I'm from Boston and there's really just one area (Mass and Cass) with a serious homeless and drug problem. Our downtown is safe and clean. I'm not sure what SF is doing differently, but it's clearly not enough.
By comparison in SF you can sleep outside all year round with minimum headaches, and tent / camper / van life is an option. Nationally, over time, the homeless will start moving towards places like that.
SF is also more of a cultural fit than Boston.
The city’s famously progressive policies were, perhaps, not thought all the way through.
This culture is a joke. An intentionally unaccountable but highly compensated and connected federal political apparatus is ignored and blame placed on local power for its lack of accountability fixing country-wide issues.
Such exceptional neighbors I have across the country that they put up with this.
Even comparing the closest analog to Hawaii for california, Catalina Island, the mere 90 minute ferry ride across the channel is enough to cause a disparity in homeless rates between the city of Avalon on the island, and the city of Los Angeles - visible directly across the water from it - of nearly 50% (higher in LA)
SF will also provide bus tickets to homeless people if they have family elsewhere who can help care for them, but to me it seems the program is under-utilized.
- better services
- 35% more cops per-capita
- lower tolerance of camps
- something else like the street price of drugs