Took my D25 to the Westfield Mall on Market two weeks ago. That’s where the main Nordstrom’s is. The stores all now have security at the door–even Sephora. The high-end stores have small doors with velvet ropes before the store entrance with security standing there.
I will say that while I can detail exactly what I saw at Civic Center BART today (in the rain, so you know it was really bad), it isn’t to show how unsafe I am. The folks we’re all describing in this thread who are living on the street are the ones that are unsafe. We can argue about why they’re unsafe and what we should do about it, but they are at much, much higher risk of dying that you or I am. The significant change in the past number of years is remarkable and shocking. But I’m safe and you’re safe; they are not.
“In a statement to The Post, Westfield attributed the closure to “the deteriorating situation in downtown San Francisco” and blamed the departure of businesses on “unsafe conditions for customers, retailers, and employees, coupled with the fact that these significant issues are preventing an economic recovery of the area.”
A friend’s 23 year old D who moved to the city after graduation experienced this just the other week (we live 30 mins outside SF).A guy got on the Muni bus she was on and went round threatening people. The first couple he threatened got off. Then he got in her face and said that if she got off the bus he’d follow her and kill her. She was so upset that she ran into a store and asked them to protect her, then she called her father to come pick her up. She now refuses to travel on SF transit on her own any more and her parents are paying for her to Uber everywhere.
We used to enjoy going to the theater in SF on the weekend. We no longer find it worthwhile. We’ll still go to other parts of the city, but downtown simply isn’t attractive any more.
Downtown SF’s problems are real, and I also wonder how the struggles of in-person retail across the board are playing into this. Large footprint stores in high rent areas are not a good business model at the moment.
No one is disagreeing that downtown SF has real problems. With the # of companies now adopting a mostly WFH model (some are hybrid with a day or so in the office) downtown was more of a ghost town (well that’s a bit of an exaggeration) the last few times we were there, at least compared to the bustling streets, super crowded pier farmers market, etc. from pre-covid days. Add to that the # of homeless/encampment folks and its sad. Some visitors are feeling frightened, some less so. The dispute between the police and the city officials needs to be rectified (somehow) so that they can address the problems.
San Francisco is much worse off than any other major US city in terms of people returning to downtown. It’s a vicious circle that will only get worse if the tech downturn intensifies. I don’t get the sense that city leadership has any clue what to do about it.
I think this is the lynchpin. SF never recovered from covid. I think because the tech companies allow workers to work form home, no one is in the FD and other parts of the city where they once were. I am guilty of this. I work from home FT and rarely go into the city.
It is a stark contrast to Chicago and NY, both of which is visit for work regularly, where everyone is back in the office and there is after work nightlife. The homeless problem that has always existed is more apparent with fewer people on the streets.
It is a significant problem for SF. Now with all of the tech companies laying off, it is likely to get worse.
I love SF and have the best hopes for it, but it has a structural problem that will need to be remedied.
Good point about the layoffs too. And, during covid, many tech employees moved away and while ultimately most had their salaries cut due to the COL where they moved, they aren’t returning.
I lived in and worked in SF about 20 years ago and even back then the FD was a ghost town every night. It felt like that part of the city shut down at 7pm. I haven’t been back in several years, so I can only imagine how empty it must feel in the evenings now.
Everyone is not back to the office in NYC either and it causing problems for that City as well. From what I am reading, occupancy is maybe 50 to 60% of pre-pandemic levels. There also was a lot of movement out of the financial district after 9-11 to diversify locations. Tech layoffs and reduced advertising/marketing jobs impact NY as well.
The transit systems are having financial difficulties as well, due to lower ridership.
There is some movement back to offices, but generally still some WFH days allowed.
I don’t know how I missed this thread earlier, but now that I’m seeing it I wanted to make sure to correct this point — the attack on the former fire commissioner was not random. He had a habit of bear spraying homeless people.
As a Bay Area resident who grew up in SF at a time when crime was much higher, I can say that the reports of my city being some kind of unsafe hellhole are indeed overblown. That said, there are of course too many property crimes, crimes of opportunity. But SF is not generally “unsafe.”
All of this. There is no need to live in fear of enjoying a visit to San Francisco, and taking transit is one of the best ways to get around and avoiding scarce or expensive parking and the potential of getting your window smashed (which is the main area in which I will grant is a big problem and that has gotten worse since the pandemic!). My daughter took BART into the Mission on her own last night, got herself a (annoyingly expensive — that I’ll also grant) bite to eat, joined her other teenaged friends to see a show of an indie singer-songwriter at a small venue. I did end up driving in to pick her up after 10:30, but as much out of concern for the fact that it was raining and the trains run infrequently at night. I have her communicate with me frequently when she’s riding around at night if she’s alone, but if she were to stay in SF for college (she’s not), that would lessen. It’s not really much different than any other big city. And it’s the kind of place where you can see a cool up-and-coming artist you love on a random Wednesday night!
Wanted to make sure that you and others saw the follow up to this story — that the beating of the former fire commissioner was indeed not random. As you can clearly see in the video, the homeless man was sprayed with bear spray by the fire commissioner.
It may or may not. If Doty is taking practice swings and chasing Carmignani that goes against a “self defense” defense.
Carmignani’s side released new surveillance videos showing the altercation. In one video, Doty is seen picking out a crowbar from a trash can and appearing to take practice swings with it.
The video later shows the fight outside of a gas station, where Carmignani is hit by the crowbar as well as a different angle of Carmignani being chased by Doty.
Yes, for sure, and good reminder. Alleged to be him. I shouldn’t jump to making a foregone conclusion any more than those at the top of the thread who jumped to malign an entire city for being a hot spot of violent attacks based on their assumptions about this case and the Lee case, the latter of which was pretty clearly NOT a random occurrence. I just want to note that headlines get written, narratives established, threads on CC spiral in a certain direction…and then half the time the story was entirely wrong to begin with!
I’m perfectly happy if it all plays out such that both men end up prosecuted for respective crimes, assuming both are proven guilty. My point is that a narrative got set that you are likely to be randomly attacked by a homeless person in SF because there is an epidemic of random violent attacks in this city, now more than ever. And that’s just not the case. Can it happen? Of course. It can happen anywhere. Davis is one of the safest little college towns you can imagine, and yet 3 people were stabbed, 2 of those fatally, within a span of 5 days over the past week. The headlines about random violence (aside from property crime of opportunity—which IS a big problem at the moment) are overblown and misleading.
