Is San Francisco really that bad?

[KerrKid]

6 people have died in the last 4 months hiking Mt Baldy. That makes the Mt Baldy wilderness (just outside Los Angeles) more dangerous than Fishermans Wharf.

I took these pics up there a couple of months ago. Incredibly, like my visits to SF I survived.

Sure only 6 people died, but it looks like everyone who reached the summit lost their hair.

 

[Huss]

Sure only 6 people died, but it looks like everyone who reached the summit lost their hair.

Don't make fun of dead bald people.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I

Can’t wait to see the pictures!

I may even post a few. This morning we went to Coit Tower where I wore the Hasselblad 503 CX with the 30mm C Fisheye lens and the Hasselblad 903 SWC. The guard opened windows for us so I could take photographs with the Fisheye. We then went to the gate at the south end of Chinatown and walked Grant almost to the end, still wearing the two cameras. Unusual for me I took a lot of street photography with both cameras. Then to Fishman's Warf. All by foot and public transit. I was not mugged, even once.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Unfortunately, SF has become a dump. I would not take expensive camera equipment into the city. Never leave bags of any sort in your vehicle. Criminals know there are limited consequence to their crimes so theft has become rampant. LA is even worse.

Actually while never dirty, San Francisco and its streets are the cleanest I have ever seen them.

 

[Vaughn]

My nephew had a tour bus run over his car in SF. Looking up the numbers, in 2021 the number of murders in SF was twice as high as the number of deaths caused in vehicle accidents (and half of those were pedestrian deaths) in SF in 2021. Walk aware!

I was on Baldy over a half century ago...

 

[Huss]

I


I may even post a few. This morning we went to Coit Tower where I wore the Hasselblad 503 CX with the 30mm C Fisheye lens and the Hasselblad 903 SWC. The guard opened windows for us so I could take photographs with the Fisheye. We then went to the gate at the south end of Chinatown and walked Grant almost to the end, still wearing the two cameras. Unusual for me I took a lot of street photography with both cameras. Then to Fishman's Warf. All by foot and public transit. I was not mugged, even once.

I am looking forward to seeing the pics!
Sorry that you are having a good time in San Fran.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Sirius - Why bother mugging anyone carrying a Hassie? The thieves at least need something a pawn shop would be interested in, and SF doesn't cater to squares.

And Vaughn - I've actually seen two hit and runs of pedestrians by Muni buses! That was a long time ago, back when I had a downtown gallery gig. But even now, I don't think Muni hires anyone without proof of several DUI's and couple of hit and runs, especially involving wheelchairs. That's the real reason the smash and grab thieves and purse snatchers need to learn to run so fast, before the bus gets them.

 

[Sirius Glass]

We walked to Fisherman's Warf for dinner and back with a camera.

 

[Huss]

We walked to Fisherman's Warf for dinner and back with a camera.

Wait, you got dinner and a camera?

 

[Sirius Glass]

Wait, you got dinner and a camera?

Of course, some of us are talented.

 

[Vaughn]

Sirius - Why bother mugging anyone carrying a Hassie? The thieves at least need something a pawn shop would be interested in, and SF doesn't cater to squares.

And Vaughn - I've actually seen two hit and runs of pedestrians by Muni buses! ...

1999, I was in SF with the Boys, walking the streets. The Boys were not two yet and the Mother was at wherever the place was she needed to pickup an emergency passport for one of the boys, as she had wanted to save a few dollars and did not 'rush' the original passport application...and her plane, with the boy, flew out that evening to Australia for a visit to home. I wandered around SF pushing the triplet stroller and ended up in some sketchier parts of town. I kept moving and it seemed I always heard laughter behind me.

Back home on my one or two 2-hour walks a day pushing the Boys, I often thought I should walk by the high school and hand out condoms to the students. The triplets would provide a not-so-subtle argument for birth control.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

No need for melodrama, in either direction. I had posted already about the fact that SF has high amounts of 'property crime' and relatively low (compared to many other cities) in crime with the use of force or violence. And then we have stories (in 2021, 2022) about pro photographers having gear stolen, which peaks the interest on this forum. SF is relatively low in murder, rape, kidnapping, etc. 'Safe' depends upon where one's fears lie.. It is apparent that robbery of photographers is happening all over the country, not just in SF...Google hits on 'professional photographer robbed'...Boston, Baltimore, Seattle, Miami, Rio, Mumbai, a city in UK, a city in Namibia

The property crime used to mostly be for tourist cars with stuff visible inside, while the tourists were occupied visiting the sights, but property crime is increasingly against cars parked in residential neighborhoos that have no tourist hotspots, and garages and the connected homes are being broken into. And the increasing number of homeless who live on the streets or even now are moving more often into the entryways of private homes in the residential areas or using them as toilets. And there was a recent story about thieves using a heat gun to gain entry to a garage and its connected home area upstairs. And thefts of catalytic convertors, for their precious metals abound all over, not just in SF.

How is a heat gun used to gain entry to a garage?

 

[DREW WILEY]

Amateurs .... dry ice or freon works better.

 

[faberryman]

Amateurs .... dry ice or freon works better.

Are you referring to the efficacy of condoms?

 

[Tom Taylor]

Read the Comments

 

[faberryman]

Read the Comments

The question I have is why is the opinion writer living in California if it is such a lousy place to live. At least the 791 commenters who think California is a lousy place to live moved out of California. Which kind of makes you wonder why they are reading and commenting on opinions published in the Sacramento Bee.

 

[VinceInMT]

....commenters who think California is a lousy place....

California-hating is a full-time activity here in Montana. Pretty much every ill in the state is blamed on Californians who have moved here. If they could build a wall, they would.

 

[Huss]

Read the Comments

Why read comments from people who don’t live in CA? You notice that every single one of them who apparently moved now live in a utopia with no crime, no pollution, a pint of beer for a nickel and everyone open carries?

Anyway this thread originally was is it ok to visit San Fran. And we have our man Sirius with his Hasselblads on the ground, soon to report back.

 

[madNbad]

Why read comments from people who don’t live in CA? You notice that every single one of them who apparently moved now live in a utopia with no crime, no pollution, a pint of beer for a nickel and everyone open carries?

Anyway this thread originally was is it ok to visit San Fran. And we have our man Sirius with his Hasselblads on the ground, soon to report back.

They used to move here but now they're shopping for the new utopia.

 

[Huss]

They used to move here but now they're shopping for the new utopia.

Kalifornians ruined Oregon. And Washington. And Montana.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Walked to Fishermans Warf and then to Pier 39 and back early this morning with a camera. If I said hello to the panhandlers first, they were polite and some I had a nice chat as I walked by and was not hassled. Later when to Pier 39 and then Ghiradelli Square with a camera and back to the hotel. No problems.

 

[BradS]

Yup. People outside of California, some who've seemingly never even been here, just can't spew enough hate for California and the people who live here....as if we're all the same and we all think alike.

This is California...


People live in this shack. It is less than a mile from my house.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I've seen that shack, Brad. But the whole Sonora area is now way way too big a city for me to still call a country drive. I have more in mind where your GPS auto navigation device (which I don't even have, thank goodness) tells you: "Turn off one-lane rutted highway fifty yards further, turn right on tractor route in five hundred feet, duck for 30-30 fire, continue through pasture with charging angry bull, turn left, dodge for shotgun blast, try to avoid boulder on left and tree on right, but failing to do that, run the final three hundred yards before the bull catches up with you, and your photography destination will be just behind the outhouse; remember to step over the rattlesnakes."

But no joke : Add a couple of gas pumps in front of that shack, and it looks almost exactly like the nearest general store where I grew up;
the the couple who ran it actually lived in the back of the tiny building too!

 

[VinceInMT]

Kalifornians ruined Oregon. And Washington. And Montana.

How did Montana get “ruined?” I look around and don’t see it.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I've had rocks thrown at my truck in Montana due to California plates and stereotypes about palm-treed beaches. But I grew up in California right next to wilderness rougher than anywhere in Montana, and even lower in population density, and literally among cowboys and Indians. So much for stereotypes.

But they do have a right to complain when people move in from out of state who drive up local real estate prices so much that they can no longer afford to live in their own home towns. And this encourages that type of hideous developer suburban sprawl termed "Californication". Once a McDonalds shows up, the handwriting is on the wall; once a Walmart gets built, it's already way too late. But ironically, that's what a lot of the California-haters insist on having.