I went to the city last night for a closing dinner. Took BART to Montgomery Street and walked through the financial district to meet a friend for a drink before heading to the restaurant. On my way I saw a driverless Waymo pass by, which is apparently a thing now and there’s a waitlist to become a member. The friend I was meeting said he's used it several times and thought it actually felt safer than an Uber. The bar was packed on a Wednesday. Headed to dinner at Bix, which was also completely full of people. Afterwards we walked to another bar near the TransAmerica Pyramid, which is when I took this photo. Didn’t have any issues or see any sketchy people. No zombie apocalypse like clickbait headlines will make you believe. The point is SF is awesome and isn’t going anywhere. The bad part is 5 square blocks that captures everyone’s attention and is not representative of the entire city. #sanfrancisco
Looks like a shot from High Horse, formerly Aventine. Happy you had a great visit to SF.
West Coast Gotham... more than 5 blocks perhaps 5 square miles, I grew up going to SF from SoCal... you are in LALA land if you think it's 5 blocks, Union Square, Wharf, Tenderloin, it's all sketchy... I am 6 feet tall strong and fearless, I have walked through the West Bank, as a jew, along with many tough places in Compton, Harlem, Oakland, Baltimore, and other cities, around the world. I was just as terrified, that some crackhead would stab me with their glass crack pipe than some thug holding me up for my money... I highly disagree with your one-off romanticized enchanted evening in San Fran...
Nice closing! I wouldn't call the containment zone "5 square blocks". The affected area runs SoMa up to Lower Nob Hill and spotty in other areas at times. That is a a large area spanning several neighborhoods. I think categorizing the State and City's sweeping failed policy on immigrations, drugs, crime, housing, public safety, clean streets click bait is just wrong. You have a lot of folks accurately depicting some really gnarly conditions that mainly the poorest, most dense and highest children per capita neighborhoods are faced with. I agree with your closing remark but I also agree that something needs to be done to drive sounds moderate policy in SF. Enough is enough. Costar projects the office market to be in a slump for the next 5 years. This slump will affect other sectors of the market. Rents have plunged along with sales prices for residential homes. For me, it's simply unacceptable to live or work in a city where theft, drug dealing and using in plain air, and rampant homelessness and filth is accepted as the norm. We need sweeping policy change. I am not even touching on Zoning & Planning which needs to be examined from a practical and corruption standpoint to meet housing goals.
I wouldn’t call SF awesome, but I mostly agree with you. I was back in SF for five days in early October for the first time since 2019. Didn’t seem much different to me from the dirty city it was pre-pandemic and as far back as I remember it (which is at least 30 years). It was nowhere near as bad as the press made it out to be. Every big city in the US is dealing with a big mentally ill homeless problem at the moment. SF is no different. And this is coming from a NYer who doesn’t love SF.
I live in the city, walk to work 25-30 minutes each way, go to the office 4-5 days a week. I will echo what you say above. The city has gotten better, and the financial district, I'd argue, is better than pre-pandemic in terms of cleanliness. New bars are opening and are full. Lunch spots have lines again. The buzz is starting to come back it feels like.
Posts like this are always interesting. To a certain extent, I agree with you. But, and this is a big but…the city does have major issues. Homeless, crime, incompetent leadership to name a few. You can go out and have a great night. You can also go out and come back to your car broken into. Downtown is a shell of its former self for a reason. Several major retailers have pulled out for a reason. SF will bounce back but it needs serious change.
Consistent with my experience, being in SF 4 days a week. The foot traffic and office occupancy are not where they used to be, but it's no Zombie apocalypse. I would argue that most of FiDi is actually cleaner now that in 2019.
While there’s a lot of room for improvement, SF has a PR problem…
How was the Tenderloin?