SF streets were clean for APEC, here's what Tenderloin and SoMa look like now

There is a large degree of “this is normal” that creeps into your mind. You begin to assume that all cities are exactly like it. You can’t comprehend it being otherwise. As a native San Franciscan who moved to DFW TX area, I vividly remember walking into a TX Walgreens for the first time and being flabbergasted by how nice it was: orderly, minimally locked shelves, etc. It almost seemed like it was a fake store in some hidden camera prank or something, no way a Walgreens could be like that based on all my time in Walgreens in SF. It was normal, like a commercial or something.

The state of SF is sad to see. I remember as a child when it was so much nicer. Today it’s just depressing to see how bad it’s gotten. We’re not used to seeing nice cities become not nice cities. In my lifetime in other parts of the country the norm has been seeing not nice areas becoming nice areas.

Just for perspective. The Tenderloin has been a slum for as long as SF has existed. About every 25-30 years, SF goes through a boom &#x2F; bust cycle. This has been happening as long as people have called it San Francisco and will likely happen as long as it remains a city.<p>In the late 90&#x27;s early 00&#x27;s Market St was a porn hub. Before Twitter was gifted their headquarters, that part of the city was a dump full of porn shops, abandoned buildings and bums. In the 70&#x27;s it was a dangerous heroin invested place with open air prostitution and lots of crime.<p>The greatness of SF is its ability to not only reinvent itself, but with it reinventing how the US and the world at large function. SF will emerge from this slump in a new and better form. This is just a part of that process. In other words: Same as its ever been...

APEC proved that the laws on the books can be enforced, whereas for residents the powers that be elect when to enforce laws and not. They usually fret saying they don’t have the power to [clean up]. It also proved that they know the state of the city is not normal.<p>Basically it proves they can clean up for superficial appearances, but when it matters to everyday residents they are incapable of acting.

Occasionally, I&#x27;m reminded of a star trek DS9 episode with a time-travel plot that put characters in 2024 in San Francisco. While SF isn&#x27;t exactly at the dystopia described, it&#x27;s not that far off.<p>- Poor, mentally ill or unhoused people are corralled into a lawless district. Though the district was perhaps set up with some justification about helping people, it mostly just segregates the very poor from being seen<p>- The society has extreme wealth inequality; Dax meets&#x2F;befriends a tech entrepreneur in BART<p>- We even meet a low-level administrator who knows that the system isn&#x27;t working but says something like &quot;I need this job&quot;<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;memory-alpha.fandom.com&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Bell_Riots" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;memory-alpha.fandom.com&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Bell_Riots</a>

Was this a case of city workers (including police) pulling a lot of overtime prior to APEC, and that can only go on for a little while? Is there a labor shortage in SF for this kind of work at least?<p>I am especially interested in hearing actual current SF residents comment on whether or not this article is roughly speaking accurate.

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Why do people still live in big, liberal cities? They&#x27;re clearly trying to drive people out. Just sell up before your property values tank and move somewhere nice. Learn to entertain yourself, cook, etc. and pretty soon you won&#x27;t need the amenities.

The only solution is to dispense pharma produced drugs freely to anyone who can&#x27;t afford them.<p>Poor people would no longer need to steal for their daily dose, all would be provided by the state. The illegal market would disappear since you can&#x27;t compete with $0 price.<p>You would have hard drugs vending machines on street corners, that you can access with your government provided drug card.