However the neighborhoods are dreamy, as good as ever. The city lost population during the pandemic but it has been gaining and in 2023, it is the fastest growing in the state.
I've been in tech for years here and it is the best job market, most lucrative, and most advanced. It's an opportunity to work here. Just don't live in the tenderloin.
I never got this. I lived in a “good” neighborhood, but still the TL issues (drug addicts, unhoused mentally ill people, dirty sidewalks, needles) still crept in. What neighborhoods are immune to this?
I generally feel significantly safer in cities with relatively walkable sidewalks, relatively narrow streets, and lots of pedestrian/bike traffic than I do in typical American suburbs full of strip malls and 6-lane roads. The latter are in my opinion horrendous places to raise children.
note, I also live in the Mission District and it's a shit hole to me. Gangs hanging out at 20th and Mission fronting for each other. Illegal markets all up and down the street selling stolen goods. Traffic signs and laws being ignored. Valdalism everywhere. Homeless under my window. Mentally ill screaming at 3 am. People drag racing at 2am
Hard to judge an international city using only American standards.
Homicides per 100k (from a couple of years ago):
San Francisco: 4.5
US: 6.3
UK/France/Germany: 0.8-1.2
Living in the Mission there are a handful of shootings per year. But it's a pretty dense neighbourhood so per population it's probably pretty normal for the US. The level of street homelessness is shocking but not as bad as downtown and you get used to that after a while too. Petty crime is definitely a problem.
Personally I worry more about being hit by a car crossing the road since cars are allowed to drive through the pedestrian crossing even when there is a walk signal.
Is there a racism issue or is it that ethnicity based gangs exist?
school allocation is not based on location in SF
Most parents who need to drive their kids across the city are doing it because the alternative (their kid goes to the nearest school) is, in some way, worse.
We lived in those neighborhoods cuz they were cheap and there were community services to fall back on. Once our parents could afford it, they would move out as soon as they could.
Gorehs/Gweilo are weird.
It blows my mind that people are so uncaring about their kids' daily experience (mobility, independence, access to interesting activities, ...) as to move to typical American suburbs with their kids. The benefit of the suburbs is a bigger amount of personal space at home for the same price, but everything outside the house kind of sucks, especially for kids.
We're not necessarily the "techie family" you are imagining though; I spent about a quarter of my childhood in a medium-poor city in Mexico, and my wife grew up in China. Personally I really appreciate having a quite diverse cast of neighbors.
I've never forgotten a quote by some one who offered to help a homeless woman who smelled rather horrible. Offered things like soap or a safe place to clean up, the woman responded that the smell actually helped reduce sexual advances towards her.
I've haven't driven past that area before nor after, but it really made me feel like long-term it would be a nice place to reside in SF away from the classic SF problems you've described.
It's historically been a working class Pinoy, Latino, Canto, and Black neighborhood.
It used to be very rough in the gangbanger kinda way.
It's kind of like how East San Jose is fairly clean, but it's good to be careful where you are depending on the time of night.
Sunnyvale and RWC used to be similar in that sense as well 15-20 years ago too.
I am not familiar with the history of some of the other planned tracts there but this map seems to suggest that area is mostly composed of master planned communities. https://sfrichmondreview.com/2023/01/10/local-author-and-his...
As awful as it is that's the trade off: if you can't conveniently walk up the hill, criminals and homeless people usually won't bother either.
For example the poor public transit available to developed places such as West Sydney, or Bijlmer in Amsterdam have lead to increases in crime rates
Poor physical mobility for the lower classes leads to decreased social mobility which results in increased crime rates for the larger metropolitan areas as a whole
This is first or second year Urban planning mate
The elite ones who don't let random people in.
Aside from one well-dressed dude who let his dog shit on leaves on a sidewalk and just kept walking. But that’s not what you called out.
Also, have had nothing but great parking. Left my car in a no-bump spot now for a couple days (an isolated space, no cars in front or behind).
On the flip side, I can’t imagine being a runner and living in the Mission. The amount of streets you would have to cross every day just to get a few miles in is stressful to think about
SF is a block by block affair though, there’s a few sketchy blocks in all of those neighborhoods, you just have to know the social topology of the city.
I agree that it is mostly downtown that is dead but the rest of your comment seems hyperbolic to me. Hayes Valley, Valencia, Polk was way more lively when I was there.
> best job market
The hundreds in SF laid off this year may disagree
> most lucrative
yes, incomes and stocks do generally increase yoy. Tautology.
> and most advanced
as does technology
It just sucks people are forced to make a these difficult choices for rent.
So I’d say yes.
To be a _good_ founder you should also be capable of starting a tractor dealership in Iowa or taking over an accounting firm in Dallas. You have leadership, entrepreneurship, and decision making skills.
Silicon Valley has enough tide to lift all boats that mediocre people like you describe can still have a chance at success and being heralded as mold breaking visionaries.
I quite prefer the valley environments ability to take deep domain experts and turn them into the best managers of their own technology.
Technically not needed, but turns out it is really beneficial to be with likeminded people with common goals.
Or Bayview-Hunters Point, apparently that one is even worse... /watch?v=FXLD6wn2VBQ