“For the last 10-15 years, I have watched this city degenerate into a third world hellhole. Hundreds of people live on the street, sleeping in the doorways of businesses and homes. The parks, including Golden Gate Park, are filthy and unusable, due to being infested with psychotic vagrants and the petty criminal class of transients that drift in and out. We spend almost $200 million yearly on “the homeless”.”

Homelessness actually became a huge problem 25 years ago, not the last 10-15 years. Yes, the city had really stupid cash/handout/welfare policies for a long time that made things worse. But Mayor Newsom instituted a new “Care not Cash” program 2 1/2 years ago and it has been a major success, decreasing the homeless population by over 2,200 people in that short time period. My school is in the tenderloin, one of the worst parts of the city for homelessness… and the improvement has been noticeable over the last two years.

“The schools are disastrous. Gang infested, violent, understaffed, undersupplied, and governed by a school board obsessed with political correctness.”

If I were a conservative I wouldn’t be criticizing the schools so much since SF has been using one your favorite policies for the last four years: vouchers. The schools aren’t that bad. The gangs are only in hunters point, a small area on the far southeast side that is being gentrified as we speak.

“The city “government” is dominated by agenda-driven leftists who regard business as evil, corrupt, and good for nothing except paying taxes for social programs for “the poor” and “immigrants”.”

Regrettably this has been a big problem with SF. The leftists have a 7-4 majority on the board of supervisors and constantly oppose lots of the pro-business, pro-development policeis of mayor newsom. They also do stupid stuff all the time, like preventing the USS Iowa battleship from becoming a historical museum at an SF Pier in order to protest the Iraq war (after Dianne Feinstein spent a long time lobbying to get the Iowa to the Port of SF).

But the leftists are losing power. Supervisor Daly almost lost his seat in a closely contested election for his SOMA District. As areas like SOMA gentrify more with hard working, capitalistic young people, the leftists’ grip on power will loosen.

“The city’s only growing areas are in high-end retail around Union Square, and in the huge new developments of condos and apartments near the Giants Ball Park. Needless to say, the residents there do not share the lefty views of the rabble.”

Fortunately this is not true. The leftists try hard to stop development but it is still happening in lots of areas. Most areas of the city are already super gentrified like Potrero Hill, Marina, Seaside, Sunset, Richmond, Noe Valley, Nob Hill, and Russian Hill. The few bad areas have been gentrifying a lot and are getting smaller and smaller - like the tenderloin and SOMA.

“The city is no longer the center of the Bay Area, although it’s leaders insist it still is. Those of us who live around the Bay have no reason to come here anymore, as all the affluent suburbs have fine restaurants and cultural activities that used to be available only in the city.”

This is almost true. SF is still definitely the cultural center of the bay area - in terms of Art, Concerts, Sports, and civic events like Fleet Week. It is also still the financial center… even though silicon valley and san jose have higher per capita income, all the major invest banking companies and big law firms are still based out of downtown SF, not San Jose.

“San Francisco is becoming, simply, irrelevant.”

You can’t really say that when SF’s congressional representative is now the Speaker of the House…

3 years ago I was just finishing up a job interview in downtown San Francisco and I had stopped and got some Starbucks coffee after said interview. I placed my leather presentation folder and coffee on top of a large covered public garbage can so I could grab my cell phone and make a call.

Right when I had done that a homeless guy comes up to the garbage and stated, “Beats going in the streets man!” He proceeded to whip out his happy-fun-stick in broad day light and urinated directly into the garbage can.

I worked on 1st street for a time as a sales force recruiter and every morning I had to walk by an alley where homeless people used to defecate. During the summer heat the smell would travel throughout the whole block.

I have approached many of SF’s homeless population and find that almost 80% are transients coming from other locations in or out of state. I am a “recovering” alcoholic/addict so whenever I see a homeless person in a drunken/drugged stupor, I approach them and try to tell them that there is a way out of that existence.