Jonathan Blow

In fact this is what is already happening. San Francisco is the worst part of the entire Bay Area now. If “tech” were a drain, Mountain View would look like Hamsterdam, but it’s the opposite.

All that said, I agree with the article’s stance that SF’s decline bodes poorly for the future of the USA. For that reason, and for image purposes (probably many Americans think SF is the home of “tech”) it would be a good idea to fix it. That just seems impossible.

How has SF declined? I only spent a couple days there in 2018, but it seemed fine-- what did I miss?

Maybe you were mostly in nice parts of town (which are fewer than ever?) It is famously nasty now.

Because of homeless?

A vast increase in the number, and a stark change in the kind. It's no longer so much "hanging out in the Haight asking for change" homeless, it's now "loud belligerently muttering-to-himself dude who seems dangerous", which there was always a little of, but now it's everywhere.

Worst neighborhoods like Tenderloin are *crazy* compared to what they were like in the 90s-early 2000s. They always weren't nice, but now it is completely bananas.

Crime is up, enforcement is down. Police won't respond to robberies at stores because the DA won't prosecute, so, robberies are increasing. At most CVS or Wallgreens type stores, they now have to have security at the door plus little bells on all the locked-up merchandise