I doubt his experiences were primarily in the city -- absolutely no mention of homelessness, human excrement, or hypodermic needles, incredible!
1. The homeless/junkies felt like 1/3 of all people visible. They can be seen face down in the middle of pavements and can be aggressive. Human excrement is definitely a thing there and I've not seen it before in any other city.
2. People buying $7 latte's stepping over homeless people and calling themselves "progressive" and "liberal" don't understand the meanings of those words. "Self Important" and "pretentious" are more accurate.
3. The traffic is insane. The public transport sucks.
4. The food was the best I've had in the US in that it was fresh and seemingly unprocessed. It is expensive though.
5. Tech companies annoyingly rent public spaces and decent bars when there are conferences. I'm looking at you Google.
6. Drinkable beer is expensive.
7. The Computer History Museum is good.
8. The Pier area is meh with chain restaurants.
Homelessness -- multiple per block
Excrement -- every other block
Public drug use (non pot) -- every other day
Public urination -- once per week
Public defecation -- once per month
I was assaulted at the street corner near our office once in the 1.5 years we were there.
My guess is that the homeless population is just too large to manage any reasonable degree of cleanliness.