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Comment by bingohbangoh | Hacker News Reader

As somebody who despises SF and thinks crime is out of control in most US cities, this move by Kraken feels a bit absurd and over the top. Can it really be that bad?

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“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually, then suddenly.”

As a longtime San Francisco resident, I can confirm: yes, it's that bad. I posted another comment above with more details.

No, it’s not that bad, this is a PR move to pander to a specific politically oriented audience.

Yep it has the feel of one of those items (ab)used by Rubin, Shapiro and friends as evidence that the dang leftist, communist Demoncrats in charge of California are turning it into a living hell for good god-fearing citizens. Culture war nonsense basically.

And who is that specific customer base Kraken is trying to attract by shutting down it's headquarters? The right-wing crypto investors that needed a reason to switch away from Coinbase?

As far st PR moves go, this one seems dubious.

Yes that makes sense. They are just doing it to own the libs? Sorry but that's ridiculous, it sounds like you need to tune off the culture war a bit.

I guess yes and no.

SF is certainly a city with its problems. I can't say that wasn't part of my decision to move away years ago.

However, the current right-wing meme of "new left-wing prosecutors instantly turned SF into an unliveable hellscape" is mostly just well-financed propaganda. The statistics don't support a huge surge in violent crime except in the sense that (like everywhere) it's rebounded from temporary lows during covid lockdowns: https://twitter.com/petercalloway/status/1510032517876764674

What would crime "in control" look like?

Singapore.

In that case isn't crime 'out of control' in most places, everywhere, all the time?

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