I think quite a lot of tech people really don’t have any understanding that most cities are not like this. I don’t get it because they travel for conferences. Do they never stop and think ‘huh I wonder why it’s different here…’

They do understand. They don't care. SF is a transient place for many. They stay while it is good and leave when it isn't. They never really get invested in the city.

This is the exact opposite of my experience: it’s the techies who want to fix San Francisco and the longtime residents who shriek that nothing is wrong and how dare you even suggest we need to change anything you racist.

That would require that they consider that any place outside of SF was worth living in.

As a resident of SF, one thing that resonated with me - SF is a gold rush town, not a whole lot different than 1849. People come to SF hoping to strike it rich or just be a little weird and left alone, and with that comes a certain mentality. The city is rough, a little lawless and that still true today. People like the “roughness”.

That’s not saying it hasn’t gotten worse in the last year or two. But it’s never been shiny and clean.

It boggles my mind that sidewalk defecation only matters as a measure of where one should move, rather than a measure of what is wrong with our culture and society that produces iPhones with the one hand and crushes so many people with the other.

Comments like this are why SF is such a terrible place. Instead of having standards, the bar is lowered and lowered and goalposts are moved to avoid addressing the crime and other issues with the city.

I don’t think this is a cultural issue, most other US cities don’t have the sidewalk defecation problems that SF has had / still has.

The most simple explanation that fully explains what’s going on would be the policy of this specific city’s government.

Most other states don't house the only two relevant mobile OS vendors either.

How does that cause sidewalk defecation problems in SF?

But most cities in the us do not have defecation on the sidewalks.

Thus there is no need for mental shenanigans.