We are in SoCal and our streets and neighborhoods are full of tents even in Beverly Hills and we have much more homeless then SF so maybe that’s why I think SF is cleaner unless you go to Tenderloin of course. DD and friends choose hilly streets to walk because they have less homeless since it’s more difficult for them to move their stuff uphill. She still goes for a long walks every day but try to choose neighborhoods wisely and only during the daylight hours. But young people participate in night life and often return home well after midnight. Time to time we send her Uber gift cards even though she doesn’t need our money we want to make sure she will not be trying to save money and walk couple blocks at night.
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Not to be argumentative, but it’s never a good idea to confront anyone while alone unless you’re a cop.
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Exactly!
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What do you do if police doesn’t respond to 911 calls?
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Maybe offer them each $50 and ask them if they would move to a different spot? Dunno, just a thought.
If you’re lucky, they may move to the next house down road to get another $50, and come back tomorrow asking for a $100. 
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But you don’t get hit with a pipe!
No one is saying what happened is ok! And the homelessness issue is a big problem. This particular guy, from listening to witnesses, was in their terms, “crazy”, and that he and his 2 friends harassed people. That’s not true for many homeless. There is a terrible shortage of police in SF and there are political shenanigans with calls getting ignored. It is a problem, and obviously this case is tragic and got national news. Hopefully things will change. All I initially shared is that where my s’s lived, including one Who lived in a somewhat sketchy area, I sometimes didn’t like what I saw, as it was unsettling at times, but I didn’t feel particularly unsafe. Could have done without the homeless guy using the back garage door/gate of DS’s apartment as his urinal, but I didn’t feel threatened. That’s my only point. Am I glad they moved out of SF- yes. But will I go into SF with them when we visit? Yes.
So if I rent a car to make areas like Muir Woods and SV accessible, does that take away the option to stay downtown due to rental car theft? Or, would a hotel have a secure garage?
If I stay away from the city and want to go in to Oracle Park / restaurant / Fisherman’s Wharf, how do I know which stops to avoid?
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I don’t know the stops, or which exits from certain stops to use ( but a quick google search pulled up info) but I thought I’d read somewhere that BART and Uber were going to offer some partnership where if you bought a train ticket you could finish the ride on an Uber. And hotel garages should be ok. It’s the open air lots or street parking that I believe were the target areas.
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Avoid civic center and both mission stops and it should be ok.
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Having a car in SF is crazy expensive. The nicer hotels will have secure valet parking that I’d use, but that can run upwards for $60 per day or more.
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San Fran has an odd schism in their crime rates. Robbery and theft are well above average, when compared to the 21 major metropolitan areas, only behind Seattle and Denver. Violent crime however, including aggravated assault is well below average, slotting in somewhere around San Antonio and Phoenix.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2022/fixing-san-francisco-problems/crime
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The Hyatt is up to $80. Parking is pricey
Agree about the hotel parking costs! We don’t typically rent a car. We stayed at the intercontinental last month and they wanted something like $87/day to valet park. That is also what it cost the 2 of us to take their limo to the airport!
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Robbery is high because they essentially let the shoplifting go. Several drugstores ultimately decided to close because of it.
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We don’t bring car to SF most of the time but when we do we don’t stay in downtown. I would just rent a car for a day you want to explore outside of the city. The public transportation is very good and fairly safe during the day
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Besides the cost of parking in the city, catalytic converter thefts are also rampant these days. It’s much less costly to use ride sharing services and/or public transportation in the city. Only rent a car when you need it (for a day trip, etc.)
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There’s a lot of fear-mongering on this thread, unfortunately, and it sounds like it has increased your anxiety about visiting SF, one of the best cities in the world. Most definitely, you will see homeless people and some squalor, but you very, very likely will not be assaulted either! My 14-yo daughter and her 15-yo friend attended a nighttime concert last week at a venue very near Civic Center. No pearl-clutching here. Same daughter and I took BART from SFO to Oakland last week, riding through both Mission St stops and Civic Center. If you avoid 16th St and 24th St (Mission St stops) you will also miss excellent Mexican food and a vibrant, lively neighborhood full of murals and sunshine (while the rest of the city is draped in fog).
I personally would not rent a car in SF, for the same reasons I would not rent one in NYC or Boston–it’s more of a liability and inconvenience, and for the most part, unnecessary. To get to Muir Woods (for which I think you need reservations now), maybe rent a car for a day. I believe there are other alternatives as well.
I lived in SF for 17 years and currently have friends and family still living there, scattered across the city. They are professional people, raising their families there, with no more fear than the average family living in an urban area anywhere.
Enjoy your visit!
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I shouldn’t laugh but it’s true. Bicycles and city buses more or less do whatever they want so it’s important to be a defensive driver around them.
I’ve been here over twenty five years so I feel like I have a decent long term perspective. We have a pretty awesome community here. My kids have had a pretty decent schooling experience here in the public schools. They ride MUNI and BART without incident daily. We go to Giants games, Warriors game, festivals, parades, concerts, restaurants, museums, art exhibits, plays, and mini-golfing. We go shopping downtown. We play golf and tennis in the parks. We walk the dog almost everywhere and talk to a lot of other dog owners. I drive my car and street park it in a lot of places. My neighbors still report crime. I definitely don’t see open drug use, antisocial behavior, and car break-in’s daily in most places here. I even accidentally left my purse in my unlocked car for three days and it was unharmed (I wouldn’t recommend repeating that experiment though!). The upsides definitely outweigh the negatives.
Some of the neighborhoods that were sketchy when I moved here have gentrified. Others are still sketchy. For most of us, I don’t think it’s that different living in San Francisco than any other city in the US. Phoenix has a huge homeless population and it is hardly ever mentioned in the national media. Rural America also has massive issues with homelessness, drug abuse, and mental illness but it’s not visible to most people. We have a porous social safety net in this country and there is evidence all around us if we look.
Anyway, some of my relatives from out of state think the City is so out of control that leaving the house is like being in a MadMax movie, and that you’ll get attacked by fentanyl addicts who will beat you up, steal all your stuff, kill your dog, and make you listen to the communist manifesto read by drag queens while swearing your loyalty to Nancy Pelosi. As you can guess, they have not come to visit.
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You can rent a car downtown for the day if you need to with big garages for Hertz and the like in Union Square.
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