4 ms·

The local political scene in San Francisco is beyond broken, but the idea that it's a failed city was always a media fabrication. Based on yet more terrible po

• chii 3y ago
  > a media fabrication. it's in the interest of the right-wing media to push the narrative that san fran is failing due to the left's "interference".
  • foolfoolz 3y ago
    this isn’t reduced to something so basic as “right wing media.” there was a real problem. the city as a whole thought it and voted to recall their district attorney for his policies of not prosecuting crimes
  • throwing_away 3y ago
    Is it? I used to live there and now I don't. The homeless situation really did get out of control after 2015 or so. I hear it's only gotten worse. Maybe owning a home shouldn't take longer than a SWE's working lifespan. If you're very wealthy and can afford to be isolated in SF, it's probably still a lovely experience.
    • beretguy 3y ago
      Not sure why you are downvoted. I lived there 8 years, relocated to the east side (because of work initially but decided to stay) and would never want to (or even be able to afford) to come back. Homelessness, drugs, expensive housing, traffic, car break-ins, theft in broad daylight (you can steal up to I think $800 worth of stuff and not get punished), underground street racing gangs (they block intersections in broad daylight to do donuts and cops just stand there and watch unable to do anything about them), red light traffic cameras everywhere, paid freeway lanes, gender politics is being forced on elementary/middle school kids while science like math is being simplified (instead of encouraging smart kids to study harder material they bring curriculum to a lower level to match the level of kids who struggle with math) - it’s not a city where I would want to raise children in. Pardon my poor English.
  • not_really 3y ago
    How to tell someone you haven't visited SF since 2021, without telling them
  • iaseiadit 3y ago
    It’s easy to dismiss everyone who doesn’t like being surrounded by fentanyl and meth addiction and crime as “right wing,” but it just makes them sound pretty sensible. All my friends moved away over a span of about three years. I held on as long as I could but I finally threw in the towel too.
    • wyclif 3y ago
      Easy way to tell which longtime SF residents have Stockholm Syndrome: they blame everything that is completely broken in the city on "right wing media."
• more_corn 3y ago
  Really? I lived there. It felt pretty failed to me. Utter corruption at the planning department. Lawlessness, open injection of opioids in broad daylight on city streets. No police response for anything. People just stop reporting theft and property crime because police obviously don’t give a shit. Speaking of shit. All over the streets. Smash and grab theft so rampant that there’s a cop on every corner downtown during Christmas season. The only thing they can get done is the one city service that is cash flow positive. Writing you tickets for street cleaning. Honestly, couldn’t get out of there fast enough. What part of sf do you still enjoy?
  • 8f2ab37a-ed6c 3y ago
    The solution is pretty simple, don't go to downtown. Downtown, at least many parts of it, is a containment zone for the homeless and the addicted and their various services. It's not that different from Skid Row/Flower District in DTLA. You can enjoy Pac Heights, Noe, the Dogpatch, the Sunset, the Richmond, North Beach etc. etc. just fine without ever making contact with downtown, the same way most people don't hang out on 5th and San Pedro in LA and can still enjoy Silver Lake. You can pretend it doesn't exist and never cross paths, unless you really insist on spending quality time on 6th and Mission and other fine intersections. Would I like it better if the Tenderloin was more Fifth Avenue and less World War Z? Sure, but that's not happening with the way SF politics work, so I might as well live with the cards we were dealt.
    • xcrunner529 3y ago
      Not exactly a ringing endorsement lol. Where are the gay bars in SF?
      • felixfbecker 3y ago
        In the Castro. Not downtown
        • gedy 3y ago
          A whole 1.5 miles away
• bilbo0s 3y ago
  you'd have to believe the media and propaganda more than your own eyes and ears. So basically, you'd have to be any human. We parrot propaganda all the time. Rarely is any of it fact based. You don't need facts to get people to buy into your narrative. You just need a story that fits your world view. Truth or falsehood is largely irrelevant.
• tlogan 3y ago
  If you are rich then San Francisco is not broken / failed. It is a great place: excellent private schools, nice wether, nice restaurants, etc.
  • dilyevsky 3y ago
    South bay / peninsula have better private schools (even some good public ones), nicer weather, maybe fewer nicer restaurants though
    • seanmcdirmid 3y ago
      South bay is car hell if you don't like to drive. There are plenty of reasons to want to live in SF rather than San Jose.
      • dilyevsky 3y ago
        Most rich people mostly don’t have to drive. Sf is for young single/dinks and retirees
• roughly 3y ago
  > The local political scene in San Francisco is beyond broken Real question here, is there a city who's residents don't say this?
  • pfannkuchen 3y ago
    Copenhagen?
    • lostmsu 3y ago
      Maybe if they don't know what happens on the backstage.
  • trilbyglens 3y ago
    There are myriad
  • Ajay-p 3y ago
    Yes, many I say. When you see the poverty, malcontent, and crime right before your eyes every day on the streets of your city, it is a problem. Atlanta does not have the level of open lawlessness than San Francisco does. Atlanta has its problems but it's a nice place to live for anyone. San Francisco is only a place to live for the wealthy, everyone else is crushed by the insanity.
    • microtherion 3y ago
      Atlanta has more violent crime than San Francisco (as do many other cities). The one crime where San Francisco really stands out is theft, everything else is more or less middle of the pack: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_crime_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_b...
    • seanmcdirmid 3y ago
      Atlanta has a lot more violent crime than any west coast city. Easier to get murdered there as well.
• Gabriel54 3y ago
  First time driving through San Francisco I saw someone shooting up heroin on the sidewalk. Seen lots of stuff in NYC, Trenton, Camden, etc., but never such obvious issues with drug addiction and homelessness.
  • hezralig 3y ago
    First time I was walking through Houston I saw a man shit on the sidewalk and fall into it. What was your point?
    • Grum9 3y ago
      Everyone shits, not everyone does heroin.
      • bilbo0s 3y ago
        Ever been to rural Wisconsin? We definitely have what we like to call an 'opioid' problem here. I lived in Houston from Rita to Harvey. Also had serious drug problems. Needles and all. There is no way other people living in Houston could not have noticed these issues. Homelessness, drugs, rampant crime. For San Fran to be different from Houston, there would need to be something more.
    • Gabriel54 3y ago
      It was an anecdotal example. Other examples I saw include drug paraphernalia (e.g. needles) littered all over the sidewalks, vast encampments of homeless people, and no police presence. Maybe a bad day? I've been to Houston many times and never seen anything like that. I've also seen shadier parts of NYC but the level of despair appeared much higher in SF.
  • culi 3y ago
    Drove through Hollywood and saw a man pull over on a very busy and well-lit street, open his car door, and proceed to piss between his car and the busy sidewalk. That's just normal city stuff. Has a certain charm to it imo
  • 3y ago
• beretguy 3y ago
  > but the idea that it's a failed city was always a media fabrication. Let me copy a piece of my comment I already wrote as a reply to a different comment deeper in this thread: > Homelessness, drugs, expensive housing, traffic, car break-ins, theft in broad daylight (you can steal up to I think $800 worth of stuff and not get punished), underground street racing gangs (they block intersections in broad daylight to do donuts and cops just stand there and watch unable to do anything about them), red light traffic cameras everywhere, paid freeway lanes, gender politics is being forced on elementary/middle school kids while science like math is being simplified (instead of encouraging smart kids to study harder material they bring curriculum to a lower level to match the level of kids who struggle with math). So no, it’s not just “media fabrication”. San Francisco is in a state of chaos and lawlessness and it is getting worse.
  • seanmcdirmid 3y ago
    From Parent: > but the idea that it's a "failed city" was always a media fabrication. And you mention: > Homelessness, drugs, expensive housing, traffic, car break-ins, theft in broad daylight (you can steal up to I think $800 worth of stuff and not get punished), underground street racing gangs (they block intersections in broad daylight to do donuts and cops just stand there and watch unable to do anything about them), red light traffic cameras everywhere, paid freeway lanes, gender politics is being forced on elementary/middle school kids while science like math is being simplified (instead of encouraging smart kids to study harder material they bring curriculum to a lower level to match the level of kids who struggle with math). "Things I don't like" does not make SF a failed city, it doesn't mean property values will fall (let alone go to zero) as everyone flees. It does mean that SF will continue being a city not for everyone. > So no, it’s not just “media fabrication”. San Francisco is in a state of chaos and lawlessness and it is getting worse. Again, that's really just your opinion and outlook, you don't have to live in SF, you probably don't.