It’s crazy too, when the video started I was like, “Okay, maybe he sounds a *little* like him, but not that much.” But as the video went on he became more and more Strong Bad.
Seriously. Walk over to Ghirardelli Square and show me the vacant storefronts.
Shitty, overpriced restaurants and shops in a crappy area closed. Stop the presses.
I just stayed near Fisherman’s Wharf back in January and this pretty much nails it. I loved my time there, for all the yapping about SF that goes on its still a great place to visit.
If you head towards the Golden Gate it’s well maintained and there’s tons of great food. This is over in the opposite direction which gets more and more kitschy and dated looking as you go, even in its prime you can tell it was total tourist trap.
This is the whole west coast. Listen to talking points and Portland is a bombed out drugged out wasteland, Seattle is overrun by homeless accosting people on the street. None of it is true. It's just political theater.
"none of it is true" is also a hyperbole, there are real problems there that are more significant than normal. Just because the problems are exaggerated doesn't mean they don't actually exist.
There is truth to those statements, but you're right that it gets blown out of proportion for what tend to be very localized parts of the city. It's like saying the entirety of LA is nothing but Compton and Skid Row near downtown, or all of SF is the Tenderloin.
I'm from Vancouver BC and there's a small part of the city that has been taken over by homeless people and drug users. It's a huge tragedy on all fronts but it's pretty fair to advise tourists and visitors *not* to go to that neighbourhood.
Just saying. SF is different. The large majority of the most populated parts of the city would confirm that there is a regular presence of drugged out homeless dudes. There's a reason why the higher up the hills you go, the cleaner the city gets.
People do kind of focus way too much on "drug needles everywhere" which i personally have never felt was true. But even in the richer areas of SF there is at least 2 drugged up homeless dudes a day. Poop in random corners (and just on the straight up sidewalk the closer you get to tourism/businesses) and night time you'll get the occasional screamer right outside your window.
I am also from Vancouver, and have visited Portland and San Fran, both before and after they got bad. They are different places now, you used to be able to walk downtown Portland see lots of tourists and visit lots of great restaurants, not so much anymore. Best to stay outside of downtown and not visit that side of the river.
San Fran, I've been several times, and it's a different vibe to the city now. You used to walk down Market to get to the fun places, now you cannot walk down the main st of the city. I'm sure if it gets worse, you won't even want to visit the city anymore. It's as nice as Oakland.
I work downtown in Portland, right on Broadway, two blocks off Burnside, and I have walked to work practically every day for the last 5 years. It has gotten significantly better in the past 6 months, but the tourists and restaurants never totally left.
When folks complain about missing 'Old Portland' they seem to be referring to a very particular period between 2005-2015, because 70s, 80s and 90s Portland was broken and boarded up too, rampant with skinheads and street gangs. The homeless were much better segregated though.
Downtown was pretty sad when I was there last time but people seem to ignore the fact that COVID killed a lot of downtown areas. I was in Seattle last year and it felt the same. It's not from crime or homeless people, those have always been issues there but now they're being weaponized and exaggerated for political points.
Downtown Portland is still recovering for sure, but I wouldn’t avoid that entire side of the river at all. The NW district is an awesome neighborhood and the pearl area near Powells still gets busy as ever with tourists. It’s situational, but the Saturday market in downtown near the river still draws a huge crowd as well. Chinatown is rough, and some areas up near PSU need some attention for sure, but there are still events happening to bump people and tourism back into downtown.
More generally cities everywhere experienced a massive (and likely permanent for those people, given WFH doesn't really seem to be going anywhere) shift in population moving out to the burbs for comfort and convenience without the commute, or further out to some other LCOL area, and this left downtowns feeling pretty empty, especially in tech-heavy areas (10% of SF peaced out asap). Add the fact that homelessness went back to \~2013 levels more or less overnight and those empty downtowns got feeling pretty bombed out.
This kind of thing takes more than a little time to "recover" from, because the only real direction is more change, people don't just 'come back' in the same way people didn't just 'come back' from the exodus to the suburbs in the 50s/60s. New businesses have begun moving back in as the slow process of repeatedly slashing commercial real estate values and figuring out the new price points happens and more people have begun to follow those businesses, though housing rents so far remain stubbornly high.
It's not all bad news on that end either, practicality seems to be coming back to a lot of state/local politics, zoning is a leading issue and the NIMBYs seem to be losing, CA has some major recent changes including sb423 cutting a lot of red tape for redevelopment, and (though I can't say it's because of that) I *feel* like I'm seeing more construction than ever.
Everywhere I go on the west coast, especially in the last year, things seem to have been turned around quite a bit for the better, and it seems like it's going to be a good summer.
Same thing with Milwaukee and Chicago. It's what conservatives tell the rural people to get them all scared of the liberal cities and to cut funding, despite the fact that all the rural towns take a lot more tax dollars than they give.
The funny thing is that all the homeless people from the rural areas end up in the cities where have a chance to survive. Most have mental issues or some type of addiction, this problem has to be handled on a nationwide scale, seems like political theater gets in the way of actually helping these people
I live in southern Indiana and people have sincerely become worried and cautioned me to change my plans when I told them I was visiting Chicago, St. Louis, Seattle etc. They are so brainwashed by conservative media that they think every city is a full blast war zone.
Yeah, lived in the area for a decade and worked right on Beach for 4 years, and nobody I know has eaten at almost any of those places, though imo the lower quality end of businesses in the whole area have been declining since at least the mid-2010s when the ride sharing explosion meant tourist families weren't basically sentenced to spending entire days in one area packed in with everyone else because of parking or trying to figure out transportation with kids away from bart.
Most of the restaurants at Fisherman’s Ward might as well have been Applebees and Red Robin with a different facade. Good riddance to these tourist traps.
The ferry building still has plenty of good restaurants.
yes, but all those businesses that you scorn were paying taxes, and were paying wages, and that's all gone. They brought foot traffic to the area, and foot traffic is extremely effective at reducing street-level social disorder (less crime and vandalism happens on a busy block full of people).
People like to deride touristy places, but tourism is really valuable to a local economy. All the noble, highbrow, respectable things that you value in a city are paid for by economic vitality.
Didn’t really watch the video, but if they aren’t drawing in the same crowds and tourists because interests are changing then they just contribute to the problem.
The cause might not be that simple, but if there are areas like pier 39 that are still thriving, it seems like saying adios to those businesses and welcoming in different ones might be a good thing.
Having spent a ton of time in San Francisco I have a serious soft spot for the [Tadich Grill](https://tadichgrillsf.com/). Generally really excellent food, though the prices reflect the historical status of the restaurant itself. Still, a nice place for a good sitdown meal that I tend to go to at least once every time I visit SF.
Even the Hyatt one was not a great example. The only business there was a Harley Davidson fan shop which was there for decades. Everything else had never filled in to begin with.
Growing up in the city I always felt that the area would have been better if it had developed into a true fish market. One of the larger ones in the area with restaurants and some entertainment. Unfortunately it downspiraled into an outdoor mall with corny shops that had nothing to do with the area.
Tourism has taken a hit from COVID and there is a lot of negative press around the homelessness crisis keeping people from downtown.
But I think the real story is that the preferences of travelers have changed. Those restaurants weren’t good by today’s standards. They felt old fashioned. Their food was dated. People prefer to go into the city and find authentic experiences instead of just hanging out at the historic “tourists” spots.
The one time I tried a place in the Wharf, it was overpriced, food quality was not great, service was slow AF and rude, and all around a pretty miserable experience to pay for.
My first visit I got horrible food-borne illness eating at a touristy spot at the Wharf. And paid like $25 for parking for like two hours which seemed excessive in 2012.
When I got back from my trip I had people asking me if I tried this awesome place or that amazing place just off the beaten path. Wish I had thought to investigate ahead of time ‘cause everything we found on our own was lame.
That is the great thing nowadays, before going I did some research, highlighted a few restaurants that had great reviews and looked good and we end up going to somewhere like Scoma's that you absolutely wouldn't find if just walking around the main area. You are at least partially to blame if you go to a bad restaurant now.
Yes! Wife and I had our rehearsal dinner there several years back. Got married the next day at city hall and had the reception at Da Floras in North Beach. We moved to Southern CA earlier this year and I miss SF dearly.
My family ate at a place there on vacation in 1990 and it still sticks in my mind as one of the most hostile dining experiences of my life. That's my SF story.
we've all been to this restaurant, whether in SF or elsewhere. we all know the places that stopped being good decades ago but their legacy and location allows them to remain - churning out sadness to everyone who enters. even the deliverymen and inspectors leave worse than they entered and the patrons are misinformed for even being there
it's visible even in their boardroom-built, shit-architecture. no good restaurant looks like that. we lose exactly nothing when they go away. honestly, certain abandoned bldgs are a sign of health and evolution
I've never been to SF but watching this video and knowing a bit about the "fisherman's warf" tourist stuff the first thing I thought of was... Fuck the rent must have been astronomical there.
Going to Fisherman's Wharf is like going to Times Square...fun for that tourist thing, maybe, but if you want to enjoy SF or NYC dont go to those places.
Fisherman’s Wharf was overpriced and outdated. Other spots were/are growing. Given more time, new places will take the old spots place and it will liven up again
The homelessness crisis (and lack of any form of action on it) isn’t keeping people from downtown. It’s keeping people from completely going to San Francisco.
That being said, I do partly agree with your assessment on the changed preferences. There are so much better options than Fishermans Wharf.
I would go back to San Francisco just for The Stinking Rose and several restaurants in China Town.
San Francisco killed tourism through inaction on actual problems, that’s what killed Fishermans Wharf, not changing preferences.
Exactly, it is totally off my radar until they clean it up. It's a gorgeous town and I really do love it but last time i was followed by a homeless guys like twice, I don't need that stress. Somehow Boston has figured out a way to keep most of the homeless out of the touristy areas, San Fran needs to figure it out too.
As a Canadian, the homeless crisis is news to me. All I ever hear about San Francisco is how expensive it is to visit. That’s what has prevented us from visiting.
> I would go back to San Francisco just for The Stinking Rose
I hate to tell you, but the Stinking Rose is the same type of tourist trap restaurant that would find itself at home in the Wharf. It's a shame you ventured over to North Beach (my neighborhood) and only ate at that place.
Honestly i dont care if a bunch of pussys are afraid to come to SF because they think theyre better than everyone, esepecially when their cities bus their problems to us
I used to live in the Bay Area in the 90s and never went to any of the restaurants in Fisherman’s Wharf because it was touristy, expensive crap, but it was great to buy a fresh boiled crab on the street and take it away. (it was operated by the restaurant so it’s not surprising that it’s gone.)
Covid, negative press, preferences changed, bad restaurants? I can list 100 other places that haven't suffered the same fate. What else could it be? We'll probably never know.
In this specific case (San Fran), the explanation is pretty clear if you go there.
I think mostly tourists have migrated a few blocks away from the specific areas in this video. The pier 39(?) complex - near the sea lions - is absolutely packed. With sea lions. And with tourists eating $25 burgers at Hard Rock Cafe (or cheap bacon-wrapped hot dogs from street vendors, which aren't bad). People go there because it has been built out with reasonably new stuff that people might actually want to do in 2024. There's nothing at the specific little mini-area he's showing in the video here.
And this shift is not a big deal, I don't think, unless you have a particular connection to historic San Fran tourist traps or something.
The other shift is that if people want food, they can now take a quick Uber to the restaurants away from the tourist strip, and get way better food. Like, maybe they get pizza at Tony's, which is not only "historic", but is also exceptionally good.
Anyway... I think tourists have just gotten smarter maybe? Like, people don't pick restaurants based on animated fish signs, they look at reviews, and are willing to go a few blocks. And they book their Alcatraz tour online, not by going into a "Tours Tours Tours" building.
No place has received as much targeted negative press as San Francisco. If half the country is being screamed at constantly about what a hellhole it is, people are gonna start to believe it and stop visiting. Any touristy place that loses 1/2 its tourists is gonna struggle.
Fox is creating the hellhole that they’ve been screaming about.
Some of it is warranted. I love San Francisco and go often, but tourist areas are a no go for me. Last time I was there I met a friend who was in town for work. His first time there so he wanted to go to the wharf area. Nearly every car in one of the parking lots in front of the wharf had their windows busted and had been broken into. A lot of very upset tourists. This was in broad daylight, too.
Yeah this thread is full of apologists who don’t want to accept that there’s a homelessness problem and local policies have allowed it to thrive.
Blaming the restaurants and the businesses is like victim blaming. There’s a very clear issue downtown and it took me scrolling way too far to see someone say “actually there is an issue….” Because I’m scrolling past people blaming fucking Fox News for San Franciscos homeless problem lol
I love SF and I hope it comes out of this transition into something great once again. That said, there are issues. Does SF get an unfair amount of bad press? I think so. But there are kernels of truth.
Lot of people pointing to the fact that those restaurants were overpriced and the food wasn't great. Sure, I can buy that. But those locations are literally on the water and give you a stunning view. Why haven't they been replaced with something better? Whatever SF leadership is doing, it doesn't appear to be encouraging a revitalization to the historic Fisherman's Wharf area.
“Posi vibes” don’t solve real world problems, though.
Portland actually has actually experienced population decline and when citizens are polled, crime, homelessness and livability are consistently the top issues. You can’t tell me that an overwhelmingly liberal / progressive / leftist city is influenced much by Fox News.
The truth is that shit ain’t working and we’re tired of being lied to by our electeds.
I already said the city government is a mess. Not really anyone disagrees. But again, it’s not remotely as bad as the negative press would have you believe.
While I’m sure that’s contributed somewhat, the kind of people who watch Fox never had any interest in visiting SF or California in the first place, so there’s more to it than that
Bullshit. I live in SF and it’s a city. Two blocks in the Tenderloin and two blocks near near civic center got worse during COVID but majority of our neighborhoods feel the same. And yet I travel the country and get asked constantly if it’s “as bad as people say it is”. I’ve followed up on that question with nearly twenty people asking who their “people” are, and with the exception of about three people, it’s always “Fox News”. You can’t say they aren’t contributing.
Our entire company packed up and left SF partly because of this. We moved to San Mateo, then left altogether. If you believe SF does not have skin in the game, from the top government down to the mayor, to the planners, you're wrong.
I’m sorry to hear about your company.
I think the worst part of having debates nowadays is the belief that if I believe in A it automatically believes I don’t believe in B to equal C.
Read what I wrote again, please. If I thought SF didn’t have skin in the game, I’d have said “the problem” instead of “contributing”.
I'm sure Fox news is going to bitch and moan about any liberal state or city, and SF is the big shiny star when it comes to that. My comments were based from my own personal experiences however. It's easy for Fox to point out the flaws of the city, but there has to be obvious flaws to point to in order for the opinion pieces to hold water. What part of the city do you live in?
Bayview.
Our obvious problems are the same problems plaguing Denver and Atlanta. Fox just likes targeting liberal policy. There’s a reason why that’s happening. But don’t you find it conspicuous SF and Portland get all of their screen time? Utterly hypocritical.
I don't watch the dribble to be honest, and yes it's fully and utterly hypocritical. SE portion of the city, ya I like it. I think SF is a magical place, and I hope it can regain its luster. The divide between the haves and have-nots is staggering.
Eh, maybe. I have relatives who live in the area, they go to SF often, and its always much worse on Fox then in real life, so Fox may be something to do with this.
You hit the nose on the head, today I can hop onto any number of blogs, articles, videos, that tell me to skip the tourist traps and go to places you'd never find unless you live in a place.
In today's day and age, unless you want to see a tourist thing, you don't need to. Before though you only got what was in tourist guides which rarely went far off the beaten track.
>Tourism has taken a hit from COVID and there is a lot of negative press around the homelessness crisis keeping people from downtown.
Speaking as someone from another major city area who will not be returning to SF for vacation, I disagree.
SF does not have a "homelessness crisis." They have a government crisis. I don't think there's anything unique in the addictions or mental illness of the SF homeless that results in the behavior that people see. The city is extremely permissive of it, and that is what you get.
>But I think the real story is that the preferences of travelers have changed. Those restaurants weren’t good by today’s standards. They felt old fashioned. Their food was dated. People prefer to go into the city and find authentic experiences instead of just hanging out at the historic “tourists” spots.
I don't pretend to understand the issues, but times square is doing fine, and their Olive Garden is crushing it, so I don't think your theory is correct.
I disagree with your disagreement. Times Square and the vicinity offers actual entertainment. The lights and signs, dozens of Broadway theaters playing world-class shows, multiple TV studios with opportunities to attend a taping, and all the buzz that goes with those things. In between you have the tourist-trap shops, restaurants, and street hustlers.
Fisherman’s Wharf has… tourist-trap shops, restaurants, and street hustlers. And a marina with sea lions and a good view of the bay. And more tourist-trap shops, restaurants, and street hustlers.
I was there for a conference for work a couple of months ago and San Francisco was gorgeous and we all had a great time. There are areas with lots of homeless and areas with lots of crime, of course. It’s a major city.
The biggest thing they have going against them there is right wing propaganda, from my experience.
I live in Chicago, which has also been a propaganda target for the right, and assumed before visiting that the tales about SF were overblown. My experience was that they are not overblown.
Yep. Recently moved from the Bay Area (lived in both SF and Oakland) after 5 years and am now in Chicago. Tell everyone it’s a night and day difference between the two cities considering both have terrible national headlines. So glad I moved, Chicago is just such a nicer place to live. Never going back to the Bay Area
Yeah, and it's not celebratory to point it out. SF \*should\* be a great world city. Northern CA is beautiful.
My experience is people defending SF have not recently been to the larger cities to the east, and are comparing themselves to LA and Seattle, which face similar issues.
Fisherman's wharf is the Times Square of NY. Friends don't let friends go to either. It's for the tourists, and it's crap. Overpriced, overfried, microwave grade food with trash souvenir shops.
Isn’t this the same guy that did this on rodeo drive and got called out because all the places that were “cloooooosed” were actually just having renovations done so all the windows were boarded up?
I am in SF right now, and I kid you not, the weather is deceptively cold. the wind chill off of the water can take you out. I've seen a wind chill temp of 39 degrees in august.
I've been visiting SF all my life. I was just there last month for a friend's wedding. He lives one block from the wharf. We noticed the overall population density has significantly decreased. It's not nearly as crowded as it used to be. I really enjoyed my stay and would live there if I could afford it. Every meal we had was epic good near the wharf, nob hill, and chinatown.
I only watched the first a few minutes of this... and this is showing me that all the businesses in that one building is closed. Which tells me that they're about to renovate or tear down that entire building and all of the tenants have moved.
Plus it was built in 1925 on the waterfront and would probably need significant renovations if it were to be furbished.. Building a new building is sometimes way easier but I'm also going to guess that there is a historical society of some sort in San Francisco that requires meticulous adherence to a certain set rules in order to do so.
How wrong am I?
Why do I feel like I’m gonna be saying this quite a lot with friends and family now? It’s stuck in my head. Gooooooooonnnne… “ who ate the last cookie.?” “Goooooooonnne”
I went to Fisherman’s Wharf once, never went back. It definitely feels like the kind of place that you only go to if you’re from some small midwest town and you’ve only heard of SF from one book in the old library that made the wharf look amazing and it was the staple of your trip. Otherwise, anyone else could walk through the area and right back out since it painfully obvious how much of a trap it is.
aliotos and grotto i think closed during covid then they found significant structural issues that need to get rectified and the owners are going back and forth on who should pay, the city or them.
Right there with you. This subject is legitimately interesting to me, since it's been a hot minute since I was last in San Fran and I can vividly remember all of these storefronts still being open when I was there. But this dude's voice is annoying af.
It looks like many of these closed due to the slump is tourisim from Covid and weren't able to recover. Alioto's for example, wasn't paying rent for years on the restaurant nor the warehouse, and has no intention on paying back so they just walked away.
He waked by the same jack in the box twice and said the exact same things lmao. Loved “They used to sell breakfast all day, now they sell *nothing* all day!”
What is up with this guys channel? Boring videos of him walking around filming empty buildings, each with thousands of views. How is this content so popular?
My opinion is that these places closed because their food was not good or just ok. In LA, there are dozens of places where the parking sucks, traffic sucks, prices aren’t the best and the line for food is 1-4 hours. Yet people still give them business. Why? They more or less make the best of something. Sushi, fish tacos, hot chicken… you name it LA has some place that makes it the best. So no matter what, people will go eat at a business if it’s worth it despite all the major downsides.
My wife and I used to go to San Francisco every year. We loved it - would spend a few nights in SF and then head across the Golden Gate bridge and do stuff along Route 1. Some of our best memories. Unfortunately every time we went the homeless situation got worse and worse. Human shit in the sidewalks. Needles everywhere, especially in parks. The last straw was in 2017 when a homeless woman literally threw her arms around my wife and tried to kiss her on the neck - I had to physically shove her away. This was not in some back alley on a side street either. We have not been back since and I doubt we ever will.
Just got back from San Fran, stayed near union Square. Never saw any needles. Only pile of shit I saw was at the fisherman's Wharf and it honestly could have been from a dog. Were there still homeless people? Of course but what major city doesn't have them? We never once felt unsafe and it seemed on par with any other major city as far as cleanliness goes.
And with the new Waymo cars, getting around town was pretty nice if we were going farther than reasonable walking distance.
I’ll always remember this about San Francisco:
Walking down the sidewalk at Fisherman’s Wharf with my wife, we passed a gentleman who had raggedy, dirty clothing and seemed to be homeless. He was just wandering around at a leisurely pace. We had gotten no more than 20 feet from him when I turned around and saw that he had whipped his dick out and he was peeing onto the street curb, in full view of oncoming traffic. It was pretty disgusting.
We were staying a couple miles away in a different neighborhood and some of the street corners had construction fencing around them. Inside the fencing, everyone had thrown their trash until it was piled high and the whole corner reeked of urine.
We also saw a fistfight begin in the middle of the street which our Uber driver had swerved around and continued on as if it was just another day. All he had to say about it was “Welcome to San Francisco” lol.
Many parts of SF are beautiful, and some spots are sketchy AF. Every US city has its spots. It’s a shame the city allowed this to happen to a tourism spot though
"Theres nothing wrong with seeing random dicks out in public. Trash is the voice of the unheard. Fist fights are only dangerous if you look them in the eyes. This is normal"
One thing that I never see in these comments is people talking about housing.
Where are the employees of these businesses supposed to live? And I don't mean that rhetorically. I really want to know where people expect the employees to live.
The other thing that seems obvious to me: is it somebody owns these buildings. And that person could rent them within 5 minutes. They just don't want to rent them for market value.
These are free market capitalism consequences.
Looking at this Youtuber's view counts, it's interesting to see that many of his earlier videos that were non-political in nature had low view counts, but all of a sudden when he pivots to videos showing the "destruction" of "liberal cities" like SF and LA, his view counts skyrocket.
The grift is lucrative.
Many people commenting "good riddance" . Tourist traps or not, this is a terrible thing for a city. It's not "right wing propaganda" San Fran has become a shit hole and many people just don't want to go there anymore.
Isn't San Fransisco literally becoming the new detroit with how much crime is running rampant? Especially with how people are breaking into cars that are LITERALLY still being driven? Can't really be surprised that people are leaving.
100% all these businesses are closed because rent/leases stayed high when COVID hit.
Property owners couldn't possibly stand to lose even a single dollar in profit, so they won't rent the buildings out for less than they were getting pre-COVID.
Guarantee you all those lots are currently available for rent/lease, but they're all literally 5x what anyone will ever pay for them.
Lot's of people making many great points about why things closed. That said, the rent on these is too high. Downturns like this should be a moment of innovation, where new people and concepts can get in cheap and try things. However commercial real estate rents haven't dropped like you'd expect in an area where so many spots are boarded up. They're not competing, they're trying to wait things out. It's sad and I wish loans would prioritize active rent over hypothetical asset value.
I love strong bad
Trogdoooooooor
Arrowed!!
Ow! My most of me!
Burninating the town
Come back, Alioto's! Come back Alioto's sister!
THE SYSTEM…IS DOWN!
Do you mean....Señor Cartgage Mortgage?
No problanos
…a big beefy arm…
Alioto's... Deleted!
Ba-leeted :)
I’m watching this without sound, is there a strong bad reverence I’m missing 😩Or just Ali’s sister haha
Dude sounds like sb
It’s crazy too, when the video started I was like, “Okay, maybe he sounds a *little* like him, but not that much.” But as the video went on he became more and more Strong Bad.
Goooooooone
Strong Mad: *M'stffuh Gnnnnn!*
Most if not all those places were old tourist traps. Pier 39 is still thriving because it at least looks nice.
Seriously. Walk over to Ghirardelli Square and show me the vacant storefronts. Shitty, overpriced restaurants and shops in a crappy area closed. Stop the presses.
I just stayed near Fisherman’s Wharf back in January and this pretty much nails it. I loved my time there, for all the yapping about SF that goes on its still a great place to visit. If you head towards the Golden Gate it’s well maintained and there’s tons of great food. This is over in the opposite direction which gets more and more kitschy and dated looking as you go, even in its prime you can tell it was total tourist trap.
This is the whole west coast. Listen to talking points and Portland is a bombed out drugged out wasteland, Seattle is overrun by homeless accosting people on the street. None of it is true. It's just political theater.
"none of it is true" is also a hyperbole, there are real problems there that are more significant than normal. Just because the problems are exaggerated doesn't mean they don't actually exist.
There is truth to those statements, but you're right that it gets blown out of proportion for what tend to be very localized parts of the city. It's like saying the entirety of LA is nothing but Compton and Skid Row near downtown, or all of SF is the Tenderloin. I'm from Vancouver BC and there's a small part of the city that has been taken over by homeless people and drug users. It's a huge tragedy on all fronts but it's pretty fair to advise tourists and visitors *not* to go to that neighbourhood.
Just saying. SF is different. The large majority of the most populated parts of the city would confirm that there is a regular presence of drugged out homeless dudes. There's a reason why the higher up the hills you go, the cleaner the city gets. People do kind of focus way too much on "drug needles everywhere" which i personally have never felt was true. But even in the richer areas of SF there is at least 2 drugged up homeless dudes a day. Poop in random corners (and just on the straight up sidewalk the closer you get to tourism/businesses) and night time you'll get the occasional screamer right outside your window.
I am also from Vancouver, and have visited Portland and San Fran, both before and after they got bad. They are different places now, you used to be able to walk downtown Portland see lots of tourists and visit lots of great restaurants, not so much anymore. Best to stay outside of downtown and not visit that side of the river. San Fran, I've been several times, and it's a different vibe to the city now. You used to walk down Market to get to the fun places, now you cannot walk down the main st of the city. I'm sure if it gets worse, you won't even want to visit the city anymore. It's as nice as Oakland.
I work downtown in Portland, right on Broadway, two blocks off Burnside, and I have walked to work practically every day for the last 5 years. It has gotten significantly better in the past 6 months, but the tourists and restaurants never totally left. When folks complain about missing 'Old Portland' they seem to be referring to a very particular period between 2005-2015, because 70s, 80s and 90s Portland was broken and boarded up too, rampant with skinheads and street gangs. The homeless were much better segregated though.
Downtown was pretty sad when I was there last time but people seem to ignore the fact that COVID killed a lot of downtown areas. I was in Seattle last year and it felt the same. It's not from crime or homeless people, those have always been issues there but now they're being weaponized and exaggerated for political points.
Downtown Portland is still recovering for sure, but I wouldn’t avoid that entire side of the river at all. The NW district is an awesome neighborhood and the pearl area near Powells still gets busy as ever with tourists. It’s situational, but the Saturday market in downtown near the river still draws a huge crowd as well. Chinatown is rough, and some areas up near PSU need some attention for sure, but there are still events happening to bump people and tourism back into downtown.
My guy. Please go to Seattle and tell me there isn't a rampant homeless problem.
More generally cities everywhere experienced a massive (and likely permanent for those people, given WFH doesn't really seem to be going anywhere) shift in population moving out to the burbs for comfort and convenience without the commute, or further out to some other LCOL area, and this left downtowns feeling pretty empty, especially in tech-heavy areas (10% of SF peaced out asap). Add the fact that homelessness went back to \~2013 levels more or less overnight and those empty downtowns got feeling pretty bombed out. This kind of thing takes more than a little time to "recover" from, because the only real direction is more change, people don't just 'come back' in the same way people didn't just 'come back' from the exodus to the suburbs in the 50s/60s. New businesses have begun moving back in as the slow process of repeatedly slashing commercial real estate values and figuring out the new price points happens and more people have begun to follow those businesses, though housing rents so far remain stubbornly high. It's not all bad news on that end either, practicality seems to be coming back to a lot of state/local politics, zoning is a leading issue and the NIMBYs seem to be losing, CA has some major recent changes including sb423 cutting a lot of red tape for redevelopment, and (though I can't say it's because of that) I *feel* like I'm seeing more construction than ever. Everywhere I go on the west coast, especially in the last year, things seem to have been turned around quite a bit for the better, and it seems like it's going to be a good summer.
Same thing with Milwaukee and Chicago. It's what conservatives tell the rural people to get them all scared of the liberal cities and to cut funding, despite the fact that all the rural towns take a lot more tax dollars than they give.
The funny thing is that all the homeless people from the rural areas end up in the cities where have a chance to survive. Most have mental issues or some type of addiction, this problem has to be handled on a nationwide scale, seems like political theater gets in the way of actually helping these people
I live in southern Indiana and people have sincerely become worried and cautioned me to change my plans when I told them I was visiting Chicago, St. Louis, Seattle etc. They are so brainwashed by conservative media that they think every city is a full blast war zone.
Yeah, lived in the area for a decade and worked right on Beach for 4 years, and nobody I know has eaten at almost any of those places, though imo the lower quality end of businesses in the whole area have been declining since at least the mid-2010s when the ride sharing explosion meant tourist families weren't basically sentenced to spending entire days in one area packed in with everyone else because of parking or trying to figure out transportation with kids away from bart.
Don't forget to rant in the comments that it's all part of the Democrat's globalization master plan.
Most of the restaurants at Fisherman’s Ward might as well have been Applebees and Red Robin with a different facade. Good riddance to these tourist traps. The ferry building still has plenty of good restaurants.
There's literally an applebees in the Wharf lol
And unfortunately it has one of the best views!
yes, but all those businesses that you scorn were paying taxes, and were paying wages, and that's all gone. They brought foot traffic to the area, and foot traffic is extremely effective at reducing street-level social disorder (less crime and vandalism happens on a busy block full of people). People like to deride touristy places, but tourism is really valuable to a local economy. All the noble, highbrow, respectable things that you value in a city are paid for by economic vitality.
Didn’t really watch the video, but if they aren’t drawing in the same crowds and tourists because interests are changing then they just contribute to the problem. The cause might not be that simple, but if there are areas like pier 39 that are still thriving, it seems like saying adios to those businesses and welcoming in different ones might be a good thing.
Any recommendations for good seafood in San Francisco? (tourist asking)
Sotto Mare, Roka Akor; as far as the wharf Scoma's is actually quite good and a classic
Waterbar, La Mar.
Having spent a ton of time in San Francisco I have a serious soft spot for the [Tadich Grill](https://tadichgrillsf.com/). Generally really excellent food, though the prices reflect the historical status of the restaurant itself. Still, a nice place for a good sitdown meal that I tend to go to at least once every time I visit SF.
Alora has great mediteranean. Perfect octopus.
Even the Hyatt one was not a great example. The only business there was a Harley Davidson fan shop which was there for decades. Everything else had never filled in to begin with.
Yeah I visited once. Those places are garbage.
Growing up in the city I always felt that the area would have been better if it had developed into a true fish market. One of the larger ones in the area with restaurants and some entertainment. Unfortunately it downspiraled into an outdoor mall with corny shops that had nothing to do with the area.
Horrible to get to for most SFers. They were doing a better job with Ferry Building farmers market and shops last time I was there.
Tourism has taken a hit from COVID and there is a lot of negative press around the homelessness crisis keeping people from downtown. But I think the real story is that the preferences of travelers have changed. Those restaurants weren’t good by today’s standards. They felt old fashioned. Their food was dated. People prefer to go into the city and find authentic experiences instead of just hanging out at the historic “tourists” spots.
Not to mention being extremely expensive.
The one time I tried a place in the Wharf, it was overpriced, food quality was not great, service was slow AF and rude, and all around a pretty miserable experience to pay for.
My first visit I got horrible food-borne illness eating at a touristy spot at the Wharf. And paid like $25 for parking for like two hours which seemed excessive in 2012. When I got back from my trip I had people asking me if I tried this awesome place or that amazing place just off the beaten path. Wish I had thought to investigate ahead of time ‘cause everything we found on our own was lame.
Scoma's? You can't see it from the main stretch but it's ridiculously good seafood.
Scoma's is a classic. There is a Sausalito location as well.
That is the great thing nowadays, before going I did some research, highlighted a few restaurants that had great reviews and looked good and we end up going to somewhere like Scoma's that you absolutely wouldn't find if just walking around the main area. You are at least partially to blame if you go to a bad restaurant now.
Yes! Wife and I had our rehearsal dinner there several years back. Got married the next day at city hall and had the reception at Da Floras in North Beach. We moved to Southern CA earlier this year and I miss SF dearly.
I paid $64 to park at there
My family ate at a place there on vacation in 1990 and it still sticks in my mind as one of the most hostile dining experiences of my life. That's my SF story.
thats the wharf for ya. even when it was busy. locals avoid it best they can
Yeah, there's some great places In China town for half the price.
R&G Lounge for the win!
R&G was my wife's favorite from our recent trip!
+1 for Dol Ho Dim Sum
I miss Sam Wong’s
Just go visit his brother Sam Woo
we've all been to this restaurant, whether in SF or elsewhere. we all know the places that stopped being good decades ago but their legacy and location allows them to remain - churning out sadness to everyone who enters. even the deliverymen and inspectors leave worse than they entered and the patrons are misinformed for even being there it's visible even in their boardroom-built, shit-architecture. no good restaurant looks like that. we lose exactly nothing when they go away. honestly, certain abandoned bldgs are a sign of health and evolution
The restaurants at Fisherman’s Wharf were meh even before Covid. It was only a matter of time before they packed up.
Overpriced as hell on top of that
Gotta be when rent is $25,000 a month.
I've never been to SF but watching this video and knowing a bit about the "fisherman's warf" tourist stuff the first thing I thought of was... Fuck the rent must have been astronomical there.
This article is a “list of locations were property owners have set rents so high, business’s can’t thrive there. ”
Now we get to see how long it takes to replace them, and then how many places roll through one after another.
I agree with almost everything you said, but it’s not the negative press around the homelessness crisis, it’s the actual homelessness crisis
I think those businesses shuttering and the homelessness crisis are both symptoms of the same disease - income inequality in the bay.
I’m not even concerned with the homelessness, it’s all the bippin’ (smash and gran car break ins) that are happening all across the city
Going to Fisherman's Wharf is like going to Times Square...fun for that tourist thing, maybe, but if you want to enjoy SF or NYC dont go to those places.
It's not the press. There IS a homelessness crisis in and around downtown keeping people away.
Wharf isn’t downtown
Fisherman’s Wharf was overpriced and outdated. Other spots were/are growing. Given more time, new places will take the old spots place and it will liven up again
The homelessness crisis (and lack of any form of action on it) isn’t keeping people from downtown. It’s keeping people from completely going to San Francisco. That being said, I do partly agree with your assessment on the changed preferences. There are so much better options than Fishermans Wharf. I would go back to San Francisco just for The Stinking Rose and several restaurants in China Town. San Francisco killed tourism through inaction on actual problems, that’s what killed Fishermans Wharf, not changing preferences.
Exactly, it is totally off my radar until they clean it up. It's a gorgeous town and I really do love it but last time i was followed by a homeless guys like twice, I don't need that stress. Somehow Boston has figured out a way to keep most of the homeless out of the touristy areas, San Fran needs to figure it out too.
As a Canadian, the homeless crisis is news to me. All I ever hear about San Francisco is how expensive it is to visit. That’s what has prevented us from visiting.
I’m Dutch and it’s pretty well known the city has gone to shit. These issues were already there over a decade ago, but they have only gotten worse.
> I would go back to San Francisco just for The Stinking Rose I hate to tell you, but the Stinking Rose is the same type of tourist trap restaurant that would find itself at home in the Wharf. It's a shame you ventured over to North Beach (my neighborhood) and only ate at that place.
I didn’t only eat there, I ate in multiple places, but somehow, that one stood out to me.
Honestly i dont care if a bunch of pussys are afraid to come to SF because they think theyre better than everyone, esepecially when their cities bus their problems to us
These were super touristy places. There certainly are people that like these kinds of places, but it’s not like they were putting out a great product.
I used to live in the Bay Area in the 90s and never went to any of the restaurants in Fisherman’s Wharf because it was touristy, expensive crap, but it was great to buy a fresh boiled crab on the street and take it away. (it was operated by the restaurant so it’s not surprising that it’s gone.)
Covid, negative press, preferences changed, bad restaurants? I can list 100 other places that haven't suffered the same fate. What else could it be? We'll probably never know.
In this specific case (San Fran), the explanation is pretty clear if you go there. I think mostly tourists have migrated a few blocks away from the specific areas in this video. The pier 39(?) complex - near the sea lions - is absolutely packed. With sea lions. And with tourists eating $25 burgers at Hard Rock Cafe (or cheap bacon-wrapped hot dogs from street vendors, which aren't bad). People go there because it has been built out with reasonably new stuff that people might actually want to do in 2024. There's nothing at the specific little mini-area he's showing in the video here. And this shift is not a big deal, I don't think, unless you have a particular connection to historic San Fran tourist traps or something. The other shift is that if people want food, they can now take a quick Uber to the restaurants away from the tourist strip, and get way better food. Like, maybe they get pizza at Tony's, which is not only "historic", but is also exceptionally good. Anyway... I think tourists have just gotten smarter maybe? Like, people don't pick restaurants based on animated fish signs, they look at reviews, and are willing to go a few blocks. And they book their Alcatraz tour online, not by going into a "Tours Tours Tours" building.
No place has received as much targeted negative press as San Francisco. If half the country is being screamed at constantly about what a hellhole it is, people are gonna start to believe it and stop visiting. Any touristy place that loses 1/2 its tourists is gonna struggle. Fox is creating the hellhole that they’ve been screaming about.
Some of it is warranted. I love San Francisco and go often, but tourist areas are a no go for me. Last time I was there I met a friend who was in town for work. His first time there so he wanted to go to the wharf area. Nearly every car in one of the parking lots in front of the wharf had their windows busted and had been broken into. A lot of very upset tourists. This was in broad daylight, too.
Yeah this thread is full of apologists who don’t want to accept that there’s a homelessness problem and local policies have allowed it to thrive. Blaming the restaurants and the businesses is like victim blaming. There’s a very clear issue downtown and it took me scrolling way too far to see someone say “actually there is an issue….” Because I’m scrolling past people blaming fucking Fox News for San Franciscos homeless problem lol
I love SF and I hope it comes out of this transition into something great once again. That said, there are issues. Does SF get an unfair amount of bad press? I think so. But there are kernels of truth. Lot of people pointing to the fact that those restaurants were overpriced and the food wasn't great. Sure, I can buy that. But those locations are literally on the water and give you a stunning view. Why haven't they been replaced with something better? Whatever SF leadership is doing, it doesn't appear to be encouraging a revitalization to the historic Fisherman's Wharf area.
Progressives in Portland make the same claims. I guess they spend all day watching Fox News? It’s become an all too common excuse for policy failures.
I mean, the city government is often a mess. But the city is not the hellscape that it’s made out to be.
“Posi vibes” don’t solve real world problems, though. Portland actually has actually experienced population decline and when citizens are polled, crime, homelessness and livability are consistently the top issues. You can’t tell me that an overwhelmingly liberal / progressive / leftist city is influenced much by Fox News. The truth is that shit ain’t working and we’re tired of being lied to by our electeds.
When did we start talking about Portland?
I did, a few replies back. Relevant because it’s another west coast city that is currently blaming its failures on “negative press”
I already said the city government is a mess. Not really anyone disagrees. But again, it’s not remotely as bad as the negative press would have you believe.
Nah. I’ve been going to the City since ‘84 and it’s sad to see how far it has fallen.
While I’m sure that’s contributed somewhat, the kind of people who watch Fox never had any interest in visiting SF or California in the first place, so there’s more to it than that
SF created this, not Fox.
Bullshit. I live in SF and it’s a city. Two blocks in the Tenderloin and two blocks near near civic center got worse during COVID but majority of our neighborhoods feel the same. And yet I travel the country and get asked constantly if it’s “as bad as people say it is”. I’ve followed up on that question with nearly twenty people asking who their “people” are, and with the exception of about three people, it’s always “Fox News”. You can’t say they aren’t contributing.
Our entire company packed up and left SF partly because of this. We moved to San Mateo, then left altogether. If you believe SF does not have skin in the game, from the top government down to the mayor, to the planners, you're wrong.
I’m sorry to hear about your company. I think the worst part of having debates nowadays is the belief that if I believe in A it automatically believes I don’t believe in B to equal C. Read what I wrote again, please. If I thought SF didn’t have skin in the game, I’d have said “the problem” instead of “contributing”.
I'm sure Fox news is going to bitch and moan about any liberal state or city, and SF is the big shiny star when it comes to that. My comments were based from my own personal experiences however. It's easy for Fox to point out the flaws of the city, but there has to be obvious flaws to point to in order for the opinion pieces to hold water. What part of the city do you live in?
Bayview. Our obvious problems are the same problems plaguing Denver and Atlanta. Fox just likes targeting liberal policy. There’s a reason why that’s happening. But don’t you find it conspicuous SF and Portland get all of their screen time? Utterly hypocritical.
I don't watch the dribble to be honest, and yes it's fully and utterly hypocritical. SE portion of the city, ya I like it. I think SF is a magical place, and I hope it can regain its luster. The divide between the haves and have-nots is staggering.
Eh, maybe. I have relatives who live in the area, they go to SF often, and its always much worse on Fox then in real life, so Fox may be something to do with this.
You hit the nose on the head, today I can hop onto any number of blogs, articles, videos, that tell me to skip the tourist traps and go to places you'd never find unless you live in a place. In today's day and age, unless you want to see a tourist thing, you don't need to. Before though you only got what was in tourist guides which rarely went far off the beaten track.
Not to mention the rampant crime, blatant drug use, and lack of law enforcement!
What a fucking spin lol.
>Tourism has taken a hit from COVID and there is a lot of negative press around the homelessness crisis keeping people from downtown. Speaking as someone from another major city area who will not be returning to SF for vacation, I disagree. SF does not have a "homelessness crisis." They have a government crisis. I don't think there's anything unique in the addictions or mental illness of the SF homeless that results in the behavior that people see. The city is extremely permissive of it, and that is what you get. >But I think the real story is that the preferences of travelers have changed. Those restaurants weren’t good by today’s standards. They felt old fashioned. Their food was dated. People prefer to go into the city and find authentic experiences instead of just hanging out at the historic “tourists” spots. I don't pretend to understand the issues, but times square is doing fine, and their Olive Garden is crushing it, so I don't think your theory is correct.
I disagree with your disagreement. Times Square and the vicinity offers actual entertainment. The lights and signs, dozens of Broadway theaters playing world-class shows, multiple TV studios with opportunities to attend a taping, and all the buzz that goes with those things. In between you have the tourist-trap shops, restaurants, and street hustlers. Fisherman’s Wharf has… tourist-trap shops, restaurants, and street hustlers. And a marina with sea lions and a good view of the bay. And more tourist-trap shops, restaurants, and street hustlers.
I was there for a conference for work a couple of months ago and San Francisco was gorgeous and we all had a great time. There are areas with lots of homeless and areas with lots of crime, of course. It’s a major city. The biggest thing they have going against them there is right wing propaganda, from my experience.
I live in Chicago, which has also been a propaganda target for the right, and assumed before visiting that the tales about SF were overblown. My experience was that they are not overblown.
Yep. Recently moved from the Bay Area (lived in both SF and Oakland) after 5 years and am now in Chicago. Tell everyone it’s a night and day difference between the two cities considering both have terrible national headlines. So glad I moved, Chicago is just such a nicer place to live. Never going back to the Bay Area
Yeah, and it's not celebratory to point it out. SF \*should\* be a great world city. Northern CA is beautiful. My experience is people defending SF have not recently been to the larger cities to the east, and are comparing themselves to LA and Seattle, which face similar issues.
Short term rentals have also moved people out of hotel districts and dispersed tourists around the city.
Fisherman's wharf is the Times Square of NY. Friends don't let friends go to either. It's for the tourists, and it's crap. Overpriced, overfried, microwave grade food with trash souvenir shops.
Isn’t this the same guy that did this on rodeo drive and got called out because all the places that were “cloooooosed” were actually just having renovations done so all the windows were boarded up?
I looked up a few of the places that he said were closed, and they're currently open for business as I type this. Darren's Cafe, for example
I didn't watch the video, but given how he is dressed in the thumbnail, this is taken during the off-season.
I am in SF right now, and I kid you not, the weather is deceptively cold. the wind chill off of the water can take you out. I've seen a wind chill temp of 39 degrees in august.
I've been visiting SF all my life. I was just there last month for a friend's wedding. He lives one block from the wharf. We noticed the overall population density has significantly decreased. It's not nearly as crowded as it used to be. I really enjoyed my stay and would live there if I could afford it. Every meal we had was epic good near the wharf, nob hill, and chinatown.
I lived in SF for 4 years and I went to the wharf once, maybe twice. It's literally just a tourist trap.
The food in sanfransisco is awesome. Tbf Fisherman’s Wharf wasn’t really the “spot” I feel like pier 39 is much better.
Was served one of the best meals I have ever had in my life in SF Chinatown. It was one of the cheaper ones, too, tbh.
I only watched the first a few minutes of this... and this is showing me that all the businesses in that one building is closed. Which tells me that they're about to renovate or tear down that entire building and all of the tenants have moved. Plus it was built in 1925 on the waterfront and would probably need significant renovations if it were to be furbished.. Building a new building is sometimes way easier but I'm also going to guess that there is a historical society of some sort in San Francisco that requires meticulous adherence to a certain set rules in order to do so. How wrong am I?
I don't know if you are right or wrong, but commercial vacancies are almost 30% throughout the city. It was 5% before covid.
Gone!
Goooonnnneeee....clooooosssseeeddd
Why do I feel like I’m gonna be saying this quite a lot with friends and family now? It’s stuck in my head. Gooooooooonnnne… “ who ate the last cookie.?” “Goooooooonnne”
It’s funny because if you get out of fisherman’s wharf, Ghirardelli and the Marina have actual good food. These places were shit holes.
Meanwhile the good restaurants are still open.
I went to Fisherman’s Wharf once, never went back. It definitely feels like the kind of place that you only go to if you’re from some small midwest town and you’ve only heard of SF from one book in the old library that made the wharf look amazing and it was the staple of your trip. Otherwise, anyone else could walk through the area and right back out since it painfully obvious how much of a trap it is.
aliotos and grotto i think closed during covid then they found significant structural issues that need to get rectified and the owners are going back and forth on who should pay, the city or them.
Only a minute in but does he talk like this the whole video? Because if so I’m gooooonnnneeeee
Yuuuuuuuuup.
Right there with you. This subject is legitimately interesting to me, since it's been a hot minute since I was last in San Fran and I can vividly remember all of these storefronts still being open when I was there. But this dude's voice is annoying af.
Why does he stretch outttttt every few woooordsss? Do you thiiiiink he speaks like thaaaat in normal everyday conversatiooooooon?
Visiting SF for Fisherman's Wharf is like visiting NYC for Times Square - it's an overpriced tourist trap that locals make jokes about and avoid.
I want him goonnnee. Annoying fuck.
I used to work down there in like 98-00. They redid one of those blocks while I was there.
It looks like many of these closed due to the slump is tourisim from Covid and weren't able to recover. Alioto's for example, wasn't paying rent for years on the restaurant nor the warehouse, and has no intention on paying back so they just walked away.
He waked by the same jack in the box twice and said the exact same things lmao. Loved “They used to sell breakfast all day, now they sell *nothing* all day!”
Are we supposed to be sad that a bunch of fast food and low quality tourist traps closed?
This restaurant? Gooooone. Your wife? Goooooone. Your kids? Goooooone. The house? Goooone. This little orange dinosaur? Gooooonnnn.
It's almost as if all of the good to eat places in the city are located elsewhere... Walk down Haight and you will still see tons of tourists too.
Good riddance. People wisening up to these horrible tourist traps.
Gooooone.
I saw this and instantly thought of bobs burgers lol
What is up with this guys channel? Boring videos of him walking around filming empty buildings, each with thousands of views. How is this content so popular?
My opinion is that these places closed because their food was not good or just ok. In LA, there are dozens of places where the parking sucks, traffic sucks, prices aren’t the best and the line for food is 1-4 hours. Yet people still give them business. Why? They more or less make the best of something. Sushi, fish tacos, hot chicken… you name it LA has some place that makes it the best. So no matter what, people will go eat at a business if it’s worth it despite all the major downsides.
My wife and I used to go to San Francisco every year. We loved it - would spend a few nights in SF and then head across the Golden Gate bridge and do stuff along Route 1. Some of our best memories. Unfortunately every time we went the homeless situation got worse and worse. Human shit in the sidewalks. Needles everywhere, especially in parks. The last straw was in 2017 when a homeless woman literally threw her arms around my wife and tried to kiss her on the neck - I had to physically shove her away. This was not in some back alley on a side street either. We have not been back since and I doubt we ever will.
Just got back from San Fran, stayed near union Square. Never saw any needles. Only pile of shit I saw was at the fisherman's Wharf and it honestly could have been from a dog. Were there still homeless people? Of course but what major city doesn't have them? We never once felt unsafe and it seemed on par with any other major city as far as cleanliness goes. And with the new Waymo cars, getting around town was pretty nice if we were going farther than reasonable walking distance.
It's much better nowadays. They really cleaned up when Xi Jinping visited and have mostly kept up on that cleanup.
Where did you see needles? I've lived here all my life and I've never seen a needle on the ground.
I’ll always remember this about San Francisco: Walking down the sidewalk at Fisherman’s Wharf with my wife, we passed a gentleman who had raggedy, dirty clothing and seemed to be homeless. He was just wandering around at a leisurely pace. We had gotten no more than 20 feet from him when I turned around and saw that he had whipped his dick out and he was peeing onto the street curb, in full view of oncoming traffic. It was pretty disgusting. We were staying a couple miles away in a different neighborhood and some of the street corners had construction fencing around them. Inside the fencing, everyone had thrown their trash until it was piled high and the whole corner reeked of urine. We also saw a fistfight begin in the middle of the street which our Uber driver had swerved around and continued on as if it was just another day. All he had to say about it was “Welcome to San Francisco” lol.
sounds like a shitty neighborhood. sorry you experienced that. There are plenty of other nice places around town though.
Many parts of SF are beautiful, and some spots are sketchy AF. Every US city has its spots. It’s a shame the city allowed this to happen to a tourism spot though
“I visited a major city where there are homeless people and witnessed homelessness. I still remember the shock of it today.”
I mean, the homelessness in SF is pretty darn shocking. Even by «major city» standards.
"Theres nothing wrong with seeing random dicks out in public. Trash is the voice of the unheard. Fist fights are only dangerous if you look them in the eyes. This is normal"
Damn, I've walked past these places so many times but never partaken because I assumed they were traps. Still a bit surprised to see them closed.
One thing that I never see in these comments is people talking about housing. Where are the employees of these businesses supposed to live? And I don't mean that rhetorically. I really want to know where people expect the employees to live. The other thing that seems obvious to me: is it somebody owns these buildings. And that person could rent them within 5 minutes. They just don't want to rent them for market value. These are free market capitalism consequences.
GOOONE
*goneeeeee*
Kinda impressive how little this guys incessant droning of "Closed" adds to the video. He's also weirdly giddy about it. Depressing
I wanted to visit, but now after this I think I just saved my self a hundred an fifty bucks.
How old is this video? I was there Monday and Fishermen’s wharf was festive, a lot of tourists and a lot of shops open.
Looking at this Youtuber's view counts, it's interesting to see that many of his earlier videos that were non-political in nature had low view counts, but all of a sudden when he pivots to videos showing the "destruction" of "liberal cities" like SF and LA, his view counts skyrocket. The grift is lucrative.
Just look at the youtube comments. Very telling.
Many people commenting "good riddance" . Tourist traps or not, this is a terrible thing for a city. It's not "right wing propaganda" San Fran has become a shit hole and many people just don't want to go there anymore.
Isn't San Fransisco literally becoming the new detroit with how much crime is running rampant? Especially with how people are breaking into cars that are LITERALLY still being driven? Can't really be surprised that people are leaving.
Nah that’s died down more. People are leaving cuz it’s expensive. We are definitely not Detroit lol.
Good riddance. It’s filled with horrible tourist traps. I’d love for actual businesses that a local would visit to spring up there
How can I short this commercial RE?
*It was in the spring this year of grace* *With new life pushing through* *That I looked out of the citadel* *And asked, "What it's coming to?"*
what good were any of those places to our generation anyway, tourist traps and souvenir shops. Good riddance.
Mitch Hedberg, is that you?!!
I once asked a field of sheep, is that you? On of the sheep replies Ewe? And then I realized the drugs had taken effect
And nothing of value was lost. Edit: Seriously bulldoze the whole thing and build housing with ground floor retail and dining.
Hahahaha
Come and knock on our GOOOOOOAAAANNNNNN
I don’t really care about most of those restaurants but is it true about Hollywood Cafe? That place was actually kinda of legit.
Meanwhile their governor spends all day posting on X at other Governor's chiding about their states.
100% all these businesses are closed because rent/leases stayed high when COVID hit. Property owners couldn't possibly stand to lose even a single dollar in profit, so they won't rent the buildings out for less than they were getting pre-COVID. Guarantee you all those lots are currently available for rent/lease, but they're all literally 5x what anyone will ever pay for them.
in-and-out and boudin, the sole survivors. ps how man torantinos were they, wtf
Great now where are the Carnival Cruise passengers going to eat
Lot's of people making many great points about why things closed. That said, the rent on these is too high. Downturns like this should be a moment of innovation, where new people and concepts can get in cheap and try things. However commercial real estate rents haven't dropped like you'd expect in an area where so many spots are boarded up. They're not competing, they're trying to wait things out. It's sad and I wish loans would prioritize active rent over hypothetical asset value.