20th of what the next owner would in property taxes so they can stay to witness the city crumble around them. Don’t want to mess up the feel of the neighborhood, you know.

pasttense01 3y ago

"In California, a misdemeanor, by definition, is a criminal offense for which the maximum penalty is no more than 364 days in county jail and a fine of not more than $1,000.00." I think that 364 days in the county jail is more than enough to deter people from shoplifting, etc. So the problem isn't the penalty; the problem is that the laws aren't enforced.

thephyber 3y ago
I also don’t have big issues with the felony/misdemeanor transition, but the cop in my family does. > The problem is that the laws aren’t enforced I would argue that legal punishments only work well when they are consistent and swift. The US legal system has failed on both accounts. Violent crime closure rates are abysmal, and the end of that funnel is just that someone was charged, not the right person being convicted. In practice, the IS legal system depends on leaning hard on anyone who might be a criminal (especially with bail bonds, the slow time to trial, the failure of public defenders to handle their caseload competently, and the overwhelming dependency on plea bargaining — which was unethical in this country until after the Civil War). Also, saying “the laws aren’t being enforced” seems naïve to who isn’t enforcing the laws and why.