Not to dump on you sir, I think you're one of the best medical people on the net. Failure of leadership in a democracy (republic) ultimately is the fault of the people. Citizens in SF vote in people who are upright in their support of these failed policies. Until you and the other local vote these bums out this is what you will get.
I agree with what you say about San Francisco, but no one who has sensible ideas like Tony Hall for example wants to be in a position of power and fight these idiots in charge. The radicals are the only ones who put themselves out there. It's like voting the least radical idiot. This is my take on San Francisco as someone who has lived there and still visits.
'Friscans do not view their leaders as bums: the polls prove it. They want this. They are obsessed with enacting a strange vision of how to run a city. More power to them; it's their city. Just keep it in SF, please.
EVERY Democrat vote is purchased with tax-payer's money: Government "jobs": 1 in 4 Biden jobs is government...ONLY 7% HUD to 24% DOD even go to work AND make OVER TWICE the same function in private sector (pension/bennies/vaca/salary). Unions protected/funded by Dems: Obama handed $115 billion to UAW only mnfrs./Obama prevented Boeing building 787 in SC to "stop off-shoring"/Biden PAID OFF TEAMSTER'S pension. Welfares: Everyone knows LBJ's infamous; "we'll have the ns voting Dim for 100 years" Injury attorneys: largest non-union donor-US ONLY country without "loser-pays" Eco-Nazis: 10s billion$ to staunch every fossil reduction; nuclear/LNG/pipelines(lowest spillage of all transport)/ ---- domestic oil(17 largest tanker-ships release more CO2 than ALL autos on earth)...TOTAL $$ SCAM Student loan defaulters: F SCOTUS JUST ruling against Biden's forgiveness...he continues AND OF COURSE: EVERYONE "leaving" govt. crushes it with contracts/contractors/double-dipping...
This is a microcosm of California as a whole. The weather and natural beauty draws people, and allows leadership to get away with failure after failure.
Pure incompetent. More over unwillingness to follow successfully policies and procedures since it was created by white Europeans. So you get Build Back Better and Different using DEI, a failed Marxist ideology.
I grew up in the SF Bay Area. California will always have a special place in my heart. It's beauty is heart wenching. It's hard to watch what's happening to such a lovely state. I no longer live there due to cost of living.
Things are better in Orange County, though, where Republicans are in charge. There are pockets of Democrat cities, and those are usually laden with crime, homelessness, and other diseases you associate with the liberal left.
@@Nutajel I would say it contributes to magical thinking. Californians aren't lazy voters, they just believe in impossible things which end up backfiring and making the place worse. The path to hell is paved with good intentions.
I am a native of Los Angeles and moved out of California three years ago. I used to love regular trips up to San Francisco, hop on a cheap flight from Burbank for the weekend - enjoy the ballet or the opera, clam chowder and sourdough bread on the wharf, wander around nibbling delicious treats in Chinatown, ride the cable cars. It was always a great weekend trip. I am so angry at the politicians who have ruined our beautiful state. I love my new life in North Carolina but, let's be honest, I would have never even considered leaving California if it wasn't the incredible dumpster fire that it is. When people ask me if I miss California I say yes but I started missing California at least a decade before I left it.
I loved the clam chowder on the wharf with sourdough bread. I also loved going to Alcatraz in my early 20s. I moved to Nor Cal in 1998 from Upstate New York. I moved when I was 19 and met my husband out there. I moved back home in 2006 after I graduated from Chico State. My older brother and nephew live in Simi Valley. My in-laws live in Livermore. My oldest brother said SF is so dirty now!
There are so many of us mourning the loss of our home state who had to leave and it’s wrong that we were run out by politicians who were corrupt. Now it’s happening here in NC but I’m not leaving again.
@@zuzuspetals9281 Mourning is exactly right. I am absolutely mourning my home state. I hope for the best for NC but I fear that a large part of the problem are all the New Yorkers and Californians. Hardly anyone in Charlotte is actually from NC.
Dr. Prasad the ongoing challenges will continue as long as those voted in office remain in office. Starting from Gavin non sense. Down to all the minions of LA county supervisors where I live. I sure hope and pray for these people to be humbled.
In the past, SF was one of my all time favorite world cities. We had family nearby and would come into town often for great food, entertainment, and outstanding history. Not any more. There are indeed still nice areas but crime and homelessness are completely out of control from a lack of leadership. Do you think human feces on the sidewalk might qualify as a biohazard?!? Last time we came into town there were signs in all of the tourist areas: "High Crime Area, leave nothing of value in your car!" No police presence of course, just a sign to let you know you are on your own. A friend lives in the city and has had his bicycle stolen 4 times, always locked up. When we abandon law and order we abandon civilization.
We visited on vacation in 2003 and 2007, the second time with our 2-year-old daughter. We loved it. It was a beautiful city. So sad to hear how things have changed. I hope it’s not too late to turn it around with new leadership.
I remember going there when I was in the US (I'm from the UK). I think I might give it a skip on the next visit. Such a shame - it's a beautiful place with so much to offer.
I am a fourth gen Bay Area native living in SF.I concur with everything you’ve said. It’s insane that this beautiful city has gone down so low in the last 4 years.The George Floyd’s riots was a red pill moment for me. In June 2020 ,I was walking on Market street around 9th or tenth street when on the corner, saw 6 foot tall by 6 foot wide bricks stacked up ,wrapped in clear plastic looped around the huge stack. What else were these bricks placed there for? I didn’t see any construction nearby. I think there’s someone or some nefarious group trying to start chaos and bedlam in a lot of these cities. A lot of those bricks ended up destroying windows of cars and local businesses unfortunately.It’s shameful and it disgusts me greatly.
The bricks were out there by Democrat party operatives at most BLM protests to push social unrest and chaos because according to Professor Lichtman (who has accurately predicted the result of every US presidential election using various factors) social unrest and riots during and election year causes the presidential incumbent to lose an election. Economic downturn is another factor which is why even though everything was doing great under Trump we were suddenly hit by Covid and it was over exaggerated by the press and the Democrat governors all intentionally kept their states shut down longer than was necessary to hurt the economy (note they only opened their states back after Biden got into power to give Biden an artificial economic boost). The Democrats also successfully convinced the pharmaceutical companies to wait until AFTER the election to release the vaccine to avoid giving Trump a boost before the election. The Democrat party is an evil party. Covid was an eye opener for me and the disgusting depths that the party would sink to in order to gain power. We need justice for the evil these people inflicted on us. I can’t say Covid was intentional (though the timing was suspicious) but the behavior of the Democrat party to inflict pain on US citizens was intentional and downright criminal. There needs to be justice because if there isn’t the Democrat party will go even further the next time they lose an election they expect to win.
If you're lived in the bay area for so long, then you would remember the level of crime and homicide in the city in the 80s and 90s, it was far higher. The level of cherrypicked nostalic bullsh!t in these threads is insane. The entire Southeast part of the city used to be a no-go area of gang warfare. The homeless population of CA had been a steady fluctuation between 130-170k for the last 30+ yrs. All of this stuff about things going to ruin recently is absolute nonsense, the only reason thing that's changed to screw up quality of life is a massive increase in real estate prices. Everytime I see people talk about SF, they always cite obvious Tenderloin/Tendern0b areas. I was robbed at gunpoint at Market & 5ft in March 2000, it's pretty much always been sketchy after 5th. And it's always these dumbass conservatives promoting this nonsense, as if cutting taxes is going to fix anything. California is the #1 economy in the US. We are #1 in Agriculture, Aerospace, Manufacturing, Tourism, Media, Software, Hardware, #2 in Biotech, #1 in AI, CA gets 20 TIMES the private investment of TX and FL, because while conservatives talk a lot of trash, where do they invest their money to seek the highest ROI? The CA, especially the Bay Area. CA has its problems, but it is far far better than most of the red states in the US, where rural red American is full of ghost towns, opioid addiction, suicides, and its own form of depopulation. And the biggest problem with CA is none of this nonsense about progressivism, it's that the state has a huge housing shortage backlog. WE NEED TO BUILD HOUSES. Why aren't we? NIMBYs. You want to solve homelessness? Build more housing. Want to solve people having to move out? Build more housing. Cities, especially cities with adequate population and good weather, are always going to attract homeless. You can even find homeless in Tokyo of all places. You go where the foot traffic is and where you can find shelter. Want to fix this? Housing, mental care. If you want the police to just keep locking up bums and deporting them to shelters, go ask the federal courts to stop blocking California. London Breed has tried several times to do this, but the courts have blocked it.
People used to try to TRY and give me she it about not wearing a mask. I invited they to come and make me wear a mask every... single... time. But of corse they were all nothing but a bunch of ntuless and indignant betas about it.
Vinay I worked at Opera Plaza our KP MOB, regularly came up from Civic Ctr BART when I was not riding my motorbike in from the East Bay. I did that for 13 years a few years before the Great Reset, Build Back Better. I have witnessed everything you have and observed an elderly women at Civic Ctr across from City Hall squatting and defecating into the sewer grate at 8:45am in the morning. I am no longer a California resident and I mourn this loss being a 4th generation Californian. I mourn the loss of the whole Bay Area where I grew up in. It is a microcosm of the world today, a fractal of semi-similar representations of what we have chosen to live in allow others to create the social programming that is what you are reporting on in the Bay Area and globally. It is a great Mental Illness of Today.
It’s controlled demolition. All these problems are fixable but there are forces that are pushing big cities in this direction and a lot weak-willed and weak-minded not to mention morally corrupt politicians who quietly go along with it and allow it to happen.
Criminals & perverts are running the Bay Area. I still luve in California but our city is opposite of any given c8ty in and around San Frannie, Sacramento, Dan Jose. Our leaders are conservative as are majority of the residents. SF, LA and the in-between cities are a disgrace to civilized societies.
I understand what you are pointing out.. I hold back on labelling, the cause for separation of the whole and One that I know we are. The great Mental Illness globally begins with the Story of Separation. for Power, Profit and Control @@jccusell
The human feces problem sounds absolutely disgusting. My daughter uses a wheelchair so anything she rolls over basically slings onto her forearms…. I can’t imagine the diseases present in the excrement that she’d physically encounter just trying to navigate from one store to the other. I would NEVER subject her to that kind of filth.
Politicians and their friends want to make the city as bad as possible so they can buy up cheap real estate then they will make the city better and make a profit and earn big bucks.
@@johndoeboston123 The problem is there is no alternative, and the process is rigged. They tried to oust Newsom and he miraculously managed to survive. The DNC is arguably the most corrupt political establishment in the nation now. I think the only way is for democrats to literally leave the party and vote INDEPENDENT. The two party system is the root of the problem. They’re both corrupt and bought by big business.
@johndoeboston123 Reichous indignance has become their undoing. The problem with liberalism is that it requires no shame. With no shame their is no humility. And with no humility there is no personal responsibility.
Politicians and their friends want to make the city as bad as possible so they can buy up cheap real estate then they will make the city better and make a profit and earn big bucks.
You get what you vote for. And the sad part is the constituents who reside in SF will continue to vote in favor of their demise because they sure as sh*t don’t have the courage to push back against the status quo. Sad times.
@@abprepboy33 I highly doubt it. The BS hasn’t hit his personal doorstep yet. His ideology won’t change until his life/livelihood/life of a close family member or friend is threatened/jeopardized. That’s the only way people like him will ever learn.
@@ddfelder2 I think the way the left has completely politicized covid restrictions and mandates has him atleast questioning voting for democrats moving forward. Hes been going off about that for over 2 yrs now
My wife and I lived in SF for 2 years and both worked for UCSF (she is a physician and I am a PA) and we watched your video and can verify everything that you said is spot on! Beautiful city...we lived in Inner Sunset and then Noe Valley, but the cons began to outweigh the pros so we ended up moving.
You were smart to leave. SF is Sodom. Now, think long and hard about what type of policies people voted for there, and decide whether you want to bring or support those same “bleeding heart” policies wherever you go.
Your anecdote about the parking ticket is absolutely on point. Here in Montgomery County, MD, a progressive suburb of Washington, DC, Our Nation's Capital, as well as DC itself, you can get a $100 speed camera ticket for exceeding the speed limit (which would be 25 or 30 mph) by 10-15 mph, and speed cameras are EVERYWHERE. "Harumf!" say the cautious and anxious. "Safety first!" Yeah, sure, except the only ones the cameras catch are those with legally registered automobiles who have not blocked out their tags with [illegal] light-reflecting plates and are licensed drivers. You would be surprised how many people this excludes! And it's true about all the mind-numbing, piddling rules that little legislators enact against the general population on the grounds of health, safety, and welfare. They control the behavior of people who can be controlled, with anything to lose, who generally try to do the right thing. They are utterly useless against the maniacs setting fires in parking lots at midnight, using local roads as speedways, tossing garbage into parks, and so forth, and no one even attempts to police them. This creates animus on the part of everyone who DOES have to conform, yet, not living under rocks, notices that a large swath of the population appears to be above the law. You'd have to be comatose to be anything but contemptuous of government. I am sure this is how the Roman Empire fell!
It was hilarious when the Montgomery County police officers complained that they were getting speeding camera violations when NOT on an Official reason for them to speed.
I lived in Howard Cty for 30 yrs. Those damn white camera vehicles are money making machines! Moved to FL end of 2020. Took me a year to stop having a knee jerk reaction whenever I saw.a.white.car on a.shoulder. LOTS of white cars in FL.
That was my pet peeve with living in CA for 9 years. The two lane system with regards to laws and following them. You could be enjoying a day on the beach but god forbid you have a cold beer to sip or a cigarette. Which is fine until you realize that the bums camping a few yards away can drink, consume drugs in the open, have fires on. Want to renovate your home? You need to pass through hoops and follow a million rules (often conflicting) from different city agencies, yet no issues with homeless camps under important infrastructure like highways, with crime, use of flammable materials, open fires, electric stealing etc. The place has lost the plot.
You are incorrect about not seeing any return on the money spent on homelessness. You are in fact seeing returns: a massive increase of the thing you're paying for.
Not possible to get a return on investment by cash rewarding criminals behavior with taxpayer funds. Human nature works OPPOSITE, to that. You get MORE criminal behavior by rewarding it.
From Marin, divorced parent lived in SF from my childhood. Spent a ton of time in SF in the 80s and 90s, moved permanently after college in the 2000s to be near family and left in 2011. Eventually made my way to a Red state and I've never looked back. But back in the day, I worked full time downtown for a decade, and visited it off and on for 20 as a kid years prior when my dad worked on California street. It was nice then. Exciting and beautiful. It is a literal shit hole now. My old neighborhoods, Telegraph, Russian Hill, Marina, Mission, Filmore, I wouldn't spend any time in if you paid me. Last time I was there, I took my 7 year old daughter to a show in a converted movie theater, walked around my old neighborhood (the month before lockdown). I had to jump over literal poop on the sidewalk. I was told by a Safeway employee not to use the Embarcadero Safeway bathroom because it was "dangerous." Drug addicts were using it as we waited outside. I could hear them. 10 years previously, i used to shop there in safety. People were happy. Now the streets were deserted or they were sleeping on the sidewalk (or worse). Nobody smiled, or even looked at you. My daughter walked within a foot a man high as f, a needle still stuck in his arm, as he reached for her. I pulled her away, SHOVED him away, and got the hell out of there. Thank Newsom, Brown, London, etc. All liberals. They did this to one of the most beautiful cities in the nation, if not the world. Shame on them. Not that they'd feel it.
You're a load of BS. The 80s were a time when the city was full of crime, gang warfare, and loads of unsafe areas. And the Marina is perfectly fine, your description of it is utterly wrong. The streets are clean. Mission is bad, but Marina? Get real. And none of this has anything to do with Newsom, Brown, or London. You wanna blame someone for the homeless? Go ask Ronald Reagan, who helped empty the state mental hospitals, dumping loads of nuts onto the streets, and then as President, vetoed a health plane to provide mental care for these people. Red states? Houston has TRIPLE the MURDER RATE of CA. TX and FL homicide rates are higher than CA. Most of the old confederacy, from Alabama, to Mississippi, to Kentucky, and Missouri, are just giant welfare states that suckle at the tit of the US government, and subject to rural decay and abandonment. You can always point back to your younger years with nostalgia and ignore all of the bad things that were happening around you. I used to walk the streets of Baltimore and DC as a teenager at 2am. Was it safe? No. I got lucky. But things *felt better* back then. I work in SF. I've worked in SF for 20 years. Most of the city is the same as it was decades ago, especially the Northwest. The parts that have gotten worse are near Tenderloin/Van Ness and the the South. At the same time, the embarcadero got massively cleaned up and went from gang neighborhoods to industrial office towers. Parts of the city got worse, other parts got gentrified.
2010 > 2020 There was a former police officer I talked to in the YT comments a few years back. Good officer, put his life on the line to protect the citizens. Long story short, he quit the force in SF after Newsom was tampering with their workflow. The mayor turned governor has been nothing but trouble.
@@uploadJ Rural red state America is largely a sh!tshow of low life expectancy, alcoholism, opioid addiction, suicide, and rusted out, empty small towns, with many of the young people gong. Most of the old confederate states would be on par with a failed state like Somalia if the federal government wasn't keeping them on life support. Hell, Montana and Wyoming have TRIPLE the suicide rate of CA. But conservative media and conservatives have an utter fixation on trying to bring down California since it is obviously the best state in the US. It's #1 in almost every economic category, gets 20x the private sector investment of the nearest two "successful" red states TX and Fl, is home to pretty much all of the innovation in the country, on every objective variable, except homelessness and cost of living, it's factually better. Even on crime, its crime rates are lower than many red states, including TX and FL. Houston has TRIPLE the murder rate of SF. CA has lower violent crime than TX and FL. So let's get fscking real with this propaganda desperate conservatives are spewing. CA has one real problem: it needs to build a lot more housing.
@@johndrumpf9888 re: "Rural red ..." Ya. Now explain the new diseases in San Fran on account of what's appearing on the sidewalks. Keeping talking, maybe you will believe yourself? Ya, that's the ticket, blue stater.
If it isn't too late, and if you're in Nanci Pelosi's Congressional District, PLEASE run for her seat in 2024! The United States needs people like you to ask the right questions and represent the people.
I’m in rural CA. The majority of people in the cities are dumb as bricks. Don’t get your hopes up…..they will continue to vote for the worst candidates because they are that dumb.
Thank you for sharing your first-hand observations with us. Too often, we hear what people who haven't actually been on the scene have to say about things. Good or bad.
you need to ask your self for whom you voted. you have labeled yourself a progressive and the current failure of SF is a result of progressive policies
We have a little bit of this problem in Toronto, Canada, but it is dog feces and it is a dog owner problem. Not a lot of dog walking in the downtown core. Even the idea that you can have a human feces problem in a large 1st world city, when even the 3rd world doesn't have this problem is deranged! There's going to be a great reset, I just don't think it is the one Klause has in mind!
Progressives are lefty looney liberal commies undercover but I dont expact Dr. Vinay to understand that he is part of the problem or maybe he is a controlled opposition or is still too green to figure out
But this is the pattern through history. Civilizations arise and grow and die like plants do. A common sign of a dying civilization is the rise of the thinking man (ie a progressive) in the "world cities" ( ie cities divorced from local tradition, native people, culture). These are symptoms of collapse, not the cause. The cause is the breakdown, inevitable, of the veneration of ancestors. I know that probably sounds strange but you can't explain water to a fish.
I’m so sorry your lovely city has become this way. I was there in 2018 and had a nice time. I live in Florida and am nervous about the mass influx moving here. We could be next. Even though there are several policies my governor has put in place that I disagree with, I feel really lucky to live here and am glad I voted for him. I hope you get someone that cares about your city and state and can work to bring it back to its former beauty❤️
I really enjoy listening to your views and expertise. You are not afraid to say what you think, and even though I suspect we are on far different sides of the political spectrum, I can imagine having a respectful debate with you. I'm typing this about a 90 seconds into your presentation because you mentioned the "homeless" problem in San Francisco. This is one of my pet peeves. I would contend that San Francisco (and pretty much every large city in the US) does not have a "homeless" problem, but a drug addiction/alcoholism/mental illness/combinations thereof problem. You can't fix a problem unless you properly define it. You could give every one of the "homeless" in San Francisco a paid for million dollar home and 10 million dollars in the bank - and it wouldn't help but a few of them. I think we do have a sort of a "homeless" problem. We have a "homeless" industry problem in this country. I'm sure San Francisco has a de facto "homeless" czar. I'm sure they get paid a very nice salary. I'm sure their office has a number of employees. I'd bet that their office has and continues to grow in size and budget. The director of XYZ will always need an assistant director...
And then there are non-profits or private “businesses” which should be thoroughly vetted before and scrutinized after they enter the industry. Are they even qualified for doing whatever it is they are not doing? Think not.
The CA homeless problem started with JFK and Ronald Reagan emptying the state hospitals throwing people with cognitive / mental issues out on the street. A huge chunk of the homeless problem has mental problems, or are ex-Vets we didn't take care of. Then in 1981, Reagan as president, vetoed a national mental health program that was designed to deal with this. Those people have been left in the lurch since. Then add on about 1/4th of the people having drug problems. CA attracts homeless because the weather is warm and dry year around, even in winter time, it barely ever goes below 40, and a simple shelter can keep you alive. In the summer, you can practically sleep on the grass. If I was homeless, I'd go where I'm the least likely to die of exposure, and most likely to be able to encounter people I can beg -- good weather, decent population density/foot traffic.
It's also a city with few residents with low-to-lower middle-class incomes able to afford living near the city centre. It consists of office space, businesses, expensive low-density housing and homeless people. The homeless don't care about housing prices or commuting time, they rather be located in the urban centre where they have their resources within walking distance. Look at LA, being tough on crime didn't stop it from becoming Tent City.
Bravo, you nailed it. I’ve worked in SF for 35 years. It gets worse every year. This city was incredible 20 years ago, so fun and beautiful. The people keep putting the same morons in office every election
My son commutes into the city everyday, so I hear a lot about this, and it's just the same report as you are giving. He added that there is open air sex going on in the encampments, visible as one drives past. Stay out of downtown (although he has to work there, doing work in high rises) and go to the neighborhoods. On another note, you are a treasure, Vinay. I found you at the start of the pandemic and, in hindsight, you have been among the most reliable sources for scientific information on the pandemic, the clinical studies, and the pharmaceuticals used for it. I'll always check in with you. Fondly, your neighbor in the Northbay.
I lived and worked in the Union Square/downtown San Francisco area from the early eighties to the early two thousands. It was wonderful back then. But every day now I thank my lucky stars that escaped from what now appears to be a hellhole.
I too worked there in the late 80’s. I worked at Benetton on opening day of San Francisco center. Was the greatest shopping mall to date with the semi spiral escalator. So sad it all deserted now as it was such a great atmosphere. Those were the good ole days.
Vancouver seems to be on the same path as SF. I live in the GVRD and had to leave North Vancouver and move 50 km away to buy a house. Vancouver is beautiful but the down town east side is a freaking drug infested war zone. We used to go to downtown Vancouver on the bus as kids, now I won’t even drive down E Hastings street…..it is sad and disgusting in equal measure.
Burlington Vermont also :-( Retail theft under a certain dollar amount isn’t prosecuted. Some of the downtown stores have either left or moved locations to nearby city.
@@lwh5178it is like these cities are using the same playbook, I just today saw in Vancouver that someone stole an entire rack of clothing…..rolled it down the street and onto the Skytrain🙄
The DTES has always been sad and terrible - the worst bit now is that it’s spreading outside of the DTES. This is what happens when a city allows property speculation and money laundering to fuel its economy. Marginalized people get pushed even further. Never going to be able to get people off drugs and provide them with mental health support if they don’t have a place to live. Same with SF … there was always bad areas but downtown use to be safe … the minute housing (purchasing and renting) became severely unaffordable all these problems started.
Well done summary! Really nice to have the insider viewpoint. I think the main thing, I’m guessing, is that you haven’t had the experience of being mugged, robbed, broken into, etc. Since it only takes a single event of those to change your life permanently, I hope you never experience it. I lived in San Francisco for a decade a long time ago, and it was pretty amazing. In the East Bay, we got held up at gunpoint, had nothing in our pockets, and managed to walk away. But that’s because we were in Alameda, which had a strong, law-enforcement presence - anyone in Alameda holding people up at gunpoint has to race for the bridges to get back to Oakland because police would block them off. Of course, pretty soon. Alameda became as unaffordable as San Francisco…
Thank you for talking about this. I've only been to SF once, in the early '90s and it was beautiful. My husband was stationed at Treasure Island and we had spectacular views. We enjoyed walking all over the city and never felt afraid. I think SF is like a lot of big cities - the politicians can clean up it up with the right incentives.
Although I’ve never visited San Francisco, I reside in New York City. I comprehend when people argue, “Well, you voted for it,” as there are many things I don’t support through my votes here. However, in San Francisco, it appears that citizens bear significant responsibility by consistently voting for certain individuals, reaching a point where it seems unrealistic.
I have said this so many times. You get what you vote for. California hasn't always been this way because leaders were voted in who actually cared about the people.
I lived 30 minutes from San Francisco in Livermore. I also attended San Francisco State University briefly in 2003. I transferred to California State University Chico in 2004. I loved a buffalo wing place in SF. ❤ It's horrendously expensive!! And I transferred to Chico because I wasn't a city girl. My older brother is an electrical engineer and used to love SF. He said SF is now over run with drugs and etc. He lives in LA Simi Valley now.
I moved to SF in 2014 and thought I'd spend the rest of my life there. But then Covid hit in mid-March 2020 and the reaction to it in SF was THE WORST in all of America. I left in Feb 2021 and have zero regrets. I do make it back about 4 times per year. While things have gotten a bit better, the failed leadership and policies have not changed. After APEC, we know for a fact that it can quickly be made better but the SF leadership clearly does NOT WANT IT TO GET BETTER.
I live 20 m east of San Diego. There used not to be a homeless issue here 10-15 years ago. It used to be more contained to downtown SD. Don't count on the problem not spreading to your suburbs. It will.
I live in Montreal and I have such wonderful memories of having visited SF about 20 years ago. I feel so sad to hear about what has happened to that beautiful city 😢
I lived at 16th and Guerrero in the Mission district in SF for 10 years, from 2010-2020. During that time I also worked at UCSF in the school of nursing in community health and worked in the Tenderloin and then for another community health organization in the Bayview. We also served the under-served populations in the city. It was an intense ten years. I have also lived in the Bay Area most of my life and still do, just not in the city. The city is not well right now and I hope it recovers. I agree that the leadership is quite frustrating and many of their policies make no practical sense. Something’s got to change… I appreciate your work so much, Dr. Prasad! I listen to your podcast all the time. Thank you for shining the light of reason on and bringing meticulous analysis to every topic you cover! All the very best to you in the new year! 🙏🙌🎉
I’m a Bay Area native and I also lived at 16th and Guerrero in the early 80s. I walked everywhere and never feared for my safety. I visited the neighborhood about three years ago and was astonished at the degraded state it was in: ravaged by techies, litter everywhere, open IV drug use, the whole place smelled of human waste. I’m sure it’s worse now. It’s hard to see such a great neighborhood, and a beautiful city, being run into the ground.
Former Mayor Gavin Nusome now Governor of California could do something. He will do this with America if he were to become President. Thank you Dr. Prasad for all you do , glad you came around re the Covid vaxx.
I have visited SF many times over the years and always loved it for all the great things you mentioned. My last trip there was in 2019 and I had noticed an uptick in the homeless on the streets but was able to show our exchange student all around downtown without feeling any fear. I live north of Seattle and my office is in Ballard, the change here has been in lockstep with SF. Seattle and SF are prime examples of how not to govern and I stay as far away from downtown as I can but the problem is seeping out to the suburbs as well and just outside our state capitol in Olympia on I-5 is a huge homeless encampment that stretches for hundreds of yards alongside the freeway signifying, to me, the failed leadership of the west side of the state. I hope that the citizens of our respective cities wake up and run these criminal politicians out of office, but I won't hold my breath waiting for it. Thanks for your insight as a resident.
I will venture to say, that here in California, these criminal politicians have such a commanding hold on power, and ultimately they count the votes. They will stay in control.
Ballard is struggling, homeless encampments on the lower portion of 8th from Leary to 65th in the form of ramshackle RV's, usually a few tents under the north end of the 15th street bridge, there were lots of them on Shilshole along the rail tracks and they had to close the skate park down. There have been shootings on Ballard Ave to boot. It's not the Ballard of even 5 years ago when you could go to the Ave and eat and drink without worry of being harassed if you were parked on Shilshole. There has been a bit of progress in the last year but still sad times. @@GUITARTIME2024
moved from Seattle my hometown to PDX 44 years ago when Seattle was voted " most livable city" which destroyed it. Portland was provincial but a sweet small city with unique neighborhoods. It has been destroyed by greed. The US is a failed state. India in fact so much of South and S.E. Asia is far more appealing. Portland is an open air mental institution as David Sedaris would say....
I miss SF from the late 90’s and early Y2K. That’s when it was a lot cleaner and safer. I used to go to SF all the time bc I live in the deep South Bay Area
That’s when I lived there, in Glen Park. 1990s, early 2000 was a magical time. So beautiful. He’s right too, it is the natural beauty and weather that people will tolerate the poor leadership. I couldn’t take it anymore.
Thanks for providing real ground truth on this as some that lives and works there. The mindset of people that would think a hot dog vendor is a "problem" while you're allowed to urinate and defecate anywhere, steal items from stores as long as it's under 1K, terrible houseless issue, etc, is just bananas.
I'm impressed. I'm an MD/MS who gets my paycheck from the same system as yours, and I would never post these ideas publicly under my own name. Strong work. Maybe UCSF has a different vibe because there's no associated undergrad.
There is huge money in homelessness at the government level. Lots of 200k salaries to manage this so-called problem. Why else would you provide benefits to the homeless in downtown? Unless you wanted more of the homeless in downtown? These people don't survive on zero money, they get cash benefits, which promptly finds its way into drug dealers, pockets and eventually back into the pockets of government employees.
Former San Francisco resident (31 yrs) who left to India for retirement, it’s been great 👍 low cost, great people and what a country to practice yoga (Bhakti) and eat pure veg ❤
My uncles live in San Fran. One retired not long ago from the hospital you work at and my other uncle is a respiratory therapist at the other hospital.
Thanks for taking the time to talk about this. I honestly thought the whole faces thing was an exaggeration, but listening to you I see that it's not. As for the "nice neighborhoods" thing - that;'s precisely why thing got to this point. Rich people living in nice neighborhoods giving a literal shit about the city. I live in a small country in Europe and the idea of having people defecating in the street or having bad neighborhoods is inconceivable. We used to have some bad neighborhoods in a few cities back in the days when we were very poor, but never quite so bad as the States have it right now. And sure enough we;ve snapped out of it just as soon as our economic situation stabilized. BTW - California's GDP is probably 100 times that of my country, so...
@@hansangb The interesting fact is that the countries closer to "SFO mode" are the Nordics and Western Europeans. The further East you go, the less you have of it. Don't get me wrong, the "infrastructure" is there, but it's just not happening. Like for example in the summer of love of 2020, we had our very own protest. Politicians and police were fine with it (while meanwhile squashing the thousands protesting pandemic measures) and it was all over the media. Still, only 6 people showed up. They were very diverse, but only six of them in total...
@@alopam The speed of the decay shocked everyone I think. I used to go to SFO two weeks of the month. For YEARs. Always enjoyed the walk, the restaurants etc. It was such a vibrant city. And the company I worked for back then started the revival of SFO being HQ's instead of just San Jose/Santa Clara/etc. Even the then mayor came out to welcome the company to downtown. And many others followed suit. Now?? I'd NEVER go walking around there. And Dr. Prasad didn't address the car break-in's that are happening at mind numbingly high levels. Now we know what happens when you decriminalize crimes and paint the police as the enemy by the politicians. BWI, ORD, DCA, MSP and NYC they are all the same, just on different scale of depravity.
I left SF during the pandemic after living there for 15 years. I definitely miss the natural beauty and weather. I DO NOT miss all the bad stuff you spoke about and I hear it's gotten worse since I left which is crazy because it was bad when I lived there. It's such a shame because when I moved there in 2005 the entire city was like a utopia. There was still gnarly shit you'd see from time to time but it was a bit more of the charm of the city vs it being everywhere all the time.
Thank you for your opinion and update. I lived in SF and Marin county for 3 years. It is beautiful! I enjoy hearing a liberal calling out what is wrong with these liberal policies. And calling SHIT shit! I agree with everything you said. Maybe you are transitioning into a libertarian.
The libertarians are all for drug culture which is the other part of the problem that he didn't mention. Drugs, open borders, permissive sex, are all part of the libertarian cocktail.
We live 100 miles east but the only reason we ever go to the Bay Area is either to an airport (there are 3) or Stanford for specialized medical services. We really try to stay east of Altamont pass whenever we can. Driving in the Bay area has always been awful, it was bad 60 years ago but even with the current freeway system it is still a place to avoid when possible.
Yes turning the wheels to angle back into the curb when parked on an incline will prevent the car from moving should the parking brake fail. I got my drivers license in 1986, it was one of the questions on the test. If you want to test it yourself, pull into a space then anchor the wheel against the curb. Then put the car in neutral -- the car wont move, because it's lodged against the curb.
You should leave. Seriously. I don’t know why you’re still there. You can get a job almost anywhere given who you are. Edit: pretty wild that they’re whining about hot dog vendors being unhygienic, but shit on the streets is totally fine.
My cousin who lived in The City in the 1950's, would travel downtown with her mother to shop. Normally, you would get dressed up in very nice clothes because presenting a pleasant appearance was just good manners. You can get a sense of this by watching old restored videos of S.F. from that period on UA-cam. The funniest thing was it was important to wear white gloves when you headed out to downtown. White gloves were expected. Just imagine a time-traveling shopper from the 1950s trying to shop in S.F. today. My father-in-law was a tough tough S.F. Homicide Detective during that time. If a typical street denizen from today were to time travel back to to S.F. and try to "shop" downtown, he would probably get beaten...by the police.
About 15 years ago, my mother and I would take the BART into the city to do Christmas shopping. The BART would drop us off in Union Square. The city twinkled and the giant Christmas tree was magical! The only frustrating part of the trip was finding parking at the Park n Ride! We would shop until evening-time, have dinner, and then take the BART back to our car. Not a care in the world! Now, I fear those ventures are too dangerous 😢 San Francisco was truly a gem of a city and it’s heartbreaking what the incompetent lawmakers have done to it!
I lived in SF for about nine months from the end of 2000 until the middle of 2001 and I knew immediately I had to get the hell out of there. Even back then, the city was disgusting. It was only about 10% as disgusting as it is now, but even that was too disgusting for me. I was always astounded that the locals just accepted how persistently disgusting that city is. It was normal for them and I sure as hell wasn't about to let it become normal for me. At the first opportunity, I got my family back to civilization here in Texas.
I don't think nice weather could keep me in a city that holds the person shitting in the street with higher regard than for my value as a citizen taking care of my family and paying taxes.
You don’t need a study to know gravity will pull your car down hill. And if your tires point towards the curb, the worst thing that could happen is your car hits the curb. VP kinda intellectualized himself outta this one. Lol He wants a study on turning your wheel
Its called sarcasm but apparently you don’t understand it. Relax, he wasn’t intellectualising. He was making fun of how ridiculous the situation is. I live in Lisbon, Portugal. Similar to San Fran, it has very steep hills. Never, ever there was a discussion about how the wheels should be positioned. It’s a non issue. Once you activate the break, the car is safely parked. No need to overthink and much less to write hefty tickets to ppl.
Except for the degree of natural beauty, it’s a lot like Atlanta (although we do have some pretty foothills in the background when you can see past all the smog). From block to block changes drastically, the homeless (crazy) population is out of control, but many of us live in the burbs around Atlanta and do ok. Our problem is that the inner city stuff keeps creeping further and further out. I’m about 40 minutes outside of downtown Atlanta and I’m starting to see foot traffic where ppl are walking to gas stations. I’ve seen this before, and when this starts the crime rates always go up. Apartments go in, crime goes up. Low-end rentals of any kind means higher crime rates, but esp apartments. So we’re looking to move in the next 2-3 years to try and get away from the inner city and its failed voting habits creeping in on us.
Thanks for your comments. Vis-à-vis the parking issue. Everyone who lives in a hilly city knows but flatlanders don’t know and I believe that your background. So going uphill turn your wheels out towards the road parking downhill you turn them in towards the curb. Put your car in neutral try both things and you’ll see that your car will stop up against the curb. Please let your followers know that you’re willing to learn something new. By the way, I’m one of your greatest admirer’s And, like you, a questioning internist.
lol I grew up in Dan Jose and often visited San Frannie. We were tested on parking uphill & downhill back in the day. I avoid SF like the plague it has become--I gave up shopping, visiting thecopera, favorite restaurants, visiting relatives and flying in/out unless left with no choice.
Interesting trivia . Had no idea you lived in SF. Nice recap of the current condition of SF. It's exactly what I've been hearing and seeing on independent news channels . Last time I was there ( and Oakland ) was I think 4th of July of 2012. Zero reasons to return back. Shit belongs in the toilet.
As a victim of Seattle's liberal politics (lost my engineering job to Covid vaccine refusal) and cannot find another because of my conservative views, myself and my 14-year old, straight A student son are losing our home now that my savings have evaporated. I will soon be a very rare breed of homeless... a drug-free victim of circumstance. Sure, I'm not completely innocent, I could have complied and maybe should have... we'll see as I'm 10 months away from Social Security which will at least pay most rent :-) Happy New Year doc, I do so enjoy your medical content, thank you.
Nice. Thanks for the honesty and the perspective. However, I think it is about time we stop blaming the dire situations caused by politicians- Vax mandates, Covid lockdowns, homelessness, s%!t on streets, drug addiction, millions of illegals pouring across the border, etc- on incompetence. Do we honestly believe these politicians are so incompetent? Imagine this scenario: A man owns a historic home, and zoning laws prevent him from selling it to a developer who wants to put a very profitable condo building there. One day his home burns to the ground. He is then able to sell the land to the developer. Then he gets appointed to the board of the same development company. Then we find out that the fire started because he was storing 500lbs of fireworks next to the fireplace. He tells the press “Ya know, in retrospect, I wish I had stored those fireworks elsewhere.” Do we believe he is incompetent? Or would believing that make us pathetic rubes? What we are witnessing is not “incompetence.” This is deliberate. Follow the money.
As a retired Director at University of California, San Francisco and a former resident of Twin Peaks, I found your analysis of modern day San Francisco particularly interesting. Thank you for sharing your sense of the city today. We left San Francisco after I retired from UCSF in 2011. San Francisco was a very different back city then with fewer problems. Although in those days the city leadership was also subpar and the cost of living was astronomical. If those two factors hadn’t existed it is likely that we would still live in San Francisco today-we loved San Francisco that much!
It’s disgusting what has been allowed in SF. I worked there around 2015,2016 and it was delightful. At that time downtown was vibrant, I wasn’t afraid to take the Bart and not was very walkable.
San Francisco is simply extraordinary. It’s beautiful, diverse and unique. It’s expensive for a good reason. It’s one of my favorite cities in the world.
Turning your wheel isn't necessarily enough to keep your car from causing damage to others of course. If you can ensure your rear or front wheel is pressing against the curb while your steering wheel is locked your vehicle will have even more resistance to movement. I do this with my vehicle since putting it in Park and using the E Brake isn't enough on very steep hills. Otherwise, turning the wheel just determines if your car rolls back into traffic or the sidewalk.
I spoke with a guy who worked in a cafe in S.F. for a few years. In his 20's, he enjoyed it. When I inquired about people getting along, whether there was true Diversity, he nodded with a "Sure". My gut led me to get more specific, so my next question was: "Now what if a neighbor had a Trump sign in their window. Would people be fine with that and respect his choice, in the name of 'Diversity'?" He suddenly froze up, then said, "Uhhhh, no. That would be a problem." THIS encapsulates the hypocrisy in general, in the nation, in the Bay Area, in San Francisco. If you're gonna shovel sh*t, maybe clean up the streets first before pushing a pile of political feces towards me acting as if you are all inclusive. You're not. It's about Power, your Party, job security, word games, not problem-solving, not truth.
Yeah. I thought it was hilarious that he said there was true diversity and diversity of thought in SF. No way is that true. They are almost all leftist/liberals which is why their politicians are all crazy liberals/Democrats.
Great story about "diversity." I have a similar one. Some time back I was at a health freedom/anti vax mandates event carrying a sign that said "My body, my choice." A bunch of liberals (likely pro-choice in other matters) went, um, ape-poop when they saw my sign. Someone stuck his head out his car window and yelled, "You people are effing crazy!" (And he didn't say "effing.) I hollered back, "Thank you! We work hard at it!"
The turned car wheel strategy 100% works. You don’t need a study. You’re supposed to put your car in neutral and let is slide downhill a couple inches (with the wheel turned) until it comes to a stop. Then put it in park. If you are so inclined, you can undo that motion (to relieve the pressure on your tire) then put it in park again with full confidence that when it DOES roll downhill, it will naturally stop (since you just successfully performed that experiment)
Thanks for the insight . Wonderful city but the news, reports and first hand account underscore my reticence to go back. I think you nailed it that the cityscape, features and weather allow incompetence and failed leadership to abound
Thanks for sharing. I’m so sick of everyone talking about how bad it is here. I keep saying it’s bad downtown but the rest of the city is mostly thriving and doing fine. SF government is a failed government and has been for the past decade or so. I think most residents who aren’t directly affected by their garbage policies don’t realize that they are contributing to the problem by continuing to vote for these lame ass politicians 😏. At the same time the Dem political machine ensures that these candidates continue to run unopposed. We are, in a sense, victims of our own virtuosity. That having been said, the problem with the homeless is more complicated than it looks. Yes it’s an industry and there’s plenty of $ to be made working in it, but what I learned earlier this year is that the reason the City can’t remove homeless encampments from the street is because the Coalition for the Homeless-a very well funded (and likely Soros-backed) NGO has sued the City to stop that. So the City is tied up in lawsuits and doesn’t have the resources to keep up. What we are witnessing is controlled demolition being funded by outside forces trying to sow chaos and destruction by pushing these failed and ridiculous policies. Lawsuits are expensive. Where does an outfit like the Coalition for Homeless get that kind of money? Think about it.
@@malvolio01 I’m not lying. I’m going based on what I see and experience firsthand. Maybe “thriving” is being overly optimistic. Obviously not everyone is doing well but enough people across the spectrum appear to be doing fine.
@@Gr8flGrrl Small business owners are not. And I’m frankly tired of hearing this. I’m a third generation San Franciscan and I’ve been watching my city be destroyed since about 2007… both by tech and the corrupt/woke politics running the city. Most people in SF (since no one is from the city anymore) have a superficial knowledge of what’s going on and are fine with that. In my book they’re part of the problem. The unnecessary lockdowns, which are why I left, destroyed what was left of the city and it hasn’t recovered. Meanwhile nit wits take pictures of themselves flocking to Dolores Park and then post them online saying, “problems? What problems??” I’m in the city at least once a week. The outer neighborhoods have tents on the side walls in a lot of areas, graffiti, and boarded up store fronts everywhere. No, that is NOT San Francisco. It’s what y’all turned it into.
You don’t really need a study. What you need is to put your car in neutral and observe what happens when the car rolls into the curb. It works. It’s the same concept that was used when I worked on an aircraft carrier flight deck. Fairly simple idea.
You are brave to speak out. My wife and I did a walking tour of San Francisco some 20 years ago and it was uncomfortable at times and it often felt dangerous to be accosted by some of the random individuals we encountered. I live about 100+ miles South of you and you would be welcomed here. We have a vibrant medical community and our service is top notch. The prices also match that but hey, we feel fortunate to have the ability to get it when we need it. MRY and SLO county. Come on down.
You have the relaxed nature of someone who takes care of people-which is being open and honest and not trying to find an angle like the politician and lawyers- different way to be diff way to live- you can be at peace in your soul- keep going
I experienced the same thing taking classes in Berkeley. Got ticketed for not having a front plate, even though I placed it on the windshield. Meanwhile, there was a massive unsanitary homeless encampment on the freeway off-ramp and I saw a smashed window in the parking lot one day.
curbing your wheels does work. Try yourself. Put the car in neutral, take off the parking brake and let it roll until it stops. Curb your wheels first, of course.
I feel bad for laughing at your stepping in human feces story, but it is so bad it is almost unbelievable. I have found that San Francisco and Seattle are two cities that I once loved to visit, but recent developments have made them cities that I no longer want to visit.
My friend is a nurse RN at San Francisco hospital. I was absolutely shocked to hear his stories of regularly being bit, hit and attacked by patients. Crazy!
Not to dump on you sir, I think you're one of the best medical people on the net. Failure of leadership in a democracy (republic) ultimately is the fault of the people. Citizens in SF vote in people who are upright in their support of these failed policies. Until you and the other local vote these bums out this is what you will get.
I agree with what you say about San Francisco, but no one who has sensible ideas like Tony Hall for example wants to be in a position of power and fight these idiots in charge. The radicals are the only ones who put themselves out there. It's like voting the least radical idiot. This is my take on San Francisco as someone who has lived there and still visits.
'Friscans do not view their leaders as bums: the polls prove it. They want this. They are obsessed with enacting a strange vision of how to run a city. More power to them; it's their city. Just keep it in SF, please.
That’s for darn sure👍
The most natural beauty cities in N.A. like SF, VAN, are suck shit just a block away.
It's a badge of honor to their woke residents.
EVERY Democrat vote is purchased with tax-payer's money:
Government "jobs": 1 in 4 Biden jobs is government...ONLY 7% HUD to 24% DOD even go to work
AND make OVER TWICE the same function in private sector (pension/bennies/vaca/salary).
Unions protected/funded by Dems: Obama handed $115 billion to UAW only mnfrs./Obama
prevented Boeing building 787 in SC to "stop off-shoring"/Biden PAID OFF TEAMSTER'S pension.
Welfares: Everyone knows LBJ's infamous; "we'll have the ns voting Dim for 100 years"
Injury attorneys: largest non-union donor-US ONLY country without "loser-pays"
Eco-Nazis: 10s billion$ to staunch every fossil reduction; nuclear/LNG/pipelines(lowest spillage of all transport)/ ---- domestic oil(17 largest tanker-ships release more CO2 than ALL autos on earth)...TOTAL $$ SCAM
Student loan defaulters: F SCOTUS JUST ruling against Biden's forgiveness...he continues
AND OF COURSE: EVERYONE "leaving" govt. crushes it with contracts/contractors/double-dipping...
This is a microcosm of California as a whole. The weather and natural beauty draws people, and allows leadership to get away with failure after failure.
Pure incompetent. More over unwillingness to follow successfully policies and procedures since it was created by white Europeans. So you get Build Back Better and Different using DEI, a failed Marxist ideology.
I grew up in the SF Bay Area. California will always have a special place in my heart. It's beauty is heart wenching. It's hard to watch what's happening to such a lovely state. I no longer live there due to cost of living.
Do weather and natural beauty contribute to mental laziness of voters?
Things are better in Orange County, though, where Republicans are in charge. There are pockets of Democrat cities, and those are usually laden with crime, homelessness, and other diseases you associate with the liberal left.
@@Nutajel I would say it contributes to magical thinking. Californians aren't lazy voters, they just believe in impossible things which end up backfiring and making the place worse. The path to hell is paved with good intentions.
I am a native of Los Angeles and moved out of California three years ago. I used to love regular trips up to San Francisco, hop on a cheap flight from Burbank for the weekend - enjoy the ballet or the opera, clam chowder and sourdough bread on the wharf, wander around nibbling delicious treats in Chinatown, ride the cable cars. It was always a great weekend trip. I am so angry at the politicians who have ruined our beautiful state. I love my new life in North Carolina but, let's be honest, I would have never even considered leaving California if it wasn't the incredible dumpster fire that it is. When people ask me if I miss California I say yes but I started missing California at least a decade before I left it.
I loved the clam chowder on the wharf with sourdough bread. I also loved going to Alcatraz in my early 20s. I moved to Nor Cal in 1998 from Upstate New York. I moved when I was 19 and met my husband out there. I moved back home in 2006 after I graduated from Chico State. My older brother and nephew live in Simi Valley. My in-laws live in Livermore. My oldest brother said SF is so dirty now!
I’m right there with you. I did the same. I love California but it got too sad for me to watch it go into ruin
There are so many of us mourning the loss of our home state who had to leave and it’s wrong that we were run out by politicians who were corrupt. Now it’s happening here in NC but I’m not leaving again.
And now, starting Jan 1, healthcare will be free to illegals immigrants.
@@zuzuspetals9281 Mourning is exactly right. I am absolutely mourning my home state. I hope for the best for NC but I fear that a large part of the problem are all the New Yorkers and Californians. Hardly anyone in Charlotte is actually from NC.
Dr. Prasad the ongoing challenges will continue as long as those voted in office remain in office. Starting from Gavin non sense. Down to all the minions of LA county supervisors where I live. I sure hope and pray for these people to be humbled.
In the past, SF was one of my all time favorite world cities. We had family nearby and would come into town often for great food, entertainment, and outstanding history. Not any more. There are indeed still nice areas but crime and homelessness are completely out of control from a lack of leadership. Do you think human feces on the sidewalk might qualify as a biohazard?!?
Last time we came into town there were signs in all of the tourist areas: "High Crime Area, leave nothing of value in your car!" No police presence of course, just a sign to let you know you are on your own. A friend lives in the city and has had his bicycle stolen 4 times, always locked up.
When we abandon law and order we abandon civilization.
We visited on vacation in 2003 and 2007, the second time with our 2-year-old daughter. We loved it. It was a beautiful city. So sad to hear how things have changed. I hope it’s not too late to turn it around with new leadership.
Same here. Husband lived in SF 5 years. My family moved to CA. Used to visit. Have no urge to return. Moved from Chicago for same. Turning into dump
SF back in mid 80s had a rat infestation and outbreak of bubonic plaque not to mention AIDS. So it's very possible.
“When we abandon law and order we abandon civilization.”
Spot on.
I remember going there when I was in the US (I'm from the UK). I think I might give it a skip on the next visit. Such a shame - it's a beautiful place with so much to offer.
I am a fourth gen Bay Area native living in SF.I concur with everything you’ve said. It’s insane that this beautiful city has gone down so low in the last 4 years.The George Floyd’s riots was a red pill moment for me. In June 2020 ,I was walking on Market street around 9th or tenth street when on the corner, saw 6 foot tall by 6 foot wide bricks stacked up ,wrapped in clear plastic looped around the huge stack.
What else were these bricks placed there for? I didn’t see any construction nearby. I think there’s someone or some nefarious group trying to start chaos and bedlam in a lot of these cities. A lot of those bricks ended up destroying windows of cars and local businesses unfortunately.It’s shameful and it disgusts me greatly.
The bricks were out there by Democrat party operatives at most BLM protests to push social unrest and chaos because according to Professor Lichtman (who has accurately predicted the result of every US presidential election using various factors) social unrest and riots during and election year causes the presidential incumbent to lose an election. Economic downturn is another factor which is why even though everything was doing great under Trump we were suddenly hit by Covid and it was over exaggerated by the press and the Democrat governors all intentionally kept their states shut down longer than was necessary to hurt the economy (note they only opened their states back after Biden got into power to give Biden an artificial economic boost). The Democrats also successfully convinced the pharmaceutical companies to wait until AFTER the election to release the vaccine to avoid giving Trump a boost before the election. The Democrat party is an evil party. Covid was an eye opener for me and the disgusting depths that the party would sink to in order to gain power. We need justice for the evil these people inflicted on us. I can’t say Covid was intentional (though the timing was suspicious) but the behavior of the Democrat party to inflict pain on US citizens was intentional and downright criminal. There needs to be justice because if there isn’t the Democrat party will go even further the next time they lose an election they expect to win.
👍🏼yep absolutely!
Did you get the hell out of SF after that?
Saw the same thing in LA. huge stacks of bricks placed all around the city. This type of stuff is strategic. Who is behind it?
If you're lived in the bay area for so long, then you would remember the level of crime and homicide in the city in the 80s and 90s, it was far higher. The level of cherrypicked nostalic bullsh!t in these threads is insane. The entire Southeast part of the city used to be a no-go area of gang warfare. The homeless population of CA had been a steady fluctuation between 130-170k for the last 30+ yrs. All of this stuff about things going to ruin recently is absolute nonsense, the only reason thing that's changed to screw up quality of life is a massive increase in real estate prices.
Everytime I see people talk about SF, they always cite obvious Tenderloin/Tendern0b areas. I was robbed at gunpoint at Market & 5ft in March 2000, it's pretty much always been sketchy after 5th.
And it's always these dumbass conservatives promoting this nonsense, as if cutting taxes is going to fix anything. California is the #1 economy in the US. We are #1 in Agriculture, Aerospace, Manufacturing, Tourism, Media, Software, Hardware, #2 in Biotech, #1 in AI, CA gets 20 TIMES the private investment of TX and FL, because while conservatives talk a lot of trash, where do they invest their money to seek the highest ROI? The CA, especially the Bay Area.
CA has its problems, but it is far far better than most of the red states in the US, where rural red American is full of ghost towns, opioid addiction, suicides, and its own form of depopulation. And the biggest problem with CA is none of this nonsense about progressivism, it's that the state has a huge housing shortage backlog.
WE NEED TO BUILD HOUSES. Why aren't we? NIMBYs.
You want to solve homelessness? Build more housing. Want to solve people having to move out? Build more housing.
Cities, especially cities with adequate population and good weather, are always going to attract homeless. You can even find homeless in Tokyo of all places. You go where the foot traffic is and where you can find shelter. Want to fix this? Housing, mental care.
If you want the police to just keep locking up bums and deporting them to shelters, go ask the federal courts to stop blocking California. London Breed has tried several times to do this, but the courts have blocked it.
Remember during covid in CA when you were allowed to poop on the sidewalk, but not allowed to eat at a restaurant without a vax card? LMAO.
I remember when some restaurants made you show proof of a booster (nevermind the fetty zombies out front)
People used to try to TRY and give me she it about not wearing a mask. I invited they to come and make me wear a mask every... single... time. But of corse they were all nothing but a bunch of ntuless and indignant betas about it.
Yeah you're lying. First of all I went to plenty of restaurants without needing Vax proof. Get a life people.
Vinay I worked at Opera Plaza our KP MOB, regularly came up from Civic Ctr BART when I was not riding my motorbike in from the East Bay. I did that for 13 years a few years before the Great Reset, Build Back Better. I have witnessed everything you have and observed an elderly women at Civic Ctr across from City Hall squatting and defecating into the sewer grate at 8:45am in the morning. I am no longer a California resident and I mourn this loss being a 4th generation Californian. I mourn the loss of the whole Bay Area where I grew up in. It is a microcosm of the world today, a fractal of semi-similar representations of what we have chosen to live in allow others to create the social programming that is what you are reporting on in the Bay Area and globally. It is a great Mental Illness of Today.
It’s controlled demolition. All these problems are fixable but there are forces that are pushing big cities in this direction and a lot weak-willed and weak-minded not to mention morally corrupt politicians who quietly go along with it and allow it to happen.
Criminals & perverts are running the Bay Area. I still luve in California but our city is opposite of any given c8ty in and around San Frannie, Sacramento, Dan Jose. Our leaders are conservative as are majority of the residents. SF, LA and the in-between cities are a disgrace to civilized societies.
Of a progressive world perhaps. Not "the" world.
I understand what you are pointing out.. I hold back on labelling, the cause for separation of the whole and One that I know we are. The great Mental Illness globally begins with the Story of Separation. for Power, Profit and Control @@jccusell
Please don’t vote Democrat
The human feces problem sounds absolutely disgusting. My daughter uses a wheelchair so anything she rolls over basically slings onto her forearms…. I can’t imagine the diseases present in the excrement that she’d physically encounter just trying to navigate from one store to the other. I would NEVER subject her to that kind of filth.
You wouldn’t find that in Calcutta. 😢
Candice, you're brilliant. Maybe someone could go after the city for failed ADA compliance. (and yeah, wow, I can see your point.... ew.)
Portland, Or was sued ...sidewalks blocked by tents... citzens had to wheel out into traffic. @@terrim777
Politicians and their friends want to make the city as bad as possible so they can buy up cheap real estate then they will make the city better and make a profit and earn big bucks.
Also all lies. I have lived in SF for over 3 years. Rarely ever see shit on the streets. Maybe 5 times and I am out around town min 4 times a week
Massive respect to you Dr Prasad. If people don’t tell it like it is it will continue to get worse at an increasing rate.
@teegees I wonder if that's true. The people of SF know better than anybody: they are *living* in it every day, and yet they keep voting for it.
@@johndoeboston123 The problem is there is no alternative, and the process is rigged. They tried to oust Newsom and he miraculously managed to survive. The DNC is arguably the most corrupt political establishment in the nation now.
I think the only way is for democrats to literally leave the party and vote INDEPENDENT. The two party system is the root of the problem. They’re both corrupt and bought by big business.
@johndoeboston123 Reichous indignance has become their undoing. The problem with liberalism is that it requires no shame. With no shame their is no humility. And with no humility there is no personal responsibility.
Telling it like it is is one thing. STOP voting for it!
Politicians and their friends want to make the city as bad as possible so they can buy up cheap real estate then they will make the city better and make a profit and earn big bucks.
Dr. Prasad, I really respect you. You talked about your job at the hospital. You still are a doctor no matter what! God Bless You Sir!
🤮
😂
You get what you vote for.
And the sad part is the constituents who reside in SF will continue to vote in favor of their demise because they sure as sh*t don’t have the courage to push back against the status quo.
Sad times.
Vinay is low key turning republican- or atleast something clearly to the right of a california democrat
@@abprepboy33 I highly doubt it. The BS hasn’t hit his personal doorstep yet. His ideology won’t change until his life/livelihood/life of a close family member or friend is threatened/jeopardized. That’s the only way people like him will ever learn.
@@ddfelder2 I think the way the left has completely politicized covid restrictions and mandates has him atleast questioning voting for democrats moving forward. Hes been going off about that for over 2 yrs now
Then they move and vote for the same crap leadership somewhere else
@@ddfelder2i agree just look at the studio he is in… this guy has enough money to be insulated from the problems…..
My wife and I lived in SF for 2 years and both worked for UCSF (she is a physician and I am a PA) and we watched your video and can verify everything that you said is spot on! Beautiful city...we lived in Inner Sunset and then Noe Valley, but the cons began to outweigh the pros so we ended up moving.
No
You were smart to leave. SF is Sodom. Now, think long and hard about what type of policies people voted for there, and decide whether you want to bring or support those same “bleeding heart” policies wherever you go.
Your anecdote about the parking ticket is absolutely on point. Here in Montgomery County, MD, a progressive suburb of Washington, DC, Our Nation's Capital, as well as DC itself, you can get a $100 speed camera ticket for exceeding the speed limit (which would be 25 or 30 mph) by 10-15 mph, and speed cameras are EVERYWHERE. "Harumf!" say the cautious and anxious. "Safety first!" Yeah, sure, except the only ones the cameras catch are those with legally registered automobiles who have not blocked out their tags with [illegal] light-reflecting plates and are licensed drivers. You would be surprised how many people this excludes! And it's true about all the mind-numbing, piddling rules that little legislators enact against the general population on the grounds of health, safety, and welfare. They control the behavior of people who can be controlled, with anything to lose, who generally try to do the right thing. They are utterly useless against the maniacs setting fires in parking lots at midnight, using local roads as speedways, tossing garbage into parks, and so forth, and no one even attempts to police them. This creates animus on the part of everyone who DOES have to conform, yet, not living under rocks, notices that a large swath of the population appears to be above the law. You'd have to be comatose to be anything but contemptuous of government. I am sure this is how the Roman Empire fell!
It was hilarious when the Montgomery County police officers complained that they were getting speeding camera violations when NOT on an Official reason for them to speed.
absolutely; they ticket those who can pay and don't waste their time with anyone else.
I lived in Howard Cty for 30 yrs. Those damn white camera vehicles are money making machines!
Moved to FL end of 2020. Took me a year to stop having a knee jerk reaction whenever I saw.a.white.car on a.shoulder. LOTS of white cars in FL.
That was my pet peeve with living in CA for 9 years. The two lane system with regards to laws and following them. You could be enjoying a day on the beach but god forbid you have a cold beer to sip or a cigarette. Which is fine until you realize that the bums camping a few yards away can drink, consume drugs in the open, have fires on. Want to renovate your home? You need to pass through hoops and follow a million rules (often conflicting) from different city agencies, yet no issues with homeless camps under important infrastructure like highways, with crime, use of flammable materials, open fires, electric stealing etc. The place has lost the plot.
One of my brothers got hit with a ticket on one of those traveling through to OCMD a few years back.
You are incorrect about not seeing any return on the money spent on homelessness. You are in fact seeing returns: a massive increase of the thing you're paying for.
Not possible to get a return on investment by cash rewarding criminals behavior with taxpayer funds. Human nature works OPPOSITE, to that. You get MORE criminal behavior by rewarding it.
From Marin, divorced parent lived in SF from my childhood. Spent a ton of time in SF in the 80s and 90s, moved permanently after college in the 2000s to be near family and left in 2011. Eventually made my way to a Red state and I've never looked back. But back in the day, I worked full time downtown for a decade, and visited it off and on for 20 as a kid years prior when my dad worked on California street. It was nice then. Exciting and beautiful. It is a literal shit hole now. My old neighborhoods, Telegraph, Russian Hill, Marina, Mission, Filmore, I wouldn't spend any time in if you paid me. Last time I was there, I took my 7 year old daughter to a show in a converted movie theater, walked around my old neighborhood (the month before lockdown). I had to jump over literal poop on the sidewalk. I was told by a Safeway employee not to use the Embarcadero Safeway bathroom because it was "dangerous." Drug addicts were using it as we waited outside. I could hear them. 10 years previously, i used to shop there in safety. People were happy. Now the streets were deserted or they were sleeping on the sidewalk (or worse). Nobody smiled, or even looked at you. My daughter walked within a foot a man high as f, a needle still stuck in his arm, as he reached for her. I pulled her away, SHOVED him away, and got the hell out of there. Thank Newsom, Brown, London, etc. All liberals. They did this to one of the most beautiful cities in the nation, if not the world. Shame on them. Not that they'd feel it.
You're a load of BS. The 80s were a time when the city was full of crime, gang warfare, and loads of unsafe areas. And the Marina is perfectly fine, your description of it is utterly wrong. The streets are clean. Mission is bad, but Marina? Get real.
And none of this has anything to do with Newsom, Brown, or London. You wanna blame someone for the homeless? Go ask Ronald Reagan, who helped empty the state mental hospitals, dumping loads of nuts onto the streets, and then as President, vetoed a health plane to provide mental care for these people.
Red states? Houston has TRIPLE the MURDER RATE of CA. TX and FL homicide rates are higher than CA. Most of the old confederacy, from Alabama, to Mississippi, to Kentucky, and Missouri, are just giant welfare states that suckle at the tit of the US government, and subject to rural decay and abandonment.
You can always point back to your younger years with nostalgia and ignore all of the bad things that were happening around you. I used to walk the streets of Baltimore and DC as a teenager at 2am. Was it safe? No. I got lucky. But things *felt better* back then.
I work in SF. I've worked in SF for 20 years. Most of the city is the same as it was decades ago, especially the Northwest. The parts that have gotten worse are near Tenderloin/Van Ness and the the South. At the same time, the embarcadero got massively cleaned up and went from gang neighborhoods to industrial office towers.
Parts of the city got worse, other parts got gentrified.
2010 > 2020
There was a former police officer I talked to in the YT comments a few years back. Good officer, put his life on the line to protect the citizens.
Long story short, he quit the force in SF after Newsom was tampering with their workflow. The mayor turned governor has been nothing but trouble.
Failed Leadership is the theme of this country, doc. It isn't just San Franshitco
No failed voters, they voted for this. They need to look in the mirror.
re: "is the theme of this country"
Well, in some areas, not all, yet. Outside the cities for instance ...
No… They are a special kind of stupid in San Francisco… You have no idea how insane these people are, if you haven’t lived there to witness it it
@@uploadJ Rural red state America is largely a sh!tshow of low life expectancy, alcoholism, opioid addiction, suicide, and rusted out, empty small towns, with many of the young people gong. Most of the old confederate states would be on par with a failed state like Somalia if the federal government wasn't keeping them on life support. Hell, Montana and Wyoming have TRIPLE the suicide rate of CA.
But conservative media and conservatives have an utter fixation on trying to bring down California since it is obviously the best state in the US. It's #1 in almost every economic category, gets 20x the private sector investment of the nearest two "successful" red states TX and Fl, is home to pretty much all of the innovation in the country, on every objective variable, except homelessness and cost of living, it's factually better.
Even on crime, its crime rates are lower than many red states, including TX and FL. Houston has TRIPLE the murder rate of SF. CA has lower violent crime than TX and FL. So let's get fscking real with this propaganda desperate conservatives are spewing.
CA has one real problem: it needs to build a lot more housing.
@@johndrumpf9888 re: "Rural red ..."
Ya. Now explain the new diseases in San Fran on account of what's appearing on the sidewalks. Keeping talking, maybe you will believe yourself? Ya, that's the ticket, blue stater.
If it isn't too late, and if you're in Nanci Pelosi's Congressional District, PLEASE run for her seat in 2024! The United States needs people like you to ask the right questions and represent the people.
I’m in rural CA. The majority of people in the cities are dumb as bricks. Don’t get your hopes up…..they will continue to vote for the worst candidates because they are that dumb.
Please have Michael Shellenberger, the author of San Fransicko, on your channel for a conversation about SF!!!
Thank you for sharing your first-hand observations with us. Too often, we hear what people who haven't actually been on the scene have to say about things. Good or bad.
you need to ask your self for whom you voted. you have labeled yourself a progressive and the current failure of SF is a result of progressive policies
Seeing someone so amazingly brilliant and grossly ignorant at the same time is a remarkable sight to behold.
@@ddfelder2couldn’t have said it better!
We have a little bit of this problem in Toronto, Canada, but it is dog feces and it is a dog owner problem. Not a lot of dog walking in the downtown core.
Even the idea that you can have a human feces problem in a large 1st world city, when even the 3rd world doesn't have this problem is deranged!
There's going to be a great reset, I just don't think it is the one Klause has in mind!
Progressives are lefty looney liberal commies undercover but I dont expact Dr. Vinay to understand that he is part of the problem or maybe he is a controlled opposition or is still too green to figure out
But this is the pattern through history. Civilizations arise and grow and die like plants do. A common sign of a dying civilization is the rise of the thinking man (ie a progressive) in the "world cities" ( ie cities divorced from local tradition, native people, culture).
These are symptoms of collapse, not the cause. The cause is the breakdown, inevitable, of the veneration of ancestors. I know that probably sounds strange but you can't explain water to a fish.
I’m so sorry your lovely city has become this way. I was there in 2018 and had a nice time. I live in Florida and am nervous about the mass influx moving here. We could be next. Even though there are several policies my governor has put in place that I disagree with, I feel really lucky to live here and am glad I voted for him. I hope you get someone that cares about your city and state and can work to bring it back to its former beauty❤️
I really enjoy listening to your views and expertise. You are not afraid to say what you think, and even though I suspect we are on far different sides of the political spectrum, I can imagine having a respectful debate with you.
I'm typing this about a 90 seconds into your presentation because you mentioned the "homeless" problem in San Francisco. This is one of my pet peeves. I would contend that San Francisco (and pretty much every large city in the US) does not have a "homeless" problem, but a drug addiction/alcoholism/mental illness/combinations thereof problem. You can't fix a problem unless you properly define it. You could give every one of the "homeless" in San Francisco a paid for million dollar home and 10 million dollars in the bank - and it wouldn't help but a few of them.
I think we do have a sort of a "homeless" problem. We have a "homeless" industry problem in this country. I'm sure San Francisco has a de facto "homeless" czar. I'm sure they get paid a very nice salary. I'm sure their office has a number of employees. I'd bet that their office has and continues to grow in size and budget. The director of XYZ will always need an assistant director...
Tell the doctor that homelessness is a symptom of a problem, not the problem.
So very true. I can personally attest to the accuracy of ALL of your statements.
@@LegioXIVGemina That's exactly what he just did...
And then there are non-profits or private “businesses” which should be thoroughly vetted before and scrutinized after they enter the industry. Are they even qualified for doing whatever it is they are not doing? Think not.
The CA homeless problem started with JFK and Ronald Reagan emptying the state hospitals throwing people with cognitive / mental issues out on the street. A huge chunk of the homeless problem has mental problems, or are ex-Vets we didn't take care of. Then in 1981, Reagan as president, vetoed a national mental health program that was designed to deal with this. Those people have been left in the lurch since. Then add on about 1/4th of the people having drug problems.
CA attracts homeless because the weather is warm and dry year around, even in winter time, it barely ever goes below 40, and a simple shelter can keep you alive. In the summer, you can practically sleep on the grass. If I was homeless, I'd go where I'm the least likely to die of exposure, and most likely to be able to encounter people I can beg -- good weather, decent population density/foot traffic.
Problems will persist when residents keep voting for progressive liberal politicians.
It's also a city with few residents with low-to-lower middle-class incomes able to afford living near the city centre. It consists of office space, businesses, expensive low-density housing and homeless people. The homeless don't care about housing prices or commuting time, they rather be located in the urban centre where they have their resources within walking distance.
Look at LA, being tough on crime didn't stop it from becoming Tent City.
nah.
we dont want to become florida or mississipii 🤣🤣🤣
dipsh!t lol
Bravo, you nailed it. I’ve worked in SF for 35 years. It gets worse every year. This city was incredible 20 years ago, so fun and beautiful. The people keep putting the same morons in office every election
No it wasn’t. It was Sodom then, it is Sodom now. If you’re wise, you’d take your family and run, and leave your “bleeding heart” in SF.
My son commutes into the city everyday, so I hear a lot about this, and it's just the same report as you are giving. He added that there is open air sex going on in the encampments, visible as one drives past.
Stay out of downtown (although he has to work there, doing work in high rises) and go to the neighborhoods.
On another note, you are a treasure, Vinay. I found you at the start of the pandemic and, in hindsight, you have been among the most reliable sources for scientific information on the pandemic, the clinical studies, and the pharmaceuticals used for it. I'll always check in with you.
Fondly, your neighbor in the Northbay.
I lived and worked in the Union Square/downtown San Francisco area from the early eighties to the early two thousands. It was wonderful back then. But every day now I thank my lucky stars that escaped from what now appears to be a hellhole.
I too worked there in the late 80’s. I worked at Benetton on opening day of San Francisco center. Was the greatest shopping mall to date with the semi spiral escalator. So sad it all deserted now as it was such a great atmosphere. Those were the good ole days.
I grew up in San Franscisco and lived there from 1968 to 1992. Thanks for your great update!
Vancouver seems to be on the same path as SF. I live in the GVRD and had to leave North Vancouver and move 50 km away to buy a house.
Vancouver is beautiful but the down town east side is a freaking drug infested war zone.
We used to go to downtown Vancouver on the bus as kids, now I won’t even drive down E Hastings street…..it is sad and disgusting in equal measure.
Vancouver, Portland, and San Francisco are all on the same path. I think Seattle is about to join em' as well seeing how disheveled it has become.
Burlington Vermont also :-( Retail theft under a certain dollar amount isn’t prosecuted. Some of the downtown stores have either left or moved locations to nearby city.
@@sanaon7453Seattle is such a cool city but I have heard it is getting ugly……”Serious Pie” is awesome pizza.
@@lwh5178it is like these cities are using the same playbook, I just today saw in Vancouver that someone stole an entire rack of clothing…..rolled it down the street and onto the Skytrain🙄
The DTES has always been sad and terrible - the worst bit now is that it’s spreading outside of the DTES. This is what happens when a city allows property speculation and money laundering to fuel its economy. Marginalized people get pushed even further. Never going to be able to get people off drugs and provide them with mental health support if they don’t have a place to live.
Same with SF … there was always bad areas but downtown use to be safe … the minute housing (purchasing and renting) became severely unaffordable all these problems started.
Well done summary! Really nice to have the insider viewpoint. I think the main thing, I’m guessing, is that you haven’t had the experience of being mugged, robbed, broken into, etc. Since it only takes a single event of those to change your life permanently, I hope you never experience it. I lived in San Francisco for a decade a long time ago, and it was pretty amazing. In the East Bay, we got held up at gunpoint, had nothing in our pockets, and managed to walk away. But that’s because we were in Alameda, which had a strong, law-enforcement presence - anyone in Alameda holding people up at gunpoint has to race for the bridges to get back to Oakland because police would block them off. Of course, pretty soon. Alameda became as unaffordable as San Francisco…
Thank you for talking about this. I've only been to SF once, in the early '90s and it was beautiful. My husband was stationed at Treasure Island and we had spectacular views. We enjoyed walking all over the city and never felt afraid. I think SF is like a lot of big cities - the politicians can clean up it up with the right incentives.
lol that you believe the politicians can “fix” it. Keep holding your breath for that one.
Your husband was stationed at treasure island and you were in SF once? Treasure island is like 4 miles from the city.
Take note Austin. If you do what SF, Seattle, Portland et al do, you'll get what they've got.
what? more prosperity safety and beauty than missiippii or alabama?
youre very stup!d arent you lol
Although I’ve never visited San Francisco, I reside in New York City. I comprehend when people argue, “Well, you voted for it,” as there are many things I don’t support through my votes here. However, in San Francisco, it appears that citizens bear significant responsibility by consistently voting for certain individuals, reaching a point where it seems unrealistic.
No accountability no change just like in medicine.
Food is medicine. Doctors are dope dealers for pharmaceutical companies.
I have said this so many times. You get what you vote for. California hasn't always been this way because leaders were voted in who actually cared about the people.
I lived 30 minutes from San Francisco in Livermore. I also attended San Francisco State University briefly in 2003. I transferred to California State University Chico in 2004. I loved a buffalo wing place in SF. ❤ It's horrendously expensive!! And I transferred to Chico because I wasn't a city girl. My older brother is an electrical engineer and used to love SF. He said SF is now over run with drugs and etc. He lives in LA Simi Valley now.
I moved to SF in 2014 and thought I'd spend the rest of my life there. But then Covid hit in mid-March 2020 and the reaction to it in SF was THE WORST in all of America. I left in Feb 2021 and have zero regrets. I do make it back about 4 times per year. While things have gotten a bit better, the failed leadership and policies have not changed. After APEC, we know for a fact that it can quickly be made better but the SF leadership clearly does NOT WANT IT TO GET BETTER.
I live 20 m east of San Diego. There used not to be a homeless issue here 10-15 years ago. It used to be more contained to downtown SD. Don't count on the problem not spreading to your suburbs. It will.
Homelessness is on the rise in Canada as well. This MUST be addressed. All the feces sounds like the next pllague. Love your show🇨🇦
People are just giving up on life, I'm afraid.
I live in Montreal and I have such wonderful memories of having visited SF about 20 years ago. I feel so sad to hear about what has happened to that beautiful city 😢
I lived at 16th and Guerrero in the Mission district in SF for 10 years, from 2010-2020. During that time I also worked at UCSF in the school of nursing in community health and worked in the Tenderloin and then for another community health organization in the Bayview.
We also served the under-served populations in the city. It was an intense ten years.
I have also lived in the Bay Area most of my life and still do, just not in the city. The city is not well right now and I hope it recovers. I agree that the leadership is quite frustrating and many of their policies make no practical sense. Something’s got to change…
I appreciate your work so much, Dr. Prasad! I listen to your podcast all the time. Thank you for shining the light of reason on and bringing meticulous analysis to every topic you cover! All the very best to you in the new year! 🙏🙌🎉
I’m a Bay Area native and I also lived at 16th and Guerrero in the early 80s. I walked everywhere and never feared for my safety. I visited the neighborhood about three years ago and was astonished at the degraded state it was in: ravaged by techies, litter everywhere, open IV drug use, the whole place smelled of human waste. I’m sure it’s worse now. It’s hard to see such a great neighborhood, and a beautiful city, being run into the ground.
Former Mayor Gavin Nusome now Governor of California could do something.
He will do this with America if he were to become President.
Thank you Dr. Prasad for all you do , glad you came around re the Covid vaxx.
I have visited SF many times over the years and always loved it for all the great things you mentioned. My last trip there was in 2019 and I had noticed an uptick in the homeless on the streets but was able to show our exchange student all around downtown without feeling any fear. I live north of Seattle and my office is in Ballard, the change here has been in lockstep with SF. Seattle and SF are prime examples of how not to govern and I stay as far away from downtown as I can but the problem is seeping out to the suburbs as well and just outside our state capitol in Olympia on I-5 is a huge homeless encampment that stretches for hundreds of yards alongside the freeway signifying, to me, the failed leadership of the west side of the state. I hope that the citizens of our respective cities wake up and run these criminal politicians out of office, but I won't hold my breath waiting for it. Thanks for your insight as a resident.
I have acquaintances in Ballard. How's it doing.
I will venture to say, that here in California, these criminal politicians have such a commanding hold on power, and ultimately they count the votes. They will stay in control.
Ballard is struggling, homeless encampments on the lower portion of 8th from Leary to 65th in the form of ramshackle RV's, usually a few tents under the north end of the 15th street bridge, there were lots of them on Shilshole along the rail tracks and they had to close the skate park down. There have been shootings on Ballard Ave to boot. It's not the Ballard of even 5 years ago when you could go to the Ave and eat and drink without worry of being harassed if you were parked on Shilshole. There has been a bit of progress in the last year but still sad times. @@GUITARTIME2024
The people celebrate sodomy. Until the people get right, and start shunning and outright castigating certain “behaviors”, things won’t ever change.
moved from Seattle my hometown to PDX 44 years ago when Seattle was voted " most livable city" which destroyed it.
Portland was provincial but a sweet small city with unique neighborhoods. It has been destroyed by greed.
The US is a failed state. India in fact so much of South and S.E. Asia is far more appealing. Portland is an open air mental institution as David Sedaris would say....
Appreciate your candor.With all due respect you can have SF.Having said that I remain a loyal subscriber.
I miss SF from the late 90’s and early Y2K. That’s when it was a lot cleaner and safer. I used to go to SF all the time bc I live in the deep South Bay Area
That’s when I lived there, in Glen Park. 1990s, early 2000 was a magical time. So beautiful. He’s right too, it is the natural beauty and weather that people will tolerate the poor leadership. I couldn’t take it anymore.
I lived in Potrero Hill and The Marina and moved away in 2007. I feel sad seeing what’s going on in SF, I really loved living there.
Thanks for providing real ground truth on this as some that lives and works there. The mindset of people that would think a hot dog vendor is a "problem" while you're allowed to urinate and defecate anywhere, steal items from stores as long as it's under 1K, terrible houseless issue, etc, is just bananas.
I'm impressed. I'm an MD/MS who gets my paycheck from the same system as yours, and I would never post these ideas publicly under my own name. Strong work. Maybe UCSF has a different vibe because there's no associated undergrad.
There is huge money in homelessness at the government level. Lots of 200k salaries to manage this so-called problem. Why else would you provide benefits to the homeless in downtown? Unless you wanted more of the homeless in downtown? These people don't survive on zero money, they get cash benefits, which promptly finds its way into drug dealers, pockets and eventually back into the pockets of government employees.
Nailed it. Follow the money!
thanks for this, i'm a lifelong SFer and agree. thanks for all you do at SFGH. You and Monica Gandhi saved me during covid
Former San Francisco resident (31 yrs) who left to India for retirement, it’s been great 👍 low cost, great people and what a country to practice yoga (Bhakti) and eat pure veg ❤
Pure vegetarianism is terrible for ya
I hear you
My uncles live in San Fran. One retired not long ago from the hospital you work at and my other uncle is a respiratory therapist at the other hospital.
Thanks for taking the time to talk about this. I honestly thought the whole faces thing was an exaggeration, but listening to you I see that it's not. As for the "nice neighborhoods" thing - that;'s precisely why thing got to this point. Rich people living in nice neighborhoods giving a literal shit about the city. I live in a small country in Europe and the idea of having people defecating in the street or having bad neighborhoods is inconceivable. We used to have some bad neighborhoods in a few cities back in the days when we were very poor, but never quite so bad as the States have it right now. And sure enough we;ve snapped out of it just as soon as our economic situation stabilized. BTW - California's GDP is probably 100 times that of my country, so...
Don't worry. The entire European continent (sans Hungary, I'm told) is headed to SFO mode. Give it a little more time.
@@hansangb The interesting fact is that the countries closer to "SFO mode" are the Nordics and Western Europeans. The further East you go, the less you have of it. Don't get me wrong, the "infrastructure" is there, but it's just not happening. Like for example in the summer of love of 2020, we had our very own protest. Politicians and police were fine with it (while meanwhile squashing the thousands protesting pandemic measures) and it was all over the media. Still, only 6 people showed up. They were very diverse, but only six of them in total...
@@alopam The speed of the decay shocked everyone I think. I used to go to SFO two weeks of the month. For YEARs. Always enjoyed the walk, the restaurants etc. It was such a vibrant city. And the company I worked for back then started the revival of SFO being HQ's instead of just San Jose/Santa Clara/etc. Even the then mayor came out to welcome the company to downtown. And many others followed suit. Now?? I'd NEVER go walking around there. And Dr. Prasad didn't address the car break-in's that are happening at mind numbingly high levels. Now we know what happens when you decriminalize crimes and paint the police as the enemy by the politicians. BWI, ORD, DCA, MSP and NYC they are all the same, just on different scale of depravity.
Just here to recommend "San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities" by Michael Shellenberger. A great book, which covers this topic.
I left SF during the pandemic after living there for 15 years. I definitely miss the natural beauty and weather. I DO NOT miss all the bad stuff you spoke about and I hear it's gotten worse since I left which is crazy because it was bad when I lived there. It's such a shame because when I moved there in 2005 the entire city was like a utopia. There was still gnarly shit you'd see from time to time but it was a bit more of the charm of the city vs it being everywhere all the time.
Thank you for your opinion and update. I lived in SF and Marin county for 3 years. It is beautiful! I enjoy hearing a liberal calling out what is wrong with these liberal policies. And calling SHIT shit! I agree with everything you said. Maybe you are transitioning into a libertarian.
The libertarians are all for drug culture which is the other part of the problem that he didn't mention. Drugs, open borders, permissive sex, are all part of the libertarian cocktail.
We live 100 miles east but the only reason we ever go to the Bay Area is either to an airport (there are 3) or Stanford for specialized medical services. We really try to stay east of Altamont pass whenever we can. Driving in the Bay area has always been awful, it was bad 60 years ago but even with the current freeway system it is still a place to avoid when possible.
Yes turning the wheels to angle back into the curb when parked on an incline will prevent the car from moving should the parking brake fail. I got my drivers license in 1986, it was one of the questions on the test. If you want to test it yourself, pull into a space then anchor the wheel against the curb. Then put the car in neutral -- the car wont move, because it's lodged against the curb.
Especially dangerous because of the steep hills.
Maybe you can be ticketed for not urinating or defecating at the correct angle into the curb.
Yes, the car tire angle strategy is totally effective. Facing uphill, turn the wheels into the road; facing downhill, turn into the curb.
You should leave. Seriously. I don’t know why you’re still there. You can get a job almost anywhere given who you are.
Edit: pretty wild that they’re whining about hot dog vendors being unhygienic, but shit on the streets is totally fine.
My cousin who lived in The City in the 1950's, would travel downtown with her mother to shop. Normally, you would get dressed up in very nice clothes because presenting a pleasant appearance was just good manners. You can get a sense of this by watching old restored videos of S.F. from that period on UA-cam. The funniest thing was it was important to wear white gloves when you headed out to downtown. White gloves were expected.
Just imagine a time-traveling shopper from the 1950s trying to shop in S.F. today.
My father-in-law was a tough tough S.F. Homicide Detective during that time. If a typical street denizen from today were to time travel back to to S.F. and try to "shop" downtown, he would probably get beaten...by the police.
Been watching you this whole time and didn't realize we were neighbors!
Kudos to you sir! I had zero expectations this video would be truthful...
Overall it sounds like living in SF is a septic tank. To each his own , I suppose.
About 15 years ago, my mother and I would take the BART into the city to do Christmas shopping. The BART would drop us off in Union Square. The city twinkled and the giant Christmas tree was magical! The only frustrating part of the trip was finding parking at the Park n Ride! We would shop until evening-time, have dinner, and then take the BART back to our car. Not a care in the world! Now, I fear those ventures are too dangerous 😢 San Francisco was truly a gem of a city and it’s heartbreaking what the incompetent lawmakers have done to it!
Chico has gone downhill. It’s nothing like how the little city was in 1995, when I moved here.
I can’t wait to get off work to watch this video but I’ll tell you that driving a 18 wheeler into San Francisco is pure hell. Never again….
I lived in SF for about nine months from the end of 2000 until the middle of 2001 and I knew immediately I had to get the hell out of there. Even back then, the city was disgusting. It was only about 10% as disgusting as it is now, but even that was too disgusting for me. I was always astounded that the locals just accepted how persistently disgusting that city is. It was normal for them and I sure as hell wasn't about to let it become normal for me. At the first opportunity, I got my family back to civilization here in Texas.
I don't think nice weather could keep me in a city that holds the person shitting in the street with higher regard than for my value as a citizen taking care of my family and paying taxes.
The weather there is intoxicating like an addicting drug which is why it's so hard for people to leave. I've never been anyplace else like it.
You have put your finger on it. The City has so many positive attributes that it allows failed leadership to persist.
You don’t need a study to know gravity will pull your car down hill. And if your tires point towards the curb, the worst thing that could happen is your car hits the curb.
VP kinda intellectualized himself outta this one. Lol He wants a study on turning your wheel
Its called sarcasm but apparently you don’t understand it. Relax, he wasn’t intellectualising. He was making fun of how ridiculous the situation is. I live in Lisbon, Portugal. Similar to San Fran, it has very steep hills. Never, ever there was a discussion about how the wheels should be positioned. It’s a non issue. Once you activate the break, the car is safely parked. No need to overthink and much less to write hefty tickets to ppl.
Thank you. It's nice to hear from your perspective as a professional who works in the downtown core but lives in one of its neighbours.
Except for the degree of natural beauty, it’s a lot like Atlanta (although we do have some pretty foothills in the background when you can see past all the smog). From block to block changes drastically, the homeless (crazy) population is out of control, but many of us live in the burbs around Atlanta and do ok. Our problem is that the inner city stuff keeps creeping further and further out. I’m about 40 minutes outside of downtown Atlanta and I’m starting to see foot traffic where ppl are walking to gas stations. I’ve seen this before, and when this starts the crime rates always go up. Apartments go in, crime goes up. Low-end rentals of any kind means higher crime rates, but esp apartments. So we’re looking to move in the next 2-3 years to try and get away from the inner city and its failed voting habits creeping in on us.
Thanks for your comments. Vis-à-vis the parking issue. Everyone who lives in a hilly city knows but flatlanders don’t know and I believe that your background. So going uphill turn your wheels out towards the road parking downhill you turn them in towards the curb. Put your car in neutral try both things and you’ll see that your car will stop up against the curb. Please let your followers know that you’re willing to learn something new. By the way, I’m one of your greatest admirer’s And, like you, a questioning internist.
lol I grew up in Dan Jose and often visited San Frannie. We were tested on parking uphill & downhill back in the day. I avoid SF like the plague it has become--I gave up shopping, visiting thecopera, favorite restaurants, visiting relatives and flying in/out unless left with no choice.
Interesting trivia .
Had no idea you lived in SF.
Nice recap of the current condition of SF. It's exactly what I've been hearing and seeing on independent news channels .
Last time I was there ( and Oakland ) was I think 4th of July of 2012.
Zero reasons to return back.
Shit belongs in the toilet.
As a victim of Seattle's liberal politics (lost my engineering job to Covid vaccine refusal) and cannot find another because of my conservative views, myself and my 14-year old, straight A student son are losing our home now that my savings have evaporated. I will soon be a very rare breed of homeless... a drug-free victim of circumstance. Sure, I'm not completely innocent, I could have complied and maybe should have... we'll see as I'm 10 months away from Social Security which will at least pay most rent :-)
Happy New Year doc, I do so enjoy your medical content, thank you.
Nice. Thanks for the honesty and the perspective. However, I think it is about time we stop blaming the dire situations caused by politicians- Vax mandates, Covid lockdowns, homelessness, s%!t on streets, drug addiction, millions of illegals pouring across the border, etc- on incompetence. Do we honestly believe these politicians are so incompetent? Imagine this scenario: A man owns a historic home, and zoning laws prevent him from selling it to a developer who wants to put a very profitable condo building there. One day his home burns to the ground. He is then able to sell the land to the developer. Then he gets appointed to the board of the same development company. Then we find out that the fire started because he was storing 500lbs of fireworks next to the fireplace. He tells the press “Ya know, in retrospect, I wish I had stored those fireworks elsewhere.” Do we believe he is incompetent? Or would believing that make us pathetic rubes?
What we are witnessing is not “incompetence.” This is deliberate. Follow the money.
As a retired Director at University of California, San Francisco and a former resident of Twin Peaks, I found your analysis of modern day San Francisco particularly interesting. Thank you for sharing your sense of the city today.
We left San Francisco after I retired from UCSF in 2011. San Francisco was a very different back city then with fewer problems. Although in those days the city leadership was also subpar and the cost of living was astronomical. If those two factors hadn’t existed it is likely that we would still live in San Francisco today-we loved San Francisco that much!
It’s disgusting what has been allowed in SF. I worked there around 2015,2016 and it was delightful. At that time downtown was vibrant, I wasn’t afraid to take the Bart and not was very walkable.
You ought to consider whether it is really failed policy or if it is policy working out Exactly as intended?
San Francisco is simply extraordinary. It’s beautiful, diverse and unique. It’s expensive for a good reason. It’s one of my favorite cities in the world.
We need Good Drs in St Louis!!!!
Turning your wheel isn't necessarily enough to keep your car from causing damage to others of course. If you can ensure your rear or front wheel is pressing against the curb while your steering wheel is locked your vehicle will have even more resistance to movement. I do this with my vehicle since putting it in Park and using the E Brake isn't enough on very steep hills. Otherwise, turning the wheel just determines if your car rolls back into traffic or the sidewalk.
I spoke with a guy who worked in a cafe in S.F. for a few years. In his 20's, he enjoyed it. When I inquired about people getting along, whether there was true Diversity, he nodded with a "Sure". My gut led me to get more specific, so my next question was: "Now what if a neighbor had a Trump sign in their window. Would people be fine with that and respect his choice, in the name of 'Diversity'?" He suddenly froze up, then said, "Uhhhh, no. That would be a problem." THIS encapsulates the hypocrisy in general, in the nation, in the Bay Area, in San Francisco. If you're gonna shovel sh*t, maybe clean up the streets first before pushing a pile of political feces towards me acting as if you are all inclusive. You're not. It's about Power, your Party, job security, word games, not problem-solving, not truth.
Yeah. I thought it was hilarious that he said there was true diversity and diversity of thought in SF. No way is that true. They are almost all leftist/liberals which is why their politicians are all crazy liberals/Democrats.
Great story about "diversity." I have a similar one. Some time back I was at a health freedom/anti vax mandates event carrying a sign that said "My body, my choice." A bunch of liberals (likely pro-choice in other matters) went, um, ape-poop when they saw my sign. Someone stuck his head out his car window and yelled, "You people are effing crazy!" (And he didn't say "effing.) I hollered back, "Thank you! We work hard at it!"
The turned car wheel strategy 100% works. You don’t need a study. You’re supposed to put your car in neutral and let is slide downhill a couple inches (with the wheel turned) until it comes to a stop. Then put it in park.
If you are so inclined, you can undo that motion (to relieve the pressure on your tire) then put it in park again with full confidence that when it DOES roll downhill, it will naturally stop (since you just successfully performed that experiment)
Thanks for the insight . Wonderful city but the news, reports and first hand account underscore my reticence to go back. I think you nailed it that the cityscape, features and weather allow incompetence and failed leadership to abound
Wow! Appreciate you sharing this! Thanks so much. Have a great day!
Seriously, how do you go eat lunch or dinner in a restaurant after you see shit on the street??
I have lived in SF for 35 years and agree with you 100%
Thanks for sharing. I’m so sick of everyone talking about how bad it is here. I keep saying it’s bad downtown but the rest of the city is mostly thriving and doing fine.
SF government is a failed government and has been for the past decade or so. I think most residents who aren’t directly affected by their garbage policies don’t realize that they are contributing to the problem by continuing to vote for these lame ass politicians 😏. At the same time the Dem political machine ensures that these candidates continue to run unopposed.
We are, in a sense, victims of our own virtuosity. That having been said, the problem with the homeless is more complicated than it looks.
Yes it’s an industry and there’s plenty of $ to be made working in it, but what I learned earlier this year is that the reason the City can’t remove homeless encampments from the street is because the Coalition for the Homeless-a very well funded (and likely Soros-backed) NGO has sued the City to stop that.
So the City is tied up in lawsuits and doesn’t have the resources to keep up.
What we are witnessing is controlled demolition being funded by outside forces trying to sow chaos and destruction by pushing these failed and ridiculous policies.
Lawsuits are expensive. Where does an outfit like the Coalition for Homeless get that kind of money? Think about it.
Yes. I agree. Its interesting to see how social media can form such a strong narrative that's fairly inaccurate.
It’s not thriving. This is nonsense. I know plenty of business owners in different neighborhoods. It’s just not. Stop lying.
@@malvolio01 I’m not lying. I’m going based on what I see and experience firsthand. Maybe “thriving” is being overly optimistic. Obviously not everyone is doing well but enough people across the spectrum appear to be doing fine.
@@Gr8flGrrl Small business owners are not. And I’m frankly tired of hearing this. I’m a third generation San Franciscan and I’ve been watching my city be destroyed since about 2007… both by tech and the corrupt/woke politics running the city. Most people in SF (since no one is from the city anymore) have a superficial knowledge of what’s going on and are fine with that. In my book they’re part of the problem. The unnecessary lockdowns, which are why I left, destroyed what was left of the city and it hasn’t recovered. Meanwhile nit wits take pictures of themselves flocking to Dolores Park and then post them online saying, “problems? What problems??” I’m in the city at least once a week. The outer neighborhoods have tents on the side walls in a lot of areas, graffiti, and boarded up store fronts everywhere. No, that is NOT San Francisco. It’s what y’all turned it into.
You don’t really need a study. What you need is to put your car in neutral and observe what happens when the car rolls into the curb. It works. It’s the same concept that was used when I worked on an aircraft carrier flight deck. Fairly simple idea.
On the flight deck, the flight deck crew will chock the wheels of aircraft to keep it from rolling while the aircraft is getting chained to the deck.
Vote with your feet.
But don’t continue to vote for what caused you to flee.
How mortifying it is to know one of our most celebrated cities have gone third world
It seems worse than 3rd world…
You are brave to speak out. My wife and I did a walking tour of San Francisco some 20 years ago and it was uncomfortable at times and it often felt dangerous to be accosted by some of the random individuals we encountered. I live about 100+ miles South of you and you would be welcomed here. We have a vibrant medical community and our service is top notch. The prices also match that but hey, we feel fortunate to have the ability to get it when we need it. MRY and SLO county. Come on down.
Sounds like paradise... hahahaha 😅😂!!!
You have the relaxed nature of someone who takes care of people-which is being open and honest and not trying to find an angle like the politician and lawyers- different way to be diff way to live- you can be at peace in your soul- keep going
I experienced the same thing taking classes in Berkeley. Got ticketed for not having a front plate, even though I placed it on the windshield. Meanwhile, there was a massive unsanitary homeless encampment on the freeway off-ramp and I saw a smashed window in the parking lot one day.
curbing your wheels does work. Try yourself. Put the car in neutral, take off the parking brake and let it roll until it stops. Curb your wheels first, of course.
I feel bad for laughing at your stepping in human feces story, but it is so bad it is almost unbelievable. I have found that San Francisco and Seattle are two cities that I once loved to visit, but recent developments have made them cities that I no longer want to visit.
My friend is a nurse RN at San Francisco hospital. I was absolutely shocked to hear his stories of regularly being bit, hit and attacked by patients. Crazy!