The Rise, Fall and Possible Rise Again of San Francisco’s Downtown | WSJ
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- Опубликовано: 3 май 2024
- San Francisco's downtown suffered an exodus of workers and businesses during the pandemic. These closures followed the disappearance or scaling back of some of the city’s most prominent corporate tenants like Facebook and Salesforce.
But recently there have been small signs of a turnaround. With the AI boom hitting the Golden Gate City and new government policies helping streamline the permitting process for new businesses, San Francisco’s economy could be making a turn.
WSJ explores whether these new city policies and fresh commercial interest can return San Francisco’s downtown to its former glory.
0:00 Exodus of workers and businesses
1:14 Vacant office space
2:27 AI boom in San Francisco
4:04 Local business owner
5:31 Revitalizing downtown San Francisco
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Unless you control crime and homelessness, these efforts will be futile.
The control need to be aggressively and quickly.
It's not rocket science... it's a Democrat induced problem.
Which they fail and refuse to do constantly
Elections have consequences
Warmer cities are perfect for homeless so they will always exist, that and a drug crisis is a recipe for disaster. Also, we need to criminalize a lot of the crime plaguing SF.
The mayor said that there is a perception problem. Yeah, right. It’s her perception that is the problem.
Perception has a smell of urine? Perception can steal laundry detergent? Perception have feet to rob people? The mayor is literally lying through her teeth literally. Get rid of this mayor NOW. No. Take a look at any other major cities - New York. Paris. This mayor is literally causing people to lose their capital
Recall her, she's embarrassing to watch/listen to. Making excuses for downfall. Conflicting narrative in the same piece, except she has no real points just a bunch of fluff.
She lied through her teeth.
RUclips fascists censoring comments as always.
DEFINITELY AGREED 1000%!!!!!!!!!!
The politicians are more concerned about the narrative than addressing the actual issues.
Of course they care about the narrative . When the media makes SF sound worse than it is, it feeds the doom loop. As someone who is in downtown SF regularly, I agree that crime, homelessness, and commercial vacancy rates are certainly a problem, but life at street level is nowhere near as bad the media makes it out to be.
They want to keep their donors pleased.
They live in different world
I love SF
Im moving to SF now
I've lived in San Francisco for over 50 years, and downtown has always been sketchy. It's considerably worse now, but a bigger problem that the media ignores is that the once highly desirable, once good quality of life, once safe to raise a family in residential neighborhoods like the Richmond and the Sunset districts have seen a dramatic increase in homelessness and crime, and you can't walk more than 4 blocks without smelling urine. My neighborhood used to be the second safest neighborhood in San Francisco, but in the last year, seven houses on my block alone have been broken into (including my own), and within 5 blocks of my house, there have been 8 violent assaults that I know of and one murder. More and more neighbors are putting iron gates and bars on their front doors and windows and installing security systems, and several neighbors have posted signs warning criminals that the occupants are armed.
Bot
Maybe it's time to go!
@@The_Invisible_Manno bot
@@cKukulaeasy for you to say. Where do you live exactly??
Sounds like a nightmare. I don't even lock my doors where I live
I am a San Francisco resident. This year, I gave birth to my lovely daughter and learned that I cannot take Ubers with a baby (no car seat) or ride a bike with an infant. This made me dependent on sidewalks.
Let me tell you about the horror of using sidewalks in San Francisco. I am constantly spat on and verbally abused by people living in encampments. They verbally assault me and threaten me. I have complained to the city through 311 many times, but all of my cases for unwalkable sidewalks were closed as "solved."
I went to an in-person meeting with a Mission District representative. On the way there (walking), I was thrown empty bottles of alcohol by encampment inhabitants because I was taking a video of how I needed to enter a road (full of cars) because they would not let me through. I showed this video at the meeting and was dismissed as entitled by some random homeless NGO. I sent the video to city representatives, and they literally responded to me, "What can look like trash to you can be someone's property."
The mayor should be jailed, and this city should go bankrupt and get into management of some other system/city. We will move out as soon as the mortgage rates are better. I am ashamed of myself how ignorant to sidewalks I was before having a baby.
I'm sorry, these people just hate decent citizens more than anything.
It’s good you finally realized this.
Carcentric development in America does not work in proper cities. Everyone else is forgotten, and it really shows when people are unable to use a car to get around.
In your case in particular, SF‘s homeless problem is yet another factor to the worsening the state of public ways.
Can’t imagine raising human children in San Francisco 😂 no way, no how.
Just don’t vote for the parties which are driven by the same ideology which made SF what it is today.
No one is beyond fault but there’s a clear distinction between cities which are managed by centrists/right vs those which are managed by far lefties.
@@proallnighterWhat seemed like a golden goose back in the 60s/70s (focusing on car centric development of cities and suburbs) has now become a disaster. Cities like Houston, Atlanta, Chicago are literally impossible to live in if you don’t have a car.
The derision towards public transport adopted by the lawmakers and the people in general is so backwards, I can’t fathom it in this day and age.
The mayor really just said SF is doing better than when it experienced the 1907 earthquake. Wow, what a hard expectation to beat lol.
I laughed when she mentioned 1907. How dare she pull this up?!
It's not the city that has a problem. The mayor is the problem.
@jlinuk23 exactly, I was like wow did she just compare 1907 to today and felt good about it 😑
That comment immediately made me wonder how the city will fare during the next major earthquake there.
She is just making excuses. She is the worst thing that ever happened to San Francisco.
i lol'd at that, too. poor delusional lady.
We were in San Francisco about 12 years ago and we didn't encounter anything like this. Walked everywhere day and night and never had a problem or felt in danger. Shopped in stores in all different areas. It was a wonderful city to visit. Seeing it decline to the point that drug addicts and the homeless have taken over public spaces and have their crimes and harassment of residents excused away is sickening. And it's not helping anyone to allow this degenerate behavior. Property owners and tax payers need to vote the mayor and the council members out.
Same here. I lived in San Francisco and Oakland from 2016 to 2021 and never felt in danger or anything. These cities have always been safe for me.
@@d.n.g.you didnt live in East or west Oakland you lived in the safe gentrifier areas the city enforces aka lake Merritt and North oakland
@@Wavyso I actually lived in Seminary. :D
Ummm how do I explain this. The homelessness has decreased from 12 years ago… So it’s not any worse but you think it’s worse because that is what you were told to think.
The problem is that no candidate can express support for more policing of addicts and dealers in downtown without being called a fascist or racist and losing their election.
My fanily took me on a trip to San Fran when I was about 11. It became a magical experience. I took a trip there recently and couldn’t recognize it. It’s a different city now and I don’t know how it’ll ever be the same.
Denial is not a solution, we need a new mayor who is NOT always in denial mode
exactly what i was thinking, if she cant see that its a hellhole how is it going to get better.
Or say it with me, stop voting blue
What is your solution? What does electing a new mayor accomplish - when he/she struggles with the difficult tasks ahead, do we support their sincere efforts or just dump them - rinse and repeat? The problems appear endemic in our social and economic structure - we might actually have to accept responsibility and develop real solutions to address the root problems. Blaming others is easy of course - much easier than engaging with others and working towards solutions.
@@jeffschroeder4805 let's start with, I don't know prosecuting people. Letting cops yeet those people's off the side walk
@@jeffschroeder4805congrats for saying a whole bunch of nothing. Vote republican, then you will see a positive change for San Francisco
Government allowed San Francisco to become completely unaffordable and relied heavily on keeping workers in the office. Now that the workers have more freedom and leverage there’s no reason to pay 4K for a one bedroom apartment anymore
Companies and Tech workers can tolerate woke, high rent, but not crime and violent homeless squatters.
The average 1 bedroom apartment in Manhattan is $5,800 per month
Wrong. Major issue here is the drug addicted/mentally ill homeless everywhere. And weak anti-crime laws.
Same with Toronto (GTA). People are just leaving but unlike San Francisco still things are going up because even with absurd rentals, landlords can't cover their mortgages either. Ugly snowball coming to Canada.
It’s fine if it’s NYC
But sf is nowhere near the city that nyc is while demanding the same premium
I visited San Francisco as a foreigner in the early 2010s and it was one of the best moments in my life. I absolutely loved the city. I can't believe it has turned to this. I have never visited after that so it's hard to believe that such a great city collapsed like this within 10 years
People in power are greedy and have no respect for life .
By design!
I live 45 minutes away and was there a month ago. It hasn’t collapsed. It has its problems, but it’s no different than Los Angeles, Chicago, or New York when it comes to homelessness and other issues. It’s also much safer than the media portrays it as
I visited there 5 years ago and all my belongings were stolen and left with a broken car window Samething happened to my colleagues, my neighbors who visited SF later. The police won’t do anything.
i've lived here since the early 2010s, we're doing fine and it's largely the same as when you visited. Yes downtown is empty because tech employees work from home now. With fewer office workers, the homeless population is more visible and that makes people uncomfortable.
Breed said "SF Downtown is not the same/coming back as we knew it & that's okay"
What a terrible statement to make from her position. Get her out of there. She's part of the problem. No vision, no insights, no plan of action, no power, no voice. It's all fluff.
I've lived in the Tenderloin for the past 9 years. Things have gotten worse with crime, drug users and drug sellers. Homelessness is directly related to mental health issues and people living on the sidewalk. Mayor London Breed recently took a walk on 24th and Noe, a predominantly upper middle class neighborhood, to find out what could be done to make things safer and business more profitable. Talking with business owners, etc.. Wrong neighborhood, lady. Performative politics at it's finest.
Did you people vote for her? 😂
@@xxxxxeeeeein all seriousness you should google that. No, we didn’t vote for her. 😂
@@xxxxxeeeee I did not, but thanks for asking! I see that Tesla of yours is working outstandingly.
Thats all she does. Walk down the street with 2 dozens of bodyguards and bought herself a cup of coffee at McD and went straight back to her office. All of sudden, she got an idea how to fix it .......and make it worse each and everyday.
Next day, she rolled herself in front of camera and chanting "this needs to be changed. I paid $1.50 for a cup of coffee. This is ridiculous."
...dems are the real pandemic
I love when someone's argument of we're not doing terribly wrong is saying that there has been worst times. I've never understood what's the need to compare to the worse, and not strive for the best.
Life long resident here... people are in denial. It was never as bad as it is today.
I guess it was worse when there was a major earthquake and the city burned down.
When you’re having to compare the current situation of the city to a major earthquake,l to find something worse, you’ve failed in your job.
i guess we’re doing better than 1908 or whatever
It's an american city, it'll by definition never be a nice place.
Lived around SF my whole life. It's definitely gotten worse. Say what you want but the problem is police and DA not doing anything. Politics aside people are afraid to come back and make their trips into the city very short. Why is it that everyday I'm reading about a new robbery in SF and police not doing a thing? The city allowed it to get this bad and people will not return for a long time. This is actually much worse than a pile of rubble because at least the rubble kept the crime away.
If you want to see how incompetent the DA is, look up the case of Brian Egg. They should be ashamed that they are the most useless prosecutors in existence.
I started working in SF 2 weeks before the covid lockdown happened on March 17, 2020. I started work again in 2022 at media/entertainment giant based out of burbank (with an SF office building), and there was about 5-10 people in an office that could fit maybe 250 people. The crime and drug use on market street's open air drug market alone makes me not want to work in the city again. I have friends who visit the city and they say they might / will not ever come back again. The mayor and city officials are completely out of touch with what is going on. Boom or bust, if the drug, crimes, and constant bipping of tourist's cars on the daily in open daylight - are not resolved, no one will want to come back. They are all going to south bay in Mountain View/Palo Alto/Sunnyvale, and driving all the rent prices up there.
To put things into perspective, low income threshold is $105,000. That is insane for anyone not working in technology/VC/finance etc. and even then with a 6 figure job, you still feel poor with the amount of money they are charging to even park a car for a month ($300).
straight up speaking facts
I lived and worked in San Francisco for 21 years after 21. perception is reality. Please stop blaming the pandemic.
This is all Barry Bonds’ fault
pandemic just exposed everything including the way crime is handled. Laws were changed because the system couldn't keep criminals in jail to be processed due to covid but crime only exist due to income disparity. Homelessness is a thing because tech people bought up all the houses and people can't afford to live in downtown anymore. Rich folks now do online shopping because they don't want to run into the poor. Taxes are being wasted in bureaucracy. New York has been struggling and Los Angeles is already in line. If subsidized housing for low in come folks become a thing then the city will lose the people who actually try to make it happen
"Ignoring the problem is also ignoring the solution to the problem."
I heard this in a commercial once and it is so true:
"Ignoring the problem, you're also ignoring the solution"
Made it concise 🫠
@@Mahlak_Mriuani_Anatman ignore the problem, ignore the solution.
the problem is greedy landlords quadrupled the rents. This did 3 things:
1) drove out all the artists, musicians, poets, dancers etc etc -the artisan class that made San Francisco the cool, desirable place that allowed the rent rise. ie they killed the goose that laid their golden eggs.
2) made half of them into homeless people, soon to lose their day jobs (kinda hard to keep a job when theres no place to take a shower or plug in an alarm clock) and pick up drug habits (that'll happen when someone robs you of all hope and self respect).
3) half the units cleared to jack rents never got re-rented. so you have a homeless crisis in a city full of empty apartments.
thanks landlords!
They need to tackle crime and homelessness (the two are hand in hand) it’s time to deal with these issues and deal with them harshly
25 years SF residence here.. the city is never the same and it's looking pretty uncertain
People want to live in cities. Especially young people. And especially San Francisco. If you've managed to make San Francisco so unlivable that everyone moves away and no one moves in, you really have truly screwed up.
The run-down 3-bedroom 1 bath house next door to mine 1/2 block from the MIssion just sold for well over $2M. If only people didn't want to move in; prices would come back to sanity.
@@MrMarkOlson maybe. or maybe the greedy developers would just wait it out, figuring "its a boom-bust city so I'll just leave the property vacant (in middle of a housing crisis), and wait till the next boom.
San Francisco is 30% empty. with half its people in the street, driven to drugs & crime. Jared is right, it truly has been screwed up.
Which is happening. San Francisco is a dump and too expensive.
People want to live in a house as big as possible.
It all starting with the housing crisis. Prices went up for living and many could no longer afford. Then these greedy landlords kicked them out and many end up on the streets doing drugs. If everyone could afford a place to live in. Even if it was an apartment on a high rise that would get virtually everyone off the streets.
Visited a relative in Oakland, drove into SF for one day to see the sights, parked on a major well lit street and went to dinner. Came out 90 minutes later and car had been broken into (smash and grab). Luckily they didn't get anything of value. Called police, got shunted to a recorded line "state the address and time of event" for insurance reasons. Took months to get insurance reimbursement. If you rent a car in the Bay area, _always_ get the insurance rider, even if you're already covered. It's worth it. Better still, don't even go.
Shame that happened to you. I used to work in SF and I've seen broken windows every single lunch break. I had a security guard watch my car my entire shift and luckily nothing happened to myself. I can only suspect the thieves target people from outside SF that don't work there. Because the smash-n-grab crimes tend to be calculated sometimes.
On our trip, we carried all luggage to the restaurents we visited. Bit of a bother but peace of mind.
I'll bet your car would have looked worse after the 1907 earthquake...
@@scottfranco1962 Or after Nagasaki bombing. What's your point?
Spread the word, don't let loves ones or friends visit this rotten city.
I loved San Francisco in the 70s, 80s and 90s. It was a bustling “lived in city”. People worked, shopped, played and lived there.
Amazingly pleasant narrator voice! I watch a lot of documentaries and it’s actually pretty rare to find videos with narrators that are pleasant sounding - many narrators are yelling, talking way too fast or with an exaggerated inauthentically excited voice. A lot of creators seem to think “the more dramatic and noisy the better”.
No matter how interesting the content is an unpleasant sound experience (including the narrators voice) can determine whether viewers finish watching a video or not.
I personally think creators underestimate how impactful this is. Let this video on San Francisco be an example of excellence in this respect!
Of course that developer dude says it's about to take off😂
Good thing I can skip his nonsense with a couple of taps
@@tianlechen . The entire video is fluff.
He wants the government to subsidize him building luxury apartments that he will sell for millions of dollars and it will make the problem worse.
I respect that he has to sell his business, his company is in to the tune of tens of millions of dollars after all.
@@rudiruttger I can't argue with that sir.
Dear media: Please stop blaming the pandemic. SF's death spiral was well on it's way before covid.
I lived in San Francisco for over 30 years (starting in the 1980s) and this report is quite accurate. San Francisco always had a homeless problem and most of the homeless people lived in the South of Market Area before the 1980s, which was mostly occupied by high tech businesses before the pandemic.
It's been completely unaffordable for a long time.
Let me guess... you're blaming Democrats for all of this?
They can't bear to look in the mirror and acknowledge that lefty policies drove SF into the ground over the span of a decade...
But Covid was an catalyst. Remote work has gutted the office buildings.
I'm proud I lived in Frisco in the 70's when it was both livable and affordable. You could actually walk down the streets any time of day or night without your head on a swivel But I witnessed the city slowly turning by the late 90's. Sold my home for a really nice profit and moved to Southern Arizona. I went back in 2021 and barely recognized my old city. Kinda sad. But it is what it is. Just glad I had sense enough to leave.
What? There was a huge amount of crime here in the 70’s. Are you sure it’s not old age causing you to be more paranoid?
Who would have thought that the managing director of "Presidio Bay Ventures" and the major of the city of San Francisco are the only ones believing in a turnaround.
If crime is not prosecuted, there is no crime problem 🧠
hhh
smarter everyday my friends
Most of the crime is petty theft like shoplifting. What do you propose, fill up jails with shoplifters? Good luck with that. Write them a ticket? Good luck getting them to show up in court. Fine them? You can’t get money from somebody who has nothing. Use your brains, people. Why are people stealing stuff? Because they need money. Why do they need money? In many cases, because they are addicted to drugs. There it is, right there. Ding ding ding. Drugs. That’s the problem we need to solve
Are you aware of the big brain syndrome you may have caught?
If people are allowed to stay in their homes (and thus keep their jobs), there is no crime problem.
"There's a perception problem" LOL no there is a crime and drug problem.
@dantheman909 Really buddy, Where do you live?
My company closed offices there 2 months ago.
@@rbu2136 I live and work in the Bay and love it. 2 of my friends and 1 ex-coworker just launched new companies (2 in SF, 1 in Oakland).
I’ve lived in SF for years. You’re wrong. There is a perception problem AND a crime / drug problem.
Although a lot of neighborhoods have serious issues (not all though… I live in pac heights and it’s gorgeous as usual) it’s not true that the whole city is a hellhole. That’s what most people think and therefore the perception problem.
@@celestialnubianhow many car break in do we see every day? Is it perception?
When Kaiser tells their employees not to leave the building for lunch you know it’s not going to get better.
"in 1907 downtown SF was rubble and ash so don't worry about it. It's ok. Things move on, things change. It's totally ok. Who needs the offices that fund 75% of the city anyhows, I mean, like, duh!"
This mayor has to go if she has to compare 2023 SF with 1907 SF. At least the other people interviewed have their ear to the ground. She lost me when she said this was okay. No it's not and you being the mayor have a lot to do with it.
She is delusional
She sounds crazy. She definitely needs to go.
I thought the media was exaggerating how bad San Francisco downtown was, but when I was there a few weeks ago, I realized that the media was being too kind
100%
I moved here 6 months ago and it’s actually nicer than I expected. Way nicer than what the media says it is
@@MonsterhunterFTWWTFsame idk what they’re on about. It’s been amazing here. Definitely some rough corners but still great
@@alexcarter8082 the wall street journal is saying its a failure because they are looking at the corporate side of it all. office space metrics don't really tell you how nice a city is unless you are a large corporation using that space.
You trust the media?
Converting office space to residential is a monumental job. You need to run water and sewer lines every place to include expanding the initial hook ups under the foundation.
It's a billion dollar opportunity :D
It'll be a matter of time before downtowns like those in Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles turn around. When that is who knows, but downtown areas have a history of boom & bust. As someone who's been to San Francisco a few times in recent years, I really wish the city the best going forward since I'd hate to see the beautiful locations on the bay and ocean not recover.
It took Detroit, what, 60 years to sort of turn around? In big cities anyone that would vote in leadership that would actually fix the problem moves away and you’re left with a downward spiral that may or may not ever stop.
They may turn into cities like San Bernardino. Look up the history. It’s incredibly sad. Very Sad downfall.
@@AbbyyenaSan Bernardino was destroyed by suburban sprawl and car culture, which isn't even an option for SF.
WSJ: Let's ignore the role of crime and criminals in this equation.
Did you even watch the video?
@@had3l its a bot comment. look at their account.
@@NathanielLapointeWow. So, that is a bot account. Thank you for pointing that out.
"Bot" = AI...the supposed savior of downtown SF! ;-)
I visited San Francisco recently and our car got broken into. Apparently it’s extremely “normal” there. Can you imagine that.
after our rental car was broken into, I learned that it happens about 80 times a day. The police have given up even worrying about it, since the public doesn't seem to care. Sad to see such a (formerly) beautiful city die.
There's even video of cars being broken into WHILE THE DRIVER IS STILL INSIDE in the middle of traffic.
its extremely "normal" unfortunately - theres even a term for it called "BIPPIN'". Because of the lax laws, people come from several hours/counties away to commit these crimes. they use stolen vehicles, with stolen license plates, and target high-end SUVs / sedans etc. - anything that has a visible window. Might be an organized crime ring, who knows.
@@jac1207 you are correct. These thieves will stalk you for miles after you leave and will break into your car at a red light or traffic like you said. Not worth it to come to SF anymore, let alone work there.
Thank the mayor
This mayor is absolutely the problem for SF. Comparing downtown SF to 1907 is just.. dumb
She’s comparing SF now to 1906/07 earthquake.. and saying SF is in much better shape than piles of rubbles… someone gotta kick her out of her office
Comparing the 1906 SF earthquake to the demise of commercial real estate in the city today is really rich
I almost laughed out loud when the major bragged about the AI companies in San Fransisco. Some of my friends in the AI industry are afraid of going to their office because they are located in San Fransisco. Also, yes, retails are not it used to be but if you have been to Valley Fair in the South Bay, there are still people lining up for food, major events, and most recently the iPhone 15 and 15 pros while Westfield in downtown SF is trying to close down its building. It's not about retail. It's about location.
And a good portion of these AI startups will be dead in a few years anyway.
@@franciscodanconia4324honestly yes especially she will see consequences soon after AI takes over hehe
Your "friends in the AI industry" are afraid to go to their offices because they are located in THE TENDERLOIN, which has always been a bad area.
The mayor is a joke! All of those words she spoke are full of lies and denial. She should resign!
I know a person from university who worked in a very well-known startup in SF and I was thinking about moving there myself, but after seeing how bad crime and the politics in SF are, I decided against it
How about start by prosecuting criminals when they commit a crime??
Brilliant! Why hasn't anyone in the city government thought of that?
But the problem with criminal prosecution is. It's very expensive to prosecute and keep them in jails, especially when the US has the highest amount of both criminals and drug addicts in the world!! We need to find solutions to fix why we have so many criminals and drug addicts in this country! I believe the government needs to do more on promoting moral, family, and social values to all classes of the population instead of spending all that money into military spending and political spending!!
@@eriksonyw No. This is the thinking that CAUSED the problems. We need to apply the Giuliani approach of zero tolerance for crime, starting with homelessness, loitering, and spitting on the street. Ship the mentally ill and addicts to institutions designed to treat them. Clear up the sidewalks and lock up the carjackers and looters for decades, until the message gets out that it doesn't pay to engage in such activities. Most of the prisoners will be balck which will cause civil rights activists to squawk about equity. They have to be ignored, or themselves prosecuted as accessories. Zero tolerance will solve the problem. The government can't "promote moral, family and social values". It can only promote safe streets and neighborhoods, which will eventually attract the families back, and encourage people to raise children.
Regularly visited starting in 2010 and lived there for a year. As an outsider, this current status was inevitable to me. Barring the pandemic, the gross discrepancies and competing priorities were and are unsustainable. Funny that obscenely unaffordable homes, shopping, being chained to a desk, and the presence of a singular industry is what people think made this place a success.
The people ruined it. Such a beautiful place with messed up people.
It's not even that its full of junkies, but rather that they are increasingly more unhinged and violent.
This is what happens when you allow criminals to victimize law abiding citizens with no repercussions
But enough about the mayor. What about the homeless? :/
I’m a native San Franciscan and I can’t stand this state or city anymore. Ideally I’d like to move abroad to Europe but for now I’m considering moving to NYC. That’s not to say NYC doesn’t have its own issues but at least Mayor Eric Adams realises his policies were messed up and regrets them. Our mayor, let alone our governor… are both something else. London Breed is just beyond. And Gavin has the gall to want to be president… let me tell you about Gavin as Mayoe, as Lieutenant Governor, as Governor… and many people here still deny the writing that’s obviously on the wall.
Just moved out of SF after living there for 3 years and boy am I glad I did. Very disappointed to see little discussion on solutions for crime and homelessness.
Crime is the main problem, not work at home.
it can be both
Poverty is the problem. End poverty lower crime!
@@dashr.4649crime leads to poverty
@@dashr.4649 so poverty causes people to steal designer handbags?
@@jeddavis poverty leads to crime
Sad to see WSJ turn into a propaganda machine. Mayor has been criticized for cutting budgets on policing. And yet somehow this video is promoting her views, isn't that a bit bias? We need more people's feedbacks.
That is true unfortunately.
WSJ is turning woke. It is becoming a part of woke destruction force.
The mayor never cut the budgets on policing once, she's only kept it the same or increased it. What's the point of lying?
@@PatrickCassidy-km8gh Because it works?
@@luciustarquiniuspriscus1408 Point is?
Truly refreshing for NY-based journalism to finally share a comprehensive picture of the situation. Thank you
going to SF when i was a young teen it was rough but so much better than it is now and the city had a really cool feel to it. sad to see the city in such a low place they need drastic and immediate change.
I was in Dallas a few months ago and saw many homeless camps and homeless tents around the city, with people sleeping on the streets, as I saw in New Orleans and Kansas City. ALL cities need to crack down on homelessness and put people in shelters and outlaw urban camping. Otherwise, cities will spiral downward, regardless of the political party the mayor or governor is.
Agree. The mentally ill or drug addicted homeless are the real issue. Need to be forced off the streets into treatment facilities. Yes, forced.
But we have to find accommodations needy immigrants. Surely, they come first.
Exactly.@@evilsimeon
Living wages, affordable housing, and better healthcare (incl mental healthcare) are needed to address this holistically. But there’s a faction of the population that votes for people who vehemently oppose these things. So here we are…
The video completely left out/ignored the role criminals play in companies and small business owners pulling out from SF and more overall the metropolitans that let criminals run rampant.
In 2019 Chinese tourists made up for $2 billion in San Francisco spending. There has not been a return in Chinese tourists. Therefore retailers are not expecting to make up for a $2 billion decefit from locals who are not returning to work and purchasing online. Also many of the stores Chinese people flocked to in the US to purchase designer clothes from are now available in Hong Kong. It is like Vegas, when Asian tourists made up most of the gambling. Then when Macau became mainstream- Vegas had to pivot and focus on entertainment. San Francisco will have to pivot from retail.
The other large proportion of visitors were the tens of thousands each week that attended conferences. But with the increase in crime and homelessness, the number of conferences - especially the larger ones stopped holding them there as attendees didn't feel comfortable.
Don't worry the CCP is ruining Hong Kong and Macau so that won't last too long.
Yeah, the vilified chinese tourists are now missed
DEFINITELY AGREED 1000%!!!!!!!!!!
LEGALIZE GAMBLING CASINO HOTELS AND RESORTS!!!!!!!!!!
I visited San Francisco back in 1988, way before it’s current fall, but you could see it coming back then. Back the SF was dirty, not safe, and full of many aggressive panhandlers. Worse of at, it was super expensive. As someone visiting California from the East Coast back then, I had way more to enjoy in Oakland than SF, especially Jack London Square. Of all the major cities in the US that I visited and didn’t like, and I liked the vast majority of them, San Francisco takes the top spot for being a bad city to visit, followed closely by Los Angeles, Atlantic City, and Dover, Del.
One of the main problems is that most people, and politicians appear to believe that commerce is the only sign of a healthy city, and of a thriving society. Greed actually fuels so many elements that destroy a city, that it blinds people of what really matters...like culture, youth, and families. The exploitation mentality is harmful to every aspect of a desireable place to live.
I am happy you mentioned this and I agree. I was raised in the 80s in SF and there were so many children of all different ethnicities, and backgrounds. It was such a rich environment for me to learn from. I rarely see children and families that live in SF now. So sad. it's just too expensive
Lived in SF a number of times over the decades. The place was always a sewer. It's not a perception problem. It's real.
The moment tech workers no longer had to live there to work, they bailed out fast. Because. People aren't stupid. Why pay a ridiculous amount of money to live in a sewer?
I live in SF and agree it's a mess, but the reason it's expensive is that many people still really want to live here. Will be happy if that ever turns around and rents plummet.
It has certainly gotten worse. I used to enjoy the city and energy but now it’s all bad w/o the good…and frankly not safe for a family.
Ofc it's not a perception problem. The mayor just wants to deflect from the true problem and continue doing jack diddly.
@@marakimathe "new" apartments can't charge any cheaper or they will go bankrupt
Are you one of those NIMBY'S that block housing development. Cause that's what's costing the city to be unaffordable.
If the mayor's "perspective" requires a comparison to 1907, you know how bad things are now.
My company recently had their annual conference in SF and customers specifically told us they would not attend it next year if it was held in SF.
San Francisco deserves absolutely everything that is happening
I absolutely despise seeing Mayor London breed in this video. Get her out of office.
She is just the tip of the iceberg; it’s the demented voters who keep on vote in wackos: Newsom, pelosi and Feinstein. Sanity is a scarce commodity in that town🥱🙈
The problem is the homeless and other groups are seen as victims and you cannot ask any accountability from victims. Start seeing everyone as citizens and hold them accountable.
They are victims.
@@sewbuttnsthey victimize themselves. They blame high rents as though the reason they started living on the streets and doing drugs and committing crime was as simple as not being able to make rent. They weren’t law abiding people with jobs and making rent who suddenly experienced high cost of living and became homeless. Most homeless in CA were already homeless prior to the pandemic but they made their way to CA from other states which wouldn’t tolerate their crime and drugs.
@@tony9146 A large percentage of the homeless population actually have jobs and pay taxes, they just cant make enough to offset the cost of living
@@mreug6 this is simply untrue. You’re telling me a large percentage of the people who are living in drug infested crime infested tent cities who we see laying about all day long are not only working day in and day out but also paying taxes on top of that?? You probably believe SF mayor’s statement that this is merely a “perception problem.”
If the majority of homeless people took part of society and didn’t contribute to crime and to the ruining of city centers like SF then there wouldn’t be all the associated crime and drug issues to homeless. You can’t honestly tell me the two are independent of each other.
There isn't the money to incarcerate all of them, even if you want to go down that path. Maybe we should send them to Texas of Florida, like those guys do with their problems.
I've traveled to many downtowns in US cities, and they're not safe and sometimes look like ghost towns. Why is it so difficult to see a solution? Just start providing incentives for people to open up their small businesses and lower the cost of housing so people could live there. This is greediness at his finest when you only attract big corporations, expect a high and quick return on your real estate investment. Start building a city for the people.
No, what they need is to get rid of this Mayor for starters - she seems more concerned about the perception of SF than actually producing measurable results in the city’s “revitalization”
I was in San Francisco this past weekend and it was bad. I don't know how the city became so messed up. The streets were dirty and homelessness were very visible. I hope San Francisco can turn its city around.
NYC in the 80s . San Francisco will come back too.
So I should not get in bart and go there to explore on my day off???
@@SasukeFan21its not bad! Believe me, LA is terrible compare to SF. There are issues, yes! But its not like media portrays it! Especially, with BART!
Ehhh lolol
A City that has not worked for a long time/
I was in SF 2 months ago, and discovered that the new official smell is a blend of urine and skunk (weed, actually). It permeates everywhere, downtown, Moscone, Fishermans, Chinatown, you name it. The mayor might want to work on that before declaring that people are coming back.
And yet nothing is done about the homelessness and crime. What don't they understand? People want to spend their hard-earned money in nice places, not drug-infested swamps.
Politicians in the bay area love avoiding the actual facts about why so many businesses have left the area. It's sad seeing such a decline 😢
Get rid of the leadership? Or we acting like it isnt the policys set by them causing it?
Just let everyone work remote
It's all about not arresting the people who are the criminals because they also happen to be not white... Just turn on the TV and see that white people have been replaced in so many different ads that it is ridiculous and hilarious that some of the products they put in African American in yet you know the consumer spending on that product is probably non-existent.. say a black guy drinking pomegranate juice in a movie theater okay never going to happen
Surgeons, dentists, Uber drivers, waiters, pilots, mailmen… they all should go home and work from a home office, once they set up their OnlyFans accounts.
Nah it’s just a perception problem 😂
I visited SF in 2014 and coming from Eastern Europe I was shocked by the squalor. I heard it only got worse since, much worse. Recently people from my office in Warsaw were asked to attend a software developer conference there and many were not happy, despite all costs of and international trip being covered by our company.
Was the conference Dreamforce?
I refused a job offering because the company required me to travel to US, but in my case it was not because of “squalor” - my brother and 2 of my friends got stuff stolen from them in their first week in US. They stole a watch and money from my brother(was in work locker room), a friend got a gun in his ribs and stolen money(he decided to walk 1km from office to hotel in Chicago) and another friend got his work car stolen.
I'm a US citizen and visited SF for the first time in 2005, I really enjoyed my time there. I got a really positive impression of the city. But when I dropped in recently good god was I shocked by the squalor, open drug-use, and homeless everywhere. It felt like there was a refugee camp across the city. The "image" problem stems for SF's rotten core. Crime and filth are tacitly permitted in the city now seemingly.
@@aliancemd Jeez, sounds awful... an totally believable unfortunately!
@@Hashtagcris No, it was sth with Samsung.
I’m in San Francisco (since the 80’s) until they get a handle on public safety downtown cannot rise.
I was born in San Fransisco and visited the city for the first time in 12 years as a solo traveler. I was shocked to see the state of the city and within my first two hours in the city I had my phone ripped out of my hands while walking around downtown San Fransisco.
SF needs a new mayor
Yes, gonna voter London breed out.
I lived in San Francisco for over 30 years (starting in the 1980s) and this report is quite accurate. San Francisco always had a homeless problem and most of the homeless people lived in the South of Market Area before the 1980s, which was mostly occupied by high tech businesses before the pandemic.
You omit to mention that the SF DEMOCRAT PARTY ( sic "socialist" in rural US ) had a plan since Mayor Alioto to remove / destroy over 100,000 SRO rooms for working single men since that time - ergo these taxpayers became desperate drunks and addicts. WE NEED TO REMOVE THE CORRUPT DEMOCRAP PARTY NOW !
I agree with you. But it seems like the homeless problem has gotten a lot worse.
@@GKP999agreed. I recently had the chance to walk around, ride around the city again and it’s bad.
The hippies invaded in the late 60's and changed the City. My dad use to take me to Market Street in the early 70's to see my great uncle who owned a hotel down there. My uncle would take us to the cafeterias. Gawd, the lowest of the low eat there. It was really sad and dirty. The late 80's and into the 90's it was nice after the conservative movement of Reagan and Bush. Then this guy in 2008 said he wanted to bring change to the US. Boy, did we change. There are too many resident aliens working in the City that cannot vote. So the activists do. Unless there is another conservative movement, the City is dead.
@@erikh9991 the conservative moment did not help at all countrywide at least many of the problems the country has started with Reagan. The reason why they seemed terrific at the time is that they were short-term gains, not long-term gains, and were just filling the effects of those short-term gains and their long-term effects. Also, I'm not saying what they are doing in California is okay or gonna help but seems like no party knows what they are doing because these problems are slowly happening in every state and every big city it just happened in California faster. Lastly, California policies are very much still conservative they just have the facade that they are liberal you should really look into their laws.
growing up i used to love going to San francisoc on my birthday and would go nearly everyear. I stopped going once I saw how bad the crime, homlessness and overall cleanliness of the city has gottent. It was honestly heartbreaking to see.
I left SF in 2008 but I freaking LOVED living there. I thought I would grow old there, but now all the mom and pop stores and old establishments that have been there for 20+ years are gone. I used to know the name of the people who ran my corner store, and that isn't the case anymore. And I lived in the Tenderloin. I miss that SF. I know it will never come back, but I wish it would.
I live 20 minutes from downtown SF. Nothing positive will happen until the current leadership of the city is replaced, from the mayor, to the police chief, to the Board of Stupidvisors, to the city's department heads.
Hey, but half as many people died of Covid here than in Miami. It's sunny and it's another great day to be alive. Mayor Breed first to declare an official Covid emergency in the country. Smartest mayor there is.
I think the entire population of SF City hall needs to be replaced. Every department needs to be totally refurbished.
If you live in the rich areas of SF, you're mostly unaffected by any of this. There's always a dual existence leading in parallel.
Not exactly true. Even if you live in the affluent residential areas, you need to go to commercial areas to fully enjoy a city. In any case, there's no avoiding the homelessness and crime.
When the stores in their area close, they'll locust over to the next area. They're not just going to give up crime.
Yes, they are affected! Taking their businesses and money elsewhere.
I work for a restaurant in Oakland and we've been broken into and robbed 2 times in the past year. We've also been vandalized 3 times in the same time frame. Business hasn't been the best either.
San Francisco is still too crowded. Keep the doom-loop news coming! Thank you. -An SF resident
SF, and other metropolitan cities need to introduce new/affordable housing options in the city so they’re not as reliant on people coming from the outside. That brings local foot traffic. They need to invest heavily in public transportation so car centric environments aren’t an issue anymore and people can walk/get around without a car. On the other side of it, they do need to deal with the homeless/drug issue hard because it’s not a joke. Sure it sucks people are in those situations, but being soft on the issue doesn’t work. People need to be pushed to get off drugs and help with mental health. Just saying “aww but they can’t help it” doesn’t cut it.
People don't need to be "pushed to get off drugs", they need us to build and staff the rehabs so there isn't a year waiting list for those already trying to get off drugs... and they need us to make affordable housing and STOP THE GREED-DRIVEN EVICTIONS that rob them of hope and drive them to drugs.
That’s what I always been saying. Either offer them help and provide it. Shelter counseling therapy and staffing agencies and so on. If such ppl don’t want the help. Out to slab city. They can be homeless somewhere else.
Completely pointless. This mayor should be replaced.
SF's downtown is a literal toilet right now, no amount of planning will save it until you dispose of the homeless.
The mayor London Breed is the issue. She said retail and companies not coming back is not true. Shopping malls around Bay Area are doing great. Companies moved away because of the homeless and crimes and most importantly the extremely high tax. Our mayor and the city doesn't give any incentive and doesn't try hard at all to keep these businesses from leaving. I am so disappointed with this lady. When Ed Lee was our mayor, things were looking so great, and it was only a few years ago. As soon as London Breed came to office, things went downhill quickly.
When you let drug addicts and criminals run things this is what you get. San Francisco Mayor 0:54 : "There is a perception problem". Yeah, the perception that is problematic would be yours and it would be that you perceive repeated coddling of hundreds of criminals as a good strategy for a vibrant downtown. Doesn't work in Seattle, Portland or Los Angeles either. In the last week or so they've also had similar negative results from the same soft policing experiment in Philadelphia.
It is not about them coddling criminals. It is about the cost of living. I live in Lancaster PA and we have a homeless problem here too. I guess according to you we 'coddle criminals' because the homeless aren't thrown in jail or allowed to starve to death.
@@sewbuttns The difference is that in Lancaster there's no where near as much money to help the homeless. In San Francisco, the number of programs far exceed Lancaster and it's become commonplace for gangs to brazenly shoplift up to $900 and just walk out the front door without anyone even chasing after them. That's what people call "coddling"
@@sewbuttns Don't be dense. We're talking about mass crime here. California's prop 47 basically legalized all crime. Why buy anything when you can just walk in and take whatever you want? Not to mention District Attorneys that just refuse to prosecute when there is a case on the basis of ideology. Small unknown towns like Lancaster can't compare.
@@sewbuttnsit is not as simple as cost of living. The people on the streets weren’t previously holding stable jobs and paying rents and taking part of community who suddenly started living on the streets and committing crime simply because of inflation and rent increases.
Rent and cost of living was already incredibly high in SF pre pandemic.
@@sewbuttns yes let’s support looting burglary and assaults because of homelessness
Making crime illegal again couldn’t hurt. 🤷♂️
I spent my whole career working in a high rise at Market and Fremont In SF, it was such a great location. We could get anything we wanted for lunch, after-dinner drinks, or dinner or shop for clothes. The Upper Market Street deadbeats and drug addicts didn’t come down to the financial district (FD) much. Now the FD is a dead zone, only those undesirable people remain. My employer, an international engineering company, pulled out of there sometime after 2008 because of the high costs and downsizing after the recession. When I worked there, there were over 30,000 employees in the company, filling several buildings! I worked hard, but they were such fun times! I had a corner office with a view of the Open Space of the Marin Highlands and the GG Bridge, it was lovely. Even the commute was a pleasure, crossing over the bridge twice a day in luxurious public buses, or by ferry. I still live in the same place, just north of the city, but can’t think of any reason to go downtown now. All the good shopping is gone, for one thing. I don’t want to be accosted by some derelict, either.
You sound like you need to move to city and get a new life, maybe San Francisco isn’t for you anymore since u fond those memories of being in a small cubical office, they still have all these benefits they just don’t want to hire old people like YOU ,, they are looking for people fresh out of tech u should really walk around and see what they look like cause for sure they are not old I work around that area I would know
San Francisco really screwed up by making housing so unaffordable and putting all their eggs in the tech sector’s basket. Drop those insane zoning laws and increase the housing supply. San Francisco doesn’t have to be the tech startup of the world anymore, but it can still be a city that allows its residents to live comfortably financially. It’s such a gorgeous city, it’ll bounce back eventually.
A big issue for American downtowns is the lack of residential density. In Canada our downtowns are primarily living spaces with an office district which often also dies depending on the time of day. Toronto's office vacancy has also exploded, and yet downtown is absolutely *packed* and businesses are flourishing. This despite crime and homelessness. I can't believe the videos of San Francisco showing empty sidewalks. That looks incredible compared to Canadian cities. Even smaller cities like Calgary, Halifax, Montreal, Hamilton, Ottawa are bustling.
Best example of this is Vancouver, there's hardly any offices at all anymore. Every second street is a food street loaded with every kind of food you want. Despite it being the third most expensive city in the world it is VERY bustling.
This is the coldest most heartless city I've ever seen. They will never do anything to address the real issues.
If the mayor really thinks wrong perception are the issues, she has not walked on city streets in San Francisco by herself. If she did, she was sleepwalking.
There won't be a rise until there's a completely new city council and mayor in SF. It's getting worse.
Best way to solve the problem is to let people live in Downtown like Chicago/NYC, decrease the costs of renting and sale, then everyone will come back slowly, the other side is crime which needs restrictions and more police officers.
More police does nothing when the laws are not enforced by the courts. In fact, the government only ends up getting sued by litigious factions looking to make a buck.
I was thinking the same thing. Funny enough most of the sf politicians don't even really live in sf. They would never allow anything affordable.
Unfortunately there are physical hurdles to convert office to residential. They just don't have the windows necessary for residential, the floors are too big. You can relax the rules, but then you have to find people willing to put up with LCD screens instead of windows.
Modern office buildings with large floor plates over 20,000 SF are too big to be converted to residential unless you add internal atriums. It can be done but all it takes is $$$$.
Isn't the real problem zoning laws? I bet the rooms with windows could be shared by several residents during the day and they could go back to their bedrooms at night or when they wanted privacy. Could be kitchens for example.
"Rise again" is very ambitious verbage. I'm from San Francisco and have an interest in that City doing well. But there is no clear path forward, for downtown. Everywhere you walk, things are closed up, or very few customers. I went into the new IKEA downtown, workers there said it was very slow but that they are hoping for business to improve long-term. The City leadership needs to stick to basics--clean, safe, welcoming to everyone. It shouldn't be this difficult to do.
The mayor said that in 1907 SF was mostly rubbles and ashes and it's considerably worse than now. She is comparing the fire that destroyed the city back in 1907 to the lacked of leaderships that destroyed the city today. It's totally different scenarios. The fire may destroyed the city back in 1907, but at that time, they have strong leaderships and residents felt safe. Can you say the same thing nowadays?
I visited SF for the first time in 2005, I really enjoyed my time there. I got a really positive impression of the city. But when I dropped in recently good god was I shocked by the squalor, open drug-use, and homeless everywhere. It felt like there was a refugee camp across the city. The "image" problem stems for SF's rotten core. Crime and filth are tacitly permitted in the city now seemingly.
I was there in 1983, in 1989, and once or twice in the '90s. And in Oakland in 2017. SF and Bay area were amazing, fabulous in the early 80s and before. Today, it's a hellscape, circling the drain.
where in SF did you go?
@@KillenEMsoftly All over. But I stayed and mostly travelled in the north. I liked making day trips to Sacramento and Berkeley while I was there as well.
YOU ALREADY COMMENTED THIS GET A LIFE
@@ashley-jy4xo Are you a car thief?
I'm in the healthcare field, and our big annual conference is going to be in SF in the next year. I passed on it. No way I would go there and no way I would take my wife and small children to SF....
I've always wanted to visit SF, and hopefully it'll get it's act right and make me want to visit and spend money there.
I also like how the elephant in the room (the homeless, drug addicts, and people needing mental health services, smash and grab/crime) was only mentioned for a few seconds in a nearly 9 minute segment.
I'm a financial professional and I live in Oakland. I was at a wealth manager conference monday and tuesday downtown in San Francisco. It was fine. Yes, you do want to be careful. No, I wouldn't walk around with jewelry or expensive bags. But I walked several blocks from BART (the public subway) to the hotel dragging a suitcase and it was fine. I'm in the process of buying a condo in San Francisco in Russian Hill. I believe in San Francisco and that it's gotten a bad rap in the past several months. San Francisco is caught up in a media cycle pumping this narrative that the city is in far worse condition than it really is
They moved the dental convention to San Jose. It is safer out of Sa Francisco.
@@jip230oh you have money money for buying in Russian hill
You can take your family chill out, just do your research to book ur stay at a nice safe hotel that’s not as near to downtown or tenderloin or mission🤷🏻♀️ there is ways around it and if it’s just a convention you will only be in downtown for the convention. Are you planning to take ur whole family to the convention bc I usually see men go alone…. Other than that just sight see and don’t look so out of place DO YOUR RESEARCH !!!!😊
"Reimagine the building" = projecting a forecast in which we can charge exorbitant lease rates
I worked at the Whole Foods in the civic center and it didn’t even last a year, I had left the job a few months before it closed down but it was bad around there all homeless and druggies with a gated community of homeless so as to contain them just across the street by the museum. Crazy lol