Crime, Fentanyl and Exodus: The Crisis That Is Devastating San Francisco 

The problem is that far too many are deeply entrenched in their political idealism and misplaced desire to appear compassionate for anything to change. There is NOTHING compassionate about allowing thousands of people to be consumed by their addictions and essentially abandoning entire neighborhoods to the crime and total lack of safety that comes along with it.

In 1950, Detroit had the highest per capita income in the US. If you think that a city being wealthy means it can't collapse think again

I moved to San Francisco in 1986. Left after 37 years I feel like I left my heart there. It is just a bittersweet feeling The City I loved and both my son and grandson were born is not at all what was. I’m a heartbroken old man that can’t stop remembering the smell of coffee roasting at Hill’s Bros plant on Embarcadero. The City doesn’t smells good, no more.

I'm from London and went on holiday to California last month and SF and LA shocked me how bad the streets were

The crime rate has gone up far more than reported. Police aren't bothering to press charges in most cases because the prosecutors don't prosecute. So the crime doesn't show up in statistics.

Even before fentanyl, you would walk down any street in soma or Fillmore and homeless people would be openly injecting or smoking crack with police doing nothing. People literally would shit in the street and social customs are to just avoid eye contact and pretend it’s not happening. On my first day at work I got swung on by some lunatic shouting at demons. The only thing I could do was slip his punch and keep walking. It’s truly a disgraceful place to live or visit these days.

I went for vacation to SF last year and someone broke a window in my car in plain daylight in downtown and stole everything including my passport. Then a war in Ukraine started and I got stuck in California for SIX MONTHS until Kiev issued a new one. It was absolute shock for me to discover a situation happening in SF. I wish I would know before and would avoid that from happening 🤦🏻‍♀️ undocumented, with no soul in foreign country for 6 months…Just crazy

I had family visiting from UK. SF was on their bucket list. I told them that it would be costly and a BIG disappointment. They still wanted to go and see. They felt that as a former Calfornia resident and someone who worked and lived in the Bay, I was being overly critical. Upon their return, they were astonished how bad things were are that people were just allowing things to happen and going with what was their norm. They also went to LA and again were astonished how bad the US has become. Their exploratory trip was so eye-opening, and they said they would never move to CA and couldn't believe how bad things were in SF. Their finally thoughts were aligned with mine, which is that SF is now just a postcard city. It only looks good from afar and is actually dangerous and declining at a faster rate than any other major city. It's a shame that the state of CA isn't interested in keeping the state safe or attractive. The only good things left in the state are the weather, ocean, and some of its natural beauty. I see why people are leaving SF at such an alarming rate.

As a former SF resident, housing is indeed problematic, my family's attempts to take back our rental house has been a war of attrition.

“The Biden administration is combatting the Fentanyl crisis by asking China to not export Fentanyl anymore.” That made me laugh out loud 😂

My parents spent their honeymoon in San Francisco in early 1963. They described a beautiful, vibrant, interesting, clean, friendly, colorful and affordable city full of beautiful department stores, wonderful restaurants, exciting nightclubs and interesting specialty stores of every kind and full of amazing city life. Folk music was all the rage at the time and there were many clean-cut groups of college age singers and musicians performing positive songs about a better world. SF is now completely opposite of everything there was at that time. It is a filthy, corrupt and increasingly empty nightmare. I wouldn't go in that city in broad daylight. The horror stories I keep hearing don't surprise me at all.

I’m heartbroken at what SF has become. I spent half my life there. It’s really bad and the citizens there are at fault. They like to feel good about themselves but won’t lift a finger to help anyone- and this is the result.

As a world traveler who goes to foreign countries alone multiple times a year, San Francisco is the only place I've ever been that I felt unsafe. As the sun set I felt a primal instinct to get off the streets asap.

Detroit feels disrespected

I lived in San Francisco for years and it was a really terrible place 10 years ago. These days I go there enough to know that it's exponentially worse and heading down a path of no redemption.

It's America's mental hospital

The next Robocop reboot will be in San Francisco

How do you not mention the homeless? It’s the biggest problem in the city. The exodus is just beginning. Things will continue to deteriorate until the jobs come back.

I last visited San Francisco in 2019 and I will never go back. It's a complete disaster.

SF in the early 2000s felt like every bit of how it was portrayed in the movies. Special times in that city

Unfortunately these policies have made it into Portland and my city of Seattle.

My one and only visit to San Francisco was in the early 80s. I was very impressed with the beauty of the city and surroundings. I'm sorry that the city has suffered from so many misfortunes.

I’m Persian, haven’t been to USA yet, i felt in love with San Francisco after watching Bullitt when i was 5, it became my dream place in US, I watched so many movies that happened there and my love for SF was growing and the game Driver: San Francisco was the thing that maximized it, my biggest fantasy of being American was driving a mustang on the Golden Gate Bridge, since then i was always dreaming about going to San Francisco and suddenly the shock came in: seeing the real San Francisco in YT, after seeing all these footages from SF i couldn’t believe it, it was like my whole dreams and hopes falling apart in a click right before my eyes, I cannot believe this is what my dream city have become.

I live in SF, but I know how deteriorated it is. Supermarkets and stores hired armed security who can not stop thieves, merchandises are locked down or stores closed, gun robberies, car windows are broken, mental homeless are dangerous, and so on. It is the bad experience for citizens and travelers. I have recorded these video in my channel every day and see how bad the street can be.

Everyone is also forgetting a simple truth about the West Coast homelessness. Weather. It's warm enough to stay outside as an addict, an insane person or simply an unemployed or homeless person. People who are unemployed and homeless will always flock where a roof over your head can be a tarp or a box.

My cousin's husband spent years battling ALS before it took his life. It took a huge toll on her family, including her then teenage daughters. One daughter (18) went to the their doctor and was prescribed opioids (?!?!) for her depression and anxiety. Turns out the doctor was getting a kickback every time he prescribed the opioid. He got a fine, but didn't have his license taken away. My cousin's daughter? She's in her mid-20s now, and has been in and out of rehab, on the street, addicted and lost custody of her little girl. She managed to get clean for nearly a whole year at one point, but then got sucked back into addiction. She was once an A-level student with a bright future. The doctor got a fine -- she (and many of his patients) had their lives destroyed. F*CK OPIOIDS and F*CK DOCTORS who care more about money than their patients.

The US has had a major drug problem for decades, blaming Mexico and China is just an easy excuse to pass the buck rather than deal with the issues that caused a lot of these people to turn to drugs. The war on drugs just caused the dug problem to become much larger and more widespread.

They have everyone focused on other problems but they are not bringing the main issue to light 💡. The biggest problem is the disappearance of the MIDDLE CLASS!! These are the repercussions of having the really rich and the really poor coinciding! Gonna be shops like GUCCI and next door is Payless!

Unlike Detriot, San Francisco's problems are self-inflicted and can easily be solved. It could certainly benefit from adopting a firmer stance on crime reduce red tape and bureaucratic processes tied to construction to increase the supply and relocating soup kitchens and homeless shelters and Section 8 away from the downtown area where commerce and tourism happens and it will all be god again

My great grandfather lived in San Fran during the 1906 earthquake which destroyed many lives and much property. I heard a lot of stories about him. He played violin at the time, and had just bought a newer one from a Russian visiting America to sing and perform. That violin fell off a shelf in his house and cracked down the middle due to the earthquake, and now I have that violin today. It was somewhat repaired, but I want to get a professional to repair it some day. What an amazing family relic and story is how I see it.

Even in the last 8 years it's gotten so bad that I will never go back.

San Francisco is an example of what happens when a well-intentioned government becomes the worst enabler of people with horrific addictions and habits. The experiment of being compassionate to people with severe mental health problems and addictions (at the expense of the healthy and functioning citizenry) has failed everyone miserably. People are overdosing in record numbers. Businesses can no longer function. Average citizens are driven off the streets and locked in their homes. Everyone is losing, and nobody knows how to repair it responsibly and with empathy. I don't know the answer or where all this will go.

I find it amazing that property owners would rather have their property sit empty, actually costing them money than lower the price to something affordable.

Not all opioids are derived from opium, in fact oxycodone and fentynal are entirely synthetic.

A shining example of locals being kicked out, and outsiders not caring about my city

Another thing that sucks about San Francisco being so damn expensive is that a lot of people have moved out from there and even come an hour north up to the city I live in, Santa Rosa. A lovely city indeed, but the cost of rent and housing should not at all be as high as it is here. We aren't coastal. Sure just about a 30 minute drive to the west brings you to Bodega Bay, but still other than being the largest city in Wine Country, yes larger than Napa, there isn't much reason for it to be so damn expensive here.

To be fair, Detroit has improved. So it’s not even as bad, because one city is improving, while the other is falling off.

Bro your teeth are becoming yellower each episode until I can now see a tiny of green. I don’t know what you’re doing to them (or not doing to them) but you need to reverse course.

Went to San Francisco in 1988, as a single male overseas tourist. Had a great time, seemed safe enough, no problems or issues Went back in 2017, this time with my wife and son, and it had gone down hill, were not even sure if the crap we stood in was human or canine Witness some bum yelling at a young female tourist for not giving him any money, accidentally walked up the wrong street to catch a bus and just about tripped over a couple of guys passed out on the footpath. Got hassled for money a few times. But in saying that there were a lot of very helpful people, and possibly the very best food I have every had in the USA, it was a Italian joint That I can’t remember the name of or where it was as we found it by walking down Lombard street away from the switch back section, If I ever go back to SF I will be walking the full length of Lombard Street and all its side streets to find this place. The place we stayed at seemed safe enough, and was clean and tidy.

The city is declining. I moved from SF to LA in 2018. By the time my girlfriend was living in there. Sad to see San Francisco turned into a hell like this.

The comparison of Austin and San Francisco for purposes of housing starts in the last decade is inappropriate. Unlike San Francisco, Austin is surrounded by relatively open and available land while San Francisco is surrounded on three sides by ocean. It’s much harder (and more expensive) to build tall buildings than to build out. Forgetting to point out this geographic obstacle to San Francisco doesn’t help to portray the true issue.

It's really a shame since SF really is a beautiful city. I visited several times up until 2015 and if you avoided the "problematic" areas, it felt pretty normal. I don't think asking other countries to help solve YOUR drug problem will work as there will always be another criminal group happy and willing to fill the gap. The US used to have mental health institutions that dealt with the problems these homeless and/or drug users have. Tax payers decided it would be a lot more humane to fund prisons instead of psychiatric hospitals, and now that the prisons are too full, this approach has come back to bite these tax payers hard in the ass.

As a person who lived in the Bay Area for over twenty years, this makes me very sad.

I work as a truck driver in America and San Fransisco has been my least favorite city to deliver to for years. There hasnt been a delivery i made there where someone didnt try to rob me or break into my truck. I havent been back there in five years.

I moved to SF in 97, it’s turned into a horrible shithole unfortunately. Everyone I know is leaving the city now.

I moved to San Francisco in 1999. I loved it then. I moved out March of this year. The place is crazy now and not fit to live in. I am much happier living in the hills off-grid!

Honestly Detroit is the future of America itself in my opinion

I left after 44 years. It’s really sad what the city has become.

I visited San Francisco back in 98 -very crowded, parking hard to come by and those hills will drive you crazy. I liked Monterrey alot better than I did Frisco.

Effectively legalizing crimes will destroy the local economy sooner or later. No shop can operate long term when its frequently plundered.

Nice, balanced post of the situation. Thanks! 👍🏼

Outstanding video. Well done. Amazingly comprehensive for 14 minutes and 15 seconds. In other words there you have it in a "nutshell".

To be fair, some of the problems are bigger statewide issues that San Francisco is just amplifying

The problems are the mayors, prosecutors, governors. So simple.

It is amazing how many easily get sucked into fentanyl addiction. And it's a hole that is almost impossible from which to escape.

The glamour of San Francisco is part of a Bygone Era, now lost. From someone whose family lived in San Francisco since the 1950s, and lived or spent much time there from the 1980s to the mid-2000s, it has gone from a gleaming jewel to a bombed out crater. It is now a hyper-expensive, unsafe, unfriendly, dirty, pretentious pit with only small slivers of its past remaining. It has become worse than Detroit after de-industrialisation. Virtually all of the fabulous restaurants of yesteryear are now gone, most of which were shut in the last few years, including Fisherman's Grotto Number 9, Tarantino's, Jack's, Ernie's, North Beach Restaurant, The Carnelian Room, Tommy Toy's, Capp's Corner, Julius's Castle, Forbes Island, Jardiniere, Louis' Restaurant, Ocean Beach Cafe, and perhaps most devastatingly of all, the fabulous 150 year old Cliff House, whose fittings, decor and autographed photos were all auctioned off. A number of these restaurants had survived the Great Depression and, like countless other smaller businesses, are now gone. Half of Chinatown and one-third of Union Square has closed permanently due to soaring rents, the pandemic and tourist drop-off. Stores that are still in business often shut early and look like a war zone at night, as they're protected from thieves and vandals. "Smash and grabs" have become socially acceptable in the city and you cannot find a public loo open to the public due to the homeless situation. If the truth be known about just how bad the homeless situation is, think of mass Hoovervilles from the 1930s. Only residential neighbourhoods are spared much of this, but not all. As for festivals and fun destinations, like Halloween in Castro and the glorious cabaret show, Beach Blanket Babylon, the former was banned after several stabbings and the latter shut after 40+ years of performances. Events like Gay Pride have become corporate and are now sponsored by social media companies, who must force their employees at gunpoint to all march to show their "inclusivity," as the parade now lasts over six hours as the corporate participants pass by. Lastly, and the elephant in the room, the new tech and investor populations that now dominate the city live in areas away from the once thriving downtown and don't go out like people did up till the early 2000s. This new, more introverted lot don't go out, often work from home or travel outside the city, and this has destroyed small businesses that once depended on mass foot traffic. Finding a sit down family restaurant outside of downtown is a struggle. San Francisco is like Rio de Janeiro, with hyper-expensive real estate that only this population can afford, but with a degradation and high crime surrounding them. Hyperbole? Ask others who may verify this, but for someone who has the family longevity and visits quarterly from the UK, the mire it has become is all too apparent. In closing, having a friend walking next to you, getting punched in the face at random by a homeless man, only reinforces its status as a ruined relic. Upon arrest after a lengthy wait for police, after being asked why he did it, he duly said, "I felt like it."

The really odd thing about how San Francisco is portrayed in the media is that the tech industry is, and always has been, based in Silicon Valley. The largest city in the area is San Jose; it has a larger population than San Francisco and much better weather! San Francisco is known locally as Fog City. The myth of San Francisco being a tech hub became a self-fulfilling prophecy over the past couple of decades and some large tech companies did move into the city. However, it never really made sense. Other than picturesque sea views, homeless people and a ton of crime I don't see much of note about the city. Work from home has shown that for many businesses there is no good reason to pay expensive downtown office rents. Businesses that fail to adapt will be out competed.

A change in policy is unlikely. The major issue is that politicians vehemently hate to admit being wrong. They will hold their stance until the day they die or get paid off to change.

This is what the hippy, "woke" diversity and tolerance culture gets you! It is the heart of that along with Portland.

I grew up near San Fran. Quit visiting eight years ago. Before fentanyl. Drugs, rampant crime, the mentally ill, derelicts, feces, needles laying around… San Fran was killing itself before fentanyl

A shining example of "Go woke, go broke"

I lived there from 2005 to 2010 and the homeless and drug addiction situation was out of control then . The stench of urine was everywhere.

Very good video. Good mix of narative and visual.

Sad that they compare SF to Detroit. Detroit has never had its streets lined with homelessness and people doing drugs openly on the streets.

China has an interest in this drug epidemic. They are using the same strategy used by the UK during the first opium war

Btw, great thanks for the video, seems to have a lot of interesting news!

There's a prophetic movie from yesteryear called Escape from New York. It's uncanny how accurate it is in its depiction of a decaying metropolis.

Imagine living in a city where criminals families might get in trouble in another country. The city gave up years ago. I lived in CA 2010-2019, by the end of it the jewel of the pacific had already started becoming a 💩 hole

Don’t forget this affects surrounding areas too. Crime has gotten worse in Palo Alto, San Jose and other surrounding areas. As shops shutdown in SF the thieves begin stealing from other parts of the bay. :(

Excellent presentation! Clear and easy to understand!

That is a very good overview of what happened and how a place or country can be destroyed. Having been there around 2006 and already wondered about some poor people in this extremely rich town.

Lived in Bay Area for 12 years . Best time of my life. Relax en atmosphere. It’s sad to see it goes down and become junkies homeless violent drug addicted home. I was among one of people who left the ca. miss the food and life style there 😢

This channel is so great. The way they explain things and the topics they cover is really good

I am from Germany and only know San Francisco from movies like Bullitt and tv series. That is why i always wanted to visit this wonderful fascinating city. But after seeing this i am not sure if i ever want to visit America.

California in general is experiencing decline and exodus. Some areas are still growing but the major cities are declining.

Boudin was a menace to society just like his parents (convicted murderers) but the problem is much deeper. The entire state removed penalties for theft below $1,000 or so and shoplifting became an organized business. The new DA is better but compared to what? Turnaround will not come quickly if at all. Sad. I have a 20 year history with the City back when it was still thriving.

I just came back from a week in SF. Everyone was fantastic, willing to help with directions, I hardly saw any homeless and my family and I had a wonderful time.

Thanks!

I hate it when people voted for the politician into office who legalised crime and we now see what san francisco is becoming.

It's a crying shame what happened to San Francisco, but it's not surprising. The USA has a long history of letting its great cities go to hell, it is a national passtime to watch our cites decay. What we do to our cities, much like who we are as a people, is disgraceful.

In 20 years I've gone from: I want to visit the US, maybe even move there to: I wouldn't go to the US if you paid me. Sad 😐

When you have a city like San Francisco, that has ALWAYS been a haven for drug users, this is the result. I've lived 15 miles from SF my entire life, and I've always considered it a 'sleazy' city. Fast forward to today, and I feel the same way. There's only so much that officials can do to mitigate the problem, but when a person chooses to use harmful and addictive drugs, there's no stopping them! Time for some tough love...

Good program.

At 7:04, you state: "... as I'm sure many of you know already know opioids are drugs derived from the opium poppy...". This statement is untrue. Opiates are drugs derived from the opium poppy, whereas opioids are drugs that have similar chemistry or effects as opiates but are derived in part or fully from synthetic sources. For example morphine is an opiate and fentanyl is an opioid.

4:03 the reason 2014 kicked off the massive of Crimewave was because of Prop 47 passed in 2014

I sure hope that they solve these issues. I lived in SF in the 70's I love the city and hate to see it this way.

Needs Harry Callahan, he'll sort it out, even at 93.

It breaks my heart to see SF crumble. The progressive policies mean well but the implementation were open for abuse and people took advantage of it.

EVIL IDEAS HAVE SEVERE CONSEQUENCES

My wife and I went to San Francisco for our honeymoon in 2016 and we loved it! Beautiful city and we did a lot of walking during day and night. People were friendly. Sad to see it in this state now.

I was there in 2007 at Christmas and had a wonderful time seeing the famous sights . I never felt any fear walking the street or going in stores. I am so glad i went then as no homeless were to be seen and we walked all over China town and the Warf. Sooo sad for such a beautiful American icon city to fall into corrupt hands. People! Take your city Back!!!

It's rewarding to see a city get what it voted for.

Interesting considering the different amounts of fentanyl problems in different nations. National healthcare schemes and strong welfare/social support/housing systems seem to reduce the risk of locality hardship and individual despair leading to experimentation with drugs. Something about giving hope and less need to escape, perhaps?

Let’s be real here, the only thing keeping San Francisco alive is the tech industry. If all those companies leave that city, then San Francisco is officially the new Detroit.

There is a small group of billionaires who are so entrenched in their ideology and do not have to feel or live with the impact of the enforcement of it. It is the average citizen who suffers the consequences while these uber rich live blissfully unaware, tucked away in their wealthy estates.

pEoPlE hAvE tO pOop oN tHe SiDeWaLk bEcAuSe tHeRe iSn'T aFfoRdAbLe hOuSiNg!!!

It amazes me that the government there considers this normal

A property crime and a violent crime are on 2 different sides of the spectrum and not grouped together for any way. There are real economic shifts in Detroit.

SF has always attracted the open-minded, less traditional, so a culture of tolerance developed unlike anywhere else in the country. At its philosophical core, tolerance is about relaxed attitudes toward the rigidity of social norms, which, can be different enough in deifferent cultures to result in social segregation of various ethnic groups. While SF, too, had its ethnic neighborhoods, there was less segregation between them than in most large cities and as a result, there was more social cohesion. However, the culture of tolerance (also a key component of liberalism) eventually reached the point of diminishing returns and went too far and became over-indulgence for those who had no interest in social cohesion (e.g. drug addicts, the homeless and criminals in particular). We can blame the advocates of neo-Marxism and the post-modernists - esp Fouccault - whose philosophies launched an assault against traditional social norms and institutions, and advocated making the most antisocial of the society the sacred cows, the untouchables, who were to be pitied as the righteous victims of "the system" (of white patriarchy in particular - ironically, "the system" that has produced far fewer of them than we have now) and so this old system needed to be razed and a new "indulgent" system imposed (because if it weren't imposed it wouldn't get enough support and those who oppose the imposition are all bigots of one stripe or another - so much for tolerance). A lot of blame is laid on Chesa Boudin, the SF DA until 2020 and as insane as many of his policies were, the leftist (as opposed to "liberal") agenda, had been a long time coming. This philosophical change, over the last 3 or 4 decades, resulted in an influx of "social justice warriors" who have gotten themselves into positions weilding such political power that anyone of these groups can veto a project if it doesn't meet their standards for helping their particular group. So the great Liberal city of SF degenerated into the leftist city that it is today with open, rampant drug use, homeless from everywhere camped anywhere they please, and liberals cowering in fear of losing their jobs and reputations if they dare to cross the lefties running the asylum. That's where we are now. What will change this? Probably nothing for a while, until the liberals demand the tenets of liberalism be restored and the leftwing insanity is exposed for the fraud that it is.

Great breakdown. I'll only add a couple of things. Another factor in SFs rent increases were the Google/Apple/Facebook buses. Before, if you wanted to live in SF and work in Silicon Valley you had to drive 45+ minutes. The buses erased that and made it attractive for more rich tech workers that priced out normal people. The start-up economy also hurt the city. Too many young people making a lot of money to run failing businesses pricing out real businesses that need to make actual profit. I moved away years ago to maybe those issues are less of a problem today. Fare thee well, San Francisco. I'll always love you.