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Originally Posted by Crawford
I remember, back in the late 90's, a really raunchy scene along Market near City Hall. Human waste, porn and tourist ripoff shops, homeless washing in plaza fountains, that sort of thing. It was pretty intimidating. I haven't walked that stretch in ages but it has to be somewhat gentrified. But I've never taken MUNI, so maybe disorder has worsened on transit.
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So-called "Mid-Market" has always been the scariest place in San Francisco as far as I'm concerned. It's being massively rebuilt now and of course it's where the city induced a number of tech companies--Twitter, Dolby Labs, Square, Spotify--to move in with tax breaks. But I honestly can't say the street scene is that much better though my hopes are up for when all the new condos are finished and people move into them and demand police action (in that regard, I noted a pair of beat cops on every block on a recent walk through the area and that's new).
The situation on transit is much bigger than Mid-Market. BART, as you may know, shuts down for a couple of hours from just after midnight to 5 AM and the transit cops are now kicking all the homeless off trains at the end of the line suburban stations where they have no place to go but an empty parking lot. Local libs are wringing their hands. The point being the situation is affecting even the most remote suburbs now.
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And it's probably a bit different than NYC in that Uber/Lyft didn't really change things here, they just made existing systems more efficient. NYC has had "rideshare" since forever, just car services you used to call. Pretty much all larger professional firms in the city have used "rideshare" for employees working late since forvever. You work past seven, you get a "black car" home, even way back in the 70's-80's.
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What's always been very different about NYC and SF is that in NYC you could stand briefly on almost any corner of Manhattan and wave down a cab fairly easily. SF engineered a shortage of cabs such that it was almost impossible to get one in any kind of bad weather or rush hour--any time but noon on a sunny day. Many times i used to just walk to some downtown hotel where they were all lined up waiting for airport fares.
Uber/Lyft stepped into the cabless breach, supplying the need that was obvious to everyone except the buffoons running the MTA (Metropolitcal Transit Authority).