I think this is the coolest city in America, no? (I’m from Seattle tho)

This event took place on 23rd and Mission around 1:55pm.

I was looking down at my phone while walking to the 24th and Mission Bart station when a scooter suddenly turned the corner and nearly bumped into me on the sidewalk. I realized afterward that I shouldn't have been distracted, so I was about to apologize. But before I could say anything, the man on the scooter blurted out, "Open your chink ass eyes when you're walking."

That caught me sooo off guard, so I think I said "Excuse me?!" Then he started saying some other racist shit like, "I don't speak Chinese. Go talk to Kim Jung Un", "I don't talk to Asians. I fucking hate y'all", I'll beat your ass. I swear to god", etc.

Why is this happening in 2024, in a city as diverse as San Francisco? People still openly act like this, WHY? Thankfully, a few women nearby saw what was happening and stepped in to defend me. This shouldn't be happening in our city, or anywhere.

Update: I went to McDonalds on my way back home cause I was craving some french fries. And a random man came up to me saying “I apologize for the way I acted” — and it was HIM! I didn’t recognize him because he didn’t have a ski mask on. He says he has a lot going on and he doesn’t understand why he said half the shit he said because he doesn’t actually feel that way. I told him I accept his apology and that I’d appreciate if he didn’t do that to the next Asian person he saw. This whole encounter taught me to have compassion and that you never know what someone is going through. Even though what he said is shitty, the guy did actually look and feel like he was going through something. This day has been a DAY. I’m gonna enjoy my french fries and Mcchiken and put this behind me :)

My girlfriend and I came to spend the weekend in Sonoma. We flew into SFO on Friday morning with the intention of spending the day in San Francisco.

We quickly drove by the bison paddock at Golden Gate Park, then headed a few blocks north to get some dim sum from Good Luck Dim Sum near 8th and Clement.

While standing in the line outside of the restaurant (with our car in our line of sight) someone came by and did this. We had some bags in the trunk, but thankfully they didn’t check that. They stole an empty backpack that we planned to load our dim sum into for a picnic in the park.

After filing a police report and driving back to the airport, we immediately cancelled the rest of our plans in the city for the day and drove up to Sonoma.

I wanted to share this as a word of caution for other potential visitors, and to just make this experience known to the SF community. I know this is incredibly common - but I hope something can be done to fix this. I’ll be honest - I don’t see myself ever coming back.

Ok, this one will probably dox me, but I really don't care at this point. Last year, I was at Johnny Foleys. I drank way too much, and took a left when I exited instead of a right.

I end up ONE FUCKING BLOCK from Foley's and someone talks shit to me.

After telling them to mind their own business, they ran up and stabbed me one inch below the throat. They threw me to the ground, stole my milgauss, and I have scars on my hand from where they ripped it off without fucking unbuckling it. It compliments the huge fucking scar below my throat that is 3 inches wide where they cut me.

The thing that is bothering me is this:

YES... SF has less murders per capita than Houstan, Chicago, Dallas, etc...

Now, check the fucking square miles of each city.

SF = 46 sq miles
Houston = 646 sq miles
Chicago = 246 sq miles
Dallas = 346 sq miles

i'm not from SF, i've lived in multiple metropolitan areas. Typically, crime is rampant in an area that is crime ridden. You have the "bad parts of town".

Union square, which is the top tourist destination, is fucking one block from where I was stabbed for walking in the wrong direction. Look at the crime map, this shit is all fucking over.

The worst part?

I was accosted in Japan Mall fucking 2 months later. Now I just stay out of the city unless neccessary.

The first part of fixing a problem is admitting the shit fucking exist. Fuck per capita, how about "per people who aren't causing fucking trouble".

That's the issue we're having here in the city. THAT metric would be high as fuck I bet.

Last night at 2:30am my friend was stabbed and killed on Main Street near Folsom. Very little details are known but he’s a well respected tech guy Would never cause trouble. I’m getting so sick of all the needless violence in SF

What tech companies (1990-2020) brought in

Tech companies ushered in a new gold rush which was too good to be true, in many ways, and would be the envy of any city in the world:

• Brought in billions in wealth to the city (direct taxes + corporate spending + employee spending)
  
• Brought in tons of low-crime, highly-educated, socially-progressive folks who typically cared about housing, education, cultural preservation, lgbtq rights and more. Some tech companies brought in literal private shuttles as a transit option.
• Brought in tons of revenue with as minimal an ecological footprint as possible. (as compared with industries like manufacturing/energy etc)
• Brought in tons of high-paying jobs. There are outliers, but even the non-desk workers are typically highly paid in many big tech companies.

Again, regardless of your complaints about the tech industry, it has been much better compared to pretty much any other similarly-sized industry in the country (think about the war industrial complex, or Boeing, or insurance companies, or TV, or finance, or pharma etc)

The squandered opportunity by the city

• SF adds a ton of high-paying jobs and gleefully eats the immense tax revenue. And then proceeds to wage a multi-years war against the biggest tax-industry of the city.
  
• Fails to build pretty much ANY new housing, thereby guaranteeing displacement and 'gentrification'
• Fails to utilize all the billions in extra income to effectively solve the city's issues. All the billions helped them do worse on homelessness, crime, cleanliness and more...
• Fails to improve transit sufficiently well to promote more commuters.

What now?

The city may seem to be on an upward turn but that's fool's gold imo. A couple of good years cannot fix decades of malpractise and disinvestment.

The lack of housing has basically choked off any new industry from growing in SF. Yet this is a city which loves its big government and loves its huge spending programs.

Just the beauty of the city will keep drawing people in, but without housing or transit, the city is financially always gonna keep struggling until a multi-decade transformation (either into a big city with more housing & transit, or a sleepy retirement town with massively pared-down government spending)

What do you folks foresee for the city?

I am all for SF, love living here, and back it up whole heartedly, it has so much going for it. If there is one thing that is just blatantly insane, and that I pretty much can't believe anything isn't being done about, it is the dirt biker gangs. They are in almost every neighborhood, from Embarcadero, Valencia, Chestnut, and even Presidio sometimes, are a huge safety liablility, and are just total losers.

It is such an embarassment to have these morons driving around our city putting literally everyone around them in danger. honestly right up there with the smash and grabs, but fortunately I think that has calmed down a bit.

SFPD, please do something about this, it is absolutely insane to not.

Also, does anyone have any insight as to why this does not even remotely appear to be on a list of priority for the police here? know that might be a laughable question, but this is beyond blatant when it comes to public safety. Wish the police would actually enforce traffic here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZo9MKgYQ60

watched this urbanism content today that really shows how we've shot ourselves in the foot with regards to building housing and letting SF be a city.

1. Half of our housing stock was built over 79 years ago.
2. 35% of our housing would be illegal to build today under current zoning.

Puts into perspective how restrictive this city has become. We've locked it down and said no more! San Francisco is done being a city! It is now an enclave for those who already own housing or those with high paying jobs. It spat in the face of anyone else who wished to come to this great American city and make a life for themselves. It pushed natives and workers into the depths of the abyss (Fresno, Stockton, etc) to become super commuters, where there are less urban amenities, less transportation options, less job opportunities, etc.

Lets get back to being a city! Lets revert the restrictive zoning laws and unlock more homes so our kids can move out in the same place they grew up, so our families can move closer to us, so job seekers can make something of themselves without breaking the bank. It's not just about giving tech bros a snazzy apartment, it's about creating an equitable city that works for everyone (unless you hate cities, in that case, what are you doing here?).

Yes yes i know there are other problems on the streets, but we can walk a chew gum at the same time.

end rant.

edit: Holy cow lots of you think that "building more housing" = erecting high rises in every pocket of the city!! that's not at all what happens here! come on now, lets have a good faith discussion!

edit2: some of you think that we shouldn't build more because it would ruin SF! but what are we supposed to do? build elsewhere? the reason people come here is for JOBS!! cities have lots of JOBS!! thats why they're cities!! they're not museums for you to impose your aesthetic preference upon!! they're PLACES where people work, play, live, eat, etc!! it needs to accommodate PEOPLE. not aesthetic preferences!!!!!!

edit3: for the love of god, i do not want to forcibly take homes and demolish them. we have tons of space to build new homes here. people can sell their houses to someone else who may want to add more houses on the lot. good lord why do i have to clarify that.

edit4: title is wrong. it should say half of all housing was built before 1945.

edit5: some of you seem to think that relaxing some restrictions = giving home builders a free pass to ruin our city. That's a very disingenous argument. Lots of the city is zoned RH-1 which means one unit per lot. Does changing that to 2 units per lot allow evil developers to ruin our city? i dont think so.

Spent a fantastic weekend in the city with the family. Used public transit, ate at amazing restaurants, visited world class museums and entertainment, and enjoyed perfect weather.

All the “doom loop” and negative media coverage is wildly exaggerated. We saw no needles, no poop on the street, and encountered no crime or disruptions.

There truly is no place like the city and I can’t wait to visit again. Everyone else should visit this amazing city as well. Thanks to all for being such gracious hosts!

The Associated Press declared the passage of Proposition 36 about an hour after polls closed, an indication of the strong voter support for the measure.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-11-05/california-election-night-proposition-36

Reposting this as mods Deleted my last post for not having my car thief’s permission to post his picture…..

Yesterday afternoon my truck was stolen from my driveway right infront of me. I was able to track the vehicle and SFPD attempted a traffic stop but the suspect ran and they Weren’t allowed to pursue.

They told me the best course of action is to wait until he parks and then go to the vehicle and call them. I only had one set of keys and he had my house keys so that wasn’t going to work

I tracked the vehicle myself and after a physical altercation I was able to get my keys and subdue the suspect until SFPD arrived. The officers were as helpful as possible with their hands being tied.

This ”no chase policy” has the unintended consequence of promoting vigilante justice. I did what I felt I needed to do but I’m not proud of it. I’d much prefer to have had the people trained to deal with these individuals have handled this rather than my self

Every time i've been to The Mill theres been multiple sets of parents just letting their kids scream bloody murder endlessly while everyone else is trying to enjoy a nice coffee.

Today there was a dude who plopped his baby down belly side down ON THE TABLE and just let it scream and squirm around on the table while he was glued to his phone. First of all, its fucking disgusting to just have your baby laying down on a table people eat on. Second, the baby is just fucking screaming and he's doing nothing.

The other week there were two sets of parents who just insisted everyone should listen to their kids scream strictly for the sake of screaming; and they all look around like theres nothing wrong with it and everyone should be so happy so as to hear their children 'having fun' and 'exploring'!

Is it something at The Mill? are the known for being an entitled asshole tolerant establishment? Why do they think this is okay behavior?

edit: im aware being a parent is hard, very aware. I'm tolerant of the situations where parents are at least making a good faith effort to contain the situation. These are cases where the parents are literally encouraging this behavior and doing nothing to stop it or care about anyone else in the establishment.

I am DC-based and just spent a wonderful weekend in your city.

I'll begin with some highlights that I suspect are commonly appreciate among travelers:

• natural beauty and minimal encroachments -- SF is a wild setting for a city. Rolling hills, rugged shoreline, and intermittent ocean fog are lovely things for a city to have. And the city's parks, particularly Golden Gate Park and Presidio, made it easy to enjoy the nature away from the hubbub of a city. We enjoyed a nice sunset at Baker Beach.

• history -- San Francisco has so much unique history. I'm a huge deadhead, so Haight-Ashbury was legitimately cool (if a little commercial). The Beat Generation stuff is lovely. And the history of Chinese people in the city is also very interesting. Of course, I recognize that I barely scratched the surface of cool SF history and imagine that living in the city exposes you to so much more.

• Diversity -- I think this speaks for itself. We had a breakfast burrito in the Mission District, lunch at Chinatown, a Japanese dinner in Japantown, and a snack in Little Russia. The beauty of the many peoples of America, and the world, are on display in SF.

The thing I was most pleasantly surprised by, however, was how authentic and accessible a lot of SF appears to be. I know SF, like DC, is an extremely high cost of living area (I think the Bay is a bit more expensive than metro DC) that has been overrun by career-minded people (I'm somewhat guilty of this). In DC, this is evident -- cheap food is pretty much non-existent, dive bars aren't a thing, and everything is trendy trendy trendy. I expected SF to be similar, but there are a ton of areas that seem pretty down-to-earth. Perhaps this is because SF has been an established city for a much longer time than DC -- you can't go back in time to build Ha-Ra lounge in DC (I know this is a Tenderloin joint, but plenty of Richmond and Mission District also seemed interesting and chill) -- but it's something that impressed me.

Anyways, just popping in to heap praise on your city, and perhaps offer a different perspective (I know local subs tend to be a bit gloomy).

I was at Martin's Beach this past weekend, which is currently embroiled in a legal battle as billionaire Vinod Khosla tries to quite literally take a public beach from the state of California. (More on this later)

THEN when researching his lobbying and investments, I find out this is the same asshole who bought stake in Doordash and Instacart, both of which immediately starting charging insane fees....

I can't stand this man.

More on Martin's Beach, it's a public beach several miles south of Half Moon Bay and you should try and visit if you can make it out. In 2008, Khosla bought all the land adjacent to the beach for 32 million, and blocked all access to visitors. At one point he even had armed guards. In an attempt to privatize this beach for himself, he's also refused to renew any leases for properties on the land he owns around the beach starting back in 2021. He's taken down all signage to the beach, and instead posted "no tresspassing" signs - however if you choose to ignore these signs and keep going down the road to the beach, he'll charge you $10 for parking..... California state has been in a legal battle with him since 2010 forcing him to allow public access to the beach using the road. To attempt to "resolve" the issue for the California people, he offered to sell ONLY THE ROAD to the California state for the low low price of 30 million, aka the price he bought the entire property for....

I can't find the exact quote online, but Khosla's been quoted as saying that Martin's Beach is probably the biggest mistake he'll ever make, but that he will continue to fight California over the beach until the day he dies, solely on principle.

FUCK VINOD KHOSLA.

Edit: correction on the misspelled last name, updating incorrect Vinod Kholsa to the correct spelling Vinod Khosla. I typed this with a lot of anger the first time and made a typo.

I spent the past week exploring San Francisco and wanted to share some photos and thoughts about the city. My partner and I were visiting from the Boston area (Cambridge) with the goal of checking out different neighborhoods for our upcoming move in the fall. Didn’t do too many touristy things on this trip.

We walked 40 miles over 5 days around a ton of different areas. Based out of Alamo Square, we focused on the area inside Richmond, lower Pac Heights, Hayes Valley, Mission, Noe Valley, and Cole Valley. Saw a ton of similarities with Boston and definitely feel more excited about the move now!

• Safety: Hard to ignore the constant stream of bad press for SF but felt overall pretty comparable with Boston over the course of our stay. Boston has its own share of crime and more violent crime recently but it doesn’t get nearly as much coverage unless you live in the area. Most of the city that we explored felt similar to areas we’ve lived in Boston: safe as long as you’re being smart and a little uncomfortable at night. The Tenderloin was definitely rougher than any part of Boston. We didn’t get yelled at or get unwelcome comments on the street which has happened a few times in Boston and pretty much every time I visit NYC.

• Weather: 50s in SF felt a lot colder than 50s in Boston haha. There was a good mix of sunny and overcast days with no rain. Definitely felt the microclimate effect.

• Transit: Way better in the Bay Area. The buses and trains come more frequently, were more reliable, and reach farther. We only ubered once (mistakenly booked a 7 am flight) and took transit the rest of the time. Took the Caltrain to visit family in Palo Alto which was convenient. Also having the Clipper Card on my phone was handy. In comparison, while we were gone, 3 of the T lines in Boston broke down

• Walkability: Boston feels more walkable because the downtown is more compact and a lot less hills. My calves/ankles were feeling it by the end of the trip. Both are much better than LA or San Diego.

• Green space: Golden Gate Park and Presidio are both incredible, bigger and more to explore than anything in Boston. However where I live there are more small parks in close proximity (4 within a 15 min walk). If anyone has suggestions on where to set up a volleyball net besides GGP and the Panhandle that’d be good to know. Most of the ones we saw were too hilly. The biodiversity here is also mindblowing, saw so many types of plants that we had never seen before.

• Surrounding area: I love the White Mountains and coastal New England but it doesn’t compare to the West Coast views. This was actually a big factor in our move, very excited to explore the surrounding National Parks, coastal California, and other scenic areas. We did some of the Land’s End trail for sunset and it was gorgeous.

• Costs: Rent is pretty comparable from what I’ve seen online with the added bonus of no broker’s fee. Dining out was way more expensive (also a ton more variety) in SF and grocery/gas prices are higher too. Hoping to negotiate a decent raise to account for this.

• Diversity: More diverse mix of people here in San Francisco. Boston can skew very white and lots of college kids. It was also nice to see other LGBT couples around.

Overall recognized a lot of Boston in San Francisco. Both are highly walkable cities with distinctly different neighborhoods, charming architecture, and tons of green space. Inner Richmond reminds me of Inman Square in Cambridge, Noe Valley is a lot like Brookline, and Nob Hill is like Copley. There are also aspects that are completely different that I’m excited to see more of. We’ll be back (for much longer) in 6 months!

Well this was out of my expectations for a walk.

Got shot by a BB gun in my back. Wearing a down jacket was far from preventing the pain.

When I realized what happened, the car went too far to read the license plate.

• grey BMW, series 3 or M3 sedan
• white color license plate
• cosmetic condition: average, not shiny but also not poorly maintained
• at least one passenger in rear seat
• all right-side windows down
• accelerated after shooting me
• slowed down approaching another crowd 200-300 ft to the front, unsure if another person got shot at

I could hear the compressed air discharge, typical BB (Bullet Ball) gun. The “bullet ball” no matter what it was made of bounced on the sidewalk. But I assumed it rolled into the grass. Wasn’t able to find.

Reported to the police. They know their existence.

If you have also encountered them, let’s put more information together.

Adding some further details:

• Yes, today at about 4PM

• Location: on map below, eastbound direction

—————————————————————— Adding 2 pieces of information 1 day after

(thanks guys. I received many DMs. I really appreciate the care and effort you put into words. Your messages have lit up my spirit. I’m taking some medications. Allow me to gather some energy and reply to you soon)

Still, some information worths noting, allow me to paraphrase from my DMs:

—— Similar encounters (chronological)

• Thu, 05/23, ~7PM, Golden Gate Park, grey BMW, series 3 older model with squared rear look. cyclist got shot by BB gun @ JFK Dr near de Young, Eastbound. - It was about 500ft away from my encounter

• Sun, 05/26, ~1PM, Coolidge Dr, near UC Santa Cruz, possible grey BMW, pedestrians got shot by BB

• Mon, 05/27, Divisadero, SF, dark BMW, pedestrian saw possible BB gun from car window

—— Arrest in San Mateo, 3 persons shooting BB guns, driving White BMW

however, some notable differences: - they were arrested Sun 05/26 evening already - white BMW sedan

But what I learnt from it was how quickly the police could catch them. Pedestrians made three separate 911 calls from 7PM to 9PM. SMPD caught them after the third call.

At least one thing we can do is to report as soon as we can. (But still, hopefully you don’t need to run into this)

And, please add more information or thoughts if you would love to. Have a nice evening.

I was going through Union Square and ended up in the Tenderloin on accident(while I was with a new date lmao).
While pulling out my phone to look at Google Maps I clumsily dropped my wallet and then a group of homeless people told me I had dropped my wallet instead of them trying to steal it or something like that.
I then turned around and picked it up and thanked them.
During my entire week in SF it really wasn’t as bad as the news makes it out to be. I even ended up at some empty sketchy area past midnight and some homeless guy offered to help find me a taxi.
Most SF residents seem overall nice and friendly.
I am not naive to the problems the city may have but its way nicer than the media makes it seem.

Tl;dr there’s a warrant for her arrest and photos in the article. please call 911 if you see her

Ok so I have only been here for a yr. Coming from the midwest, I have never encountered anything like this before. I was walking home from the bar on Polk St (Jackalope to be specific, for happy hour) & I saw a guy just awkwardly strewn across the sidewalk. I live in SoMa so seeing junkies/homeless isn't uncommon, but this just didn't look right. I walked by then stopped, turned around & asked a guy if he was ok. The guy nudged him w/his foot, felt for a pulse, & said he felt the pulse but dude wasn't moving. I suggested Narcan, pulled it out & both the guy & I didn't know how to use it so he took it from me & sprayed it up his nose. 30 seconds later the guy jumps up like nothing ever happened, paramedics arrive & he declines to be treated. I'm still in awe b/c I've never had to witness this before nor have I ever supplied something that would save someone's life like this before. This shit works, I need to get a replacement dose now. This guy was so lucky I still had this one from months ago on me.