zlacker

Empathy created the housing crisis?

>>james4+(OP)
prop 47 and free syringes.

The housing crisis extends across the bay area and SF is noticeably shittier then most places int he bay area. So it's likely not the housing crisis that is the reason why SF is particularly bad.

>>james4+(OP)
Yes. Bad feel-good policies are the vast majority of the problem

>>ninety+C
San Francisco doesn't even have free Narcan, which many US cities do. And of course syringes will flood the streets when you don't have safe injection sites. SF needs to learn from Portugal on how to address the drug crises. Also, it just needs to build denser to accommodate housing demand.

>>notthe+e2
> San Francisco doesn't even have free Narcan

It does: https://www.sf.gov/information--overdose-prevention-resource...

>>Redoub+D
Thank you for expounding. I can only assume we're talking about empathy from the real estate lobbyists who control housing policy.

>>ninety+C
People always say this, and yet it just seems more like SF is the tip of the spear to changes that the rest of the area faces. I remember when people were decrying the homeless epidemic in SF only for El Camino in South Bay to start having significant homeless population spring up. And then LA’s housing problem also got markedly worse. And people decry that it’s “Californian” politics only for the same problems to pop up later in their neck of the woods. These are growing systemic national and global problems with our social fabric falling apart and the response for many seems to be “take care of me first”. You even see it with the huge political backlash globally.

>>james4+(OP)
If you want to focus on the housing crisis aspect and not the policies that enable addiction, then the answer is still yes.

Capped property tax increases is a moronic empathy law based on “protecting little old ladies on fixed incomes”. It has resulted in an incentive structure that means all home owners are incentivized to block all new housing and keep the value of their homes sky rocketing.

The second level of empathy laws causing the housing issue is all if the ones that empower NIMBYs to stop housing developments.

“Preventing gentrification”, “stopping the character of the neighborhood from changing”, “delays for a 1 year impact study” are all empathy motivated laws that caused the housing crisis in Cali.

>>vlovic+M5
> People always say this, and yet it just seems more like SF is the tip of the spear to changes that the rest of the area faces.

This is not correct. SF gets a superset.

Car break-ins in SF were commonplace 25 years ago. They never became bad in the South Bay. SF just has legitimately bad policies that directly cause a lot of their issues.

The housing crisis is about the only thing it has in common with the South Bay and that’s because it is a state issue.

>>kortil+A8
Except housing is a growing problem in other states & countries as well.

Car break-ins are because the police were not doing anything. They have started trying to finally do something about it and made a dent: https://www.sf.gov/news--increased-enforcement-against-car-b...

But keep in mind that police only ever make positive progress on policies in order to extract concessions from the city

> "I'm optimistic about the progress we've made in reducing the number of auto burglaries in San Francisco, but this is just a start," Chief Bill Scott said. "I want to thank our officers for their tireless work. The SFPD hopes to build on this progress with additional tools, like automated license plate readers, to continue making arrests and holding perpetrators accountable."

> The City has also reached a 5 year high in applicants to join SFPD, which is essential for adding more police officers back.

Oh look, the police force is becoming more politically powerful & crime is down. Wonder how that happens.

>>james4+h4
The state controls housing policy.

>>robert+if
Everyone is so informative here. Thank you.

>>kortil+48
You are right. Empathy in the literal sense of only being able to relate with others that have the same experiences and interests. I appreciate that clarity.

>>james4+(OP)
Housing is too expensive for many people in many places. The normal healthy response to housing being too expensive in an area is to live in another area. Only a very small minority of people who can't afford housing in a place they'd like to live respond by becoming homeless in that place. It's simply not a rational response to housing being too expensive.

>>vlovic+M5
SF literally is the tip - it’s a peninsula.

Most other cities that have large homeless populations aren’t on a peninsula so they can eventually shuffle them to places that are “out of sight, out of mind.”

>>james4+wj
To be direct, construction would look much more like Austin, which has lowered rents by actually builds things, if your vision of the case were true.

https://x.com/sp6runderrated/status/1879257360344199255?s=46...

To act like housing policy is controlled by developers, even in this contemptuous jest you exude, is delirious and is the remainder of the problem with San Francisco.

>>ninety+C
Because it was re-using the dirty syringes that was keeping people off the streets before.

>>james4+h4
I promise you, its not the "real estate lobbyists" who fought to block subsidized housing for teachers in the Sunset.

>>lupusr+4u
It's not easy to leave your social network, job, and home to look for better opportunities while living hand to mouth. Things happen unexpectedly.

And it's not particularly insightful to point out that people who are homeless often have difficulties coping with the demands and challenges of life.

>>Redoub+Q71
I misinterpreted you as implying a libertarian anti-state argument. I had thought I was returning the same energy.

My apologies.

>>james4+n52
I was the person you replied to, and there was no "energy", whatever that is, in what I said. Just: you blame the state for state corruption, because we pay them taxes to not be corrupt.

>>vlovic+pb
The police are part of the city policy and politics. I’m not sure what your point is

>>james4+3k
Not quite, anti gentrification empathy is about relating to poor people. Same with the property tax cap.

It’s empathy for people with problems you don’t fully understand the cause of that turns into ham fisted destructive regulation.