Dead Francisco (San Francisco, Berkeley, Lincoln: real estate, neighborhoods, purchase)

[jcp123]

I think news of SF’s demise are greatly exaggerated.

It will correct itself economically; rents and COL will come in line with what’s demanded, and people who wanted to go there but couldn’t afford it, will. You might see some repurposing of space to take some of that square footage off the commercial market. It will come back.

What’s more challenging to predict is whether the city will come back culturally. In some sense the tech bro corporatism sanitized SF’s culture to a degree, and I think it will be a long time for that vibrancy to come back, if ever. It certainly will never be the same city ever again.

[NewToCA]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

IJS, a good number of folks actually derive a glee in the prospect of this actually being true. I don't get it but whatever.

Actually, I hope the city does find a way to get the downtown core vibrant again.

Reality can be a hard slap in the face, but you still need to be honest about what is happening right now.

[sav858]

Union Square was pretty vibrant on a recent Sat afternoon, I didn't make it to Market Street though. Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. If commercial rents eventually drop there's a lot of opportunity there.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by NewToCA

Actually, I hope the city does find a way to get the downtown core vibrant again.

Reality can be a hard slap in the face, but you still need to be honest about what is happening right now.

I live in Sacramento and find it a little unfair to criticize San Francisco when our downtown looks pretty much the same. The Sac DA went to the City Council to ask them to find a way to clear the sidewalk outside the courthouse, I'm not sure that the Council paid much attention.

[Igor Blevin]

Originally Posted by NewToCA

Actually, I hope the city does find a way to get the downtown core vibrant again.

Reality can be a hard slap in the face, but you still need to be honest about what is happening right now.

I would be doing cartwheels if San Francisco was restored to the way it was in the 1970s. I would be thrilled on several levels.

[18Montclair]

From the Examiner:
Under pressure to expand its degree-granting, UC has come up with a 2030 Capacity Plan that would add as many as 33,000 undergraduate and graduate students to the system by spreading them around existing schools rather than building a new one.

San Francisco is not getting much of that growth: another 129 graduate students, a rounding error in the overall scheme. The Berkeley, San Diego and Merced campuses would account for more than half of the increase in enrollment.[/quote]

https://www.sfexaminer.com/forum/how...9af9e0a79.html

I wonder how this might pan out for the city---I mean UC wants 33,000 more students.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by Igor Blevin

I would be doing cartwheels if San Francisco was restored to the way it was in the 1970s. I would be thrilled on several levels.

Yeah, the 1970s were better but not for SOMA--it was fairly industrial back then, and I dont miss the embarcadero freeway, but the city vibe was better I suppose.

[Veritas Vincit]

The problem I see with these 'decline Youtubers' is that they exaggerate so much it only serves to undermine the legitimate complaints about the state of America's cities.



The Bay Area itself won't really decline as long as there's massive employment hubs with many thousands of high-earning employees who need to spend their money somewhere. That money will just shift around. If it's not in downtown SF near Tenderloin because people don't wanna be harassed by drug zombies then that money will go elsewhere in the general vicinity.

[NewToCA]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

I live in Sacramento and find it a little disingenuous to criticize San Francisco when our downtown looks pretty much the same. The Sac DA went to the City Council to ask them to find a way to clear the sidewalk outside the courthouse, I'm not sure that the Council paid much attention.

I disagree with you.

Sacramento's downtown has been struggling the entire time I've lived in California, since 2006, whereas San Francisco's downtown was lively and thriving. Midtown Sacramento was doing pretty well, but the core of downtown hasn't been lively at least the past 15 years.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by NewToCA

I disagree with you.

Sacramento's downtown has been struggling the entire time I've lived in California, since 2006, whereas San Francisco's downtown was lively and thriving. Midtown Sacramento was doing pretty well, but the core of downtown hasn't been lively at least the past 15 years.

My husband managed a store in the SOMA district in the 90's. He used to pay a few homeless people who slept outside the business to pick up feces and broken bottles from the sidewalk.