Posted on 11/01/2021 9:39:40 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Read a smattering of national and even international news headlines and you can see it: San Francisco has an image problem.
It’s not just conservative media slamming the city. The New York Times, the Economist, even British-based publications like the Independent and Sunday Times have run recent stories on the state of San Francisco, ranging from its highly visible housing issues to its shoplifting problems.
“Why San Francisco’s city government is so dysfunctional,” reads a headline from the Economist. “Crime is basically legal in San Francisco,” says another headline from the Daily Mail. The New York Times, meanwhile, just ran an article stating that “the mundane crime of shoplifting has spun out of control in San Francisco, forcing some chain stores to close.”
In an interview with SFGATE, Sam Singer, one of San Francisco’s top communications strategists, approached San Francisco’s image problem from a PR perspective.
“Perception is reality,” he said.
“San Francisco has a deep-rooted and significant image and reputation problem,” he said. “In fact, I would say that the city is in crisis mode.”
Singer said San Francisco’s publicized corruption issues at City Hall and the Department of Building Inspection contribute to the city’s reputation. He noted what he called the city’s unwillingness to arrest and prosecute criminals, which leads to viral videos showing thieves running out of Walgreens with their spoils or tearing through Neiman-Marcus with stolen designer purses. (The mayor’s office and the Chamber of Commerce did not respond to SFGATE’s request for comment.)
Singer also said the city’s housing crisis, as evidenced by its visible homeless population, makes San Francisco appear inhospitable to tourists and locals alike.
“You’re looking at a city that is beyond the pandemic, that has a pandemic of mental health, drug abuse, crime and corruption issues”, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
What San Francisco needs is “The Big One” and zero federal assistance afterward. Force its denizens to face reality and decide what is truly important.
Not sure that’s quite right. It certainly has one of the lowest percentages of black people of any major city in the U.S., but the Asian and Hispanic population is relatively high.
SF’s rulers will only concede they’re a dysfunctional gaggle when they are somehow unable to access their skim of the city’s budget tax revenue.
I am 100% convinced that this is the objective of these otherwise insane policies.
We need a fact based analysis to correct any biases.
Who volunteers to count the poop piles?
;-)
You are on the right track.
The article failed to understand that city officials do not want transparency because they are criminals.
Easy peasy.
I live right outside San Francisco, work there, the problems are definitely inflated in the public consciousness, but they’re substantial nonetheless. There are probably around 100 blocks in and around the seedier parts of the downtown area that have been essentially ceded to homelessness, drug addiction, mental illness and criminality. The rest of the city is mostly like anywhere else.
The problem could be solved in a month, but it would take public officials with giant brass balls to do it, essentially the Governor should create detox and rehab camp out in the desert with a secure perimeter, and move all of the drug addicts and insane people out there, along with an army of doctors and nurses. Detox the drug addicts, get the insane to take their “meds”, and after they’ve cycled through, send them out in crews cleaning our highway medians, clearing brush out of our forests, etc. By the end of the month, San Francisco (and the other big cities in California ) would be back to sanity and order.
I visited San Fran several times in the 90’s with my wife back when she had relatives who lived there. Loved it. Have no intention of returning. The city has literally gone to s**t.
This ended up being the Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center - at one time housing over 5,000 mentally ill patients.
These abandoned mental facilities are actually located all across America. Including one spooky one in my hometown of Newtown, CT.
All the people who would have been cared for in these facilities are now out on our streets.
Are they better off for it? I have no idea. But I can tell you our society is much worse for it.
The purpose of otherwise insane policies is to cause complete breakdown which will cause the people to demand a new government. Guess who steps into “solve” the problem? The Commies!
That's a shame, we no longer care for the mentally ill, we wait for them to hurt themselves or others and then we react.
No question, that’s part of it, too. But just remember down the road when the “fact checkers” start claiming that certain minorities don’t commit any more crime than anyone else, that those false claims will be based upon statistics corrupted by the current “see no evil” policies.
Whether Asian and Hispanic people are considered "POCs" is to a large extent a matter of context. Sometimes they are, and sometimes they're not. I'm counting them out in the case of San Francisco.
True, and if so, your point stands.
Wow.
“Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeit”
The politicians are getting paid so everything must be OK
#4 is Shi’ite Moslems and shitake mushrooms.
We need some real science here.
All those university “social science” types need to visit their local cities and measure piles of poop like a census only once a month.
They can compare block to block, census tract to census tract, zip code to zip code,city to city, month to month, per capita and do all kinds of great statistical analysis.
We need facts and data on this controversial topic!
I mentioned in a youtube comment once that most counties used to havce public facilities to house the mentally ill and society was much safer because of it. I was crucified by other posters for saying that.
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