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Comment by kaycebasques | Hacker News Reader

They really do some amazing reporting. Based on the fact that this is the first article I'm seeing on this topic, it seems that Mission Local may have got the scoop [1] on the Chronicle and other big newspapers on this high-profile topic. That is a big deal for journalists (if I recall correctly) because it means you're doing better original reporting and you're more connected to the neighborhood.

[1] https://grammarist.com/idiom/get-the-scoop/

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Any small local news organizations will almost ALWAYS get the scoop on the big ones, for local news. Because the vast majority of "big" news things are a division of some conglomerate and just regurgitate Reuters.

The Chronicle still does a lot of local reporting.

Yes and they rushed to cast this tragedy as part of an imagined crime epidemic.

There are some good contributors to the Chronicle, but they skew fairly conservative for SF and have for a long time.

> Imagined crime epidemic

Is the SF/Bay Area really having an "imagined" crime epidemic? Serious question. Seems the crime rate is very high

Property crime has been high for decades. Violent crime moves here and there, but is somewhat unremarkable for an American city.

Things are worse than ever and reading comments like this that dismiss it genuinely confuses me. So because other cities have similar or worse crime rates, we should just accept it?

Urban decay is happening all across this country and it needs to be addressed aggressively before you or someone you know gets stabbed to death.

American cities almost all have far lower crime these days than they did decades ago, and SF has a significantly lower murder rate than many cities.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/06/us/san-francisco-crime-bob-le...

Things are not worse than ever. Things are slightly worse after the pandemic, but nowhere as bad as the 70's. Feel free to check the statistics.

Anyway I agree we need to get aggressive, but a lot of folks thinks that means more cops. We spend a hell of a lot on police, but police don't address the root causes of most crimes.

We need to aggressively invest in urban areas with new housing, job opportunities, drug treatment, gang disruption, violence interruption, mental health care, and other meaningful interventions in the cycles and circumstances that lead people to commit crime.

It's harder to depart from the median situation in a large geographical region one way or another. All else equal (which is never the case, consult a real criminologist), San Francisco probably can do more about its property crime than violent crime, under the very general principle of regression to the mean.

Most local newspapers these day are glorified advertising circulars with maybe one or two reporters they actually employ.

The local papers I am familiar with in my region are literally (not figuratively) just re-print houses for prior-approved PR stories from local schools, businesses, and government offices.

It's really quite sad.

This is great writing, "the abrupt closure of the mid-market Whole Foods, leaving San Franciscans just eight other Whole Foods within city limits". What a scoop, brilliantly delivered.

Edit: I thought that this comment was tangential and sarcastic but I was incorrect.

It's a quote from the article. You might have missed it.

https://missionlocal.org/2023/04/bob-lee-killing-arrest-made...

It's an expression of appreciation for the author's saracastic humor, reporting on the thinness of evidence for anti-SF commentary, a major theme of the OP article.

OK, I totally misunderstood the comment in that case. I have edited my previous comment. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Sure, it's a cute jab, but 8 WFs in an entire city is not that many. Even if you have a car, there are large swaths of the city (Richmond, Sunset), where a WF is a bit of a slog during regular traffic (and worse during rush hour). And of course, many city dwellers don't have cars, so having to lug groceries up SF's famously hilly streets is not great for more than a fraction of a mile or so.

The actual city of SF is not that large. Something like 800k people. Not very big of a footprint either. 8 is no small number.

Austin TX has 964K, is where Whole Foods was founded, and has 5 according to the locator on their website.

Los Angeles has almost 4M people and has 7. (As well as ones in various other cities that are intertwined with the weird geographic footprint, but also 4 times as many people in the "official" city limits for those 7.)

This seems like a good opportunity to plug SF's great independent grocers. Please do not sleep on The Good Life Grocery, Rainbow, or the several Gus' Community Market locations around town, not to mention all the other small grocers around the city.

Some more great places in my local riding area: Midtown Market in Dogpatch (pricey but really good produce), and Glen Canyon Market, which was recently acquired by Gus. A cute small grocery store with a butcher counter just opened near Portrero, and there's also Avedano's butcher on Cortland Ave (near a Good Life) and Olivier's in Dogpatch.

Swiping my hand over a mystery panel to pay for my groceries is very cool at WF, but there's no shortage of great places to restock the fridge and pantry all over SF, and where the money you spend is going more to local places and locals.

Good thing there are other groceries and farmer's markets and Prime delivery to fill the gap left by the one WF closing then. Living in the Sunset, yes it's true if I want to go to a Whole Foods I'd have to either drive, or bike or take public transit to the one over by the Haight, the one down at Stonestown mall or the one on Upper Market. But I don't usually because the Safeway is within walking distance and that's good enough for me most of the time and if not there's Other Avenues, Sunset Super, 22nd and Irving, and Gus's all relatively close by just to name a few off the top of my head.

Haight WF is about as close as Masonic Trader Joe’s (and somehow easier to park at) for most in the richmond and sunset - though Calmart is better than both.

Andronico’s was much better than both before safeway took over

People in the Richmond and Sunset have closer Whole Foods than the one that closed.

If you live in the Sunset you most likely have a car.

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