I’ve lived in the Bay Area most of my adult life and the crown jewel is San Francisco. Rich in history, rich in aggregate wealth, the most expensive housing market in the nation. Tourists from all over the world come to The City by the Bay. So why is it such a dump?
Used needles and human feces are found littering downtown San Francisco as infectious disease expert warns the area is becoming dirtier than some slums in India and Brazil.
It gets worse;
How dirty is San Francisco? An NBC Bay Area Investigation reveals a dangerous mix of drug needles, garbage, and feces across a 153-block stretch of downtown San Francisco.
As the Investigative Unit photographed nearly a dozen hypodermic needles scattered across one block, a group of preschool students happened to walk by on their way to an afternoon field trip to city hall.
“We see poop, we see pee, we see needles, and we see trash,” said teacher Adelita Orellana. “Sometimes they ask what is it, and that’s a conversation that’s a little difficult to have with a 2-year old, but we just let them know that those things are full of germs, that they are dangerous, and they should never be touched.”
Not exactly the image the city wants promulgated to potential tourists and their expendable cash. But wait, no car parked on city streets is safe either. 85 break-ins on average a day and the cops don’t even come to take a report.
I know it is a cliche, a talking point to connect liberal policies with societal ills. The argument made is that each city has its now-unique set of problems, and this is probably true, to a point. But attitudes about police involvement, what laws the city elders want ignored, what approach to take with drug abuse, indecent exposure, are erratic even when it comes to dangerous behavior in public. Each city creates polices within its boundaries, shaped by their belief as to what the citizens who live there want. For San Francisco it has created a filthy, dangerous, crime infested city that only the truly deluded could find appealing.
We used to go into The City around Christmastime but that was years ago. Now between the nightmare of parking, the not-so-appealing smells, and all of the “interesting” characters walking around that appear menacing, we spend our casual time in other Bay Area locales.
It’s sad, really, because I have so many fond memories of it from when I was growing up; a genuine affinity still requires me to call this place home and hope for a much-needed rehabilitation. Silicon Valley has brought great prosperity and wealth to the Bay Area. The funds are here to make this place great again. Of course, this requires that those in power have the vision to actually see a problem. I’m not sure on this.
Never say never. My own city was in decline for most of my life. Downtown started coming back to life with new development plans and other community efforts. It’s amazing how much different it is compared to 20 years ago.
San Francisco is amazing and I hope it gets its own Renaissance once it rediscovers its civic values. Won’t happen until the residents themselves decide that they deserve better than degeneracy and lawlessness.
SF is just another example of “progressive leadership” in action. Of course the people who think this is great don’t have to live there.
I’ve spent a decent amount of time in downtown SF over the last few years for work. And the first word I used to describe the city to my wife after my first trip there was “dirty”. I think it probably has something to do with the massive homeless population there – you see them everywhere.
OT but Billy Graham has died:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/obituaries/billy-graham-dead.html
I could show you pictures of sunset junction down here in Los Angeles, or the encampments in the Santa Ana river and your eyes would bleed as a person who probably patrolled those areas in the past. It’s a California problem, not a partisan or San Francisco problem. If you want to talk about what’s causing it, or how a liberally centric government could allow these people to fall through the safety net, I guess that’s one way to go with it. As you addressed above, goofy liberal cities probably have goofy city councils (I deal with one myself) that… Read more »
I could show you pictures of sunset junction down here in Los Angeles, or the encampments in the Santa Ana river and your eyes would bleed as a person who probably patrolled those areas in the past. It’s a California problem, not a partisan or San Francisco problem. Yep, aware of them, for those that aren’t; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04Z3Rd0rD_I not blaming on each other Um, I re read my post because I didn’t think I was blaming anyone, nope , no blame affixed anywhere. And my post was not just about the homeless problem, which deserves a separate post of it’s own,… Read more »
Ok. My bad, I thought this was heading toward “see this liberal hellhole.it sucks here because Democrats” which I’ve found in politics has become almost unbearable. I’ve found out from my own experience in politics in these town council meetings there’s a few types of people that attend the meetings. There’s the town crossing guard that uses the podium to bitch about irrelevant solutions to problems (ie. “We should put together a fund to get the homeless guy on the corner a 401k with his coin jar”), there’s the people that go into any public issue to inject their party… Read more »
I used to live in South Pasadena, loved it. It sounds like your little town is unincorporated, CHP does traffic and LASO handles criminal complaints. While working in L.A. I worked West Hollywood before it incorporated, a lot of fun. I found that those little towns that had both got better coverage over all. I knew many of the store and nightclub owners and they knew me, more personalized service. No, it’s not as simple as ,”Damn liberal cities, what do you expect?” California has a lot of homeless because of our mild weather. I doubt Seattle, Boulder, or Cambridge… Read more »
I think the opioids are a BIG culprit here too, Rich. These guys aren’t blowing their Uber paychecks on weed. Yes, of course being a bum in California might be about as temperate as bum life can be, but I see a lot of them are YOUNG. They should have their whole lives ahead of them but they’re on the street. That doesn’t sound like a cocaine problem, these kids are hooked on Charlie. If you know about the Santa Ana river encampment I’m sure you read about the tunnel sized underground bunker these homeless built to hide stolen bikes.… Read more »
its so bad, that there is a heat map detailing where the shit is.
http://mochimachine.org/wasteland/#
Before I answer the couple of questions you presented, Rich, I’d just like to throw out one solution to see what your thoughts are. I think California needs to repel prop 40(?) , 41 or whatever the prop was that put a hold on property taxes and tie them to the original sales price of the home. Now I know that will be hard, if not impossible burden to bear on our retirees and I’m open to hearing ideas on how to accommodate them. Maybe a lien on the value of the home. Something. We have to do something about… Read more »
Yeeeeaaaahhhhh, I’m totally against repealing prop. 13. The percentage of homes in California where the original buyer bought it 30 years ago for a song is so small it is a non factor. California has more multi million dollar homes sold each year than any other state, Sacramento gets so much money in property taxes from the sales of these multi million dollar homes, it’s ridiculous. No, the problem is not that Sacramento is not getting the tax revenue, it is that they are not good stewards of that tax revenue and they spend on boondoggles like the bullet train.… Read more »