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Comment by NotYourLawyer | Hacker News Reader

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I believe half of that. In the early 70s, Times Square was a complete mess. A few years of law-and-order politics turned things around, it returned to prosperity.

I believe San Francisco's rich heritage, great weather and beautiful scenery will save it in the end. But there needs to be a huge political change first.

Explain "written off."

Discarded. Valued at zero. Remembered only as a lesson in what not to do.

Go ahead and value SF at precisely zero if you like. Nobody else is obliged to join you, though.

Essentially you stop spending money to maintain the city. You no longer pay out any government workers, you stop paying for police, roads, etc. Just nothing. Let the people fend for themselves and reclaim the city how they see fit.

The city will ultimately be ruled by despots with gangs that might actually end up doing something to solve the homeless and drug addiction issues once and for all.

Let me guess. You already don't spend any money here. You don't actually live here, vote here, or pay taxes here. Tell you what: you throw your city to the wolves if it suits you. Meanwhile I'll do what little I can to keep my city functioning, if it's alright by you.

I did live there. I lived in SoMA for several years. I walked to my office everyday. I left in 2016, right before shit started getting really bad. I used to think it was a decent city, now I hate San Francisco. I would never move back. It was what it was.

Well then you don't live here anymore and evidently you never will. In which case, why should anyone who does live here ever take instruction from you, who does not, on how to live our lives?

Because they’re not doing a good job clearly.

So your recommendation is that the job (of governing the city) shouldn't be done at all by anyone?

Sometimes doing nothing at all is better than doing a deliberately shitty job.

Do you likewise recommend doing nothing for where you live now as well?

Where I live now has implemented sensible policies that make life pleasant, so I’m fine with the status quo here.

If someone else who doesn't live where you do and wouldn't have to face the consequences prescribed tough medicine with serious side effects for your city, and those side effects could even prove fatal, would you subject yourself and your city to their ministrations? What do you say, Doc?

If you’re choosing to live in such a city, it is likely because you have some vested interest you are trying to protect, and thus makes you a biased opinion. NIMBYism.

You chose to live in YOUR city. By your logic, you also have some vested interest to protect. Evidently, thus makes your opinion biased as well. It's NIMBYism all around!

Skid Row 2.0? Except a few years ago this had the potential to become the tech capital of the world. What a crazy downturn, and yet I don't see enough outrage from the people who are in the middle of it.

There’s no outrage because good little progressives aren’t allowed to hold opinions like that.

It WAS the tech capital of the world for a little while. That's the problem.

Is that going to turn into Judge Dredd's Mega City One or Snake Plinssken's New York? It can happen as failed states happen but not premeditatedly.

Which policies?

Let’s start with this one:

https://www.hoover.org/research/why-shoplifting-now-de-facto...

Any and all policies that made SF a comfortable and welcoming place for the homeless to live, specifically chronically homeless people who have no desire to sincerely receive help that might lead to a job and a normal life. Oakland and Berkeley across the bay have similar problems.

These policies:

https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/13/16771912/mayor-ed-lee-sa...

$687 bucks a month to do drugs in open air markets in the tenderloin.

https://www.sfhsa.org/services/financial-assistance/county-a...

This article is from March of 2022

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10498607/amp/San-Fr...

Here is a comment from an HN user in 2019.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19942653

Reply on news.ycombinator.com