'We all suffer’: why San Francisco techies hate the city they transformed

Currently live in DC and I get the argument about the hyper gentrification in DC, but it’s really hard on one hand to say we need to increase the housing supply by building taller and denser neighborhoods while also trying to maintain the distinct character of existing neighborhoods, which have a distinct culture because they are low density for example.

It’s been interesting being there close to a year. I’m on 14th St and pay basically Santa Monica/SF prices.

The wharf development is crazy.
 
In SF, the program is called CAAP. The homeless get $72 a month and get the option of housing in a shelter. If they're lucky, they could get a SRO IF it becomes available. They also can receive food stamps (Calfresh), MediCal.


actually, it's just the 1st now
They also provide counseling for mental health. There’s a reason why folks **** on the streets. Trauma, Substance abuse, domestic violence..etc..
 
Currently live in DC and I get the argument about the hyper gentrification in DC, but it’s really hard on one hand to say we need to increase the housing supply by building taller and denser neighborhoods while also trying to maintain the distinct character of existing neighborhoods, which have a distinct culture because they are low density for example.
I agree, this is an interesting debate. But we have real life examples of the better option. What good is saving the distinct character of a neighborhood if the locals that created the uniqueness can no longer afford to live there?
 
It’s been interesting being there close to a year. I’m on 14th St and pay basically Santa Monica/SF prices.

The wharf development is crazy.
That area blew up within 2 years I want to say. Used to be a complete dump with the only reason to go there being the bucket of crabs and the oysters with hot sauce during the steaming wait
 
I never fully understood the homeless situation in Cali. Is it that homeless people tend to move to warmer climates?
Not to sound like a a hole but Im sure its not people lose their job and bam they decide to sleep on the street. Surely its a drug/mental thing.
I dont remember seeing homeless people in Chicago when I visited for instance.
It's not quite as simple as being a drug/mental thing.
http://hsh.sfgov.org/wp-content/upl...cisco-PIT-Executive-Summary-FINAL-6.21.17.pdf
 
folks don’t have the will to improve. Burnt out from the drugs, trauma,..etc
Our system/program created this.
40% are 41-60, 83% of vets are chronically homeless and unsheltered. I don’t mind my tax dollars going to take care of these folks.

NorCal is a hotbed for homeless folks mainly because of the food banks and resources.
 
slippery slope.... not all cops, all lives matter.....

Right but you said to post in the white thread when multiple people have acknowledged that it isn’t just white people issue. Most of my building in SF is Asian people.

I’m trying to understand where you are coming from.
 
Right but you said to post in the white thread when multiple people have acknowledged that it isn’t just white people issue. Most of my building in SF is Asian people.

I’m trying to understand where you are coming from.

what im saying is even if minorities are gentrfying like youre saying

are they necessarily the same people like in the op working in tech and complaining about the problems they created specific to themselves?

like what im saying is even if minorities like yourself gentrify are you the people the op was talking about?

or a minority within a minority population wise?
 
what im saying is even if minorities are gentrfying like youre saying

are they necessarily the same people like in the op working in tech and complaining about the problems they created specific to themselves?

like what im saying is even if minorities like yourself gentrify are you the people the op was talking about?

or a minority within a minority population wise?

It’s all dependent on the city...

It’s more about the smartest people making money are going to tech or IB currently when we need them to go to Medical.

If being a consultant in DC is going to make me 200k at 26 and I will make nothing as a Resident - why do that?

This is obviously an issue the US major cities need to figure out - but this isn’t a race issue at all.
 
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techies are the epitome of hypocrites. They'll paint a mask saying they're liberal, but will quickly flip scripts when **** goes down. SF is a weird as place. I went to the mission district just last week with my gf for her assignment, one corner would just be low income markets and shops and the next block would be a strip of fancy restaurants and cheese tasting bars, like bruh bipolar *** diversity. And they're all wypipo and asians who think they're wypipo.
 
We let politics get in the way of common sense. Geographically, the Bay Area is huge. Its huge. As is California.

A quick comparison for perspectives sake. Tokyo and it’s surrounding areas are 38 million people. That’s about the population of all of California. And the size of Tokyo and it’s surrounding region is about the same size as LA county.

Our draconian laws, politics, “democracy” get in the way of common sense. We refuse to build skyscrapers. We refuse to spend money on public transportation and subway infrastructure. California should honestly be able to support 200 million people easily. We choose not to and we choose to punish the people already here.

This is kind of tangent to the original point but it’s honestly our liberal policies, bipartisan politics, and this sense of protecting some made up culture and identity that stops common sense solutions. Very disappointing to me. That said, we’re better off than 99% of the world so I also am grateful for everything that we have.
 
The richest country in the world yet most of the major cities have a homeless problem. Sometimes I wonder if the government is focused on the right things, such as the well-being of it's citizens, adequate resources, effective public service, sound infrastructure,...etc. Are we really so lost that we'll let companies and corporations dictate how things are. SF gave ******* tax breaks to tech companies which brought them flooding in and inflating the price of nearly everything before people could even react. I know the belief of "everyone has equal opportunity if you apply yourself" but I seen plenty businesses that seemingly made it get steamrolled by a franchise or fancy shop. That's all understandable because economic growth is usually good, but this **** happened at breakneck speeds. I went from pondering as a high school senior on "what house I can buy in which neighborhood?"to now contemplating whether or not my career path as graphic designer was even worth it. It took 10 years to price me out before I even had a chance at the housing market. Sorry for the rant, but this my personal experience. Might even join the medical field because of this ****.:lol:
 
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Liberal policies?
Who do you think is the party pushing for affordable housing? Dems
Who is the party that voted and supported prop 13? Reps
Do you think NIMBYs (mainly over 60) lean liberal or conservative? Conservative
Homeless people will gravitate to bigger cities because they have access to everything there and transportation.
Homeless especially gravitate to CA because of the weather and because we have shelters and programs that actually try and change lives.
Reno use to bus homeless people to SF because conservative cities dont want to deal with them.
There are also drug and mental health issues that have finally caught up with the liberal lifestyle (but not politics) of the bay area and LA.
Basically CA is taking on the majority of the homeless west of the mississippi. There are homeless people from every state here.
Better here though than say Arizona or Texas because liberals here will actually want to do something about the problem.
Over $4 billion dollars of homeless housing bonds have been approved locally in the bay area since 2016.
 
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We let politics get in the way of common sense. Geographically, the Bay Area is huge. Its huge. As is California.

A quick comparison for perspectives sake. Tokyo and it’s surrounding areas are 38 million people. That’s about the population of all of California. And the size of Tokyo and it’s surrounding region is about the same size as LA county.

Our draconian laws, politics, “democracy” get in the way of common sense. We refuse to build skyscrapers. We refuse to spend money on public transportation and subway infrastructure. California should honestly be able to support 200 million people easily. We choose not to and we choose to punish the people already here.

This is kind of tangent to the original point but it’s honestly our liberal policies, bipartisan politics, and this sense of protecting some made up culture and identity that stops common sense solutions. Very disappointing to me. That said, we’re better off than 99% of the world so I also am grateful for everything that we have.
Which liberal policies have stopped common sense solutions?
 
Which liberal policies have stopped common sense solutions?

Treating people that defecate on streets / clearly mental problems to remain on the streets and have “freedom”.

To me, there is no difference between them and a 5 year old. I think it’s our responsibility as a society to bear the cross of costs to get them off the streets and into a safe space. A lot of liberals would call this forced help an affront to personal freedom and incarceration of someone that’s committed no crime.

And rent control.

And zoning laws.

And overall state / city / county budget policies toward social programs instead of public transportation infrastructure.

Its disheartening to see America fall into the same issues as old 3rd world countries. We’re headed in a direction of elitism and the small have and different classes of have nots. It’s how in other countries (e.g., India, Brazil, etc) you end up mansions or complexes guarded by personal security teams next to the slums.
 
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