Dan Moore:
Ultimately, I decided that the most important thing you should be aware of before moving to San Francisco is this: the city is changing, quickly. Mechanisms of gentrification have upended neighborhoods with the abruptness of lightning strikes, dividing the citizenry. This is important, because from the day you get here, you’ll find yourself in the middle of this divide, caught in anxious, awkward suspension between two worlds: one that’s losing control of its identity and one that hasn’t really figured out what its identity is yet. I should actually amend that statement: you’ll feel like you’re strung in the middle of two worlds. This will not be so.
See, the world that hasn’t figured out its identity yet is probably better known as the tech community. This community consists of people whose move to San Francisco was made possible by way of companies related at least peripherally to the technology industry. Yes, this means you. What this also means is that many of your neighbors won’t see you as a benevolent outsider caught unknowingly in the middle of what is, essentially, a class war. You have, by association, already chosen your side. And the association will be your shame. Some people will assume even before they meet you that you care only about your company’s app; that you don’t appreciate the more intrinsic aspects of your new home; and, moreover, that you don’t respect the impact that your being here is having on it—namely, accelerating the ultimate selling out of San Francisco’s soul.
I love San Francisco. I went to school in the area, learned to drive a stick there (those hills!), learned a lot about life there. I hate the divide that appears to be more and more a way of life for people in this great city.
I’ve been gone a long time. Is this really the way things are now?
In some places. In a few it’s even worse. It used to be it was just the Marina where you had to deal with that shit, but now even the Mission is gentrifying in a really ugly way. This pretty much sums it up! http://sfist.com/2015/09/23/comedian_w_kamau_bell_on_sf_nostalg.php
Yeah, but when a Chinese grandma comes out of her apartment to hand you and your friend who’s her neighbor a couple of mooncakes you know it’s not all gone yet.
Man I’m glad I have no plans to move to SF. It sure doesn’t sound like a welcoming city. Which is strange considering the majority of people who live there are no doubt very liberal in their attitudes and politics.
San Franciscans are horribly unwelcoming. Always have been. They’re San Franciscans first, Californians second, and Americans last. I’m from Los Angeles, so they automatically despise me. The’ve tried unsuccessfully for years to break away and form their own state, and generally consider outsiders the lowest form of human scum.
But damn, it sure is a beautiful city!
It’s a bit overstated, as is most things San Francisco.
SoMA/Market/Tenderloin have been bad in terms of homelessness for years. SF has never been particularly clean compared to most other American cities. The only difference now is that there is construction and new towers in those areas.
Most people don’t care and leave you alone. Most neighborhoods look like they haven’t changed in decades (except the prices have gone up, and up, and up). Sure, there’s lots of gentrification, but if you haven’t noticed, it’s happening everywhere (go visit Times Square in NYC as Exhibit A).
Sad to hear of this, but it’s the same thing in New Orleans, where I live. Lots of outside $$, driving the cost of everything UP. Yes.. my house is worth more, but should I sell, the cost of renting an apartment is sky high. the only solution I see is to move… away… to someplace cheaper to live.
Alexandra Pelosi has a documentary on HBO this month called “San Francisco 2.0” about the changes there.
its not just SF. here in New Orleans we’re running into the same, in part spurred by out of state AirBnb’ers buying up our cheap historic homes and turning them into vacation rentals. they sell the “authentic experience” even while weakening that experience. in ten years rents have gone from $600 to $1600.
maybe its because both SF and NO are historic cities built around walkability, with unique architecture and strong neighborhood communities. maybe the young are disillusioned with the so-called suburban american dream and seeking spaces of unique character…. and then being a-holes by being too scared to say “Hello!” to their neighbors…effectively importing their NYC lifestyle into the place they were once attracted to.
links, or it didnt happen.
heya neighbor. i just posted the same… strong parallels between SF and NO.
Links to what? Their desire to break off from Southern California and be their own state? Google is your friend. It’s not exactly a secret.
Stick-driving in SF? Seriously? Every time I visit and drive there, I wonder if there are stick shift cars at all. You just confirmed insanity does live in SF.
The homeless problem in SF is horrendous.
Especially for the homeless.
The reason they will assume that is that is how 99% of tech people have treated San Francisco, and continue to treat San Francisco.
Nice try by the author, but he screwed up by blaming the people who were already here and absolving the tech people of responsibility for the destruction they have caused. Typical privileged position.
Half the restaurants on my street have closed because nobody in the neighborhood goes out in the neighborhood anymore. They are at home or work in front of a computer.
Many laws have been changed for rich straight people who wanted to live in the gayest neighborhood in the US but not see any examples of gay culture or history.
Families are kicked out routinely and then the apartment stays empty for a year and then is rented to a tech bro who parks a Lexus out front and never interacts with anyone in the neighborhood except to look down on them.
A landlord just kicked out the only cannabis dispensary in Haight-Ashbury because — cannabis. He just wants to own the building as an investment property. Not participate in the community.
You can be standing at a public bus stop with 20 people, and a giant touring bus will pull up and everyone but you will get on, leaving behind a giant pile of their garbage at the public stop. That is a bus full of people whose asses are just too good to take the public bus. They need a special private bus that for some reason has to stop at the public stops. And because the people those tech people replaced are no longer rifing the public bus either, the public buses are getting their budgets cut at the same time so that old ladies are watching all the tech people get on a private bus and then they have to wait for 20 minutes extra for a half-empty public bus to pull up. And the stop she has been waiting at for years is no longer clean, it is full of litter that tech people left behind. The stop was built to hold 10 public bus riders and now it holds 20 private bus riders who crowd out the public bus riders and leave a ton of litter behind when they get on their fare-free private bus.
The problem is that tech people have no sense of community and they won’t admit that is a problem. Therefore they won’t fix it. So they expect people to make them food, clean the street, and provide other services, but they don’t want you to live in the same neighborhood as them. They want to use roads but not pay taxes for the workers who built the roads, or the cops that patrol the roads, or the firefighters that are constantly jumping into burning wildfires here in California to protect entire cities and towns from burning down. The tech people don’t want to pay for any of that. They just want to use everything they find in the community and not contribute back. And they think they have a right to do that because the Republican party told them they do.
So the author should not pretend that the tech people he is warning about what he characterizes as akin to discrimination are the victims. They are coming to San Francisco specifically to use up the community and not give back because they see themselves as community of 1 and take everything they get from the actual community for granted. That is the FACT.
So it is not a culture clash. It is tech people who want all the benefits of a community-built place like San Francisco but they don’t want to contribute to the community, and therefore the community is suffering and failing and soon it will just be a bunch of nice cars parked outside of pink houses and no restaurants or clubs or culture of any kind.
If you have a friend who is rich but doesn’t tip at restaurants, don’t blame the wait staff. It is your friend who needs to change his behavior.
That is because we do not build new housing. What happens is poor and middle class people get kicked out of their homes, and then those houses are renovated and sold or rented to rich people. The problem is, the poor and middle class people don’t die right away. They hang out in the streets, not knowing what to do, and the rich people get very unhappy with that, because they don’t want to be reminded that they stole someone’s home with their privilege and their lobbyists who made it so they don’t have to pay taxes. They are used to just taking from the community and taking it for granted, so that is what they do.
you assert their heirarcy of loyalty as if it were fact. and that they hate you because of the city you live in. and they consider outsiders “scum”. prove it.
or stfu.
As a person who was once poor and is now middle class, homelessness should be seen as a mental health and resource issue. There are enough affordable homes out there, maybe not in the same neighbourhoods, but they exist. The question is overcoming addictions, being able to hold down a job, etc… And for some people this is very difficult due to mental illness, addiction or life experiences. These are the real problems and simply giving them cheap or free housing will only create a slum, if these issues are not addressed. That just hides the problem and makes it worse, even if it makes do-gooders feel better about themselves.
The tech industry has done and does a lot to help and progress humanity, yet in this comment you treat their employees as if they are inferior piece of shit human beings. Respect goes both ways and I can’t see anyone changing their behaviour if someone talked to them like this. They would just get defensive and tell you to fuck off. People can always improve themselves; perhaps they’ll be more receptive to your message if you stop sending it with such a hostile tone.
Either your from San Francisco, in which case it figures, or you’re completely clueless as to California. Find a San Franciscan, any San Franciscan probably, and ask them how they feel about Los Angeles.
Check out #1 on the list of things San Francisco hates from this SF Paper:
http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2013/06/17/what-san-franciscans-love-to-hate-2/
Maybe, just maybe, learn to use Google or Bing or even DuckDuckGo before telling others to STFU.
To be fair, much of the rest of country feels the same way about Los Angeles. 😉
Every politician should read what you just wrote. Extremely well said, sir.
If he was going to write about all the bad dual things he sees then he could have included a picture or two. With today’s smartphones it should be really simple!
I grew up in South San Francisco. My first ten years of driving were in SF in manual transmission cars. You get good at starting from a stop on a hill with one foot on the clutch, one foot on the accelerator and one hand on the parking brake.
And I could parallel park like a boss.
This is absolutely true, I mean for goodness sake you get side eyed based on what neighborhood you live in…..
This guide may help some people out….
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C69BLHS?Version=1&entries=0
I mean it helped me choose the right neighborhood, and now I’m one of those side-eyers lol jk it’s a good boy though you guys checks it out
These yupsters move out here and then act like they run the place. They break city ordinances like no smoking at bus stops, run red lights and stop signs while cutting off vehicles in the middle of making a turn on their bikes. They dont have one iota of respect for the city yet they convince themselves that they stand up for the underdog by voting for democrats. These people are living scum. If feces could sprout limbs and walk, they would be it. But, in all honesty, fuck the city. I’ve lived here for 22 years and im sick and tired of it. Its a cess pool of neverending bullshit. Let the yuppies have it. They’ll all get wiped out in the next big quake anyway. Good fucking riddance