What are your thoughts on the city's future? I've seen a lot of doomerish articles of late, many did seem to leave during Covid etc. however I still know many who happily look to buy property or relocate to the city right now. Do you believe the core innovation drive is in trouble, threatening it becoming a new Detroit? (Or even just the city itself, while the suburbs continue to boom and do well in the future as the city collapses - like Metrodetroit?)
It’s a good question. I believe SF will rebound as a city, and that it remains the indispensable center of the global technology ecosystem.
My level of certainty is such that I’m personally betting my livelihood and savings on it by building a startup here.
It’s really hard to uproot an ecosystem where multiple stakeholders are co-located (founders, developers, ML engineers, VCs, accelerators, executives experienced with tech business models) and move them elsewhere.
The specific cultural factors around openness to experience, centrality to internet culture, and global orientation are difficult to find or replicate in other cities.
But the short term disruptions are going to be painful due to the shift to remote work.
Right now this is compounded by very bad policy (saying this as a registered member of the DSA. This is not a left vs. right issue.)
We need basic enforcement of laws and provision of city services to allow the city to recover in a reasonable time frame.
I think the city is still great - there has been general doomerism about SF for literally half a century at this point: hippies, AIDS, the 90s crime wave, dotcom, gentrification, WFH. A lot of this is motivated more by what SF represents (the American brand of corporate liberalism) than what it is.
Crime is worse but not unlivably so. We have wonderful innovations like Facebook, Citizen, Nextdoor, and Ring to thank for the increased spotlight. While tech decamped from the Bay Area during the pandemic, and SF commercial real estate values are in trouble, plenty of companies are still operating here and people do still want to live here.
SF offers an urban lifestyle/environment you can’t get elsewhere in the Bay Area which draws young tech workers and hence companies. The crime would have to get much, much worse to threaten this. Others may chime in that it got too much for them, but this is a general trend as people hit their 30s and start families. The bigger threat is if young people don’t even give SF a shot at all.
Let me be clear that I love it here and will never leave. It’s an amazing city with incredible innovation, a massive tech ecosystem, walkable streets, fantastic parks, easy access to nature.
But our leadership has gone totally head-in-the-sand on public safety.
SF recovered from the prior cycles due to deliberate efforts by many smart committed people over many years. Now it’s our turn to drive a recovery.
And we can only do that if we can be honest with one another about the challenges to be faced.
What are your thoughts on the city's future? I've seen a lot of doomerish articles of late, many did seem to leave during Covid etc. however I still know many who happily look to buy property or relocate to the city right now. Do you believe the core innovation drive is in trouble, threatening it becoming a new Detroit? (Or even just the city itself, while the suburbs continue to boom and do well in the future as the city collapses - like Metrodetroit?)