The SF problems exist in a lot of American places. Hard not to think that American governance plus American culture are both a bit broken. Without a social saf

The SF problems exist in a lot of American places. Hard not to think that American governance plus American culture are both a bit broken. Without a social safety net, the troubled and in-trouble layers of our society can’t find a hold for recovery. I’m in SF right now. It’s a lovely place across many dimensions. But when the bus dropped me off near Civic Center and City Hall, I had to walk through and around a crowd that is in need of help. My office used to be at 8th and Howard. I had to walk around the troubles. My employees would sob after wading in. The hardened part of me thinks “the addicts on the street have done this to themselves”, and the supportive part of me says “other places have figured out the minimum viable social safety net” to avoid the worst of it. Hard to believe that a Whole Foods went into a giant residential development center and no one could figure out how not to lose it. EDIT: Amending with the following thoughts: Cities and states will struggle to solve problems that need to be built at the federal level. Social support infrastructure for medical, unemployment, housing. Lose your job? Here and now you’ll be losing health insurance immediately and eventually housing. Other places have paid up to mitigate that and have lower levels of our acute issues. Going into the future, with climate change, California will someday carry greater recognition that among the biggest and greatest cities on the planet, SF and LA arguably have the best weather and by quite a huge margin. I love NYC and Berlin and Singapore, but their weather sucks compared to the west coast’s. We’re beyond lucky and we act/vote selfishly and NIH/NIMBYish.