Spiraling in San Francisco’s Doom Loop
What it’s like to live in a city that
no longer believes its problems can be fixed.
New York Magazine,
by
Elizabeth Weil
Original Article
Posted By: Dreadnought,
5/10/2023 9:32:15 PM
In the spring of 2019, Marc Benioff surveyed his kingdom and it looked good. He stood on the top floor of the Salesforce Tower, the tallest building in San Francisco, named after his company, then the largest employer in San Francisco. You could see every part of the city and out across the bay. The UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital and the Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland (to which Benioff had donated $250 million). The site of a 200-bed Navigation Center for the homeless (which Benioff had defended in the face of other rich — but less rich — San Franciscans who tried to fight it off). The city looked
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Knotwyrkin 5/10/2023 9:37:46 PM (No. 1467332)
Since I can't post memes, I will say in my best Nelson voice; "Ha Ha". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOifa1WrOnQ
5 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
NorthernDog 5/10/2023 10:06:43 PM (No. 1467350)
If Gertrude Stein came back, she would now say San Francisco has no There There.
6 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
DVC 5/10/2023 10:09:58 PM (No. 1467352)
How to turn the city into a hell hole that people are leaving, even if it costs them a huge amount of money. At least they will get out with their lives...they hope.
8 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
WV.Hillbilly 5/10/2023 10:20:07 PM (No. 1467354)
Problems can be fixed.
It just takes someone with the will to do it.
13 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Californian 5/10/2023 11:48:22 PM (No. 1467389)
So glad I moved out last year.
There's just nothing else to say.
8 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
ScooterTrash 5/11/2023 12:35:19 AM (No. 1467404)
I always wanted to see San Franciso. It had fisherman's wharf, the cool bridges and parks. Now I wouldn't go there on a dare. So sad to see a great city implode.
11 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Faithfully 5/11/2023 2:45:20 AM (No. 1467430)
How can you fix problems when the elected leaders are enablers? ...and among the disturbed?
9 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
smokincol 5/11/2023 3:02:12 AM (No. 1467437)
used to listen to a radio program, Musical Starstreams, and the narrator used to refer to San Francisco as "Baghdad by the Bay" - that's my only recollection of San Francisco but was there three times, once in 1961, going to my duty station in Korea and then again in 1964, going to Vietnam and then in 1995 to see my daughter, who was living there
those were good years for San Francisco - wouldn't think of going there now, the shine was beginning to wear off "Baghdad by the Bay" on my last trip but it was still fairly civil
5 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Timber Queen 5/11/2023 3:39:42 AM (No. 1467450)
This was a moving and insightful article. My heart goes out to those who can't leave, either due to lack of resources or familial bonds and responsibilities. I'm thankful I experienced San Fransisco in its heyday of the late 1960's. S.F. was my parent's favorite weekend get-away from our home in the San Fernando Valley, once we girls were teenagers. The summer after my oldest sister married, my parents took we remaining two (I was 15, my sister 18) to San Fransisco for a week. We stayed at the Mark Hopkins, went to all the museums and parks, ate at fancy restaurants where the ladies' menus didn't have the prices, went to Fisherman's Wharf, rode the trolley cars, drove and walked across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was the summer of 1969 and we even cruised Height-Ashbury in my Dad's silver-grey Pontiac Bonneville! It was the blow-out vacation of my childhood!!
My Dad and Mom would grieve to see their beloved San Francisco today.
17 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Trigger2 5/11/2023 4:44:18 AM (No. 1467459)
It's official. Demonrats destroy every city they get in charge with.
8 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Jesuslover54 5/11/2023 5:26:51 AM (No. 1467466)
This is planned, by Blackrock et al. As soon as despair is high enough and real estate is low enough they will swoop in. Then the homeless will get kicked out.
At that point Blackrock and their partners the cartels will own some of the best real estate in the world, for cheap.
6 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
mifla 5/11/2023 5:45:35 AM (No. 1467477)
Hey San Fran looters, I hear that Nancy has a lot of nice stuff at her house.
4 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Strike3 5/11/2023 8:10:15 AM (No. 1467560)
You actively worked and campaigned to turn your beautiful city into a cesspool full of drug addicts and non-productive parasites. I'm afraid you won't be able to fix it either.
5 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
TJ54 5/11/2023 8:13:16 AM (No. 1467563)
Tony Bennett now sings: I Lost My Mind in San Franshitshow!
2 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
felixcat 5/11/2023 8:44:17 AM (No. 1467581)
Always wanted to visit SF, but too late now. Guess I have to settle for seeing snippets of it in movies like Mrs. Doubtfire and Bullitt.
1 person likes this.
Everything that is wrong with San Francisco is summed up by this quote in the article, "Why are my tax dollars not paying for that guy to get help?" San Francisco's problems need to be solved by the individuals of San Francisco, they will not be fixed by the government (of San Francisco, or elsewhere). Of course, as long as a large number of people think that the government should solve the problems, the government will get in the way of people who actually work at solving them.
2 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Axeman 5/11/2023 10:14:00 AM (No. 1467646)
Very well written essay. Almost like a Sci-fi short story.
3 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 5/11/2023 11:57:49 AM (No. 1467713)
As long as voters keep voting in low IQ leftist politicians, it will only get worse. I was there about 20 years ago and it was starting to spiral down even back then. The Wuhan pandemic keeps getting mentioned as one of the causes, but that was only a minor contributor. The politicians destroyed law and order in SF. Now, no one wants to go into the city to work, sightsee or dine in a nice restaurant.
1 person likes this.
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