AP: San Fran’s real problem is a lack of diversity

We’ve written about the ongoing decline and fall of San Francisco here more times than I can count. It’s an ongoing tragedy that shows no signs of fading in the foreseeable future. Between homelessness, crime, drug overdoses, and the closing of businesses, things certainly appear grim. But this week, the Associated Press decided to paint some lipstick on that pig and offer a solution. You know what the City by the Bay really needs, right? More diversity. That should fix things right up. But in this case, it’s probably not the sort of “diversity” you’re thinking of. Rather than racial or gender or even trans diversity, San Francisco needs diversity in housing. That would supposedly bring back the people who now avoid the downtown area like the plague.

Empty storefronts dot the streets. Large “going out of business” signs hang in windows. Uniqlo, Nordstrom Rack and Anthropologie are gone. Last month, the owner of Westfield San Francisco Centre, a fixture for more than 20 years, said it was handing the mall back to its lender, citing declining sales and foot traffic. The owner of two towering hotels, including a Hilton, did the same.

Shampoo, toothpaste and other toiletries are locked up at downtown pharmacies. And armed robbers recently hit a Gucci store in broad daylight.

San Francisco has become the prime example of what downtowns shouldn’t look like: vacant, crime-ridden and in various stages of decay. But in truth, it’s just one of many cities across the U.S. whose downtowns are reckoning with a post-pandemic wake-up call: diversify or die.

The AP at least recognizes that people and businesses have been fleeing. Investors are walking away from their shares in real estate. Boarded-up storefronts are commonplace. So to address that, they propose cleaning up many of those abandoned businesses and repurposing them as housing, both public and private. They reason that the more people who live in the downtown area, the more people will return to mingling in the streets and shopping or looking for entertainment options.

On paper, that doesn’t sound entirely crazy. But who is going to accomplish all of that? The city itself is pretty much bankrupt and you would need to attract investors. But it’s the private sector investors who are the ones who are fleeing. Whether you’re seeking to return San Fran to what it was before all of this started or “reimagine” downtown as a more residential area, people will not fill up those spaces until you address the conditions that are keeping people indoors or driving them away today.

Keep in mind we’re talking about a city with so much “diversity” that a group of CNN reporters had their equipment stolen from their car while they were trying to interview people about the crime rates. The city is on track to have nearly double the number of overdose deaths on the streets (primarily from fentanyl) than has ever been seen before. Most of the people inhabiting this reimagined version of San Francisco will need to be pedestrians because it’s not safe to park your car anywhere. People are urinating and defecating on the sidewalks (something the state reparations task force wants to legalize) and used syringes and broken crack pipes litter the walkways.

Who wants to move into the downtown area under these conditions? Who wants to raise their children there? Those boarded-up buildings didn’t empty out simply by some random chance. People don’t want to live there because the downtown area is simply unlivable. Watch some of the interviews with remaining residents that the reporters from Fox News have been airing. These are people – primarily liberals – who love their city and would love to be able to stay, but they’re giving up hope.

And yet neither the state nor the municipal government is willing to apply the “tough love” that would be required to clear out the streets, clean things up, and restore order. They refuse to admit that their own progressive policies have brought the city to its knees. And before long, San Francisco may well be so far gone that it will be too late to ever bring it back. If that happens, it will become a west coast version of Baltimore. An enclave of recipients of government aid who have to dodge gang wars to get from one place to another. It’s a crying shame to watch it happening.