Motivated to challenge the prevailing narrative depicting San Francisco as a dangerous and desolate city, a journalist and resident of San Francisco embarked on an investigation, which eventually compelled her to write an article exposing the city’s alarming condition, which she says is “spiraling” out of control.
In a Wednesday article published in New York Magazine, Elizabeth Weil meticulously described the prevalence of crime, homelessness, and human suffering in San Francisco, contrasting it with the city’s previous state of prosperity before the pandemic. Weil went on to offer a sincere apology to her fellow San Francisco residents for inadvertently contributing to the multitude of stories that portrayed the city’s decline.
“I’m sorry. I know … There’s always some story in the east-coast press about how our city is dying,” she wrote. “When I set out reporting, I wanted to write a debunking-the-doom piece myself. Yet to live in San Francisco right now, to watch its streets, is to realize that no one will catch you if you fall.”
During the pandemic, San Francisco experienced a significant surge in homelessness, exacerbating what was already a bad situation. The homeless population in the city surged from 12,249 to 19,086 between 2016 and 2020, according to city government data cited by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Alongside the homelessness crisis, the city has grappled with high levels of crime, including open drug use and bold instances of organized shoplifting. The issues have compelled numerous retailers in San Francisco to shut down their businesses.
Since 2020, the renowned tech industry that San Francisco was once recognized for has undergone substantial layoffs and significant reductions in office space. According to Weil, numerous tech CEOs have departed from the city — “everyone with brains” — she said. Notably in recent weeks, CashApp founder Bob Lee, who had moved to Miami, was fatally stabbed during a visit to San Francisco in April.
According to NY Magazine, the significant departure of workers from urban city centers and the subsequent decline of downtown areas has been referred to as a “doom loop” by NYU finance professor Arpit Gupta. Amongst these cities, San Francisco appears to be experiencing the most severe impact: While cell phone activity in downtown New York has rebounded to 75% of pre-pandemic levels, it remains at only 32% in San Francisco, the Daily Caller reported.
“The social contract had ruptured, and we’d ceased to believe we could fix it. The city often seemed to operate like an incompetent parent, confusing compassion and permissiveness, unable to maintain boundaries, producing the exact opposite result of what it claimed to want,” Weil wrote.
