I have so so so very many thoughts about this. I completely agree with everything you wrote. I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, tho' not SF proper, worked at Pier 39 and spent many days and nights in The City. My perception of the "hate" and criticisms has been that they've largely been raised first by those who do not live there . . . and (this is important) . . . by those who have a more conservative bent. Many years ago a long time farm boy friend visited from Kansas . . . I took him all over, including the dark alleys of Chinatown and through the Tenderloin, to the Castro. He got to see the good and bad of San Francisco. He loved it and raves about his visit to SF to this day. He says I showed him the Real San Francisco, not the Disneyfied version.
Having said all that, I want to add much of the criticism comes from those with an agenda. They do not like our progressive politics, or the very visible LGBTQ community, or . . . or . . . I have no idea really, but the SF they describe is very different from the one I lived and worked in. As Elliot notes, there are issues today, but what community does not? Presently I live on the Big Island in Hawai'i where we have a very visible, seemingly intractable, homeless problem. Our roads don't get fixed up as quickly as they do on the Mainland, our schools are bursting at the seams and our teachers paid far less than they deserve. BUT . . . we also have many good attributes, enough so that many continue to visit by air and cruise ship. The point is every community goes through rough spots, like our volcano eruptions, and the homeless mess. Would i live in San Francisco or the Bay Area again . . . yes I would, and I continue to love living on this isolated rock in the Pacific Ocean.
How outrageous that some reporter with nothing else to say attacks one of the most beautiful cities and North California environments. Not exactly what the original intent of reporting is. The diatribe by this person is sadly what passes for non-predjudical reporting 😢 these days.
What a thought provoking, memory inducing article you have written. Your concise dissection of the way "reporters "research" articles lays out the dangers of social media being the source of information for so much of our society.
I have been to San Francisco many times over the last 40 years. Has it changed? Certainly. Has it evolved? Undoubtably. Has it declined? Not at all. I have never once felt threatened or scared walking the streets of San Francisco.
Your city is a national treasure with so much to offer to visitors. I had the best Thai meal ever in San Francisco. Fisherman's Wharf is a seafood lover's delight. Seeing the seals was a spiritual experience. The majesty of the Golden Gate Bridge, shining in the early morning sunlight, is a testament to engineering feats from the past. The hilly terrain is a delight to me; I live in S. Florida, where the highest peak is from a garbage dump affectionately referred to as "Mount Trashmore."
Of course, there is crime in San Francisco just as there is crime in every large city. The homeless situation is not San Francisco's creation, but rather it's burden. It is the failed "trickle down" failure of decades of congressional action that has favored those in the upper 1-2% of our society. No city can solve the nation's ills on it's own.
Bravo! I am so tired of narrow focused media bashing of SF and California. No place could hold up to the scrutiny we have endured in the past years. One thing we can say is, we at least pay our own way and address our own problems, which is not the case for most cities and states in the Union.
Elliot….i will start by saying this..,,,San Francisco and the entire Bay Area is among one of my favorite places. I spent five years living in LA and couldn’t wait to get back to NY. And with that I said, if it had been five years in SF, I never would have left . It sounds like some people are hoping to bury San Fran just like they are trying to bury NY(probably led by Fox News). It’s unfair and unwarranted. Both cities have their problems. Always did; probably always will.
But the Bay Area has so much to offer. Culture, education, beauty, temperate climate, great people, fantastic restaurants, a wonderful ethnic mix, fabulous views, and more and more. Writers and newscasters should write about those things too.,,not just dept stores being robbed, high cost of living, homelessness, etc. it’s the same in NY…all I hear from the “right” is the subways are dangerous, the homeless are everywhere and the migrants are a threat to us. I’ve been in the Bay Area a ton of times and always leave thinking about when we will be back. Life is good in NY and I’m sure life is good in San Fran.,,,and would have been better if the 49ers won on Sunday.
Thank you for defending the home you love and the home that is nurturing your family. Since Reagan’s deregulations ( taking away the protections for many to serve the few rich) we have seen the Republican Party continue to use social and cultural attacks as a strategy to divide us so they can use these hatred of “others” as election strategies. Encouraging hatred of so many “others” to distract us from what they were really doing which was increasing the power and money of a few very rich and corporations. President Obama for all his good, did not realize that these are not people interested. in negotiating for the common good. After his 2008 bailout of the banks to try and prevent a depression, he did not see the long term social cost. Many lost their jobs, savings, and homes and this initiated a deep and legitimate feeling of being betrayed . The Occupy Movement and the Tea Party both were backlashes to this crisis. Both wanted big money out of politics and a government responsible to the people. Trump and his ilk saw this and told the people what they wanted to hear, but in reality was using it only for their further aggrandizement and benefit. Trump, while saying he is for the forgotten, has done nothing for them. We have become a very divided nation with a lack of civility and lack of fact checking normalized. I am hoping more and more people will realize how they have been, and continue to be manipulated into giving up our critical thinking, fact checking ability, , civility, and focus on the common good by Republicans whose party has been taken over by hate mongering oligarchs. This now applies to many journalists whose bosses are looking for readership (money) which comes with drama at the cost of the truth. As William Hearst said in the 1800’s when he needed to increase readership, “If it Bleeds, It Leads, No Matter Whose Blood It Is.”. I am sorry your beloved city is fodder for right wing attacks. All cities have many of the same problems because Republicans for the past 40 years have been working to gain power and money for the wealthy few and have not addressed the needs of the people. Democrats put forth many bills to address gun violence, homelessness, housing costs, fair wages, consumer protections, affordable healthcare, education, environmental protections, and many more bills for the common good,,but the Republicans block them again and again because they want to use it as election talk. We just saw this again with Trump stopping the immigration reforms that had months of bipartisan work stopped because he wants to use immigration as he tries to get re-elected. Many other industrialized countries have much better safety nets for their citizens with much lower costs and resulting in greater happiness levels. It is no longer right vs left, Democrats vs Republicans. It is the very wealthy and corporations vs the rest of us. We must all stand up for our cities and town, our families, our civility and vote out those who support the 1%. I hope you continue to enjoy your beloved San Francisco for many more years and see it become more and more able to provide for all its inhabitants.
My husband and I are currently spending a week in SF for his annual professional conference. We are staying at the beautiful and historic Palace Hotel. We are having a wonderful time, visiting some favorite places and discovering some new ones. It’s a walk down memory lane for us, as we met and got married here 40 years ago when we were both in the Army and worked at Letterman Army Medical Center. San Francisco will always be our favorite city, and while we now live in the Midwest, will always be where we ‘left our hearts’! ❤️
San Francisco was founded when they came looking for wood and the bay is one of two protected bays on the West Coast, Seattle being the other. The west coast was settled by the adventuresome and the dreamers. San Francisco environment protected them, and had an abundance of natural resources. It's the same today SF has an abundance of natural resource, and they find a place for the adventuresome, dreamers misfits and geeks. I would like to remind everyone in the flyover states who ship their misfits on buses out of town and end up on the West Coast in the nice weather. What their not talking about is the forced migration of who they don't want to take responsibility for, in their community.
Thank you for this defense of San Francisco, and our State. I live 90 miles away in Sacramento County, so San Francisco, is the go to city to take visitors. I will say, I personally hated driving in San Francisco, but then for the past 40 years I hate driving in Sacramento too. For those who have never visited, there are beautiful things to see is SF, Golden Gate park alone would take at least a week, to see the wonders, there. As a teacher I took my class on fields trips to the science museum. There are the Donatelli Doors, which are worth the trip in and of themselves. My adult Grandchildren's favorite destination is Japan town. My late husband's was China Town.
I admit I am not a fan of city's in general. The best time of my life were the years I spent on a mountainside in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. But California does boast two of the most beautiful cities in America, San Diego and San Francisco.
So many of the ideas you present (love you SF!) remind me of general trends in American society. When I moved into my Denver inner city neighborhood forty years ago, my suburban friends were horrified. They never came downtown. Would they be safe if they visited me? That tendency of people to fear or have distorted ideas of places they do not know seems ubiquitous.
Next, this relatively recent amplification of right-wing animosity toward more liberal states. Gov. Abbott, Texas, for example, seems delighted to overwhelm Denver's resources with bus after bus of unwitting immigrants. You set off these parallels in my mind and a number more. Thanks for that.
Cities are too complex and internally varied to be accurately characterized by simple descriptions. This applies to any city, not only San Francisco.
At one time, I lived in a violent neighborhood in Chicago, yet I marvel at how peaceful and safe I felt there. I could honestly describe my block as a horror show, but most of the time, it was just a neighborhood. There were no surveillance cameras in those days, but you could die of boredom watching tapes of my corner, though I could point to blood stains on the sidewalk.
The same applies to entire cities. Bad and good are both present. It all depends on what you choose to describe. The mistake is to ignore either the good or the bad. Life is always both.
It’s a very similar story in Portland Oregon. Those reporters come looking for the worst they can find. And they ignore all the beauty and the wonderful things about our city.
Although we only lived in San Francisco for three years in the mid-70s, I still regret we ever left. My Viet Nam veteran husband had just finished college when we moved there from San Luis Obispo. We first lived in a lovely flat in the USF neighborhood.
We loved being close to Golden Gate Park and it’s museums. We also subscribed to ACT season tickets. I worked in the Financial District and he worked from a location below Potrero Hill towards the Bay.
We explored the various neighborhoods. Sure, we saw the ugly, but much more of what we saw was wonderful. The City and it’s residents vibrated with so many cultures and lifestyles. Living there was an educational experience in acceptance and tolerance, which, alas, most people who follow the far right politicians lack.
In year 2, we bought our first house, a Queen Anne off Dolores Blvd. Our daughter was born at St. Luke’s. We were middle income people, paid about $20k more than we anticipated but our payments were less than our past rent. Obviously, that has changed now, but at the time, we just couldn’t imagine how much higher the real estate market could go.
San Francisco only began to dim a bit after our child was born. That event made us recognize that the public schools at that time were struggling. Also, my mother began talking of retiring to the City from a community in upstate NY. We knew her retirement with my younger dependent sister would be challenging in San Francisco. Those along with other factors and an opportunity contributed to our decision to move back to NY state. It was a difficult decision to leave our friends and the City. We definitely left pieces of our hearts and will never regret having lived there.
Portland, Oregon has a lot in common with San Francisco, especially around the articles and (mis) information widely shared online that focus only on the problems, like drug use and homelessness and on the continued high cost of living in the city. Even friends and family that live elsewhere in Oregon have badly informed opinions of what city life here is actually like. I love the access to museums and mass transit, city parks and all the perks of living in a vibrant, underrated city.
I have so so so very many thoughts about this. I completely agree with everything you wrote. I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, tho' not SF proper, worked at Pier 39 and spent many days and nights in The City. My perception of the "hate" and criticisms has been that they've largely been raised first by those who do not live there . . . and (this is important) . . . by those who have a more conservative bent. Many years ago a long time farm boy friend visited from Kansas . . . I took him all over, including the dark alleys of Chinatown and through the Tenderloin, to the Castro. He got to see the good and bad of San Francisco. He loved it and raves about his visit to SF to this day. He says I showed him the Real San Francisco, not the Disneyfied version.
Having said all that, I want to add much of the criticism comes from those with an agenda. They do not like our progressive politics, or the very visible LGBTQ community, or . . . or . . . I have no idea really, but the SF they describe is very different from the one I lived and worked in. As Elliot notes, there are issues today, but what community does not? Presently I live on the Big Island in Hawai'i where we have a very visible, seemingly intractable, homeless problem. Our roads don't get fixed up as quickly as they do on the Mainland, our schools are bursting at the seams and our teachers paid far less than they deserve. BUT . . . we also have many good attributes, enough so that many continue to visit by air and cruise ship. The point is every community goes through rough spots, like our volcano eruptions, and the homeless mess. Would i live in San Francisco or the Bay Area again . . . yes I would, and I continue to love living on this isolated rock in the Pacific Ocean.
How outrageous that some reporter with nothing else to say attacks one of the most beautiful cities and North California environments. Not exactly what the original intent of reporting is. The diatribe by this person is sadly what passes for non-predjudical reporting 😢 these days.
Elliott,
What a thought provoking, memory inducing article you have written. Your concise dissection of the way "reporters "research" articles lays out the dangers of social media being the source of information for so much of our society.
I have been to San Francisco many times over the last 40 years. Has it changed? Certainly. Has it evolved? Undoubtably. Has it declined? Not at all. I have never once felt threatened or scared walking the streets of San Francisco.
Your city is a national treasure with so much to offer to visitors. I had the best Thai meal ever in San Francisco. Fisherman's Wharf is a seafood lover's delight. Seeing the seals was a spiritual experience. The majesty of the Golden Gate Bridge, shining in the early morning sunlight, is a testament to engineering feats from the past. The hilly terrain is a delight to me; I live in S. Florida, where the highest peak is from a garbage dump affectionately referred to as "Mount Trashmore."
Of course, there is crime in San Francisco just as there is crime in every large city. The homeless situation is not San Francisco's creation, but rather it's burden. It is the failed "trickle down" failure of decades of congressional action that has favored those in the upper 1-2% of our society. No city can solve the nation's ills on it's own.
Tony Bennett said it best:
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=tony%20bennett%20i%20left%20my%20heart%20youtube%20videos&FORM=VIRE0&mid=00957A5618B4BA21B65500957A5618B4BA21B655&view=detail&ru=%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dtony%20bennett%20i%20left%20my%20heart%20youtube
Bravo! I am so tired of narrow focused media bashing of SF and California. No place could hold up to the scrutiny we have endured in the past years. One thing we can say is, we at least pay our own way and address our own problems, which is not the case for most cities and states in the Union.
Elliot….i will start by saying this..,,,San Francisco and the entire Bay Area is among one of my favorite places. I spent five years living in LA and couldn’t wait to get back to NY. And with that I said, if it had been five years in SF, I never would have left . It sounds like some people are hoping to bury San Fran just like they are trying to bury NY(probably led by Fox News). It’s unfair and unwarranted. Both cities have their problems. Always did; probably always will.
But the Bay Area has so much to offer. Culture, education, beauty, temperate climate, great people, fantastic restaurants, a wonderful ethnic mix, fabulous views, and more and more. Writers and newscasters should write about those things too.,,not just dept stores being robbed, high cost of living, homelessness, etc. it’s the same in NY…all I hear from the “right” is the subways are dangerous, the homeless are everywhere and the migrants are a threat to us. I’ve been in the Bay Area a ton of times and always leave thinking about when we will be back. Life is good in NY and I’m sure life is good in San Fran.,,,and would have been better if the 49ers won on Sunday.
I love your writing style. Thank you. Your daughters are beautiful!💕
Thank you Lisa for your support and kind words.
Thank you for defending the home you love and the home that is nurturing your family. Since Reagan’s deregulations ( taking away the protections for many to serve the few rich) we have seen the Republican Party continue to use social and cultural attacks as a strategy to divide us so they can use these hatred of “others” as election strategies. Encouraging hatred of so many “others” to distract us from what they were really doing which was increasing the power and money of a few very rich and corporations. President Obama for all his good, did not realize that these are not people interested. in negotiating for the common good. After his 2008 bailout of the banks to try and prevent a depression, he did not see the long term social cost. Many lost their jobs, savings, and homes and this initiated a deep and legitimate feeling of being betrayed . The Occupy Movement and the Tea Party both were backlashes to this crisis. Both wanted big money out of politics and a government responsible to the people. Trump and his ilk saw this and told the people what they wanted to hear, but in reality was using it only for their further aggrandizement and benefit. Trump, while saying he is for the forgotten, has done nothing for them. We have become a very divided nation with a lack of civility and lack of fact checking normalized. I am hoping more and more people will realize how they have been, and continue to be manipulated into giving up our critical thinking, fact checking ability, , civility, and focus on the common good by Republicans whose party has been taken over by hate mongering oligarchs. This now applies to many journalists whose bosses are looking for readership (money) which comes with drama at the cost of the truth. As William Hearst said in the 1800’s when he needed to increase readership, “If it Bleeds, It Leads, No Matter Whose Blood It Is.”. I am sorry your beloved city is fodder for right wing attacks. All cities have many of the same problems because Republicans for the past 40 years have been working to gain power and money for the wealthy few and have not addressed the needs of the people. Democrats put forth many bills to address gun violence, homelessness, housing costs, fair wages, consumer protections, affordable healthcare, education, environmental protections, and many more bills for the common good,,but the Republicans block them again and again because they want to use it as election talk. We just saw this again with Trump stopping the immigration reforms that had months of bipartisan work stopped because he wants to use immigration as he tries to get re-elected. Many other industrialized countries have much better safety nets for their citizens with much lower costs and resulting in greater happiness levels. It is no longer right vs left, Democrats vs Republicans. It is the very wealthy and corporations vs the rest of us. We must all stand up for our cities and town, our families, our civility and vote out those who support the 1%. I hope you continue to enjoy your beloved San Francisco for many more years and see it become more and more able to provide for all its inhabitants.
My husband and I are currently spending a week in SF for his annual professional conference. We are staying at the beautiful and historic Palace Hotel. We are having a wonderful time, visiting some favorite places and discovering some new ones. It’s a walk down memory lane for us, as we met and got married here 40 years ago when we were both in the Army and worked at Letterman Army Medical Center. San Francisco will always be our favorite city, and while we now live in the Midwest, will always be where we ‘left our hearts’! ❤️
San Francisco was founded when they came looking for wood and the bay is one of two protected bays on the West Coast, Seattle being the other. The west coast was settled by the adventuresome and the dreamers. San Francisco environment protected them, and had an abundance of natural resources. It's the same today SF has an abundance of natural resource, and they find a place for the adventuresome, dreamers misfits and geeks. I would like to remind everyone in the flyover states who ship their misfits on buses out of town and end up on the West Coast in the nice weather. What their not talking about is the forced migration of who they don't want to take responsibility for, in their community.
Thank you for this defense of San Francisco, and our State. I live 90 miles away in Sacramento County, so San Francisco, is the go to city to take visitors. I will say, I personally hated driving in San Francisco, but then for the past 40 years I hate driving in Sacramento too. For those who have never visited, there are beautiful things to see is SF, Golden Gate park alone would take at least a week, to see the wonders, there. As a teacher I took my class on fields trips to the science museum. There are the Donatelli Doors, which are worth the trip in and of themselves. My adult Grandchildren's favorite destination is Japan town. My late husband's was China Town.
I admit I am not a fan of city's in general. The best time of my life were the years I spent on a mountainside in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. But California does boast two of the most beautiful cities in America, San Diego and San Francisco.
So many of the ideas you present (love you SF!) remind me of general trends in American society. When I moved into my Denver inner city neighborhood forty years ago, my suburban friends were horrified. They never came downtown. Would they be safe if they visited me? That tendency of people to fear or have distorted ideas of places they do not know seems ubiquitous.
Next, this relatively recent amplification of right-wing animosity toward more liberal states. Gov. Abbott, Texas, for example, seems delighted to overwhelm Denver's resources with bus after bus of unwitting immigrants. You set off these parallels in my mind and a number more. Thanks for that.
Cities are too complex and internally varied to be accurately characterized by simple descriptions. This applies to any city, not only San Francisco.
At one time, I lived in a violent neighborhood in Chicago, yet I marvel at how peaceful and safe I felt there. I could honestly describe my block as a horror show, but most of the time, it was just a neighborhood. There were no surveillance cameras in those days, but you could die of boredom watching tapes of my corner, though I could point to blood stains on the sidewalk.
The same applies to entire cities. Bad and good are both present. It all depends on what you choose to describe. The mistake is to ignore either the good or the bad. Life is always both.
Dear Elliot, thank you for another beautifully written , thoughtful and heartfelt message.
It’s a very similar story in Portland Oregon. Those reporters come looking for the worst they can find. And they ignore all the beauty and the wonderful things about our city.
Although we only lived in San Francisco for three years in the mid-70s, I still regret we ever left. My Viet Nam veteran husband had just finished college when we moved there from San Luis Obispo. We first lived in a lovely flat in the USF neighborhood.
We loved being close to Golden Gate Park and it’s museums. We also subscribed to ACT season tickets. I worked in the Financial District and he worked from a location below Potrero Hill towards the Bay.
We explored the various neighborhoods. Sure, we saw the ugly, but much more of what we saw was wonderful. The City and it’s residents vibrated with so many cultures and lifestyles. Living there was an educational experience in acceptance and tolerance, which, alas, most people who follow the far right politicians lack.
In year 2, we bought our first house, a Queen Anne off Dolores Blvd. Our daughter was born at St. Luke’s. We were middle income people, paid about $20k more than we anticipated but our payments were less than our past rent. Obviously, that has changed now, but at the time, we just couldn’t imagine how much higher the real estate market could go.
San Francisco only began to dim a bit after our child was born. That event made us recognize that the public schools at that time were struggling. Also, my mother began talking of retiring to the City from a community in upstate NY. We knew her retirement with my younger dependent sister would be challenging in San Francisco. Those along with other factors and an opportunity contributed to our decision to move back to NY state. It was a difficult decision to leave our friends and the City. We definitely left pieces of our hearts and will never regret having lived there.
Portland, Oregon has a lot in common with San Francisco, especially around the articles and (mis) information widely shared online that focus only on the problems, like drug use and homelessness and on the continued high cost of living in the city. Even friends and family that live elsewhere in Oregon have badly informed opinions of what city life here is actually like. I love the access to museums and mass transit, city parks and all the perks of living in a vibrant, underrated city.