I live in the PNW and regularly visit most of the major cities there and in NorCal. What exactly is more depressing there than any other city of any economic relevance in the nation?
I might care a little more about how they fix the problem, but only barely. Somebody had better fix the country soon.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fox-news-brian-kilmeade-apologi...
To those saying we never use the military for public security that’s simply false. NYC has had heavily armed national guard deployed as added security at transit hubs since 9/11 and they’re there to this day.
If leaders of cities don’t want others to step in, don’t give people a reason to step in.
The military cannot solve any of the domestic problems they’re being deployed to solve.
The sad part is that Trump talked so much nonsense and sh*t that you can find a quote to match almost any idea or policy, so any policy can be branded as his.
Crime is down, mic of the city is gentrified and the total number of homeless in CA and SF is roughly in the same range it’s been since Reagan was governor.
A lot of this BS about CA and how bad things are seems to be from people who haven’t been here long or people overdosing on right wing media which has Non-stop been attacking CA for 30 years nightly, all the while it has continued to become more and more dominant economically.
The current attitude seems to be that everything is fine and nothing needs fixing. Then people are shocked when Trump wins (and let’s be honest, Trump is not exactly a great person).
That's the logic that got Benioff in trouble.
FWIW: people like you have to realize that the Guard is not and has never been a law enforcement apparatus. The policy goal of "sending in the troops" to US cities is not and has never been crime (the metrics for which are getting better and not worse, yes even in SF).
The goal of putting military force in charge of directing civilians on city streets is and has always been giving the President, who commands that military, direct control over city streets. Right now if the white house doesn't like a protest or doesn't want it to happen, there's nothing they can do bureaucratically using their executive power to prevent it. It's a local thing. If the guard is already there waiting for orders, they can.
It sounds like hyperbole, but it's really not: the transparent purpose to this big National Guard kerfuffle is the military suppression of dissent at the direction of the President.
And the answer, very transparently, isn't crime.
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/09/1097517470/trump-esper-book-d...
That time it failed because the pentagon leadership and generals stood in unison against it and he backed down. The guardrails have been rejiggered this time and it's only the courts that protect us now.
I’ve gone to SF several times over the years for tech conferences. It started out as standard tourist excellence. Then it started rotting. The last year I went to Moscone Center, the afternoon walk back to the nearby hotel was horrific. Druggies lounging around, poop on the sidewalk, conference attendees speed marching through the maze, trying not to make eye contact.
Once back at the hotel, it was nonstop sirens after dark.
Compared to a decade back, it was a nightmare.
Update: Just saw this article, SEMICON West skipped SF and went to Phoenix this year. It was a success.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/17/tech-conference-tha...
SF deserves better, much better.
People took issue with them saying they don't care how it's fixed.
https://bfi.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/BFI_WP_2...
May be partly related in CA as well
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-27/failure-...
If you’re going to talk about reality you probably should read the sources you cite.
https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/24/nyregion/doubts-cast-on-i...
Other cases mentioned here https://whyy.org/articles/illegal-immigrants-lie-to-get-asyl...
Regarding the sentence which introduces the newspaper, if your reading comprehension is failing you, that’s not my problem.
Similar for a lot of other parts. Market anywhere between 6th and City Hall has been grimy for a long time. The Tenderloin, I'm assuming, has been the way it is for a century (since it derives its name from police getting higher pay for patrolling it). That stuff is all stumbling distance to the downtown core, tourists and business visitors.
I used to visit SF a bunch back in the 2008-2013 period, and it was the same as you describe it now. Coming from Europe I was shocked seeing things like people in broad daylight defecating on the street, smashing a car window, stealing a purse by pushing someone over so they hit their head unconscious and bleeding, it seemed like a madhouse.
Just in general that kind of attitude is how you end up exchanging one problem for exciting new problems that might be even worse, assuming the poorly considered solution even fixes the original problem.
Any halfway thoughtful and intellectually honest solutions analysis needs to consider A) is this an effective way to solve my problem and B) does it create unintended negative consequences or tradeoffs. Rhetoric exclusively focusing on the severity of the problem is almost always intended to get you to disengage the part of your brain that considers those two questions in favor of supporting any approach that just promises to solve the problem, whether or not it does so or creates any new problems in the process.
Walking where, exactly? Do you just tire yourself out doing laps in the Tenderloin? I suppose the Giants season was fairly depressing, so I'll give you that - walking around Oracle Park probably was pretty gloomy this year.
Janis Joplin was a hooker in SF.
What world are you talking about? You talking about the very small window of GAP commercial San Fran? Shoe store Haight Asberry versus 'doses, doses' Haight?
SF has gone dramatically downhill. I remember what it used to be like, a lovely city. Walking around SF now is depressing.