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Comment by bgirard | Hacker News Reader

Not being familiar at all with the situation in SF these days, is this really the reason for closure?

I've noticed a pattern of using whatever convenient trendy excuse (crime in SF) for leadership to avoid stating the real reason that might cause them to be accountable for a bad decision (perhaps a low grossing store due to poor location market-fit analysis). I'm quite skeptical now when reading these trendy rationalizations.

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I used to shop there all the time - crime was a massive issue. And not just shoplifting either, pretty much every employee I talked to either had been physically assaulted or knew someone who had been.

> I've noticed a pattern of using whatever convenient trendy excuse (crime in SF) for leadership to avoid stating the real reason

Interesting, because I’ve noticed a trend of people bending themselves into pretzels to avoid starting that crime is an issue.

Last week, a drug-addicted homeless woman gave birth to a baby on the street in SF like an animal. It's worse than a 3rd world country in SF these days.

https://www.ktvu.com/news/woman-gives-birth-on-san-francisco...

That’s so terrible. When I visited San Francisco I was expecting a beautiful city, architecture, the hills, nature. But I was just saddened by seeing the homeless. They were in pain, suffering, some nodding of, some drinking and crying into their drinks. The whole city had an aura of sad desperation. None of the beautiful architecture or nature could make up for it. I couldn’t wait to escape from there.

This is horrible. I see horrible scenes in the city streets on a regular basis but seeing the picture of this poor tiny little baby on the pavement hit me hard.

That is one of the most horrifying videos I've seen in quite some time.

It's disheartening to hear such stories, but generalizing San Francisco based on isolated events is unfair. Like any city, SF faces challenges like homelessness and substance abuse. Instead of making comparisons, let's acknowledge the ongoing efforts to address these issues and work together to foster positive change...

I hope you didn’t mean it this way, but this is an insanely callous response to a video of a women giving birth on a sidewalk.

Apologies if my comment came across as callous; that was not my intention. I empathize with the tragic circumstances in the video. My point was to emphasize that we should work collaboratively to address the city's challenges, rather than generalize San Francisco based on isolated events. By doing so, we can strive to prevent such heartbreaking incidents from happening in the future.

"Ongoing efforts"? Like what? People standing around staring rather than calling an ambulance? The inconvenient and actual truth is SF isn't doing shit because rich people run America and don't fucking care. The other countervailing problem is the poor in America in modern times are too disorganized, disheartened, and lack the determined resolve to effectively bring change to their position. Hipsters with iPhones thinking they're edgy if they take a picture without permission of someone sleeping on the street if they tilt their camera at an angle is the level of involvement: insulated urban dilettantes vs. people with nowhere else to go.

1letterunixname, I understand your frustration and skepticism, but it's important to acknowledge that there are indeed ongoing efforts to address poverty and homelessness in San Francisco. Some examples include:

1. The Navigation Center program, which offers temporary shelter and connects homeless individuals to housing, healthcare, and other services in a low-barrier environment.

2. The Homeless Outreach Team (HOT), which proactively engages homeless individuals on the streets, connects them with resources, and helps them access emergency shelters.

3. Project Homekey, a state initiative that San Francisco participates in, focuses on converting hotels and motels into housing units for the homeless population.

4. The Eviction Defense Collaborative, which provides legal assistance and support to tenants facing eviction, helping to prevent homelessness.

5.The Rapid Rehousing program, which offers short-term rental assistance and support services to help homeless individuals and families quickly transition to stable housing.

While there is still much work to be done, it's important to recognize that efforts are being made by the city, nonprofits, and community organizations to address these challenges. We should work together, rather than point fingers, to contribute to positive change and uplift those in need.

Every single policy that "activists" enact do NOTHING for the homeless or addicts. They do nothing to help addicts get off drugs or address homelessness, all they do is maintain the status quo so that activist contractors can keep making money by using the homeless like farm animals.

SF is the bastion of far left programs and the situation has gotten exponentially worse. All they know is how to tax people and spend money but get no results. The homeless budget ballooned from $300 million a year to $600 million, and the results are demonstrably worse and crime has only gotten much much worse.

SF is a failed experiment that proves that these far-left policies of "Harm Reduction" actually increase harm, and all of the progressives get in line to fill their pockets with government money and all of a sudden realize they don't want to help the homeless.

It's disheartening to see such a myopic and misinformed perspective on the complex issue of homelessness and addiction. I personally know a number of former addicts who were helped by SF's compassionate approach to the issue. To claim that "every single policy" enacted by activists does nothing to help the situation is an oversimplification that disregards the multifaceted nature of these problems. Your sweeping generalizations about San Francisco's progressive policies not only lack nuance but also betray a deep-seated ideological bias.

It's essential to recognize that the increase in homelessness is not merely a result of "far-left policies," but rather a combination of various factors such as housing shortages, economic disparities, and systemic issues. Dismissing the entire progressive approach as a "failed experiment" is a narrow-minded view that stifles any potential for constructive dialogue on the matter.

Additionally, insinuating that all progressives are interested only in lining their pockets with government money is a baseless accusation that only serves to further divide the conversation. Your hostility toward progressive policies and activists detracts from any meaningful discussion about finding long-term solutions to homelessness and addiction.

If we are to make any progress in addressing these issues, it's crucial to engage in an open, honest, and evidence-based dialogue, rather than resorting to incendiary rhetoric and unfounded accusations. A more balanced and informed perspective is necessary to truly understand the complexities of the situation and work towards sustainable solutions.

Yes, let's be honest. More people have died from drug overdoses during the pandemic than COVID. There are more people dying from overdoses because of this disgusting policy than are being helped. It's a complete failure, and it's because of people that don't actually care about helping the addicts but keeping them in a perpetual state of addiction.

The woman who gave birth to her baby is a crack addict, that has delivered a baby that has no chance. The chemical damage done to this baby is on the order of killing her. And people just throw their hands up in the air saying "there's nothing we can do, but let's supply them all with an open drug market so that people can buy drugs freely." It's disgusting, SF is suffering, the addicts are suffering and who is profiting? The "advocates". The director of a homeless center makes $250,000/yr and meanwhile babies are born on the street. Explain to me how they aren't lining their own pockets?

The ONLY way to can explain $600 million per year being spent, and SF being in its current state, is through corruption and fraud.

Here's a youtube link for the same video, if you'd rather not visit a FOX affiliate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a5L4DpXheg

Poverty porn is disgusting. Instead of helping by calling an ambulance, spectators taking videos of it to publicly shame individuals and give fodder for voyeurs to look down on the poor.

Inhumane conditions aren't unique to SF. Sacramento, Chico, San Jose, Oakland, and LA. These also aren't unique to California.

NYC, PDX, SEA, ATX.. take your pick. Same shit, different city.

I live about two blocks from the WF location in the article. I went there yesterday for the first time in a few months. I would like to be able to walk there and pick up groceries, but it’s very intimidating to do so. You have to keep your head on a swivel to stay safe. The anxiety and paranoia is not worth the convenience. I’ve never seen anything really major happen when walking over there, but the store is usually empty when I go, so I’m sure they’re just hurting because no one wants to go there.

I just flew to SF to meet and hire folks in AI.

The first week I was here my former CTO was murdered.

Now there's some guy outside my hotel that's screaming at the top of his lungs between 3 and 7 AM every night. Nobody is stopping it.

At least I haven't heard any gunshots, which is the norm in my home city (Atlanta).

I remember taking the train to the hotel from the airport when I worked at Heroku.

At one station, two kids were fighting and one threw the other into the train. No one at the station did anything. I was coming from Tokyo and the scene was so insane that I could only sit and record a video. Like I felt physically unable to move beyond bringing my phone up and hitting the record button.

I still watch the video sometimes and wonder if I should have done something.

As a Brit: America is a big and scary place.

On the plus side, less likely to get stabbed.

Muricans use guns.

Liverpool is getting pretty trigger-happy (where I am), but reading anecdotes about the US is just shocking. It's the frequency that gets me. But yeah, British stabbings are admittedly a shocker too.

Where in Atlanta is that?

Cabbagetown, well within earshot of Edgewood's sometimes rowdy bar scene.

Ah interesting, I lived in Atlanta some in the last few years but didn't spend that much time there; generally it felt like the city had a much better handle on crime and homelessness overall (in part due to easier densification in the central area and other parts inside the perimeter) than SF.

It's actually that bad. In basically any urban area of the Bay Area you're likely to see and interact with _violent_ mentally ill homeless people. It's worst in San Francisco, specifically in that area of town, despite it being the main street of the city.

Lived in the city for 7 years. Visited recently and made me sad. It is a shell of its former self.

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