Lots of the big tech companies provided transportation. Only a few labeled their busses though.
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Most employers do not. Most employees in the Bay Area are indeed responsible for their own commute, fewer are commuting into SF than most other urban areas now, and as a result SF is less populated with downtown workers than it once was
The public transportation in and around SF/SV is quite good. BART, Caltrain, etc., and Uber/lyft and the increasing driverless taxi options make it quite manageable. Not sure why you are so negative. My dad commuted to work in metro NYC for decades. Walked up the street to the bus, took the bus to the train, took the train to the subway. And then walked to the office. Took probably over 2 hrs each way. But that’s what he did- every day for decades (though when I got my drivers license I picked him up at the train station). Long daily commutes are nothing new.
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Are we done discussing crime in SF? If so, I’ll close the thread. If not, let’s move on from discussion of WFH, commute times, effective public transportation, etc.
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I think we are done
Maybe it’s time to start a thread about the good things about SF and environs. Or the good things about the cities our kids choose to live/work in. I might have a harder time if they were in Texas, but alas they are not.
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The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper Explores “What Happened to San Francisco?” with CNN’s Sara Sidner on Sunday, May 14 at 8pm ET/PT
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Lol, I’ll have to miss that. I’ll be enjoying a Mother’s Day concert and dinner out in…San Francisco 
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Looks like a good show. I have always liked Anderson Cooper’s reporting.
And Sara Sidner used to work for a Bay Area TV station, so at least she has some firsthand knowledge.
Heading to SF for a long weekend tomorrow. 
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Another article to add to the discussion. From New York Magazine.
DS had meeting with Ortho surgeon today. In SF. When we came into the office we were asked if we parked on the street. We hadn’t we parked in the ATTENDED pay lot attached to the medical building. Receptionist said ‘oh good…because you’d probably have your car broken into before the end of this visit’.
Sigh.
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On Tuesday morning, the Bay Area Council revealed the results of a new survey about BART. The transit agency has struggled with low ridership and safety concerns since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic three years ago.
BART ridership is down by about 60% and the Bay Area Council, which helped create BART in the 1950s, wanted to know what it would take to get riders back on board.
Over the past few months, the Bay Area Council conducted interviews with 1,000 people from around the Bay Area, asking a wide variety of questions about BART. What they found is that the public has an evenly split opinion of the transit system with 49% viewing it favorably and 49% having a negative opinion.
One of the survey’s most revealing takeaways was that remote work was not the main reason most respondents said they were not riding. The survey found that it’s primarily safety and security concerns that are keeping people from riding BART, with only 17% saying they feel safe on the trains and only 16% describing the transit system as being clean.
The survey’s key findings revealed:
- 79% say they feel more comfortable riding BART when there is a uniformed police officer or security present
- 73% say BART should prioritize adding more uniformed police on trains and in stations
- 62% say BART should improve fare gates to prevent fare evaders; 66% want fare gates to fully enclose station entrances
- 79% say BART should eject people from the system that violate the passenger code of conduct, which prohibits drugs, smoking, drinking and other illegal or unacceptable behavior
- 65% say BART should focus on core operations and leave social service issues to other public agencies
- 90% put high priority on more frequent cleaning
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There are many issues with BART right now – I worry more about a doom spiral with regard to BART than for the city in general. The biggest issue from the perspective of our family (regular riders from the East Bay) is the lack of trains in the evening and at times on the weekends. They need more riders to run more trains; but because the trains don’t come often enough, riders don’t use it. We love BART. My daughter actually wrote one of her college essays about riding BART.
I look at the those survey questions and my reaction is that they were written by Captain Obvious.
I’d answer yes to every one of them. Sure, more officers, great, more cleaning, perfect, eject people from the system for code violations, fantastic, etc. These answers would apply to pretty much everywhere.
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True. As I mention above, to me the real issue with BART is the schedule. I personally feel very safe riding BART, but I would like not to wait so long for transfers!
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People in SF haven’t given up on the city. They’re getting fed up and angry. The problem is a whole generation of city (and state) leadership that believes criminals and drug addicts are victims of society, and that punishing them only victimizes them more. It’s going to take wholesale changes in city leadership before anything starts to improve.
That goes for BART, too. The last thing the BART Board of Directors seems to care about is running an effective public transit system. The people on the board are more interested in social justice and politics.
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San Francisco is an example of what happens when the least capable, the most broken and most destructive members of a human game preserve get to engage in personal and societally destructive behavior. Not only ‘get’ to engage but are actively supported by a small minority who finds it to be in their own best interests to somehow designate support of this behavior as ‘kind, accepting, supportive and non-judgemental and humane’ because non- support of said behavior has been deemed to be a number of ‘ists’.
And of course there is lots of $$$$$ to be made by supporting this behavior while at the same time asking for funds to better the situation.
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Geez. Didn’t know we were competing in the Hyperbole Olympics today. But it’s all good if you don’t want to live here!
As I said, my college age kids are eager to settle here and would appreciate a real estate dip. 
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