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San Francisco, solid blue city of -- empty storefronts and missing young people
American Thinker ^ | 01/12/2020 | Monica Showalter

Posted on 01/12/2020 9:59:32 AM PST by SeekAndFind

San Francisco is getting to be a hellhole and not just because crooks are having a field day, or a vast homeless army has prompted new tech 'innovations' in poop-map apps.

It's actually becoming a city with a hollowed out look, redolent of some place like Steubenville, Ohio or maybe Utica, New York, during the bad years, empty storefronts and missing young people. So much for the trope that leftwing cities, with their walkable boulevards full of food trucks, handmade crafts, knitting shops, bookstores, artisan cheese shops, gourmet restaurants, and cafes are more lively and liveable than rightwing places. For awhile, that did seem to be the story. But it's coming to an end. Sure, there's vast wealth. But despite California being in an economic boom, the place is starting to look like Venezuela. 

The U.K. Guardian of all places has a haunting report:

It the beginning of this decade, one beloved block in San Francisco had a taqueria, a flower shop and a bookstore. Sparky’s diner, a favorite final hangout for night owls, queer teens and the blackout drunk, was open round the clock.

Today, this block of Church Street just south of Market has the kind of abandoned storefronts that are usually a shorthand for declining mill towns, not centers of the tech future. But all those closed shops are emblematic of today’s San Francisco, where even in upscale areas, the city’s economic boom can look surprisingly like an economic crisis.

What this represents is a strange, second-wave gentrification, in which an influx of well-heeled residents means not Blue Bottle coffee shops and Kinfolk-inspired interior design stores, but emptiness.

Nobody mentions that maybe people don't want to shop in some place where a drunk is puking in the doorway and the district attorney doesn't want to prosecute, so the pukes ...


(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: bluezones; businesses; exodus; sanfrancisco
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1 posted on 01/12/2020 9:59:32 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Heck, the Niners don’t even play there anymore.


2 posted on 01/12/2020 10:00:32 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Riddle me this — if as the article says, San Francisco is a city of empty storefronts and missing young people, why are homes and real estate still the most expensive in the USA?

I would expect that if there is a mass exodus, the price of real estate would drop.


3 posted on 01/12/2020 10:01:07 AM PST by SeekAndFind (look at Michigan, it will)
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To: dfwgator

Riddle me this — if as the article says, San Francisco is a city of empty storefronts and missing young people, why are homes and real estate still the most expensive in the USA?

I would expect that if there is a mass exodus, the price of real estate would drop.


4 posted on 01/12/2020 10:01:24 AM PST by SeekAndFind (look at Michigan, it will)
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To: SeekAndFind

“the price of real estate would drop.”

Only after massive foreclosures. That’s coming.


5 posted on 01/12/2020 10:02:43 AM PST by CodeToad (Arm Up! They Have!)
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To: SeekAndFind

I took a job and spent 3 months in Utica, NY in the fall of 1997 (the time of which she speaks). I went to the local shopping mall, Sangertown Square, and it was a ghost town. There were no young people from age 18-40. Everyone was less then 18 and much older than 40. There was nobody in the middle. That’s when I decided to leave town like everyone else had done.


6 posted on 01/12/2020 10:04:02 AM PST by Ouderkirk (Life is about ass, you're either covering, hauling, laughing, kicking, kissing, or behaving like one)
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To: SeekAndFind
From 2012...

Children, Families Fleeing San Francisco: Study San Francisco has the lowest percentage of children among its population of any major American city.

7 posted on 01/12/2020 10:05:29 AM PST by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: dfwgator

It’s amazing that a liberal city like SF can produce two powerhouse teams, the Giants in baseball and the 49ers.


8 posted on 01/12/2020 10:05:52 AM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: CodeToad

They keep telling us that nearly 300 New Yorkers leave the state each day, but the prices of homes never drop!

My only guess is these leavers are being replaced by new immigrants from overseas ( e.g. Chinese, Indians, Koreans, etc. ).


9 posted on 01/12/2020 10:07:08 AM PST by SeekAndFind (look at Michigan, it will)
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To: SeekAndFind

Wait till California demonicRATS repeal Prop 13 which is in their crosshairs this session. Property taxes will skyrocket which will knock out even more businesses.


10 posted on 01/12/2020 10:07:55 AM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: SeekAndFind

The price of real estate that is not tied up in a 12 year lawsuit is rising because of scarcity. The preimum for legal problem free is rising. The number of property owners waiting on a set of permits to become another class of property is well documented.

The case of a SF laundromat owner who wants to develop the land his family has owned for 40+ years into mix use multilateral earthquake ready low rise is well documented. He has been fighting city hall for 20+ years about the same block.


11 posted on 01/12/2020 10:09:07 AM PST by protoconservative
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To: SeekAndFind

Albany screws with the real estate marlet with its STAR program. Makes it easier for geezers, harder for young families to stay. Not a recipe for a healthy, growing state.


12 posted on 01/12/2020 10:12:21 AM PST by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Maybe dems want everyone to leave california...Then they can clean up the poor,dump them elsewhere and have the golden state all to themselves...Only people left will be the slaves needed to work...Like Apartheid....Rich dems,poor slaves...


13 posted on 01/12/2020 10:12:41 AM PST by Hambone 1934
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To: Texas Eagle

RE: Wait till California demonicRATS repeal Prop 13 which is in their crosshairs this session.

So, California has no more Howard Jarvis-like folks waiting in the wings?


14 posted on 01/12/2020 10:13:29 AM PST by SeekAndFind (look at Michigan, it will)
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To: SeekAndFind

I’m sure the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association will put up a fight but California has super-majorities in both chambers. We’ll see what happens. Of course, they’ve had a super-majority for a few years now so Prop 13 is always in danger of being repealed.


15 posted on 01/12/2020 10:15:56 AM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: SeekAndFind

Back in the early 90’s, I had to go to SF regularly for work. It was a vibrant city, clean, relatively safe. Took the wife there for a long weekend visit, enjoyed it. However, the tour guide on that trip warned that things were headed downhill. Now, you can’t pay me to go back there.


16 posted on 01/12/2020 10:18:17 AM PST by rstrahan
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To: SeekAndFind

Comments on the Guardian website claim the vacant space problem is exaggerated.

I haven’t been in SF for about ten years personally.


17 posted on 01/12/2020 10:18:46 AM PST by Brian Griffin
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To: SeekAndFind

In my area, 60 miles north of DeBlasio city, I’m seeing a massive influx of people moving up from there. Its ‘cheap” compared to the city proper. The original people here are leaving the state as fast as they can or after retirement.

It has sped up within the last 3 years.


18 posted on 01/12/2020 10:19:43 AM PST by headstamp 2 (There's a stairway to heaven, but there's also a highway to hell.)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

High ticket prices can pay for great players.


19 posted on 01/12/2020 10:20:10 AM PST by Brian Griffin
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To: SeekAndFind

“San Francisco is getting to be a hellhole “

It’s ALWAYS has been a hellhole.


20 posted on 01/12/2020 10:21:44 AM PST by ConsCA
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