Well, you wouldn't expect San Franciscans to get it

moving’ on out

Poll shows many San Francisco residents considering leaving. But it seems likely they’ll just go ruin somewhere else.

San Francisco, California, residents are preparing to leave the city after growing frustrations due to homelessness and public safety, according to a poll by SF Next.

Approximately two-thirds of respondents say the city “has gone downhill” since when they first moved there, with 70% saying it was unlikely that the conditions would improve over the next three years, according to a poll by the SF Next. Nearly 40% of San Franciscans say they will move out of the city within that time. Those most likely to leave the city are between the ages of 18 and 34 years old, with 54% saying they are preparing to leave the city, the poll showed. Between April 2020 and July 2021, 20% of San Francisco residents between the ages of 25 and 29 left the city.

Homelessness was ranked the top problem with respondents, with public safetyplacing second and housing affordability taking third, the poll stated. Less than 25% of respondents believe the city will make changes to improve the conditions within two years.

Roughly 60% of respondents said that racism is the reason, or at least a factor, in why problems cannot be solved in the city, the poll stated.

“I’m getting kind of fed up with the city,” San Francisco resident Dae Echols toldthe San Francisco Chronicle. “I just remember the hippie generation, and it was all about, take care of your friends, brotherly love. And that is totally gone.”

UPDATE: DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Half of San Franciscans Have Been Robbed. “Forty-five percent of people surveyed for the poll said they had an item stolen within the last five years. Proportionally, Black and mixed-race respondents felt a more severe impact than other groups, with a majority — 54% of Black respondents and 55% of mixed-race respondents — reporting they had suffered theft. Property crime rates were lower for white residents, 43% of whom had a possession swiped within the time period.”

On a more encouraging note, I had a long telephone chat with daughter and new mother Kate today, who’s out in Portland, Oregon, and ready to, finally flee. “I used to defend the city to my friends”, she said, “telling them ‘oh, that’s just media hype, focused on maybe four blocks of the city, and the rest is fine’.” Now, the crazed addicts are just two blocks from her home, yelling and screaming at her when she walks by (used to walk by), and their needles and feces are on the streets, sidewalks and even the yards of her neighbors, and Kate’s had it: “I’m sorry, but they’ve ruined the city. I really think the only way to solve this is to round them up and put them in mental institutions, because they’re permanently brain damaged, and they’re dangerous.”

Neither Kate nor her husband think that’s likely to happen, so they’re getting ready to move out. I don’t think they’ll be bringing any hippie feelings of brotherly love with them.