4 ms·

They're mostly self-inflicted. Prop 47 caused a great amount of problems for the state by decriminalizing all drugs and theft up to $1000/per incident. We are j

They're mostly self-inflicted. Prop 47 caused a great amount of problems for the state by decriminalizing all drugs and theft up to $1000/per incident. We are just attracting junkies/criminals from other states where they actually enforce the law... Most of the homeless are not even from California when you talk to them. They come here for the lack of drug laws and ability to steal to fund their habit--and many cities even give debit cards to them. We're actively subsidizing the worst of the worst people and encouraging them to move here. Now we have organized shoplifting rings and junkies on fentanyl and meth living under every bridge and overpass. The state is in an epic free fall of quality of life since 2014 when prop 47 passed. There's no common sense anymore and our politicians are all crooks trying to personally enrich themselves or friends/family at the expense of everyone else. The only reason the bottom hasn't fallen out is big tech, Hollywood, agriculture/wine, beaches/Tahoe/tourism, and all the taxes they pay. I don't understand how people aren't more sick of putting up with this. I know I'm sick of seeing open drug use, prostitution, filthy streets, and not feeling like any public spaces are actually safe anymore. Beyond that... it's nearly impossible to build an affordable market rate house, starting a small business is more difficult than anywhere else due to regulation, our public schools are terrible.... but yeah there are some really well run tech companies that pay absurd amounts of money so a lot of people are still willing to put up with it all. I think there will be a breaking point though... Every time some liberal/progressive voter has to clean up feces/needles off their front stoop, is robbed in their driveway, takes their kids to a public park but a homeless person is there doing drugs in the bathroom (or much much worse), or the cops tell them they can't remove the homeless camp on their block, I suspect they become ever-so-slightly more conservative. Eventually this will turn even the bluest state red. Democrats are digging their own grave by pandering to nonsense and ignoring the reality of what it's actually like living here. When I grew up here in the 90s, the homeless were more like 1-5 per 100,000--not it feels like it's 50x to 200x that. They also weren't allowed to just camp in public spaces and leave ecological disasters everywhere they went... Whatever policies we've enacted need to urgently be repealed. Ideology now trumps objective reality.

cdelsolar 3y ago
Is this just conservative propaganda? Source?
- diogenescynic 3y ago
  I'm just reporting what I've seen living here. And I've voted democrat my entire life, but I won't this next election. After having kids and seeing how cops respond to 911 calls, I can't keep giving my vote to pathetic democrats. Shoplifting incident yesterday: https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/video/watch-group-of-thieves-ransack-walgreens-store-at-san-franciscos-civic-center-area/ https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/video/watch-group-of-th... Stuff like this happens constantly, most isn't even reported. I used to work by the Salesforce tower and saw this happen a few times in 2018-2019. If you make enough money and have a $2M house, you can insulate yourself from a lot of this. I unfortunately am not as insulated from it as I'd like to be. I live in a 'nice' neighborhood, but even I've had homeless people camp in front of my house, a hit and run on my car that 911 wouldn't respond to, etc etc. Like I said, people only have to have a few of these eye opening incidents before they start questioning the direction this state is heading in and who is steering the ship.
  - hot_gril 3y ago
    Many would say the same about SF in particular, but it's also an extreme example. I worked there for 4 years, then once I wanted to start a family, I left and didn't look back. It's not even like SF gets tons of hate because it's doing well; the place's relevance is truly fading.
- analognoise 3y ago
  True though - a bunch of places that would kill to have any California problem and nobody wants to move to try to put a “diss track” out on California. It’s pretty funny.
readams 3y ago
Worth noting that most of the homeless population in California is from California: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/07/california-homelessness-housing-crisis/674737/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/07/california... (https://archive.is/gm1wq https://archive.is/gm1wq) It seems our problems with homelessness stem mostly from high housing costs and our dysfunctional homeless industrial complex.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  I find it hard to believe that people who could no longer afford a home in CA became homeless instead of moving to a cheaper state. Or at the city level, I really doubt the homeless people in SF are from SF.
- diogenescynic 3y ago
  I don't believe that study at all--it's published by people with an agenda who want to slant reality so they keep getting funding. When I see homeless people and talk to them, they openly admin they're from out of state and came here for the drugs and weather. There are people like this guy I've met who are very open about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGaWD2GMh8Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGaWD2GMh8Y
  - analognoise 3y ago
    Isn’t that set of videos from a well known right wing grifter and a bunch of stuff was written about him not that long ago?
    - diogenescynic 3y ago
      Not to my knowledge. Everything in those videos is consistent with what I saw while living in San Francisco. I had a homeless tweaker that kept breaking into our building to do drugs in the garage. I know their name and where they’re from because I had to get a restraining order. They were not a local. They were getting social security/disability AND the city gave them cash/debit card monthly. I know because I cleaned up their trash and saw the receipts and that’s how I got their name to serve them. Like I said above, I was a progressive voter my entire life and never questioned it. But there are only so many times you’re gonna clean up human feces or needles before it changes your ideological perspective on deregulating drugs and theft…
packetlost 3y ago
Take this with a grain of salt, but back when I was last in SF in 2018, it was easily one of the most disgusting cities I have ever been in. I live and grew up in the Midwest and have been to most of the Midwestern cities (sorry St. Louis, some day I'll visit you) and a handful of other cities. Garbage lined the highways like I've never seen anywhere else, it was truly surprising and something that sticks with me years later. I spent most of my time downtown, but did venture to other parts. The nice parts of SF were really nice, but you'd go one block away and there would literally be people shooting up drugs on the sidewalk. I've spent a lot of time in Seattle as well, I really love Seattle, but it's quickly becoming very similar in parts. It makes me sad, both because of the suffering but also because it makes me not want to be in either of those cities. I don't think y'all really understand how abnormal that stuff is, and it's blatantly the fault a greedy and incompetent political body hiding behind the masquerade of performative politics.

cdelsolar 3y ago

Is this just conservative propaganda? Source?

diogenescynic 3y ago
I'm just reporting what I've seen living here. And I've voted democrat my entire life, but I won't this next election. After having kids and seeing how cops respond to 911 calls, I can't keep giving my vote to pathetic democrats. Shoplifting incident yesterday: https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/video/watch-group-of-thieves-ransack-walgreens-store-at-san-franciscos-civic-center-area/ https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/video/watch-group-of-th... Stuff like this happens constantly, most isn't even reported. I used to work by the Salesforce tower and saw this happen a few times in 2018-2019. If you make enough money and have a $2M house, you can insulate yourself from a lot of this. I unfortunately am not as insulated from it as I'd like to be. I live in a 'nice' neighborhood, but even I've had homeless people camp in front of my house, a hit and run on my car that 911 wouldn't respond to, etc etc. Like I said, people only have to have a few of these eye opening incidents before they start questioning the direction this state is heading in and who is steering the ship.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  Many would say the same about SF in particular, but it's also an extreme example. I worked there for 4 years, then once I wanted to start a family, I left and didn't look back. It's not even like SF gets tons of hate because it's doing well; the place's relevance is truly fading.
analognoise 3y ago
True though - a bunch of places that would kill to have any California problem and nobody wants to move to try to put a “diss track” out on California. It’s pretty funny.

readams 3y ago

Worth noting that most of the homeless population in California is from California: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/07/california-homelessness-housing-crisis/674737/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/07/california... (https://archive.is/gm1wq https://archive.is/gm1wq) It seems our problems with homelessness stem mostly from high housing costs and our dysfunctional homeless industrial complex.

hot_gril 3y ago
I find it hard to believe that people who could no longer afford a home in CA became homeless instead of moving to a cheaper state. Or at the city level, I really doubt the homeless people in SF are from SF.
diogenescynic 3y ago
I don't believe that study at all--it's published by people with an agenda who want to slant reality so they keep getting funding. When I see homeless people and talk to them, they openly admin they're from out of state and came here for the drugs and weather. There are people like this guy I've met who are very open about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGaWD2GMh8Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGaWD2GMh8Y
- analognoise 3y ago
  Isn’t that set of videos from a well known right wing grifter and a bunch of stuff was written about him not that long ago?
  - diogenescynic 3y ago
    Not to my knowledge. Everything in those videos is consistent with what I saw while living in San Francisco. I had a homeless tweaker that kept breaking into our building to do drugs in the garage. I know their name and where they’re from because I had to get a restraining order. They were not a local. They were getting social security/disability AND the city gave them cash/debit card monthly. I know because I cleaned up their trash and saw the receipts and that’s how I got their name to serve them. Like I said above, I was a progressive voter my entire life and never questioned it. But there are only so many times you’re gonna clean up human feces or needles before it changes your ideological perspective on deregulating drugs and theft…

packetlost 3y ago

Take this with a grain of salt, but back when I was last in SF in 2018, it was easily one of the most disgusting cities I have ever been in. I live and grew up in the Midwest and have been to most of the Midwestern cities (sorry St. Louis, some day I'll visit you) and a handful of other cities. Garbage lined the highways like I've never seen anywhere else, it was truly surprising and something that sticks with me years later. I spent most of my time downtown, but did venture to other parts. The nice parts of SF were really nice, but you'd go one block away and there would literally be people shooting up drugs on the sidewalk. I've spent a lot of time in Seattle as well, I really love Seattle, but it's quickly becoming very similar in parts. It makes me sad, both because of the suffering but also because it makes me not want to be in either of those cities. I don't think y'all really understand how abnormal that stuff is, and it's blatantly the fault a greedy and incompetent political body hiding behind the masquerade of performative politics.