[subsubzero]

Alot of this is due to the policy decisions of Ed Lee(ex SF mayor). He authorized tax breaks for a bevy of tech companies to operate in the tenderloin tax free(for a few years). The reason for this was to revitalize a blighted neighborhood with an infusion of highly paid tech workers. This is turn lead to a huge amount of tech employees moving to one of the worst areas in SF. Sf for sure is falling apart but I did spend some time recently in the sunset and things seemed pretty normal over there - at least in broad daylight, but everywhere else I visited was not great at all.

[dmix]

Zoning laws basically make this the reality in every major city's downtown area. They aren't allowing offices or building new multistory buildings in the safe NIMBY areas of cities.

It might sound like an overt policy but in reality it's just the easiest one without doing any real reform or dealing with any of the problems. Like all municipal housing/development policy in the last two decades.

Zoning rarely changes, what's does always change a) the natural expansion of economically productive downtown areas and b) the degree to how bad it is in those very high traffic areas while everyone pretends you can just easily not visit those areas and be fine (despite there being few options to work or build elsewhere).

[jwestbury]

Bad zoning policy is probably the largest driver of most things that are killing cities -- it encourages wealth disparity, bad land use, increased emissions, and concentration of crime. Unfortunately, wealth is a driver of bad zoning policy, so it's a bit hard to get out from under it -- and some of the examples of "fixing" zoning are equally terrible, e.g. Houston's complete lack of zoning and incredible sprawl.

[somethoughts]

Two other related points:

- And the flagship company to take Ed Lee up on the offer was Twitter - a social media company

- Additionally adding to things is that Union Square butts up against the Tenderloin - making the misery very visible for tourists.