San Francisco is in the midst of a “doom loop” threatening to ruin the city’s economy, according to FOX Business. The once-lovely city is now beset with crime, violence, homelessness, open drug markets and lawlessness.
People can work remotely “forever” Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, famously said at the beginning of the pandemic. Since then, it has led to a remote work movement nationwide. San Francisco, one of the largest tech hubs in the world, was the biggest and most ardent proponent of working from home.
Unfortunately, this trend had unanticipated drawbacks and consequences. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the prevalence of remote work could cause systemic issues, including crushing the finances of the transit systems, such as BART, and eroding the tax base, as fewer people coming into the city will cause businesses to close their doors due to the lack of customers. The deserted streets become a breeding ground for crime, drugs and bad behavior. With far less tax revenue, police, firefighters, teachers and other public workers will lose their jobs.
The hostile environment, including the high living costs, exorbitant rents for apartments and pricey homes, push people and businesses to leave the area for more accommodating locations that offer lower taxes, better schools and safety. As people leave, a downward spiral occurs. Fewer people in the streets lead to them becoming vulnerable to bad actors.
Senseless Violence, Crime, Drugs And Lawlessness
Bob Lee, a tech executive, founder of Cash App and CEO of MobileCoin, was attacked, stabbed multiple times by a stranger and died Tuesday.
According to CNN, “San Francisco has been grappling with an apparent uptick in crime. Preliminary police data reports 12 homicides in San Francisco this year, an uptick of 20% compared to the same time period in the previous year. In total, there were 56 homicides in San Francisco in 2022, which is the exact same number of homicides the city saw in 2021.”
There have also been high rates of property crimes, such as theft, break-ins, burglaries, robberies, assaults, and carjacking. The crime rate in San Francisco is 54 per 1,000 residents.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that a poll of 1,653 city residents found that over the past five years, 45% of San Francisco residents had been the victim of theft and 24% had either been threatened with violence or the victim of a violent crime. Sixty-five percent of respondents reported that the quality of life in San Francisco is worse now than when they moved there. A separate poll conducted by the San Francisco Standard in 2022 found that citizens cited homelessness (68%), safety and crime (59%) and the cost of living (50%) as the most serious problems affecting residents.
Loss Of Business And Revenue
With workers not going into the office, there are about 23 million square feet of vacant commercial real estate in downtown San Francisco. The situation is exacerbated by startups being created in other cities, tech companies leaving their San Francisco office and fewer workers, as more than 165,000 have been laid off.
The cost of remote work is in the billions. With a dwindling in-office workforce, San Francisco workers are spending around $3,567 less per year on concerts, sporting events, entertainment, dining and shopping. Similarly, New York City businesses are losing customers and revenue with people working remotely. The workers coming into Manhattan are spending $12.4 billion less per year than before the pandemic, according to a Bloomberg report citing data from Stanford University economist Nicholas Bloom’s WFH Research team.
Source: Forbes
