| Pre-COVID, the benefits of suffering downtown outweighed the detriments: 1. It wasn't as bad before. Some areas were, but the zone of insanity has grown and worse behavior is being tolerated now. 2. There was a lot more people around which made the problems less visually severe 3. There was a lively "scene". Events, experiences, dinners, whatever. Stuff was happening all the time for techies. Now it's a lot less vibrant. SF's insistence on masks, tests, and vaccines to the very end guaranteed that normal social behavior wouldn't come back. And, surprise, it didn't! All of the people who live for that stuff and organize it... moved away! On top of that, SF was drunk on power and money in 2019 and implemented all manner of taxes to punish tech companies. Well, the tech companies now have their options and they aren't choosing the jurisdiction that hates them. I don't expect that SF will return to its peak 2019 level of hegemony at any point prior to a political and social revolution in the town. |