As I said, we’re in town for the weekend. My son moved here in Jan. I asked him how it was going, and how the crime was. He said “Honestly, it’s my favorite place I’ve ever lived.” Must be terrible. 
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So no frame of reference for what ‘The City’ once was.
Did I win??? Gold or Silver I hope
He’s been to the city MANY times before he moved there. It’s a place he always desired to move to. Plus, does it matter what it was if he loves it now?
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Gold for sure! 
It is not necessarily a bad place for affluent young people in their twenties. With plenty of money to avoid needing or using any public services, there is a critical mass of similar young adults with the same interests.
It becomes unworkable when slightly older with children when factors like mortgages, safe parks and schools become important; by then families have largely left. I think SF has the lowest percentage of children of any US city. Once gone, adults rarely return to live unless exceedingly wealthy. But for a few early years, it could be fun. So is Ibiza.
There does not appear to be any interest in restoring it to be a city for families or middle class people
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Granted this is anecdotal, but Dh’s father’s family are long time SF residents, like back at least 100 years. Dh grew up in the Silicon Valley. His father died over 20 years ago but Dh’s brother, sister and mother all moved back up to SF many years ago (actually, his sister has lived in SF for over 30 years). His brother and sister both have raised their kids there, my SIL’s kids ride public transit to their high schools (they go to different schools) and my 80+ y/o MIL walks her dog daily in SF. H’s brother also happens to be a SF police officer and his kids walk to/from their elementary school daily.
None of BIL’s nor SIL’s friends have fled the city. They have all chosen to raise their families there. I suppose we will have to disagree regarding your opinion that “it becomes largely unworkable” for families with children - that has not been my extended family’s experience at all. And trust me, as a SF police officer, BIL is quite aware of crime in SF. I’m sure families have left the city once they have had kids, but that is fairly common in any city and doesn’t necessarily have to only do with crime. Yes, I know for some it may be a reason, but for most it is because they want to have more space/yard, etc after having kids.
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This isn’t new, and has much more to do with the cost and availability of family housing than it does crime, which is the topic of the thread.
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Crime, housing, schools, and feeling unsafe on the public transport are all of a piece. But I am glad some people like it and hope to see it restored to what it was once. It has great potential and natural beauty.
US News has come out with – you guessed it – rankings of “Most Dangerous Places in the U.S.”, based on “metro areas’ murder and property crime rates per 100,000 people, determined by FBI crime reports” from 2022 to 2023:
https://realestate.usnews.com/places/rankings/most-dangerous-places
San Francisco made it to #20 (some usual suspects like Baltimore, Chicago and Detroit didn’t even make the cut). There must be some reason why there’s so much talk about crimes in SF recently. If you smell smoke, something must be burning and you ignore it at your own peril.
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Most Dangerous Places in the U.S. (from the site linked above)
- Memphis, TN
- Albuquerque, NM
- Anchorage, AK
- Bakersfield, CA
- Little Rock, AR
- Chattanooga, TN
- Corpus Christi, TX
- Tulsa, OK
- Columbia, SC
- Kalamazoo, MI
- Rockford, IL
- Stockton, CA
- Greensboro, NC
- Denver, CO
- Houston, TX
- Kansas City, MO
- Fresno, CA
- Milwaukee, WI
- Oklahoma City, OK
- San Francisco, CA
- South Bend, IN
- Greenville, SC
- St. Louis, MO
- Flint, MI
- Shreveport, LA
it didn’t make this list at all. Different criteria, different results. Most Dangerous Cities in the US 2022/2023
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List of United States cities by crime rate - Wikipedia lists the FBI raw numbers for the 100 most populous cities for 2019, with several cautions about how there may be some differences in reporting between different cities.
San Francisco stand out in larceny-theft (behind only Spokane), but not the other crimes listed (murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, arson). Larceny-theft is the most numerous of these crimes in general, although not necessary the most feared.
The highest rates of total violent crime in that list are St. Louis, Detroit, Baltimore, Memphis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Stockton, Albuquerque, Indianapolis, Oakland, San Bernardino, Anchorage, Nashville, New Orleans, Minneapolis, Chicago, Houston, Tulsa, Baton Rouge, Wichita.
Perhaps right-leaning opinion personalities play up talk of crime more in cities in blue states (e.g. Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago, San Francisco) than crime in cities in red states (St. Louis, Memphis, Kansas City, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, Houston).
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Picked another random list- SF didn’t make that one either. Daytona Beach did though. https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/blog/top100dangerous/amp
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Property crime is high right now in SF, but your chances of being the target of a violent crime are much lower in SF than other cities. And yet we don’t have a thread focused on the end-of-times for St. Louis, MO.
Nor, in my opinion, should we. I just think the hyperbole and fearmongering is silly. But I guess it gives people something to talk about!
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Tolerance of less serious crimes inevitably leads to more serious crimes. People who commit violent crimes have often committed non-violent crimes prior. Increasing crimes (of any type) shouldn’t be ignored.
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I’m in SF right now and thoroughly enjoying it.
In a previous visit I did watch someone shoplift in a downtown drug store, walking right past the security officer that saw him do it. I also saw a guy walking around the marina freely wielding a pipe with an end on it designed to smash and grab. Both were disconcerting.
There has been a lot of complaining on this thread about SF, but what I’ve yet to read is how anyone would solve the current situation.
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This is college forum. Not too many people after graduation looking forward to move to St. Louis, unlike SF and SV were best high paying jobs are and were things happening for tech people at least for now if they all will not move to Austin or other places in the future
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There is a thread in the political
Forum about that
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Just another example of summarily dismissing flyover county as not worth worrying about.
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How did you get that from my comment when I could as easily have used Baltimore as an example? My entire paternal family is from Missouri so I can assure you I do not dismiss it as “flyover country.” 
STL is just one of many cities that have more violent crime than SF. And yet people seem uniquely focused on SF. It’s curious.
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