Also what "gleaming towers"? We have, like... 5 of those in the entire city? Most residential stock is low-rise or SFH, and the rich certainly mostly live in the latter (see: Pacific Heights and parts of the Sunset).
I'll be the first to not only admit, but scream, that SF has a ton of problems, but you have not characterized them correctly at all.
In addition, the wealthy of San Francisco live in giant single family homes. It’s not a big skyscraper culture.
It's got problems (rise in homelessness & property crimes and the Tenderloin is as bad as its ever been re: drugs), but the gap between "big city problems" and "monstrous dystopia" is about as wide as the bay itself.
There are homeless in several parts of the city, yes, but those parts are easy to avoid if that's your inclination.
San Francisco is a very liberal city, and with that comes compassion for the less fortunate. Because the Constitution says anyone can move about anywhere in the US, that means that a lot of those unlucky end up here because it is better than living in a conservative city where there are less activists looking out for their interests. San Francisco doesn't create homeless people faster than other cities, but it does attract them, simply because compassion isn't spread evenly across the country.
I'm not convinced it is as dysfunctional as the article states. And I'm very happy I don't live where people are screaming at other people because those people are (god forbid) wearing masks. All of the partisan hatred and vitriol that has consumed so much of the country hasn't really hit us here. At least not among ourselves.
You’re joking right? If by easy to avoid you mean do not go outside. A friend lives in a very nice neighborhood in a beautiful home in SF. A block away while walking to my car there was a half naked man rambling to himself in the bushes. It is ubiquitous unless you mentally block it out.
I moved to the SF Bay area from NYC 4 years ago and I routinely tell my friends that you need to watch out for human, not animal, feces on the street.
It's really sad to see people who are employed that are still homeless and have to deal with mental issues :(
--https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_ra...
The list of countries by incarceration rate is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcera....
About 5% of people in the US go to prison at some point, 9% for males, 16% for Hispanic males, and 29% for black males. https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/Llgsfp.pdf
"About one-quarter of U.S. adults report having a mental health diagnosis such as anxiety or depression or experiencing emotional distress. This is one of the highest rates among 11 high-income countries. ... The United States has some of the worst mental health–related outcomes, including the highest suicide rate and second-highest drug-related death rate."
--https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2...
And of course, "Approximately 80 percent of the global opioid supply is consumed in the United States".
-- https://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/27/americans-consume-almost-all...
The Federal Government estimates that about 0.4% of Californians were homeless in 2020. From what I've seen on the streets the numbers are probably a little worse now.
[1] https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2020/11/15/la-fondati...
The article touches on why that won’t happen though. Voter demographics won’t allow that. It’s either radical and young liberals which would go for every insane policy or the old and entrenched.
San Francisco was this way since forever. The poor have been systematically corralled into the Tenderloin for over 100 years. The divisions between neighborhoods elsewhere were why San Francisco was always considered so "charming"--you could cross the street and enter an entirely different world.
Setting aside the tremendous increase in drug abuse and homelessness, it's the tearing down of those virtual fences, especially around the Tenderloin, that is really causing people to freak out. It's just that their freak outs are coded in the language of social activism. Excepting the Tenderloin, every other part of San Francisco has become systematically homogenized, not to mention seen increased wealth.