As usual, elections have consequences, and while people generally agree the new DA has a lot to do with the decline (not prosecuting crimes etc), few are questioning the ideology that led to his election, and the principles underpinning this way of "governance".

The sad part is plenty of people are happy to move, the privilege of mobility, to get away from the madness of SF, but will happily vote in similar ways in the next place they set up shop in. And thus the cycle will continue. It can only stop if there is a proper reflection on how and why this state of affairs was allowed to happen, and with changed actions in the future.

As an SF native, I can absolutely corroborate this.

Its never been as bad as it has in the last 5 years.

The Poopocalypse started under Gavin in 2003 and has continually gotten far worse. The new DA has made it 10x worse.

Okay, 50% worse or something I could maybe buy, but 1000%? You're giving a single bureaucrat way too much credit. People always seem to believe that there was some magical time when San Francisco was an artist's refuge, and the rent was cheap, and there was no crime. I don't buy it. I was driving with my father a while back, and he pointed out the apartment where he used to live. And the spot down the street where the under-aged prostitutes used to hang out. Parts of the city have been a mess longer than anyone has been alive. Some are improving, some are getting worse. Let's not pretend that firing one person would somehow fix all of that.

A lot of strawmanning here.

As someone who lived in SF for over 10 years I can tell you that in the first 7 years there were zero homeless tents at Mission / Van Ness and in the following 3 years the street was lined up with them.

There were zero homeless in the tunnel to Powell station and then the tunnel was lined up with them. You could not only see but also smell.

I don't know how to express going from 0 homeless to "have I been teleported to a favela?" in percentages. You can't divide by 0.

Yeah, SF never was a paradise but now it's definitely a slum.

Its a cascade of bad bureaucrats but the latest one takes the cake in being horrendous.

The open violence has exploded, period.

The crime against artists in the 1990's was VERY very low, and the rent was affordable.

As a former resident, I'd be curious how the 30% who haven't had a decline in quality of life... live?

How are they avoiding all of the change?

People with enough money are able to insulate themselves from society's problems pretty thoroughly

I'd split it 15% too bought into the narrative and unwilling to admit failure, and 15% retirees living in sunset who never make it downtown.

Car theft is way up, but goes largely unnoticed by those without cars, or have private parking. Uber/Lyft just doesn't work sometimes now, but those that don't use either service aren't going to notice.

It's sad that eg the bbq joint down the street closed down, but I can't wait to see what ends up there next! Will it be a fancy tea place? or have some sort of interesting delicious fusion food? It's sad they didn't survive covid, but all of the restaurants I'll miss aren't a 30% hit to the quality of life - there are a bunch of restaurants that managed to survive, and even some that opened up during the pandemic!

For those that had never really explored their neighborhood until the pandemic, finding awesome things nearby their house like a hidden garden actually improves life from before the pandemic! I became close friends during the pandemic to some acquaintences, and it's absolutely improved my quality of life.

Change isn't necessarily bad, so the 30% aren't avoiding the change - they're embracing it, celebrating the good parts, complaining about the old and new problems, but not letting it dampen their optimism for the future.

I’ve lived in north beach for about 11 years. Not really sure how to answer your question other than to say I still love it as much as the day I moved in.

I have everything I need within walking distance. The weather is incredible. I’ve never been robbed or had any particularly bad experiences (I’m relatively tall and a man so ymmv).

I don’t know, from my perspective it’s a pretty great city unless you have to spend a lot of time in SOMA or the tenderloin.

I can certainly understand why others haven’t had the same experience. But I don’t think it’s surprising that 3 in 10 are able to say they still enjoy it. It all comes down to when you moved here, where you live, and how much you’re paying.

Probably the homeless folks.

That would still leave SF homeless underrepresented on HN.

Maybe they are criminals. They can steal all they want and not go to prison. Sounds like heaven for a thief.

Money

... and/or Stockholm syndrome?

Addendum/update:

Also, this context seems to share a lot of similarities with the rise and fall of the now abandoned ghost towns that emerged during gold mining, or am I the only one making this association?

I'm not sure about the numbers but I would guess that the sf evacuation is worse than the rest of the valley. It's just from what I've heard and not sure about how well it holds true for everyone that has left but have heard that people mainly lived there for convenience to be close to work or because they liked having fun at bars and stuff. Bars are tame now and this probably sounds bad but it's become more sketchy with the large homeless population in some areas and some areas are an open restroom and not sure of anyone that wants to live in an area like that. I'm not sure how to properly help the homeless population but the current status quo doesn't seem tenable.

There’s definitely an element of frog boiling but I also think the jolt of the pandemic forced people to reevaluate their situations.

BTW SF was itself a gold rush town, and its tolerance for weirdness* is often attributed to that.

* said tolerance for weirdness has seriously declined over the last couple of decades as people moved in for reasons other than that variety.

> 76% said increasing the number of police officers in high-crime neighborhoods should be a priority.

In a single sentence makes it clear as day.

As an outsider who visits yearly it seems like an opportunity to me. Of course the last time I visited was 2019. I’m in the odd position of not knowing what my job will be in specifically six months, and I know I can find something there. Time will tell, my wife’s job is where I am right now. It’s something I’ve never been able to do and always wanted, and I think I can manage it financially now. I should probably rent for a year and see what it’s really like, shouldn’t I?

To make myself more clear. SF has jobs, weather, things to do, surrounding nature, a world class airport, and ... high vaccination rates. I can't think of another US city that has all these. With crime and reportedly subpar public schools, I'd probably be thinking differently with a kid. But I can't name a single city that has those as well.

I’d open to debate, and want to hear why you think I’m wrong. This would be a big change. Thanks.

Can't believe a global pandemic is hurting quality of life.

What has this world -- or more importantly san Francisco, come to??

Most of my gen-x friends from mid-2010's SF have moved to the East Bay. I much prefer going to Berkeley or Oakland to crossing the bridge.

I suspect that may have something to do with that there pandemic everyone’s so excited about.

Now don’t get me wrong the city is epically mismanaged and has a lot of its own problems, but the amount of chart crime going on right now (X is up YYY% since last year!) is pretty unforgivable.

Dupe of: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27724699

Both are posted by relatively new accounts (green usernames). This one's most recent comment is shallow complaining about diversity/equity/enclusion. The previous one is named "FreeSpeech" and linked in the comments to a post about Soros.

People are pushing an agenda on you.

Sam Altman himself has now started saying that if the facts don't match his feelings, we need to look harder until we find facts that do: https://twitter.com/sama/status/1410251675395264517

I remember a time when hackers - real hackers - valued truth, wherever it took them. But a funny thing about the truth is that it doesn't tend to suit the rich.

I looked, and found no evidence at all that those two accounts are related.

Be careful not to read too much into specific data points. Randomness plus cognitive bias equals narrative—and making a big rhetorical narrative about it is almost certainly a bad idea.