As a San Franciscan, I am so happy to see this. SF needs negative feedback on the poor choices it makes, and so far the tech boom has somewhat obscured the consequences.
Yeah. The longer you live in SF and the Bay Area, the more apparent it becomes how much it skates on tech, history, and intrinsic advantages like the weather and beautiful geography. SF in particular has such incredible resources that it should be the most advanced city in the world.
But the people in San Francisco have got what they wanted. Maybe in 20 years SF will be able to change but right now the majority of people are actually in favor of the way the city is being run: to stay stuck in time as long as possible
I lived in SF in 1999, and that mentality was exactly the same then as it is today.
The long time residents of SF don't believe in _change_, and that isn't going to change.
It is just happenstance that the initial San Jose tech explosion happened near SF. ...but maybe other parts of the country are better suited to it going forward...
The negative feedback is all the people who moved from other states to SF over the years, voted for politicians that virtue signaled loudly enough to attract said transplants’ votes, and then moved to another (likely conservative) state after saving enough money to live comfortably with their new families. That’s ultimately one of the biggest issues in the Bay Area that no one ever talks about.
Those longtime existing homeowners are trying to maintain the current landscape and don’t want new construction obstructing their million dollar views.
Yes many are NIMBYs, but so would most people if they grew up in a place that saw an influx of new people wanting to change the landscape with ugly high-rise all glass condos that blind you when the sun sets or change the feel of what they’re familiar with.
In a way, I don’t blame them. The majority of newer construction in the past 20-30 years in SF particularly is horrid.