[xw3098]

If you think San Francisco is bad now. You should’ve seen it in the 70s, when I was a kid. The crime was so bad it made the second sentence in the Wikipedia page. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_in_the_1970s

Honestly these things come and go, as they do in all big cities. Adapting to change, especially for large groups of people, is alway rough and tumble. I’m sure they’ll get it figured out eventually. Just in time for it to change again…

Also, most residents as Chicago disagree with your assessment of their housing affordability.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/crains-forum-affordable-hous...

[solardev]

Sure, these things come and go, but isn't that partially because of the types of industries and workers that settle there in a given period? I'm sure it was quite the scene during the gold rush or tenements eras too. In the 90s it seemed really nice though. Rose tinted glasses and all that.

I don't think Chicago is magically more affordable or anything, just significantly more so than West Coast tech hubs, while still being very livable (transportation, food, culture, art, diversity, etc.) It does lack nature compared to the West Coast, but there are some really well maintained parks and awesome museums.

Point is, cities are in part defined by who lives and works there. Tech workers as a class don't really seem to contribute as much "liveliness" to a city, IMO. We make our money, hoard it or spend it on luxury cars and housing, then mostly keep to ourselves. Not very community or civic minded. Not EVERY worker, obviously, but it's a stereotype I've seen true more often than not in my limited personal experiences.

[vkou]

Crime in first-tier coastal cities isn't the problem. Serious crime in them is at much lower rates than in peer cities in the South and the Midwest.

The mixture of hyperwealth and soul-crushing shit-on-the-street-people-huddled-around-burning-garbage-cans poverty right out there on display for everyone, and the lower-working and middle class getting uncomfortably squeezed in the middle is what makes SF look like a sad parody of Blade Runner.

[uoaei]

Worth pointing out that a "tech boom" came about in the previous decade in the area, both then and now.