[rayiner]

Here's my proble. I have no problem paying taxes and investing in my community. But I'd never want to invest in a city as absurd as San Francisco.

It is interesting to observe how people in the finance industry in New York view taxation. They'll complain about it, but by and large they're pretty supportive of the whole system. Which is important, because they're responsible for some large fraction of the tax base, as well as a lot of corporate investment in the community. I think Wall Street is happy to invest in New York because the city isn't totally dysfunctional. The people who pay the taxes see benefits from public services, whether its the police or the transit infrastructure. It's a place where people making a million dollars a year will ride the bus or subway to work and so feel invested in the public services they pay for.

In San Francisco, the crazies and the hippies are firmly in charge. And as long as that's the case, why would you want to give them your money?

[seanmcdirmid]

The techies like SF's culture more than NYC's. Maybe they actually like a city run eclectically vs. the stod and boring north east style.

I've never noticed anything very disfunctional about SF: the police seem to work out, the public transportation seems to work out, there is a homeless problem but not an entirely huge one, tourists seem to be safe, the city has great parks.

Maybe you just don't like Californian liberals?

[LordHumungous]

http://www.sfweekly.com/2009-12-16/news/the-worst-run-big-ci...

[seanmcdirmid]

Nothing in that article harks at serious disfunctions that would cause me to avoid living there.

I would rather live in San Francisco than anywhere in Idaho (despite Idaho being a nice place to visit). Or any city in the south for that matter.

[rayiner]

The article isn't about wanting to live there or not. That's largely a function of things that have little to do with the city government (climate, night life, etc). The article urges tech companies to invest in San Francisco, and the issues raised in the article are totally relevant to evaluating why they might not want to. Who wants to pour money into a city that is so badly mismanaged?