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I'm not interested in people just hating on SF. If you just want to snipe then please go elsewhere. I've been concerned for a number of years, before the pandemic even, about the issues SF faces. Every city has problems, but it felt like the tech boom breed complacency. IMO, the number one issue SF (and the broader Bay Area) faces is an acute shortage of affordable housing. Homelessness is likely a result of lack of affordable housing. Onerous permitting and planning has tied the city in knots, both preventing new housing but also stifling businesses. Crime is also an issue, though I think this is often overstated, and there's a separate SF crime thread, so maybe leave that to its own thread.
I'd like to see more urgency among elected leaders in re-imagining what the city can be. Clearly, just hoping for a return to the pre-pandemic tech boom is wishful thinking. It ain't happening. At least, not without a lot of very intentional (and perhaps even undesirable) incentives to lure companies and their workers back to in-person offices.
This seems like a great opportunity to make SF more inclusive, more socioeconomically diverse. Convert office buildings to mixed used residential-retail. Make a lot of these small, efficiency apartments that are affordable by design. Make some loft/art studio units, would be great if artists could afford the city again. Convert some of the space to shelters and transitional housing.
While the challenges facing SF seem large and foreboding, I'm optimistic that this could end up being good for the city. It could increase economic diversity away from homogenized tech culture, with more folks thriving other than tech bros in Patagonia vests. But I think this will require courage for a new vision of the future along with a willingness to embrace change.
Oh, and BART... the political will likely doesn't exist in Washington to bail out BART if it comes to that. The state needs to be ready to step in. I get that CA is facing budget woes at the moment, so if the money can be found elsewhere then maybe it's time to pause spending on the High Speed Rail and redirect those monies to local transit agencies. It just seems odd to prioritize a speculative new system connecting two smaller cities in the Central Valley while established transit systems that are (in comparison) highly used go to waste.
You're expecting fiscal intelligence from a city that proposes $1 trillion in reparations? In a state that never had slavery, no less?
And how would you convert high-rise office space into residential units? Every apartment needs its own individual HVAC system and bathrooms with tubs/showers and the plumbing that goes with it. Imagine the cost of that? It can be done, but the cost is immense.
San Francisco will never streamline housing developments. There are too many hands out looking for their payoff. The unions, environmentalists, politicians, you name it.
Also, much of what made San Francisco desirable is now gone. The clubs, bars, restaurants, venues, etc. Hundreds closed due to the overreaction to COVID. Those places will be filled with Starbucks and Chipotles because if business doesn't take off, those companies will still be okay.
And why pay $4,000/month for a studio if all you're getting is a view? After you've seen the view 4,000 times (like I have), you've seen it.
The #1 thing the city has to do is address crime. The tourism and convention business is down for several reasons, and crime is one of them.
Then try to entice businesses to come back. The tech bubble has burst, so that ship has sailed for several years, but it will be back in one form or another (perhaps never like before because cheap money is gone forever.) However, if the companies refuse to abandon work-from-home or hybrid, the city will continue to suffer economically.
I don't know what they can do with all that office space. As long as WFH is the new norm, a large part of the knowledge work sphere can telecommute. That's a lot of jobs. Think of all the modern jobs that can be done on a computer.
I agree with you that SF needs something to replace tech. But much of so-called "office work" is knowledge work that can be performed at home.
Maybe bring back manufacturing? Entice Elon Musk to build a factory in San Francisco. lol
Yes, many problems. And I agree that converting office space to residential isn't quick or cheap, but it's probably the right thing to do.
Interesting to see SF's budget go from surplus to deficit. This is an important issue for city leaders and will force cuts and more careful prioritization of tax dollars.
Again, I'm optimistic that the city can remake itself into something better than it was during the tech boom years. Yet I do think the city is in for a difficult period of adjustment over the next few years.
Yes, many problems. And I agree that converting office space to residential isn't quick or cheap, but it's probably the right thing to do.
Interesting to see SF's budget go from surplus to deficit. This is an important issue for city leaders and will force cuts and more careful prioritization of tax dollars.
Again, I'm optimistic that the city can remake itself into something better than it was during the tech boom years. Yet I do think the city is in for a difficult period of adjustment over the next few years.
San Francisco during the tech boom was the best that city will be. There is nothing better, because better means even more knowledge-worker jobs to replace the techies, and those jobs can be accomplished from home, just like the tech jobs.
Ask yourself what jobs require one to be in there in person? They lost the shipping business when the communist-led unions took control 100 years ago. Those jobs are gone for good. There is no major manufacturing in that city. There is some on a small scale, but nothing like an auto plant. They only need so many first responders and healthcare workers. And those jobs are expenses, they don't produce anything.
San Francisco is doing everything in its power to discourage businesses and new residents. If they are serious about $1 trillion in reparations, the high-paid people are gone. They'll just leave. San Francisco is both city and county, so they can't do a lot to increase their tax base. And who would move to a city planning on $1 trillion in reparations that already had a budget deficit?
If the $1 trillion in reparations is just virtue signaling, which I think it is, then nothing will come of it. But who wants to move to a city that would even consider such a thing?
San Francisco during the tech boom was the best that city will be. There is nothing better, because better means even more knowledge-worker jobs to replace the techies, and those jobs can be accomplished from home, just like the tech jobs.
Ask yourself what jobs require one to be in there in person? They lost the shipping business when the communist-led unions took control 100 years ago. Those jobs are gone for good. There is no major manufacturing in that city. There is some on a small scale, but nothing like an auto plant. They only need so many first responders and healthcare workers. And those jobs are expenses, they don't produce anything.
San Francisco is doing everything in its power to discourage businesses and new residents. If they are serious about $1 trillion in reparations, the high-paid people are gone. They'll just leave. San Francisco is both city and county, so they can't do a lot to increase their tax base. And who would move to a city planning on $1 trillion in reparations that already had a budget deficit?
If the $1 trillion in reparations is just virtue signaling, which I think it is, then nothing will come of it. But who wants to move to a city that would even consider such a thing?
Whooops … a reveal … agenda apparent.
Say, as long as I’m chuckling:
San Francisco’s best days were the tech boom, you say?
You understand what subjective opinions are?
In my [subjective] opinion, San Francisco’s best days were during the mid-late 60s.
Haight-Ashbury days.
Say, as long as I’m chuckling:
San Francisco’s best days were the tech boom, you say?
You understand what subjective opinions are?
In my [subjective] opinion, San Francisco’s best days were during the mid-late 60s.
Haight-Ashbury days.
I mean financially, but also culturally too.
With the techies you had thousands of well-educated, well-behaved young people paying big $$$ to rent apartments and spending what was leftover on entertainment. Restaurants, bars, clubs, etc. They all relied on those techies and the suits that came with them. These people are highly paid and being young, don't mind spending money on clothing, food and entertainment. SF's tax base increased from sales taxes, leading to more services for everyone.
I don't see how an army of young well-paid, well-behaved residents buying things is worse than an army of drugged-out hippies.
I almost made it to the Summer of Love, but we had an auto accident on the way to SF from LA and I broke my leg. It would have been cool to see it, but that time is gone.
With the techies you had thousands of well-educated, well-behaved young people paying big $$$ to rent apartments and spending what was leftover on entertainment. Restaurants, bars, clubs, etc. They all relied on those techies and the suits that came with them. These people are highly paid and being young, don't mind spending money on clothing, food and entertainment. SF's tax base increased from sales taxes, leading to more services for everyone.
I don't see how an army of young well-paid, well-behaved residents buying things is worse than an army of drugged-out hippies.
I almost made it to the Summer of Love, but we had an auto accident on the way to SF from LA and I broke my leg. It would have been cool to see it, but that time is gone.
Well, your benchmarks for excellence all seem to be in reverence of money…
The hippies certainly smoked a lot of weed and dropped a lot of acid … but the theme behind it all was the fantasy of the ‘Age of Aquarius” … wrong as they turned out to be, it still beat the pants off the vacuous, shallow materialism that followed, and which is now quite beyond revolting.
I lived in the Haight during the summers of love, in between my military tours of duty in Vietnam. Quite the cognitive dissonance experience. I’ll take the ‘drugged out hippies’ over the military industrial complex any day. And definitely over today’s idiotic tech worship.
Well, your benchmarks for excellence all seem to be in reverence of money…
The hippies certainly smoked a lot of weed and dropped a lot of acid … but the theme behind it all was the fantasy of the ‘Age of Aquarius” … wrong as they turned out to be, it still beat the pants off the vacuous, shallow materialism that followed, and which is now quite beyond revolting.
Who said anything about excellence? I mean economically, which in a way is a form of excellence, as it provides the city money to do excellent things, like pay reparations to people who were never slaves in a state that never had slavery.
Materialism is not always bad. What is bad is self-indulgence, and there was plenty of that in the 60s, but with drugs and bad ideas, as opposed to money.
Quote:
I lived in the Haight during the summers of love, in between my military tours of duty in Vietnam. Quite the cognitive dissonance experience. I’ll take the ‘drugged out hippies’ over the military industrial complex any day. And definitely over today’s idiotic tech worship.
How did people in The Haight treat you, knowing you were in Vietnam fighting against the very thing many of them idolized?
And you know, in general techies are more liberal than the general population and many tech companies refuse to do business with the military. So, your military-industrial complex statement may not apply to them.
I see your point. But the world the hippies enjoyed was built on the backs of their parents, who fought in a world war, came home and helped build the US into an economic powerhouse. And when the Boomers grew up, they did the same thing. The world we enjoyed was made possible by the war and may not exist in the US ever again because we no longer make anything. Things may be returning to the pre-FDR days.
Who said anything about excellence? I mean economically, which in a way is a form of excellence, as it provides the city money to do excellent things, like pay reparations to people who were never slaves in a state that never had slavery.
Materialism is not always bad. What is bad is self-indulgence, and there was plenty of that in the 60s, but with drugs and bad ideas, as opposed to money.
How did people in The Haight treat you, knowing you were in Vietnam fighting against the very thing many of them idolized?
And you know, in general techies are more liberal than the general population and many tech companies refuse to do business with the military. So, your military-industrial complex statement may not apply to them.
I see your point. But the world the hippies enjoyed was built on the backs of their parents, who fought in a world war, came home and helped build the US into an economic powerhouse. And when the Boomers grew up, they did the same thing. The world we enjoyed was made possible by the war and may not exist in the US ever again because we no longer make anything. Things may be returning to the pre-FDR days.
Materialism IS self indulgence.
The hippies in the Haight treated me with love … free love, free weed, free acid, . Lots of all of it. Great times.
I don’t give a fig about ideologies, liberal or conservative. Ideologies are just poor excuses for lazy intellects.
The world we are *enjoying* is an illusion … a house of cards. Utter b*** s***. Homo sapiens lived and thrived for hundreds of thousands of years without any of this crap we now consider necessary de rigueur.
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. Lots of all of it. Great times. 
