San Francisco residents know the city is failing

San Francisco residents may be captured by an incoherent liberal ideology that leads them to accept the policies that have ruined their city, but they still have enough self-awareness to know that the city is being ruined.

A poll of residents found that 77% of them think that the city is on the wrong track, similar to last year’s results. That number is 30 points higher than in 2019, before the COVID pandemic and the tenure of soft-on-crime former District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Along with that, 75% think the city’s “overall cleanliness” has become worse, and less than a third would feel safe visiting downtown at night.

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Downtown San Francisco has seen businesses continue to flee, with Nordstrom most recently cutting 400 jobs. Hotels are also bailing on the city now, and the departures of businesses are poised to cost the city $200 million a year with declines in tax revenues. San Francisco is staring at a $1.3 billion budget shortfall by 2028, according to city officials.

Those businesses are leaving because San Francisco has yet to get a handle on crime. One employee at a downtown Target location said that the location sees 10 thefts a day, while another said you see one “every ten minutes.” Aluminum foil is stolen by people who use it to smoke fentanyl, and San Francisco has been a hot spot for organized retail theft, with items being taken from stores and pharmacies and sold out on the streets.

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These stores are bleeding money through these thefts, and the anti-theft measures taken to protect inventory also help to drive away paying customers through the inconvenience. Throw in the fact that these criminals also put employees in danger, and many businesses decide it isn’t worth the cost of operating in the city. San Francisco’s downtown is being hollowed out one by one, and the city continues to watch it happen.

San Francisco residents know that this is unsustainable, but they have yet to start expressing that thought on their election ballots. Instead, voters continue to send Democrats who cling to their failing brand of liberalism to office throughout the city. Until that changes, San Francisco will continue to circle the drain over problems with fairly straightforward solutions.