Why does it seem like New York City and San Francisco are more messed up than they used to be?

[Anonymous]

Both cities were fantastic cities in the early 2000s. Today both cities are trash.

[WhiteSteve]

Never been to San Francisco so I can’t speak on it. I go to NYC pretty regularly, seems the same as it ever was. My dad watches FoxNews and I hear a ton of the “Democrat-run cities” narrative, yet violent crime in NYC is actually DOWN as of recent years. I never hear them talk about Republican-run Oklahoma City, which has a higher per capita murder rate than NYC does🤔

Its whatever, I don’t put a ton of stock in any of that, nor do I blame a mayor or their political party for happenings in a city, that’s kind of foolish. I think we have a board of selectmen in my town, not a mayor, but either way, I could walk out of my house and rob someone at gunpoint, and it doesn’t matter who’s in charge, all that mattered is that an individual decided to do something, and did.

That’s not a mayor’s fault or a party’s fault, I couldn’t tell you who belongs to what in my town, or even “who” is, I’m just not doing it because I don’t have the need or desire to do it. Absolutely no societal preparations would dissuade me from acting on it if I wanted or needed to.

The criminal justice system isn’t a deterrent, I’m not going to not do something because I might go to jail afterwards, it’s just simply a consequence of an action, but I will take that action regardless of any anticipated consequences, it’s about what I need and want to continue my existence, not what society expects of me. Societal rules are a fence I attempt to jump, not a fence that keeps me corralled. I can’t imagine that’s not a shared mentality with most other humans, when it comes down to it. It’s not like “I WANT to do this thing, but I might go to prison.” I’m just going to act as instinct and circumstance dictate, and if prison is the result, that sucks, but so be it. Particularly in the case of something violent, I’m not even mentally present when I get violent, so consequences are just not part of the decision-making process, I’m out of the building by the time that happens.

If we’re talking homeless people… NYC has ‘em, for sure, but they always have, this is also the same as it ever was. I had a lady pushing a cart run up on me in SoHo, or actually right ON Houston, and she starts talking to me and goes into this routine about how she needs to wash her ass😂, and she basically started twerking at me going “Booty, ass, booty, ass, booty, ass, booty, ass….”, and I just laughed and was like “go ‘head, girl!” 😂😂😂 And then we went on our separate ways, I was just fine.

Someone else would probably be dramatic and describe that as “being accosted by a mentally ill homeless person”😱😱😱, but I just kept on moving. I was sampling pizza from different spots, I can’t eat a whole pie myself, so I’d had a few slices and give the rest to someone living on the street. They were cool and appreciative.

I think its fucked up to look at them like a problem that needs to be managed, and not managed like “help them”, but managed like “get these disgusting people out of sight and out of mind”, into fucking internment camps if some people had their druthers.

I just don’t live like that, man. This is Earth. We all have a right to be here, and anywhere. Humans are fucking that part up in general.

So, I just don’t buy these manufactured narratives directed towards flyover state yokels living in small towns who will never even go to these places, but have been trained by their politicians and media mouthpieces to have this Pavlovian reaction of fear and disgust for anywhere urban, on account of they’re “overrun with crime”, and that quickly gets spun to be a consequence of political leadership. The same people who talk bad about China turn around and propose these things that sound right out of the CCP playbook, “round ‘em all up and put ‘em somewhere we can’t see them”, because homeless people are “icky.”🙄🤦‍♂️

[MrOracle]

Because they ARE.

As the people running these cities moved further and further to the left, and implemented their "progressive" policies such as decriminalizing drug use, becoming "sanctuary cities", defunding the police, "bail reform" (i. e., releasing virtually all criminals - even criminals who admitted to dismembering corpses and scattering the body parts - rather than holding them if they can't afford to be bailed out), DAs declining to prosecute "lesser crimes" entirely, such as shoplifting, car break-ins, vandalism, assault, dealing drugs, etc. (because the criminals are disproportionately "people of color"), and giving free cash monthly to addicts living on the streets.

Crazy as it sounds, when you INCENTIVIZE a very high level of crime, you GET a very high level of crime. San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, NYC, and other cities that have followed this path have - to the surprise of no one - have chased a HUGE percentage of businesses out of their cities, along with a significant percentage of the population, and along with that, a massive percentage of tax revenue, which means now these cities have no money to try to fix any of this. That means it's only going to get worse, which becomes a death spiral.

Portland has the highest percentage of vacant commercial space of any city at 40% (up from 6% 10 years ago), and San Francisco at 36% and rising. NYC is around 33% right now, and also still rising. People and businesses have flooded out, and no wonder - if you make the mistake of going out on the streets after dark, you're in the Zombie Apocalypse. And certainly in San Francisco, if your car is parked outdoors, it's almost certainly going to be broken into. It happens so often that SF residents have to leave their cars unlocked in the hopes that their windows aren't broken for the 5th+ time - which sometimes means going out to your car to find homeless people shooting drugs in YOUR car. Obviously you can't leave ANYTHING of value ANYWHERE in the car, and car thefts have skyrocketed, along with insurance rates. I live at the very edge of the Bay Area, about 40 miles from SF, and my car insurance doubled in 2 years despite having zero claims, because auto-related crime in the entire state has skyrocketed.

You get the crime you vote for, and the crime you incentivize. If you don't prosecute criminals, you get more of their crimes. If you don't lock up criminals, you get more of their crime. If you defund police, you get more criminals who are emboldened to commit more and worse crimes. If you feed, cloth, shelter, and give free money to addicts and make taking drugs legal, you get a lot more addicts coming from all over the country to your city to live homeless on the streets and do drugs all day - punctuated by crimes to feed their habit.

This really isn't difficult - the results are right there in front of you, you just need to open your eyes. If you vote for leftist "progressive" leaders, you're going to get pro-crime, anti-victim, anti-business, anti-resident policies that will destroy your city. We have half a dozen very vivid and very well-documented examples of this happening from the last 10 years. Yet lots of you will continue to vote for more of this - until the day that it's YOUR car, YOUR business, or YOUR (or your family's) LIVES that are changed forever.

[MrOracle]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0GMeVS6zR8

This video is 2 days old as of today (4/4/2024). Watch for yourself.

[legalboxers]

Poor Triggered Blue Annon.. Licking the Fox News Koolaid or the Godfathers bullshit?

https://www.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/downloads/pdf/crime_statistics/cs-en-us-city.pdf Compstat for the week

Crime is DOWN. Stop watching your FAKE NEWS.

[slatyb]

Trash is an exaggeration. Why? Mostly opioids and interested mental illness. This problems are bigger than the cities that are seeing record homelessness.

[normalice]

Because right wing media wants rural people to be too scared to go there and see for themselves that they are doing just fine.

[Asker]

No like when I visit both places to homeless problem, and everything looks worse.

[normalice]

You haven't visited either place, lol

[Asker]

Yes I have many times in San Francisco, and Manhattan.

[Asker]

Was in Manhattan the last time in 2023 December, a dump. Haven’t been to San Francisco in a year in a half.

[normalice]

Yeah, but remember I don't believe you.

[DextroShade]

No one cares because you are a disingenuous leftard. I have been to Portland and it is the same: tents, needles, feces, and abandoned boarded up storefronts everywhere. It's disgusting, just like the people who enable it.

[normalice]

@DextroShade you cared enough to respond, ragetard.

[FunkyMonkee]

SERIOUSLY? You DON'T KNOW? Have you been in a coma the past 20 years? Have you ever heard of an asshole named, Joe Biden?

[SolitarySolace]

Democrat policies and the dumbass voters living in those cities who continuously vote for it

[JacobJordan]

Because they are. Been to both many times I avoid both if I can

[legalboxers]

[exitseven]

Democrats leadership.

[DextroShade]

It is entirely because these cities are run by woke leftist democrats. Everything the woke touch turns into shit and used needles.

[JayBones2469]

Because media is more prevalent. It's just as fucked up as it was 30 years ago. They always sucked

[Anonymous]

Democrats nothing more

[legalboxers]

[DrPepper12]

NYC trash? You're joking. Please do tell.

[jahaims]

Government policy obviously

[KostasKouvalis]

Because they ARE