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San Francisco's slide into hell under extreme leftism


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2021 Apr 15, 9:51pm   126,405 views  973 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (55)   💰tip   ignore  

https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2021/04/19/chesa-boudins-dangerous-san-francisco/

‘Hey, where are you?” Hannah Ege texted her husband, Sheria Musyoka. He’d left on a morning jog and had been gone for an hour and a half. Hannah was home, taking care of their three-year-old son. She began to freak out. She called and texted and called again. He never answered.

Speeding and drunk — at just shy of eight in the morning — Jerry Lyons barreled through a red light at an intersection in a stolen Ford Explorer. Lyons struck and killed Musyoka, a 26-year-old Dartmouth grad who had moved to San Francisco only ten days earlier with his wife and their son. After clipping Musyoka, Lyons collided with another car, causing an eight-car pileup that sent several other people to the hospital.

The San Francisco police arrested Lyons on multiple charges that morning in February, but this was not the first time he’d been arrested for drunk driving in a stolen car. On December 3, he had been arrested for driving under the influence, driving a stolen vehicle, and driving without a license. Before that, he’d been released from prison after serving time for a grand-theft conviction; in fact, Lyons had been arrested at least seven times in the Bay Area since his release from prison, and his rap sheet goes back a decade. Still, San Francisco’s district attorney, Chesa Boudin, delayed pressing charges against Lyons until a toxicology report confirmed that he had been inebriated, which, more than a month and a half later in January, it did. Lyons then had 14 days to turn himself in to the DA’s office. On the 13th day, he killed Musyoka. While COVID-era difficulties might have accounted for the medical examiner’s slow speed in returning test results, a different DA could have chosen to move forward sooner — taking necessary precautions — and charged Lyons with a DUI based on observable factors alone, such as the results of Lyons’s field sobriety test, his erratic driving in a stolen vehicle, and close scrutiny of his behavior.

Hannah Ege expressed her grief and pain to a local TV news station, railing at the district attorney’s reluctance to lock up repeat offenders. Whom does she blame for her husband’s death? “The DA,” she said. “This freak accident was no freak accident. It was someone who was out in the public who should not have been out in public.”

The Lyons mayhem is not an isolated case in the city by the bay. On New Year’s Eve, a parolee on the run from a robbery — also in a stolen car — sped through a red light, striking and killing two women, 60-year-old Elizabeth Platt and 27-year-old Hanako Abe, who were in the crosswalk. The driver, Troy McAlister, had been released twice by the district attorney in the previous year: the first time because Boudin refuses to pursue three-strike cases, of which McAlister’s was one; the second — as recently as December 20, when the SFPD arrested McAlister for driving a stolen car — because Boudin kicked the case to the state parole officers, who did nothing.

Welcome to San Francisco’s latest idiocy, a new experiment in governance where everything is allowed but nothing is permitted. A paradox, you might say, but take a walk down Market Street, down that great avenue in a great city in a great nation, and note the desolation of the empty streets, the used needles tossed on the sidewalks, and the boarded-up windows on storefronts. Consider that, at various unpredictable times in the last year, it has been illegal — for the sake of public safety during COVID — to run a mom-and-pop corner shop or to serve food at sidewalk cafés. Reflect for a moment that, since time immemorial, it has been illegal to build any new housing, because of the most onerous and confusing zoning laws in the known universe. Mark Zuckerberg can apparently influence national elections by tweaking algorithms, but he is powerless before the planning commission when it comes to building apartments for his employees. The city has banned plastic straws, plastic bags, and McDonald’s Happy Meals with toys. And yet, all the while, drug dealers sell their wares — COVID or no COVID — openly and freely at all hours of the day and night, users shoot up or pop fentanyl in public and defecate on the street, robbers pillage cars and homes with the ease of Visigoth raiders, and the district attorney frees repeat offenders who go on to sow disorder, pain, devastation, and grief. A profound melancholy hangs in the air of this city, punctuated only by the shrieks of a junkie dreaming of demons or by the rat-tat-tat-bam of the occasional firework. (Or was that a gun?) ...

How did it come to this? On January 8, 2020, Mayor London Breed swore in Chesa Boudin as the new district attorney of San Francisco in front of a packed house at the Herbst Theater. Boudin won the election by a nose in a runoff, with oily promises to feel the pain of all parties to a crime, both victims and perpetrators. He made pledges to enact “restorative justice” and prison reform through “decarceration.” U.S. Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor recorded a congratulatory video message, which was played at the swearing-in ceremony for Boudin and the crowd. “Chesa, you have undertaken a remarkable challenge today,” the justice said. “The hope you reflect is a great beacon to many.”

The task before Boudin was already monumental. Before he assumed his office, San Francisco ranked No. 1 in the nation in property crime. On average, thieves broke 60 car windows per day, with impunity. In 2014, California voters approved Proposition 47, a reform measure that reduced many felonies to ticketed misdemeanors, such as theft of less than $950 and hard-drug possession. There were more drug addicts on the streets than there were students in the schools. Tent encampments of homeless people had sprouted in every nook and alley and under every highway overpass. Commuters faced a daily gauntlet in the form of an appalling humanitarian crisis in the streets.

But Boudin immediately refused to take any responsibility for these issues. Among his first acts was to fire seven veteran prosecutors who were not on board with his radical views. (Over 30 prosecutors have left during his tenure because they don’t want to work for him.) Next, Boudin abolished the cash-bail system, so offenders are able to walk free after arrest. He rarely brings a case to trial: Out of the 6,333 cases to land on his desk since taking office, he has gone to trial only 23 times. This is one-tenth the rate of his predecessor, George Gascón, who was hardly tough on crime. Since the killing of George Floyd, there has been a shortage of cops, as officers retire in record numbers. San Francisco has also moved to defund the police, with plans to shift $120 million in law-enforcement funding to restorative-justice programs, housing support, and a guaranteed-income pilot, among other ideas.

To where does Boudin’s “great beacon” point? Over the last year, there have been more deaths from drug overdoses in San Francisco than from COVID-19. Walgreens has closed ten of its drugstores in the city because its shelves were being pillaged freely by shoplifters. According to SFPD’s CompStat, compared with last year, arson has increased 52 percent, motor-vehicle theft is up 21 percent, and burglaries have seen a 59 percent increase. One largely Asian neighborhood, the Richmond district, has reported a 342 percent spike in burglaries this year compared with last. Admittedly, some numbers are down, such as those for larceny and robbery. But police attribute these declines to the pandemic, since there are fewer opportunities for would-be criminals to commit such crimes as people shelter in place. One neighborhood association sent a letter in February to Boudin and Mayor Breed, begging them to restore public safety. The association also posted it on the Internet. “Our neighborhood can’t wait another day,” they wrote. “Our homes are repeatedly broken into and robbed. Our merchants suffer unsustainable losses from theft and smashed windows. Employees are threatened with guns. Residents are robbed at gunpoint on our own streets. The sound of gunshots is no longer unusual.” ...

Now, what rough beast slouches its way towards San Francisco? With a district attorney who won’t prosecute crimes, how long will it be until an anxious Google engineer defends himself from being harassed by a madman? Will envious arsonists light the Salesforce Tower on fire as a jacked-up mob courses through the streets burning and looting the Painted Ladies?

A desperate sun struggles through the fog. There may be one ray of hope. The city has recently approved the effort to recall Chesa Boudin from office. Locals could begin downloading signature-gathering petitions on March 12. If 10 percent of registered voters sign the petition, all voters may get the chance to vote the bum out. But even if they do, it will remain tragic for Musyoka, Platt, Abe, and others like them that the day did not come soon enough.


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921   Patrick   2024 Feb 3, 4:17pm  

https://sfstandard.com/2024/02/02/former-san-francisco-mayor-mark-farrell-will-challege-london-breed/


Mark Farrell Will Run To Be San Francisco’s Mayor Again, Sources Say

For a brief window of time, Mark Farrell was mayor of San Francisco. Apparently, that six months running City Hall wasn’t enough.

Multiple sources have confirmed to The Standard that Farrell—a San Francisco native who also served seven years as a supervisor for the Marina District—will challenge Mayor London Breed in November’s election. Farrell is expected to make a formal announcement in the next two weeks.

Farrell, 49, has been recruiting people to appear in his campaign ads, according to sources. Among those contacted was a business owner from the city’s Asian American community, which accounts for one-third of San Francisco residents. Farrell also has been receiving help from Margaux Kelly—a top exec for the nonprofit TogetherSF and one of his former supervisor staffers—to arrange meetings and coordinate his schedule, according to a City Hall source.


Maybe there's a little bit of hope for San Francisco.
924   Patrick   2024 Feb 13, 5:04pm  

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2023/03/29/s-f-office-vacancy-increases-first-quarter.html?ana=e_fr_BN&j=34324022&senddate=2024-02-12


San Francisco experienced historic office vacancy and a major uptick in subleases in the early months of 2023, a testament to the office market's struggle to recover amid a wave of tech layoffs and the normalization of remote work.

The space recorded as vacant in the first quarter spiked to 29.5%, up nearly 2 percentage points from the end of last year and nearly 10 points from a year ago, according to real estate firm CBRE.

At 26.6 million square feet, there's more than eights times as much vacant office space as there was in early 2019 before the pandemic, when the city's office vacancy rate was in the low single digits. Believe it or not, that's enough to fill 18 Salesforce Towers.
925   AD   2024 Feb 13, 11:42pm  

Patrick says

The space recorded as vacant in the first quarter spiked to 29.5%, up nearly 2 percentage points from the end of last year and nearly 10 points from a year ago, according to real estate firm CBRE.


Return to the office has already been ongoing for at least 12 months, yet San Francisco commercial real estate's vacancy rate is at 29.5%.

Unless there are changes to the city and it attracts new business growth, Its likely not going to drop below 25% for many years.

White liberal billionaires and the Blackrock's may buy up cheap commercial RE in San Fran, and then force a positive change within the local government which will lead to increases in property values.

.
926   HeadSet   2024 Feb 14, 7:14am  

AD says

White liberal billionaires and the Blackrock's may buy up cheap commercial RE in San Fran, and then force a positive change within the local government which will lead to increases in property values.

Yes, while cutting in those local officials with a piece of the action. Once you see bulk buying, you'll know the fix is in.
927   Patrick   2024 Feb 14, 3:08pm  

https://www.leefang.com/p/inside-the-far-left-billionaires


Inside the Far Left Billionaires' Push to Maintain Control of San Francisco ...

Supervisor Dean Preston, who has used his perch on the city council to push for abolishing prisons and police, seized upon the news to claim that it confirms a “right wing takeover” of San Francisco. Preston, who is facing reelection, promised to “fight back” against “dystopian conservatives.”

Yet the groups and individuals named as conservative donors, like Michael Moritz and Garry Tan, are virtually all Democratic moderates with a history of donating to liberal causes. The issues these donors have zeroed in on are traditionally associated with political moderates, like restoring algebra to public middle school – the classes were removed by city leftists for racial equity reasons – hiring more police officers in the midst of a crime wave and street addiction crisis, and encouraging new construction to bring down the price of housing.

What’s more, beyond the absurdity of painting these mainstream goals as some type of fascist plot, the subtext of the trio of news articles is the false assumption that big money only flows to the moderates. In reality, the city’s hard left wildly benefits from millions of dollars from its own faction of wealthy donors – many of whom are slum lords and heirs of family wealth who have radically transformed San Francisco with years of advocacy and electioneering.
928   Patrick   2024 Feb 16, 12:29pm  

https://sfstandard.com/2024/02/14/san-francisco-mayor-london-breed-chamber-commerce/


A Chamber of Commerce survey found that 72% of voters believe that the city is on the wrong track, compared with only 22% who said the opposite. The number was slightly improved from the 77% figure in the Chamber’s survey back in May, but still a far cry from the 46% who believed the arrow was pointed downward in 2019.


Why do they keep voting for the Democrats who destroyed San Francisco?
929   AD   2024 Feb 17, 5:55pm  

HeadSet says


AD says

White liberal billionaires and the Blackrock's may buy up cheap commercial RE in San Fran, and then force a positive change within the local government which will lead to increases in property values.

Yes, while cutting in those local officials with a piece of the action. Once you see bulk buying, you'll know the fix is in.


Yes, I see that in Bay County, Florida with local elected officials getting in on the action.

One way is that they become home builders and "partner" with the largest land owner in the county, which is St Joe corporation (ticker: JOE).

This is the more "legal" way to get rich without envelops of cash and gift cards or "no show jobs for family members" (think Dragon Lady's (or Darlene Druyun's) daughter with Boeing).

Everybody wants their piece of the pie, HeadSet.

.
930   Patrick   2024 Feb 19, 4:36pm  

https://sfstandard.com/2024/02/18/san-francisco-schools-algebra/


We can’t trust SFUSD to reinstate eighth-grade algebra. Voters must weigh in
San Francisco’s school board meant well when it dropped eighth-grade algebra. But students have fled, and the district should learn its lesson.

... Yet in San Francisco, Algebra 1 has not been offered until ninth grade for the past decade. Our public schools stopped letting eighth graders take algebra in 2014 because of concerns about a racial gap in algebra completion rates.

It was a well-intentioned policy. The goal was to stop segmenting kids based on ability and keep all students together until everyone was prepared to take advanced math classes.

But the policy failed. A study by Stanford University showed the policy didn’t help kids who were behind in math. It only held back kids who love math. And we lost many of those kids when their parents pulled them out of public school.

We have a tale of two school systems in San Francisco. Nearly a third of our kids attend private school, compared with only 10% statewide, according to Private School Review. A policy against eighth-grade algebra is a big factor when families decide to leave public schools when their child reaches middle school.
931   HeadSet   2024 Feb 19, 6:51pm  

Patrick says


We can’t trust SFUSD to reinstate eighth-grade algebra.

Seriously? I thought that in a high-tech area 8th grade algebra would be "remedial math."

>Patrick says

It was a well-intentioned policy. The goal was to stop segmenting kids based on ability and keep all students together until everyone was prepared to take advanced math classes.

Oh, BS! We do not need more average to low performing kids. We need programs to allow the gifted and high achievers to excel. Every school should have an active gifted program so we can educate the future innovators.
932   Ceffer   2024 Feb 19, 7:29pm  

Patrick says

A policy against eighth-grade algebra is a big factor when families decide to leave public schools when their child reaches middle school.

w+b= conked over the head by a feral. That's a tad of motivation, too.
933   Patrick   2024 Feb 27, 5:14pm  

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2024/02/27/macys-closing-union-square-flagship.html


Macy's to close historic San Francisco flagship in Union Square

Macy's plans to close its massive 700,000-square-foot flagship store in Union Square, drawing an end to a presence of nearly a century in the heart of San Francisco.

The downtown Macy's has been earmarked as one of 150 underperforming stores the company plans to cut around the country, a source with knowledge of the company's plans told the Business Times. Per the source with detailed knowledge, Macy's will keep the location at 170 O'Farrell St. open until a buyer can be found for the real estate. Ultimately the move will impact about 500 jobs tied to the Macy's flagship.

The impending closure promises to be yet another significant blow to San Francisco's downtown retail footprint, following the closures of major stores such as Nordstrom anchor in the former Westfield San Francisco Center (now, in receivership under its new owners, the San Francisco Center) as well as Coco Republic, CB2, and Jeffrey's Toys within the last year. ...
938   richwicks   2024 Mar 3, 9:13pm  

AD says


White liberal billionaires and the Blackrock's may buy up cheap commercial RE in San Fran, and then force a positive change within the local government which will lead to increases in property values.


Yes, it's an old scam. The government is part of the mafia. The purpose make a place unlivable, force people out, then they profit off from it when they do their fucking job.

Now, if the victims being fucked by the asshole criminals just strung them up in the streets a few times, it wouldn't happen.
939   Ceffer   2024 Mar 3, 10:09pm  

Breed is learning to "Lie Like Biden". It is so, because I lie it so.
940   HeadSet   2024 Mar 4, 7:17am  

Patrick says






Babylon Bee pussed out here by making the looter character White. Very white, to make sure nobody mistook it for Hispanic.
941   WookieMan   2024 Mar 4, 8:13am  

HeadSet says


That is true for universal suffrage. It would be a different story if voting was limited to net tax payers. That is, only people who pay more in than they consume are allowed to vote. That would remove military members, government workers, defense industry contactors, welfare recipients, and SS retirees from the voter rolls.

I know I've commented on this before and this is an older comment. Weighted voting. Base it on the digits of your tax returns. Paid $40k for 2023. I get 5 votes. So does my wife. Pay no taxes you get 1. Wealthy person that pays zero you get one vote. This is the best way to boost the middle class in my opinion.

The other thing is skip voter ID. It should be tax ID. If you didn't file, you don't get to vote. Knocks out illegals in the process. I'd be racist though and the rich and illegals would hate me if it was proposed. It should be.
942   UkraineIsTotallyFucked   2024 Mar 4, 8:16am  

WookieMan says


out illegals in the process.


Many illegals use real tax ids of actual citizens.

Anyway, system used to basically be this way. Except not based upon income as that wasn’t taxed, but property/business ownership which was.
943   Patrick   2024 Mar 6, 7:42pm  

https://sfstandard.com/2024/03/04/paramount-group-downtown-trophy-buildings-in-trouble/


Bought for $949M, 2 San Francisco offices have been marked down to zero ...

The owner of two iconic San Francisco office properties is likely to give them up as major tenants pull out and the final due date for debt payments draws nearer, according to an earnings call with the New York real estate firm the Paramount Group.

One of the properties is known as the Market Center, a 770,000-square-foot brutalist office complex split across two buildings at 555 and 575 Market St. in the middle of the Financial District. The complex used to serve as the headquarters for Standard Oil and Chevron.

The other is a neo-gothic structure a block away at 111 Sutter St. that was the fictional address of private detective Sam Spade’s office in the noir novel The Maltese Falcon, which in 1941 was made into a classic film starring Humphrey Bogart.

Paramount executives said in the Feb. 15 earnings call that they are in negotiations with their lenders on the two properties, but both investments have already been marked down to zero on company books. Executives say debt on the buildings far exceeds their current market value.
944   Patrick   2024 Mar 21, 8:22pm  

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2023/05/31/state-farm-policy-affect-bay-area-real-estate.html?ana=e_FR_BN&j=34770419&senddate=2024-03-21


State Farm's California exit could cause headache for Bay Area home, business owners

State Farm Insurance's decision last week to cease accepting new applications — including all business and personal lines property and casualty insurance — has potential consequences for both homebuyers and small business owners in the Bay Area.

The company — the largest property and casualty insurance provider in the state as of 2021 — said it was necessary to take the actions now to improve the its financial strength. But it could spell trouble for some local real estate transactions by limiting the buyer pool in heavily wooded areas. Buyers getting a mortgage typically are required to have insurance that covers losses from fire, and brokers have said this had already gotten more difficult before State Farm's announcement.
945   UkraineIsTotallyFucked   2024 Mar 26, 5:56pm  

Patrick says

and brokers have said this had already gotten more difficult before State Farm's announcement.


All part of the Great Reset.

Large corporations that can self-insure will buy up all the houses.

You'll still be allowed to eat whatever roaches in 'your house' than you can catch, tho.

That's part of what thru mean by 'Let zem eat zee bugs'.
946   Patrick   2024 Apr 5, 7:54pm  

https://californiaglobe.com/fl/the-empty-storefronts-of-downtown-san-francisco/


The Empty Storefronts of Downtown San Francisco
San Francisco vacancy ‘is probably worse than 37% right now’
947   WookieMan   2024 Apr 6, 10:10am  

UkraineIsTotallyFucked says

Many illegals use real tax ids of actual citizens.

Yeah, I know. I don't like signing up for services/subscriptions, but I have to unlock my SS # any time I need a credit pull. Also prevents my CC temptation to play the points game. Slight pain in the ass, but no one can use my SS # without me being there to unlock it. I 2 step the F out of everything password wise and financially. Again a pain, but guess what, I get to use the same password without fear everywhere where it's important. So in that way it makes life easier with fraud protection.
950   Patrick   2024 Apr 13, 8:42pm  

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/housing-market/article-13293369/san-francisco-housing-market-stumble-crime.html


'San Francisco has lost some of its appeal post-pandemic. A lot of tech employers and big-name retailers have moved out of the city, and some of my clients have reported they're leaving the area because they don't feel as safe as they used to.'

San Francisco's Westfield, once a thriving mall home to the largest Nordstrom in America in the city's downtown area, is now a shell of its former self after a string of departures from big-name stores.

Occupancy was at a measly 25 percent in January, and staff and shoppers told DailyMail.com how they were left 'scared' by 'rising crime, drug-taking and homelessness' in the area.
951   just_passing_through   2024 Apr 13, 8:50pm  

@patrick I left the bay area 13 years ago. Do people out in public that you know discuss the downtrends there? Or maybe they are in denial or maybe it's faux pas to discuss.

Just curious...

San Diego was trending down too in my opine but not like that. Mostly just the schools indoctrinating kids with critical race garbage that had some of my friends move out of CA. And too many foreigners...
952   Patrick   2024 Apr 13, 9:24pm  

@just_passing_through

Yes, that article was sent to me by someone I know here, for example.

But he rents, like I do. People who own a house never mention the downtrend around here. The psychology is amazingly consistent that way.
953   Patrick   2024 Apr 13, 9:25pm  

You know, it's very much like the vaxx thing. Most people who took it refuse to believe that it's really as bad as it provably is.
954   richwicks   2024 Apr 13, 10:28pm  

Patrick says

You know, it's very much like the vaxx thing. Most people who took it refuse to believe that it's really as bad as it provably is.


People would rather potentially die than accept they made an error.

I know I can be propagandized, it's the first thing you learn about propaganda, nobody is free from it, even if they are 100% aware of how it works. You can only correct it later, what I'm shocked by is nobody seems to care about being correct. I never appreciated that. I was never aware of it. I want to be corrected, most people seemed to be locked into a rigid set of beliefs. I wonder if this effects our "upper class" as well. If it does, we really do live in a society of madness.
955   mell   2024 Apr 14, 8:28am  

There's no doubt that the entire bay area, esp. SF are in a downtrend, but house prices are maybe down 5%-10% from the peak, in SF maybe 10-15%, so pretty much only people who bought 2019-2022 during the plandemic or just before are under water. But builders have stopped building pretty much and inventory is tight, so prices have actually stabilized and in better areas reversed the trend
956   just_passing_through   2024 Apr 14, 10:34am  

Patrick says

Yes, that article was sent to me by someone I know here, for example.

But he rents, like I do. People who own a house never mention the downtrend around here. The psychology is amazingly consistent that way.


I had a feeling...
957   Ceffer   2024 Apr 14, 10:43am  

My hood prices dropped around 200k then bounced back up rather quickly. The cash is out there in somebody's' pockets, interest rates be damned.

At the rate things are going, the Asians will probably make us a neighborhood Caucasian museum and throw peanuts and bananas at us. That, and surrounded by inheritors.
959   richwicks   2024 Apr 15, 11:40pm  

Ceffer says

My hood prices dropped around 200k then bounced back up rather quickly. The cash is out there in somebody's' pockets, interest rates be damned.

At the rate things are going, the Asians will probably make us a neighborhood Caucasian museum and throw peanuts and bananas at us. That, and surrounded by inheritors.


Large cash flush corporations are buying up inventory. Blackrock is one of them.

When the WEF said you will own nothing and be happy, they were 1/2 right, that is their plan.

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