The perception of lawlessness is driven by the number of illegal acts people see daily around them. Open drug use, car break-ins and anti-social behavior are ubiquitous. The fact that fewer murders are occuring among gang members or domestic violence victims is not particularly comforting; most people accurately recognize that they were not at risk from those types of crimes anyway. One’s chances of a random unpleasant encounter are quite high, unfortunately.
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What marketing “genius” opens a Whole Foods Market at the corner of 8th & Market? That’s just dumb.
ETA: That area of SF has always been a higher crime area and then Twitter and other tech companies have either downsized, gone remote or left that area.
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It was a deliberate decision to open in order to assist underserved communities post George Floyd. It has not ended well.
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No good deed goes unpunished.
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I didn’t know history of why this store opened where it did but unless they have discounted programs I don’t know how this high end grocery store could be of any help to community. The closing of it probably had absolutely nothing to do with recent events but was advertised as such
It was an attempt to address the issue of food deserts by request from the SF Mayor. It closed after daily encounters with drug addled customers who were defecating and urinating in the store, shoplifting, and overdosing in the restroom. Employees said they were threatened by the mentally ill often.
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The Civic Center area was a terrible area even when I was a younger growing up in the City.
And “Whole Paycheck” as it’s known here is/was a terrible idea for underserved communities. Why would you put an upscale market in the middle of the Civic Center? Dumb.
My spouse and friend are attending a musical at the Golden Gate theater at 2 PM today. A block or two away. And we’re having dinner down there after performance.
But we’ll be long gone by 2:30 AM.
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I’m sure another “ not so upscale” grocery store will happily take Whole Foods place……Right.
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First, if you read the SF chronicle article, the Whole Foods closure may be temporary. I’d think it would have to be permanent. A Safeway, Lucky’s, Mollie Stones or whatever would also likely fail.
The Civic Center area is terrible location for any grocery store. It’s an office/government building type area. At night, the theaters nearby have performances, but it’s not residential, except maybe some nearby hotels.
SF is about 47 square miles of many, many neighborhoods with lots of grocery stores.
I walked the Civic Center area tonight, had dinner and I actually made it back here to write this post. Phew! What a harrowing experience. 
Come to SF, don’t come to SF. 
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From the SFPD’s crime dashboard:
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Homicide | 56 | 46 | 41 | 48 | 56 | 56 |
| Rape | 452 | 451 | 407 | 230 | 228 | 253 |
| Robbery | 3256 | 3230 | 3102 | 2414 | 2257 | 2387 |
| Assault | 2693 | 2639 | 2550 | 2190 | 2395 | 2602 |
| Human trafficking - sex act | 40 | 109 | 51 | 25 | 31 | 17 |
| Human trafficking - inv Serv | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | |
| Burglary | 5121 | 5694 | 4964 | 7591 | 7337 | 6034 |
| Motor vehicle theft | 4957 | 4368 | 4449 | 6098 | 6078 | 6318 |
| Arson | 257 | 249 | 227 | 319 | 318 | 293 |
| Larceny theft | 46733 | 42647 | 42065 | 25742 | 32014 | 36297 |
| Total | 63567 | 59435 | 57857 | 44657 | 50717 | 54258 |
I’ll likely be returning to SF for the first time in 25 years soon. Will be interesting to see how it has changed.
My daughter lives there. She, and her neighbors, no longer report crimes. There is no point in doing so. The police don’t arrest and the DA won’t prosecute. So she just watches as cars are broken into in broad daylight on a busy street with dozens of spectators. She avoids the BART stations at all times, as she doesn’t want the unpleasant experience of walking past drug users and homeless, tho she points out that before 6pm physical assault is unlikely. Better to scrimp in other ways and just take uber instead. She avoids many areas. Of course, you are not an attractive young woman and thus likely less vulnerable on the streets.
She says all the residents mock the statistics. Maybe if the DA hadnt announced a policy of non-prosecution, crimes would be reported. At this time, very few bother. It is a place of great natural beauty with great human misery.
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I have at least a dozen friends and relatives that live in SF in various neighborhoods. One of them owns an apartment building in SF as well. No one has been a victim of crime or seen any criminal activity in broad daylight or evening.
The other night we took Muni (public railway) downtown and back. We weren’t victims of a crime. The person we had dinner with regularly bicycles across the GG Bridge was involved in a head-on crash with another bicyclist on the GG Bridge this week. Bicyclists in SF suck. So watch out for them. 
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I work in Civic Center area. One of my staff have been assaulted on the street. In general, I agree with your assessments, but it is worse than pre-pandemic. I enjoy walking with the hoards of tech bros to transit, and I’m sad they’re fewer in numbers. I don’t like to watch the local (bad) news because I think fear/danger is the only thing they peddle–just like I don’t like cable news because they just peddle outrage. But there is a difference now.
I don’t know what the answer is, so I’m not selling a solution. I don’t like pearl-clutching, but it is worse.
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Daughter attended UCSF Parnassus and lived in Mission Bay, off of 3rd Street. She had to leave her doors unlocked in her car because we paid twice-$600 for window and door repairs.
I was so glad when she was assigned the Davis Hospital in Sacramento during Covid. She had to move in the middle of Covid, to Sacramento. All she had to deal with there was losing hub caps and mirrors. Her friend had a Prius and had her catalytic converter stolen, twice, while visiting our daughter in a Locked apartment complex in the Pocket!
San Francisco was worse because she worked in a Walgreens in a very sketchy area of the city. She thought it was no big deal because she “knew how to carry herself” and her “friend gave her Mace” but I worried every single night while she lived there. She had to text or call me every single night when leaving the hospital because I threatened to come live with her if she didn’t. She walked around “bodies” of people in different stages of OD because she couldn’t risk being attacked by nearby “friends” of the druggies. Her friends, who were locals, often had to escort her to wherever her car was.
So, so glad she is back home and working here!
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Yet she still chooses to live there. 
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Yes, she has a great job that supports a lovely living arrangement in one of the safer neighborhoods that is very heavily composed of young professionals. There are lots of fun activities for the post college crowd, but she won’t be there by the time she turns 30. The recent unprovoked attack on the fire commissioner on the street and the fentanyl overdose of a baby crawling on grass at a nearby park helped cement that decision.
There are many good things about the city but until local officials start taking crime and homelessness seriously it will continue to lose people.
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OMG. Thank goodness OTC naloxone is coming.
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Yes. I didnt expect nannies or parents watching babies crawl on the grass in nice parks in upscale neighborhoods would have to carry Narcan.
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I think that lots of what used to be categorized as criminal behavior has instead been normalized, and not reported.
I recently enjoyed a great meal at a great restaurant in SF. We traveled point to point and it was great - unless you looked out the cars windows. No.
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Lawlessness is like inflation. If you tolerate a little, you will get a lot.
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