[keerthiko]

One of the cliche transplants from SF to NYC: The lack of concrete jungle, and that desire from people both who predated the tech deluge and those who arrived because of it (like you are planning to be) is precisely why it has become as bad as the blogs make it to be.

I think some things are not as bad as the blogs make it be, and many things a lot worse. In the latter category:

- there is now a "fire season". Yes, those precious outdoors, swathes of it gets burned and the beautiful CA air gets filled with smoke from burnt forests, houses and people

- the city is politically paralyzed. Everyone now treats their SF stay as even more temporary (moreso than the natives already complained about before, because now it's crappy to live in for everyone, not just the poor people) = limited investment in political future

- diversity shrinks every year. It gets more white/asian, more male, more single/childless, more tech, and more techie-centric entertainment, and less everything else everyday

- offline businesses are narrowing operation. Not merely "local" and "small" businesses dying, but even chain stores are not able to find staff or attract enough foot traffic because...the city simply doesn't have that many people out and about anymore. Business hours are shrinking, stores are receding to the downtown center streets, and service staff is disappearing. There are hardly 50 stores left in all of SF that are open 24 hours, even my podunk hometown in Oman, Middle East has more.

- the tourist industry is dying. People used to visit and fall in love with SF. Now, they get embarrassed about the state of the city (the more obvious stuff like homelessness, cost of living, filth) and leave trying to forget about this city.

I still love SF, and would love to move back if they can turn the ship around. As a non-US citizen I cannot even vote, and felt utterly helpless in the face of rampant NIMBYism preventing any development, upzoning, housing reform, transit reform, tax reform, homelessness relief, police retraining, non-tech subsidies, etc. But over the course of the 6-7 years I lived there, it went from a "this city is wonderful" love to the kind of love you have for a drug-addled suicidal family member.

It is incredibly relieving to see NYC being run extremely competently in contrast, and while I vaguely miss the weather, imo the summers here are better, the winters perfectly tolerable, seasons are a nice way to keep track of the passage of time, and I can enjoy nature more every time I go out of town.

[csomar]

> - the tourist industry is dying. People used to visit and fall in love with SF. Now, they get embarrassed about the state of the city (the more obvious stuff like homelessness, cost of living, filth) and leave trying to forget about this city.

Not true. From https://www.sftravel.com/article/san-francisco-travel-report...

> San Francisco Travel is reporting a total of 25.8 million visitors to the city in 2018 (with minor adjustments expected as final data is received), up 1.2 percent over 25.5 million in 2017.

Total spending by visitors was $10 billion, up 2.3 percent over $9.8 billion in 2017 (including spending on meetings and conventions).

[keerthiko]

One can argue conferences and conventions and business travel is still tourism, but not the kind that comes to appreciate the city, people, culture or history. SF will remain a destination for the starry-eyed tech grad and entrepreneur despite everything, that is not what I am commenting to here.

As for total spending, 2.3% is not even inflation in a normal place, let alone the most rapidly inflating city in the world. If you adjust for 2017 vs 2018 dollars, that is definitely a decline. By my estimate the cost of most things a visitor would spend on has gone up by at least 5% on average between those years (as the report you link posted, hotels up by 6%, and airbnbs up by far more than that, and similarly with ticketed entries, transportation and food).

This report paints a far rosier picture than what is actually happening when you account for the rate at which prices of things tourists pay for are going up relative to the tourism revenue numbers themselves.

More viscerally, if you live in SF for 2-3 years and hang around tourist spots often enough, you can just feel this viscerally as the lines outside shops have shrunk, numerous shopkeeps are just dusting their shelves with no customers, and gifts look unpurchased for years.

[csomar]

Inflation for 2018 was 1.9% in the US. So that's still above inflation but also the number of visitors have increased. You should also probably take into account that the city is saturated and thus there isn't any room for growth. (which kinda of the equivalent of the city costs inflating more than the average city in the US).

> you can just feel this viscerally as the lines outside shops have shrunk, numerous shopkeeps are just dusting their shelves with no customers, and gifts look unpurchased for years.

Or maybe consumers are changing their behaviors for lack of a better word. It never made sense to me, why, as a tourist I should go shop through the city stores. The brands are the same back home, the prices are x2 what you pay in Amazon and the logistics are not that great (flight/taxis/trains/bags/etc...)

I don't think tourism is dying in SF or any city in the world (Tourism growth is so strong that even if you are a sucker-city you'll still beat records) but there is little value-added in these shops that tourists will stop and drop $$ at them.

[JDiculous]

Funny I left NYC after 5 years because I felt like it wasn't being run well after seeing the subway get noticeably worse every year, the homeless population larger, the streets more congested, the rents higher, etc.

But I remember flying to SF for a weekend for an interview and being absolutely shocked at the blatant level of poverty and homelessness I saw. Have never had any desire to live in SF since then.

[nlh]

Very well said.

[athiercelin]

That. So much.