Both of my s’s have moved out of SF within the past year. One across the Bay bridge and one back down to SV. But they go into the city often and older s rides BART and caltrain, even with his kids. He just makes smart decisions about which stops he’ll use.
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I have no idea whether or not what is or isn’t safe there, but something that has been bothering me…
A 50+ year old man in excellent shape is going to have a very different perspective of safe vs a 20 something woman. A woman knows that she is most likely weaker than 1/2 the population aged 15-65 and could be easily be overpowered. If there’s more than 1 person, forget it. And even if she hasn’t been a victim of a serious crime, she has probably been subject to a lot of cat calls, oogled, shouted out, followed, and maybe even stalked. (I know I was by then.) It really does affect you and your vision of your surroundings. So I hate to see a person belittle another’s perspective of being safe, especially if they are a man talking about a woman.
I know my H doesn’t really get it either. He never (or rarely) feels threatened. I’ve been educating him for 30 years about what it’s like for me. (and fortunately now being middle age, I don’t have to worry about being oogled, lol)
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This, 100%!
As an n of 1 (and speaking as a female who was in grad school when there were warnings that Ted Bundy might be on our campus!!!) I never felt really unsafe per se in SF. The neighborhood older s lived was pretty safe as far as I could tell and I had no issues walking the baby stroller by myself up And down big hills. The area where younger s lived with his family (until last week) was more transient. Didn’t feel unsafe per se. Walked past homeless in tents (sometimes I was alone, sometimes not) but I felt sad for them. Didn’t fear that I’d be attacked. It was daytime though. The car breakins were more upsetting. Fortunately it never happened to us. If it ever happened to either s they never mentioned it. The rental cars tend to be targets.
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The fire commissioner didnt fear he would be attacked coming out of his mom’s house at 720pm either. Until he was. Given that he was almost beaten to death, concern has risen.
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Was he targeted, given his position?
Looks like these homeless guys had been aggressive and harassing and he had confronted them earlier. Not saying the city is perfectly safe. Just Saying I didn’t feel unsafe. Update: Former SF Fire Commissioner describes vicious attack; suspect faces multiple felonies - CBS San Francisco
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No, it was random, from a homeless person. The victim had retired a while ago.
The park where the baby overdosed also doesnt get many children anymore. How could anyone take a child there without worrying?
As the article states, the police did not respond to 911 calls earlier. The commissioner’s mother couldnt leave the house due to the homeless. He was nearly killed by them. It is only rational for my D to feel unsafe.
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Our posts crossed. Looks like he went there b/c these homeless people had been threatening and violent towards passers by and they were outside his mother’s home. Sad that the previous calls to authorities did no good. These issues need to be addressed.
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2 of the 3 attackers remain free. Shouldnt we expect they will attack the next person who walks down the street in that expensive neighborhood? And that 911 calls will again prove useless?
Um, no. He wasn’t unsuspectedly attacked “The former commissioner said he stopped by the home that evening. After asking the group to leave, he said two people moved toward him in a threatening manner, with one attacking him with a metal pipe.” They had apparently made “menacing” comments to other passers by but hadn’t reportedly attacked anyone else.
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Seriously? Asking someone to move from your front yard provokes a near murder? Not where I live. If asking someone to move can provoke violence, so can walking down a street ignoring catcalls. Enough victim-blaming.
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These guys reportedly hadn’t attacked anyone who left them alone.
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Speechless.
It explains a lot about SF tho. So he should have left the drug using violent vagrants camp out in front of his elderly mother’s house, and objecting was bothering them?
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Yes speechless here too. Hope this guy gets more jail time than the Jan 6 insurrectionists who have been let out early. “Doty faces seven years in state prison if convicted of all charges.”
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Melodrama doesn’t help Conversations. Moving on.
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The suspect, Garret Doty, claims the victim pepper sprayed him .
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All of this pretty much sums up why I’m not going back to SF as long as the crime is so bad. It’s like you need to travel with Snake Plissken there a la “Escape from New York” and “Escape from LA.”
It says a lot that even when the guy mentioned in the original post above was murdered in broad daylight, people in SF have grown so accustomed to seeing crime on a daily basis that nobody did anything.
I don’t want to travel to a place like that.
Don’t want my kids going to college in a town like that.
Don’t want to spend my vacation $$ in a city whose officials don’t enforce the rule of law.
My sister left 3 yr ago. Has been back a couple of times to visit friends in the SF Bay Area, remarked on some of the bad stuff she saw while in SF…where even stores near Union Square had their doors locked in the middle of the day in order to protect the employees and customers.
Glad nobody in my family lives there now.
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These stories are really terrible to hear and I don’t doubt anyone’s personal experience.
I just want to add for those thinking about visiting, I personally love going to SF on work-related trips. I normally stay in the Union Square area and walk back and forth to the office in the financial district near the ferry building. I also walk out to lunch and dinner around the area. W frequently tags along and does her own running around during the day while I’m working.
So that area at least is quite safe, but to someone’s point I’m a fit guy in his 50s, not a woman. W and I also went up for a Banksy exhibit last year in the Palace of Fine Arts and walked over to lunch at a nearby neighborhood and it was safe and lots of fun.
We did visit a cafe in an area that seemed fine (I forget the name of the neighborhood but it’s notable for the street art which is why we went), but chatting with the barista he mentioned the concerns others in this thread have noted - lack of police response and increase in crime, and he was quite frustrated about it. He noted it was driving off people like us (referring to me and W). So it certainly feels like the police are neglecting certain areas while prioritizing others.
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Neither the police nor the victim have mentioned pepper spray. I expect the suspect caught brandishing the lead pipe on camera is going to have to claim self defense. Or perhaps insanity.
Not interested in making this political or melodramatic. There is plenty of daily drama on the SF streets to scare anyone.
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Which is why I said claimed to have been pepper sprayed. I don’t know what happened but I’m sure it will all get sorted out at trial. What happened is terrible.