[sfisthemoon]

A quote from the article: “It was pretty shocking,” she said, “because I don’t think of high crime in San Francisco, especially in a touristy area.”

Every touristy part of SF -- Twin Peeks, Lands End, Hawk Hill, and on and on -- has signs warning that it's a "High Crime Area." These signs have existed forever. You'd have to be pretty ignorant of your surroundings to not know this fact.

[greggman3]

You shouldn't need those signs. Instead of solving the crime problem the city is basically saying "don't use this area so we don't have to police it"

Imagine a sign that said "don't go to this beach without full body armor" when what people want is to swim in bathing suits.

There are plenty of places in the world where it's not taken for granted that your car will be broken into if anything is showing and that you'll have stuff stolen or pickpocketed if you aren't eternally vigilant.

You shouldn't have to be. Instead the police should enforce the law so that law abiding citizens can use the area without having to worry about people breaking the law.

[tomc1985]

That's weird, when I was in SF a lot 13 years ago because of my sister studying at SFSU, she was constantly warning not to be flashy or have my wallet visible or even manipulate it in my pocket in a way that could be seen by others. No one's ever given me warnings like that elsewhere (though they are good advice) and I've been in cities that are dramatically and visually worse

[bifrost]

Not really forever, no.

There's been a concerted effort to put signs up in the last 12 months.

There've been quite a few more robberies/shootings at Twin Peaks in the last 24 months, I live nearby and visit it regularly. A few months ago I found used needles, that was a first for me up there and I've been regularly biking to the top there for at least 10 years.

[dehrmann]

The tourist parts of most cities are high crime. Singapore is probably OK.

[azinman2]

One of the few benefits of an authoritarian regime… usually they’re great at reducing crime.

Of course it’s not the only way. While replicated almost no where else, Japan avoids crime while not being authoritarian. Group think becomes cultural identity, which has its own issues, but crime isn’t one of them.

[Chris2048]

> Japan avoids crime while not being authoritarian

By essentially, maintaining a mono-culture; the opposite of multi-culturism.