Wait till you hear about the lease costs for some of these places. Real estate lacking a robust set of federal regulations that protect community building is the root cause of all this madness.
My heart goes out to all the shoplifters, thieves, and robbers who now have to venture further out from the safety of their home cities in order to get their wares in hopes of supplementing all their government assistance program checks. Thank you.
Use to visit Fan Francisco with family. Now, I wouldn't want to to be near that city. I rather spend my money at a place I won't get accosted by homeless druggies or have my rental car broke into.
Right! I’m a programmer, and though I enjoy my online shopping, video games, and video streaming, I also enjoy eating out and shopping a few clothes that I can try on.
Lease/rent is too costly, no repercussions for thieves, and there is more money to be made in "managing" the issue than solving it; I doubt SF will ever return to a "normal" state ever again.
Chamber of Commerce says it's an opportunity to re-image = Not addressing the shoplifting, homeless, drug problemd as well as illegal immigrants makes the city poor and no amount of re-image will make the city recover.
I think saying "re-imagine" is just a play of words to confuse people that something of worth will occur. Just like how they always say they are going to re-imagine the police.
If you don't fix the problem then San Francisco is going to be doomed city, with a mayor that turned blind eye to crimes, homelessness, drug dealing in broad daylight and the residents itself who keeps on voting the same politicians because of they're stance against the other party then this is going to be another Detroit.
Seems almost as if they are saying "We didn't like it the way it was, so we made an untenable situation so we can re-image it the way we really want it to be." Arts solves everything!
“Reimagine” downtown San Francisco? I’m an artist and I don’t even want to go there. Never-mind having a working studio there and risking everything bring stolen, or car windows being smashed. Moreover, the chance of stepping on human 💩!
@@sashamoore9691I live in a red state haven't had to lock my doors to my home or car in 6 yrs. Or having to watch were I step because of human feces. Can SF say the same? I didn't think so.
It's pretty hopeless if that's all they can come up with to solve the problem that is San Francisco, transforming it into a mecca for artists without dealing with the underlying problems.
I like how they ended that with the man saying I actually think San Francisco has a great future? the way he said that last word like it was a question because he knows it doesn't
I would leave too. The mayor does not protect the businesses or tax paying citizens. Her priorities are the homeless and criminal rights. San Francisco has been destroyed. Most restaurants have closed and cannot afford to pay their workers.
The only thing SF lacks is leadership. Real leadership would not have to "reimagine" anything. They'd look at the situation and figure it out real quick. Stores are closing because there are no customers. There are no customers because they don't want to be around drug use, thieves, filth and the mentally ill. So, competent leadership would arrest and jail the thieves, require the homeless to stay in shelters, prohibit drug use, clean the streets and put the mentally ill in mental hospitals. People would then return and so would the stores. The only thing lacking is leadership.
The other aspect of "there are no customers" is the rise of remote work (or hybrid schedules) since 2020. White-collar workers figured out that they don't need to live in or commute to an expensive city anymore, and they're taking their spending power with them. Even if SF is cleaned up, most of those remote workers still won't want to return. Every major city -- SF, NYC, LA, ATL, MIA -- has been seeing high vacancy rates for downtown office spaces, as well as sharp drops in per-person spending for retail and restaurants.
@@Cosmo1093 I left in 2018. Keep on blaming the remote work, covid, etc. I even predicted they will lose Westfield mall in 2016. It's a city of radical fees, fines and taxes but they keep voting friendly criminal Democrats no matter what so it shouldn't be a surprise.
Playing the worlds smallest violin, bring those waa waa tears, here is handkerchief, cry all you want….this is what happens few folks especially major corporations avoid paying taxes by stashing the cash in offshore banks and in cryptocurrency…..Native Americans are laughing all kinds of ways, the European colonists are decolonizing themselves with many heading back to Europe…go join them
The pandemic shows that you should not close the economy for years and get people fired. I was in Universal Orlando riding rides maskless shoulder to shoulder with people while California was on lockdown and Disneyland closed.
Nah, the pandemic showed that working-from-home, or at least a hybrid schedule, made far more sense for white collar workers than living in or commuting to an overpriced city. One of the side-effects is that there's fewer white-collar workers in the city to spend money at local businesses. The office occupancy rate has plummeted since 2019, even as tech industry profits soared.
@@Cosmo1093 Of course more people are working remotely. Some have discovered they can work in other states and pay less taxes. Businesses have also discovered that there are other states to choose from where draconian laws don't linger for years.
How nice of Mr. Rodney Fong of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce talking about re-imaging downtown San Francisco without even mentioning the problems of homeless encampment all over downtown, rampant drug use in broad daylight, lawlessness, criminality, human waste on sidewalks, etc etc.
They have to "reshape and re-imagine" their city government. Even artist's have their limits of depravity, squalor and violence. What makes them think that town is attractive to that population these days?
I'm from a SEA country and have visited SF in 2011. I know our country have A LOT of problems, but having thieves steal goods in broad daylight in the CENTER of a city is not one of them. large scale shop lifters in broad daylight in my country would have been mobbed by the shopkeepers and arrested/ paraded on every new channel . This is very saddening to see such a beautiful city that i remember crumble down like this. I hope they get their s___t together!
“Back to Artists and creatives; the true pioneering spirit.” Production is always what pays the bills. Not art. This guy is an example of where they went wrong.
Artists with "pioneering spirit" didn't build San Francisco. Hard men, digging in the ground for gold, did. The libertine attitude of "artists and creatives" is what's destroying San Francisco.
It is still beautiful, you believe everything you see on RU-vid….at least they can’t blame African Americans alone anymore for the shoplifting, almost all White Shoplifters in recent ABC7 expośe on Walgreens Shopping who refuses to sign complaints….lol lol lol
They need to do something with the homeless and cleanliness of downtown. Who wants to go shopping when you have to look over your shoulder all the time.
Adding new painting to the wall wont bring people back. #1 priority is to protect the tax paying citizens and business owners. Prosecute the criminals and actually keep them behind bars.
If someone offered me a free round-trip ticket to San Francisco, all expenses paid, buy what you want...I would pass on it. SF will collapse if something isn't done and soon. It is time to "Clean House" and that includes the politicians that do nothing for the people who voted them in.
It's simple, enforce the laws and clean up the streets. People won't come back to drug infested and crime ridden places where they feel unsafe. It's a shame the city leaders won't support businesses. No business means fewer tourists and declining revenue for the city.
yes artists and creative people. those are the ones who will bring 10s of thousands of new job. This professors are absolutely delusional. Wondering what they must be teaching their students!!
The entire state is quickly becoming a dystopian nightmare. A harbinger of the nation's future et al if there aren't incredibly drastic overhauls to the way people think and how they choose to hold government accountable for serving their crooked corporate overlords.
California is the irrefutable proof that democracy works. They voted Dems, they got a sh!thole, which what precisely what they wanted out of that vote.
Stop blaming the pandemic. If you wouldn't have voted for an activist DA (Boudin), enforced laws, cleaned up the streets and make SF beautiful again, this would be bustling with people shopping.
Lots of city centers are struggling as consumers change their shopping and leisure habits. Why travel to, say, downtown San Francisco when you only want to see the Bay and/or visit the Wharf? No need to go into city center.
the reason is homeless everywhere combined with car break ins at record levels which keep people away from downtown in general. throw in the chance for stores to get robbed or broken into 2-3 times a week and thats why the stores in san fran are all closed.
@@600micsofacid Crime and homelessness are contributing factors, but downtown city centers across the country have been struggling ever since remote/hybrid work became popular in 2020. A lot of people just don't want to live/work in expensive cities if they don't have to. Without office workers living in or commuting to downtown every day, there's far fewer people to spend money at restaurants or retail.
I’m a registered nurse and I have been offered a job in San Francisco. It’s kinda scary feeling though regardless of what the job pays. Prolly best to drive in for work to a secure parking garage and straight back out, in a bullet proof car lol
Deluded. Start arresting the criminals and stop calling drug addicts "homeless people" as if the mess they have gotten themsleves into has nothing to do with them.
everyone in this story seems completely detached from reality to me. if san fransicko wants a bit of success, they should convert all that available space to abortion clinics, trans clinics, and homeless shelters.
@@silentmajority8365crime was around prior to the pandemic. Its high cost and most importantly less traffic due to companies doing hybrid. I worked down there for 15 years and during the pandemic.
@@Turtl289 expensive rent does not cost homelessness. These homeless are coming from other parts of the state/country. If you are sane, able, and willing, you can rent and drive/public transportation to work in the Bay Area. And use the weekends visit SF. Most people move out of SF to buy homes and commune to work. You are clueless to think it is the high rent that is causing the destruction.
Boom. Your comment is exactly how this all started. Everyone wants to blame the homeless and shoplifters, but the root is from tech pushing everyone out and raising prices, which raised poverty and crime. Covid just made this happen faster, but the city was already losing its heart and soul from allowing tech businesses to push local businesses out. Money truly is the root of evil smh
Woe, i would move bavk of it were more artist focused and affordable. I left because it was top fast pacec and everyone moving there was a business major or bsnker or stwrtup tech geek... But the true heart of SF is in tbe creatiive people, they made SF its true!
SF is in free fall now. Terminal velocity to a crash landing. When that occurs, perhaps then the city can rejuvinate itself. But that will require at minimum becomming a "purple" city politically and culturally. "Artists and creatives," no matter how much "true pioneering spirit" they have are NOT going to bring SF back to life. You need business, the middle class, and capital to do that. Maybe the CCP will buy up downtown SF real estate on the cheap and manufacture the fentanyl direct-to-consumer from there.
Did any of these store owners petition gentrification? Did they care about the working class and their contributions to the economy prior to the great tech migration? Their image of a high end Downtown SF (a precedent that they set) didn’t work. Now these business owners have to move away because people can’t afford their businesses. Thank you Covid!!
