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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ส.ค. 2023
- San Francisco was a booming city for businesses, and then the Covid-19 pandemic happened, switching many employees from the office to working from home. Now, the city is dealing with large vacancy rates. NBC News' Jacob Ward has more.
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#SanFrancisco #BayArea #office
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It's amazing how out of touch these people are. They think propping up small businesses and restaurants with tax money is going to somehow solve the rampant drug, homeless, housing, and crime crises they are facing.
Tourists don't want to visit cities where they're going to get robbed and spit on, nor do people want to move somewhere where they need to make $200k+ just to have a middle class lifestyle while still being robbed and spit on.
I have friends who left Philly for the Bay area some years ago. Never thought in a million years that Phila would be doing better in its downtown area. But it is( doing better than SF.)
Thank the Mayor an DA for destroying San Francisco.
I visited San Francisco for a couple of weeks a year ago and it was fantastic. I did see some homeless people but no spitting.
🤌🏼 this is the winning comment full stop
the politicians wanted this. now they can't admit their failure
You cannot and will not ever make me feel bad for multimillionaire landlords who are incapable of adjusting to free-market forces when they're not in the landlords' favor. Small businesses, sure, they don't have the resources to adjust as easily; but anyone who owns a skyscraper can get bent if they think the rest of us normal people are going to give up our time and money just so they can play Wolf of Wall Street with their friends.
Free market for the rich . Otherwise not so free
a billionaire could do things so awful to multimillionaires that you would indeed feel sorry for them.
The free market is a myth. The people with wealth and power will always control the markets that's capitalism
Property taxes are way too high.
Love this comment, thank you for speaking out against empathy for the rich.
My sister in law managed several large apartment complexes in Austin when the market was bad. She re- negotiated leases for lower rent and kept people there.
This isn't just happening here.. over here and Utah there are tons of vacant business buildings because they are asking way too much for them so they said open for years rather than let a small business like mine be able to afford to set up shop they would rather just wait years for someone to come up with enough money to rent their little crappy spot
Thats correct because the problem was never "covid" it was the horrific lockdown policies imposed by the UN and World Health Organization via these bought-and-paid-for politicians. NEVER AGAIN!
Within the first minute, the free-market solution is already there: buildings with high vacancy rates need to drop their rents.
Free market hahahaha it’s Commiefornia
Nah they just raise rents on existing renters to make up for it there is no free market solutions when landlords have rigged the game with nimby laws.
Having tougher rules regulating Real Estate would have been a better solution. This isn't a free market. It is a rigged bubble market. A con game.
I, too, believe in fairy tales. 😂😂😂😂
Exactly, my thought within the first minute too, This is what needs to happen, lower the rents, you'd think that was simple economics. The thing is though these landlords take out loans to buy these properties and part of the security for those loans is that they show rents that justify the loans. If they lower the rent for one customer the loan companies might see this and pull back the loan so landowners perversely would rather the place be empty - but advertise the same rent - than suggest these properties aren't worth as much. This example shows the landlords got a reality check and are willing to work with the tenant although I would argue the rent never really decreased, just kind of pro-rated to reality. if he had all his old customers back he'd be paying as much ... or more. He's basically an employee of the landlords now.
Having cities whose downtown centers empty out in the evening because everyone works there but no one lives there was never a good idea.
but people do live downtown
@@thewkovacs316 Then why did the city empty when people started working from home?
@@hyena280 because commuters who come into the city stopped. Try THINK
It cleared out because of the pandemic. Some people shouldn't be able to comment without an IQ test.
If you don’t understand the importance of “going to work” and being among co-workers, that’s fine. It’s opinionated. People need to “go to work” again in my opinion.
Lived outside detroit in the 70-80's. Looks very similar to what happened there. Many moved to the suburbs. Still struggling.
It's time to reimagine our cities and how they work. I love the idea of turning office space into housing. I'd love to see more retail, restaurants and offices in residential areas. Imagine your commute being a 5 minutes walk, not a two hour drive in heavy traffic.
I am amazed the AAAAAARRRGH-FIFTEEN-MINUTE-GHETTO whacko-theorists haven't jumped all over this comment...
@@bmolitor615there's a different between doing this as a part of smart civic planning and mandating it to obliterate freedom.
@@danwalter2175 huh. who has "mandated" "it"? [I put both words in separate quotes on purpose]
Between covid bs and idiots voting for idiots what do you expect. California was a paradise turned to a wasteland.
Its not just how cities work. It shows of tight our economy was . We could not afford the covid shut down. Everyone warned us of this and we shut down anyways. The amount of people who are left homeless died, got sick and had their livelihoods destroyed is 10x higher than the amount covid would have affected otherwise.
this is even happening in very small towns in countries across the world.
I lived 30 years in San Francisco and loved it! Then the middle-class got priced out and families had to leave because of high rents and lack of affordable schools, and that means social death. If a city cannot support middle-class workers and families, then it will die.
Soon to be Toronto and Vancouver in Canada.
@@TheDogGoesWoof69needs to be a balance. Progressive policies lead to San Francisco while conservative policies lead to West Virginia
@@TheDogGoesWoof69 I like working so I'll pass
@@TheDogGoesWoof69 Username checks out.
@@TheDogGoesWoof69Me too, even MS is better.
Maybe people don't want to pay 4000 for a 1bdrm and get attacked by homeless dudes on their way home from work
Absolutely. We wouldn't have homeless if the rent weren't so obscene.
@@ardentdrops high rent is not what’s making them homeless.
@@atleastimtrying5391wrong
@@atleastimtrying5391 wrong
@@atleastimtrying5391right. It's mental issues and drug addiction for the vast majority of them. If they had a job that didn't pay them enough to live in SF then they're just ignorant for not moving elsewhere.
The problem with San Francisco, and to the US as well to an ongoing albeit lesser extent, is that people got really greedy, started charging huge prices for the most common things, made people really bitter about it, and now everyone is just fed up.
Yes. Living essentials such as housing should not be subject to “the free market.”
As living near SF, I’m not going to visit as a tourist until there isn’t any poop on the sidewalks.
Work from home when possible. You save on Gas, lunch, car insurance, avoid car accidents. You also gain at least 2 hours a day of your sanity back from the commute. That's 10 hours a week you can put toward extra sleep, time spent with family and friends.
Society will become ill at its finest. Adults will drink more and kids
Yes, and at 10 hrs/week, that's a full 40 hour work week a month saved, which is the equivalent of 3 work months in a year you're saving by avoiding a 2 hour daily commute.
Unless your farming working from home doesn’t keep the economy going
@@waterloo123100 Any job that is done on a computer doesn't need an office to commute to. Working remotely allowed me to travel to many areas of the USA, work, and then enjoy seeing that area.
Also gives you time to have a balanced lifestyle and helps your health.
Having this discussion without talking about the huge homeless, drug, and crime problems is ridiculous.
I lived in SF for 9 years. Covid isn't what caused this, it just gave a bunch of people a reason to get out of a city that's grown more filthy, more expensive, and more dangerous.
because homeless, drug, and crime problems are NOT the issue. they are NOT the problem. the rapid growth and increase in property values without an increase in pay is the issue. homeless, drug, and crime problems are a side effect. I guess it's just easier to blame the downtrodden than it is the wealthy.
Please tell me which city does not have the same problems?
@@Leggyblond22 Many come San Francisco from elsewhere
I can't believe they thought anyone would fall for that, certainly Coronavirus was a factor as it has been in many areas, but by no means is it the only variable, these problems were already simmering,
@@Leggyblond22 Crime IS definitely a major issue keeping businesses out and forcing current businesses away. And high property values don't keep tourists out. The failure of San Francisco to properly handle these issues IS because of a few wealthy politicians doing wrong to get votes, which is to say it's a lot of people voting for them and giving them money when they do wrong. The people stealing are not the poor, so don't say we are blaming the poor. Though no matter how poor you are, don't evacuate your bowels on the sidewalk.
I can't understand landlords that during a pandemic still wanted 100% of their rent. When businesses are forced to close so you as a landlord should also carry their portion.
I think what everyone can agree on is that any problem SF has was basically caused by landlords increasing, increasing, and increasing rent. You can say it's what the market was pushing for at the time but now what? The landlords and property management companies that pushed it to the literal limit destroyed the city. Every other landlord in the country saw that they could raise their prices faster just like SF and they're doing it. It's only a matter of time before more cities simply die like this because nobody wants to or can live in them.
I am living out in the middle of no where and quite happy. I have my honey bees to sell my honey harvest each year and whatever I decide to grow. This fall I am planting a lot of peach trees.
@@mathgasm8484 I hope you do this in real life constantly to people talking about things you don't care about lol
@@bikeenjoyer977 I used to work in the medical field and never really cared too much about patients since they were just numbers. I was really good at my job though.
The police should run the city
No, landlords didn't cause this. Politicians caused this by scaring everyone (completely unnecessary) with Covid. Covid gave the government more power. Now, we're seeing the result of their power. Did you know in 2021, Democratic voters thought that Covid had about a 50% mortality rate? That's because the liberal news and liberal governments pushed it.
What's so hard to understand that raising rents beyond what people can afford means a bunch of empty apartments? If people can't afford to live in your housing, how do you win? I would rather have a lower amount but people able to pay me than a ridiculous amount and no money coming in at all. 😢
Exactly
You speak the truth.
My Family won't visit Frisco until they get the druggies and mentals off the streets.
Part of something is better then all of nothing! But many people just don´t get that.
This and criminals are allowed to run rampant. They're getting better treatment than the honest hard working people.
They forgot to mention that most office jobs can be done remotley at home which can save tremendous amounts of money, time, and stress.
They also didn't mention the rampant crime and drug use.
because you are wrong and it's not that bad... "San Francisco's violent crime rate ranked 14th out of 23 cities with populations over 750,000 in the U.S. in 2020, according to reporting in the San Francisco Chronicle. That's lower than Dallas, Seattle, New York, and Phoenix, among other cities." @@mrsleep0000
Congress definitely can vote from home.
We pay their room and board every week they fly there. Oh and the flights.
We have the technology to do massive hearings from their home states.
@@Buttercup697crime that's reported and followed through upon. I doubt those two people who stole the car and drove it off an cliff that were let go are part of your stats.
@@stevorules1820- you could say the same for any other city, namely red cities that don't like to report things like covid
No one wants to move there when the crime is mind blowing, the homelessness is stupifying, and the trash is reminiscent of your local dump.
Same exact same thing happened to my employer in the north bay. I saw paperwork the landlord was claiming he was owed and it was beyond astronomical.
They are not even talking about the crime that is driving out businesses
Or the homelessness.
Because crime is largely affected by the poverty rate... don't just think one step ahead, see the full picture if you really want things to be better.
@brycemedvin8765 The thing is SF is where you send drug addicts. Most of them aren't even from California. They know SF is the only haven where they're allowed to do whatever and get free needles
@@brycemedvin8765 does anyone live in SF?
If crime is largely affected by poverty, why wasnt the great depression the most Violent time in our history? Crime causes poverty
Residential rents in San Francisco are still too high. A 1 bedroom goes for around $3,000 - $4,000 per month. If the bay area wants to attract businesses, reduce residential rents $700 - $950 per month.
How do you do that when it costs $450,000-$990,000 per unit to build "affordable" housing? How much of a positive economic impact does someone who needs that much of a subsidy add?
karen @@mwatercress
I only paid $650. for my one bedroom house last time i lived in the city. Had a backyard veggie garden too.
@@mwatercress the investors that bought that property bought it at too high of a price. The reality is renters and people looking for houses should be punished because "relators" are trying to make up for their crappy investment.
@@mwatercress Texas construction worker here. The kind of cheap labor that Abbott allows to work here in Texas illegally, can build those houses way less.
No company is going to come into a place where their stores are going to be robbed by nearly everyone walking past the front doors. You might as well just turn them all residental. What can a small business pay, based on what they make, when they are losing money due the thefts?
And pretty soon. The Golden Gate bridge will be a piece of rush because of lack of maintenance. The rust is already set in
You reap what you sow. SF landlords are legendary for being evil. This serves them right. The income generated doesn't match the cost of living. It is un-sustainable.
Americans should reap what they sow. The chaos they spread overseas with illegitimate wars, is now haunting Americans. Spend all your tax dollars on killing others while leaving little for education and infrastructure. Americans deserve the worst.
yep, true!!!
Yeah, this benefits life-long Bay Area residents - people who have their entire families here, grew up here, can't afford to even have an apartment. This goes for not only SF, but the entire Bay Area.
Of course home values are also going to come down which might be bad for people who already own homes here, but good for people who have been killing themselves trying to save up enough for a down payment...
San Francisco laws favor renters. People today do not want to save for a home. They are taught to rent and spend money.
@@mocheen4837 LOL, avocado toast, huh?
Ohhh yes. The reason SF downtown is crumbling is because there aren't enough artists...lets get them in and not address the high cost of living or crime 🙄
This is the leftists' point of view. Anything but never to mention crime.
There are plenty of strung out performance artists just constantly freestyling art in the Tenderloin LOL
Have to love the way they play dumb as though they aren't aware of the problems with the city.
Artists attract people. The more people you get in an area, the more it attracts business. Crowns push out thugs.
What a fluff piece to boost the stupid mayor.
Bro said this city is about to go into another 10 year decline before people wanna move back and visit and work there. Sad thing is that’s optimistic
There should never be vacancy in CRE. The rent should be lowered until someone can afford it.
The fact that landlords gave him this do-over and charge him based off sales means their desperate too. And its good on a sense for him. Because they could either evict him and have nobody or atleast have something come in. Im happy to hear a landlord finally compromise
Exactly
And getting a new renter is a huge expense- usually paid in cash up front to a commercial real estate agent.
yea, they'll just take 100% of his paycheck instead of 300%. good on them.
I love how the plan is to "give" away space, rent free, to artists, in order to attract workers downtown. But then, after the workers start coming back, and the landlords are actually making more money, who do you think the landlords are going to kick out first, to make even MORE money. The very people who made the downtown livable in the first place. The ARTISTS!
And the cycle repeats itself.
I saw a video about New York real estate and, apparently, it is not so simple as to reduce rent on your tenants to meet actual demand. The building itself is collateral for the loan. If suddenly the building becomes worth a whole lot less money, the bank will want the landlord to put up cash or another major asset to maintain that loan, which is often heavily leveraged. It is a Catch 22 where the landlord needs to lower rent to get income, but doesn't have the assets to satisfy the bank.
It’s almost as if being a landlord wasn’t meant to be a primary source of income 😅
As a web developer, going to office only means to be surveilled by the staff / boss. Since this can also be checked if I completed my tasks, going to the office doesn't make sense. It's expensive for the employer and the employee.
The city needs a facelift. They need to reduce rent and housing prices drastically to attract people back. Paying more than premium prices in SF just to be surrounded by crime and vagrancy makes as much sense as a boat in a desert.
Who is the "they" you're referring to
I will never go back into an office. It’s soul crushing and ONLY benefits the employer.
AMEN to that
Employers spend a fortune for the office that produces an illusion of work. Downtown offices haven't been productive in decades. Office theater, traffic or commute drama and strategy to get out of there ahead of a "rush"/meaning a stall, meetings where people not doing work work try to convince bosses they are.
However work at home internet pseudowork, is hard for employers to stomach while they are still paying on ten year leases and duplicate empty equipment.
So as bosses finally shed these commitments, more and more will be happy the office is gone.
However don't celebrate, because if the staff never comes together they you're leverage of living within 40 miles of the old office is GONE TOO.
I need an X analyst, they cost 180k in the Bay Area, they cost 100k in Texas, they cost 70k in Kentucky, they cost 40k in India, they cost 20k in Vietnam.
So you'll have to work on jobs that require physical proximity (labor or mfg) or you'll cash out too and move to Kentucky or Georgia.
Just will till the next recession. You _really_ may not go back to the office.
If your job can easily be done from home, then it can easily be sent overseas to be done cheaper.
Once those offices are gone, so is your job.
@@snewsh This take is a bit of a stretch
I used to get my haircut at ProStyle in 2015 and the barber (bigger burly guy) would talk about how all the google/fb/twitter mania would fade away. The cab/uber drivers would talk about it too. Sad it really happened and the city is what it is.
There's areas of SF that not many people enjoy being in. That mall was one of them. Tenderloin. Hunters Point. Problem is it's spreading to neighborhoods.
Sad fact: homeless people don't walk up hills so the hilly neighborhoods are better.
The fact that there's millions of square feet of vacant property in San Francisco while there's simultaneously an insanely overpriced residential rental market and massive homelessness is hard to cogitate.
I bet the locals are happy to have their city back even though it's a cesspool now. I worked in SF before the pandemic and often heard the locals shout things like "techies go home, you're ruining our city". Also, the contrast of people sleeping in tents and defecating on the sidewalk next to billion dollar businesses, million dollar houses, and 6 figure cars highlighted how broken and sick our society is, as you're expected to ignore all the suffering and craziness around you.
Lol, you do understand that they’re talking about office vacancies due to tech work from home, right?
Fox News is not real like, bud. And the Tenderloin is not San Francisco.
The locals left long ago.
I lived in SF for 20 years and was finally driven out partly because rent became unreasonable, but mostly because the culture of the city was washed away by a huge move-in of google/twitter tenants into homes emptied by evictions due to the Ellis Act or into the huge condo complexes that sprang up everywhere suddenly for the same reason. The face of SF changed so fast. I'd be more sad for having left if I felt like the city I loved was still there, but it's really not. The heart went out of the city. That's why it's doomed.
I feel that way about my former political party
I had friends that lived here and I would visit every year. Maybe around 2011-2012 it just started going down hill, in my opinion. It seem like the cool bars and little art galleries were disappearing. The last few time I went out there my friends and I went out to the mountains for week, didn't even bother with the city.
You nailed it. The massive influx of tech workers forced the residents out, and they took the culture and heart with them.
Plus soft on crime/overrun of homeless
I left because of knucklehead “progressives” who overuse the word “techie” or “tech-bro” and used them as a scapegoat instead of using self reflection and realizing they were the ones who brought the city into decline
There was a reason half the country didn't want to lockdown, they knew this would be the outcome if the economy came to a halt. And here we are
They never define “doom loop.”
Until theft is no longer decriminalized in San Francisco, I can't see things getting much better. Who wants to live and work in a city when it means putting your life and property in real danger?
It’s crazy how for decades, art programs have been cut in schools and art majors have been frowned upon, but now they see how important artists are and want to use them to rebuild San Francisco.
LOL that's some take. So filling downtown with artists is going to fix the homelessness, crime, and open drug use? Amazing! The power of art! I love art(not so much the abstract, tape-a-banana-to-a-wall bs but real artistic talent) but artists aren't going to fix SF's problems. Affordable housing and enforcing the law could though.
@@joet7136 No, he kinda has a point but I think this specific scenario might be different. It's happened where artists tend to be used to create a business district within a city. Art attracts foot traffic, that attracts mobile food vendors, which eventually become restaurants and bars, then come retail stores, and finally apartments. The artists then get pushed out when they can no longer afford to live there.
But with SF.. idk man, I don't think it'll work. It's just too unique of a problem, I think.
When California Proposition 13 (officially named the People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation) passed in 1978, art programs in the public schools were the first to go.
We can’t afford to live there
@@RaymondHng all over the country, for the last 40 years, art and music were the first to go. Oh but now we need artists to revive downtown. Will they offer any subsidies?
Thank goodness some owners are willing to work with businesses because WOW-the current trend of gross over-valuing of real estate is destroying the country. 😢
I'm born and raised in NYC on the LES and I miss passing by Squat and Gobble and chortling at the bar's name every year. I was so sad it closed and The Elbow Room too and Jelly's too. I'm surprised El Rio is still open.
From working in real estate on the East coast to moving to SOCAL. I have yet to understand the concept of these owners that would rather keep a vacant apartment at an unaffordable price than lower the rent and get a resident to occupy it. The properties aren’t even worth what they’re asking, they’re asking these prices because everyone else does.
Rent control and just cause eviction rules would be my guess. Getting rid of a bad residential can cost a year's worth of rent. Taking possession of a unit with a "good" tenant can cost as much as a home in other parts of the country. I saw one buyout cost $450,000 in SF.
@@mwatercress I hear you but that would be wild if vacancies were are at 50% and if even 10% of that is due to eviction/ rent control issues the bigger problem is passing legislation to get the ball rolling. If the unit is vacant there should be no reason you can't get a new person in there quickly if they can afford it.
Guess real estate didn’t work to well for you did it
@@Tiggaknock Those are commercial vacancy rates, not residential rates. Condos and single-family homes are still selling. There are some rental units held off the market due to it not being worth it to take a risk on a marginal tenant in a jurisdiction that practically canceled rent for three years. I think it might be easier to convert to condos if you have fewer rented units. In Santa Monica, I watched 2 apartment towers in the Ocean Park neighborhood sit with just 2 or 3 units occupied for years as they waited for the people to die. I went back a few years later it had been torn down and rebuilt as owner-occupied condos.
money gives power and power corrupts the mind.
No one wants to live in SF let alone work in SF. Fix the crime!
I don’t want to live in San Francisco (even though I used to want to live there) because the tech bros came and ruined it. Has nothing to do with crime. I live in Albuquerque, I can handle crime, stop spreading your opinions as fact.
SF is too busy spending tax dollars on the homeless.Highest taxes in the nation and they allow the city to crumble.
@@TheBLGLfrom india they bought cheap labour , that lick b@lls better
True, some people are just not cut out for city life. Also, some people just hear something, or read something and think that is the only truth of the subject matter. Our crime rates are at or are below the national average for a city our size. Hundreds of thousands of us work and live here and love it, warts and all. We have bad neighborhoods like any big city, and we all avoid them. Like everyone else does in every other city on earth, unless you want to be a druggy, or drop out. So enough with the hysteria, S.F. is still recovering from the pandemic and is coming back, but some things will never change. We have the best weather in the world, have the most beautiful, diverse city and people in the world here too! Have a nice day and always look at the bright side of life!
@@ww2remembered983 San Francisco's property crimes, such as theft and burglary, are higher than the national average.
01:05 yall really gonna try to cut propaganda about working from home being bad, oooooh noooo corporate offices have to pay for the building being there while they have work from home. Miss me with that. Those buildings can be easily just made into affordable housing structures.
I dgaf about commercial vacancies.
Convert the empty office spaces into living spaces, grocery stores, clinics, etc and turn that downtown into a community of people instead of companies
Why anyone would willingly choose to live in this disaster of a city is beyond me
Underneath all the current problems it is beautiful and unique. It's just a mess. Beautiful city though. Least it was 25 years ago.
DumboRats 😢😢😂😂
can't afford to move out.
@@nexussays You clearly lack reading comprehension skills. Where did I claim that no one wanted to live here?
or any US city. I love driving and the freedom owning a car gives but if I lived in a city it would have to be bicycle friendly or walkable. you don't live in a US city, you grind
Unfortunately this is happening in a lot of places. Landlords think they will get rich by raising the rent. But, in reality, high cost of living drives people away.
Yup
In NYC the rent is absurd and many places have sat empty for years now because the rent they're demanding is insanely high
Its happening in all of the cities where they don't enforce the law anymore.
Its almost like... there is a co-relation.
@@gotworc Yeah. I am currently in a city of about 80,000 people in Wisconsin. Which isn't very big. But, for some reason luxury apartments have started to pop up all over. The rent has become ridiculous for the area.
It's not rent, it's crime. All those tech workers still have the same jobs at the same salaries. They are leaving because the city is a dangerous garbage hole. No rent reduction is going to make people happy to step over human feces to get to their front door.
Incase anyone thinks this is a “office space” problem. Retailers have and are leaving at end of lease due to rampant theft from < $1k theft no prosecution law. Store security guard are told to not intervene to avoid lawsuits. Retailers waiting for end of lease to check out.
San Francisco leadership should start *every* interview with an apology while holding up a photograph of a homeless person defecating in a playground.
This is not just a consequence of the epidemic: it's been coming for a long time. I lived and worked there for 34 years, most of that time in the tech industry. The Bay Area is simply a victim of its own success, something that always happens to any city that goes through a long term boom. The choking smoke from wildfires and orange skies at noon, the hotter summers, the changes in employment patterns due to the epidemic, the economic uncertainty, these are all just triggering events, accelerating something that had already begun.
I wish it wasn't so. For the first 25 years or so I loved living there, and until the last 4 years I didn't envision ever living anywhere else. But if you cared to look, you could see this coming a long time ago.
First a city becomes a great place to live, but not yet expensive - and therefore a great place to do business, because you can attract the staff you need. The city quickly becomes a big success, so more and more people and businesses locate there, which keeps the boom going. It becomes the most exciting place to be. Everyone wants to be there.
And then, sooner or later, overcrowding, rising rents, rising cost of living, dirty streets, rising crime, over-strained infrastructure and an all-about-money culture halt the boom and reverse it. But the boom isn't just killed off by those problems, the boom is also what causes them.
The city governments struggle to hang on to their staff to keep their cities running and in repair, because they have to keep paying them ever higher salaries so they can even afford to live there. Growth and more growth, and the needs of business, become the priorities over all else. They have to keep tax revenue rising just so they can keep their heads above water. And the growth and rising salaries in turn keeps the cost of living going up: a vicious circle they can't escape, a struggle they inevitably start to lose. The quality of life in the city begins to deteriorate.
Increasingly, the people the businesses need to thrive don't want to relocate there anymore, and people already there start looking to get out, because it's gotten too expensive and no longer a pleasant place to live.
The businesses find it's no longer a good place to do business, because they have to pay too much so their employees can even afford to live there, if they can find a place to live at all. They start finding it harder and harder to attract the best talent, or even maintain adequate staffing levels. The cost of office space and construction costs have also gone through the roof. Entrepreneurs look somewhere else for an affordable location to launch their startups, and established companies start relocating elsewhere to lower their costs. Investors of all kinds start looking elsewhere to invest. The local economy declines, and the golden age is over.
The boom inevitably kills off the very things about the place that made it successful. And then the party moves somewhere else. The Bay Area is no different in that regard than any other place. It's not somehow immune to those forces. To quote the words of one Californian, "Call someplace Paradise, kiss it goodbye...".
Good analysis. You’re spot on
Nailed it
Great comment, while I do largely agree that there’s a cyclical nature to the rise and fall of economies, this somewhat downplays the fact that the movement of wealth upwards (i.e. BlackRock) is what’s truly sucking the life out of these cities. The working class don’t have nearly enough protections to slow any of this down either, because politics are pay-to-play
This post was really helpful. There were a lot of aspects I didn’t understand before. I wonder what the answer is. Can cities be saved?
@@tnijoo5109 I can't think of any way they could. I think once they get into this spiral the only cure for it is boom turning into bust, after which there will be a prolonged period of decay before they start to recover.
3:05: “Sorry my dude, I have to cut your hair and do PR at the same time to survive…”
San Francisco is a beautiful city. Super sad seeing what’s going on in this city. It’s doomed
It IS sad, but it was inevitable.
Gee I wonder why with all this remote work….
Crime is the bigger issue. It’s why all the retail stores are leaving.
They are not leaving. They are locking down their mercs
Myself and my family stopped over at SF for a few nights when doing a California road trip from the UK. On the first night getting pizza, a drug fuelled man came into the take out screaming, swearing and demanding money because we were all “Rich sons of b*****s”. The next morning, whilst enjoying a morning coffee in Union square, we were serenaded by a fully naked female kick boxing and shadow fighting. The high scissor kicks were a delight to be seen by my children. Luckily, as teenagers, they are quite calm and open minded and my sons only comment was “ NOT WHAT YOU NEED TO SEE WITH YOUR MORNING CAPPUCCINO “😂
Whilst we laugh about it now, it is sad to see what has happened to SF, this was my 4th visit to the once great city since 2003. I fully blame City Hall and the Politicians. You have ruined that City, plain and simple.
I lived ,worked there for 20 years during 80s 90s mostly commuting on bart . It was the best town for us ever but the current situation pains us
To be honest the fully naked female kickboxing sounds hilarious though 😂
That’s what happens when you vote democrat look at every other city like NYC
Who wouldn’t want to pay $2.1m for an 800sq ft efficiency????
So… when does the “trickle-down effect” start? … Americans have been waiting since 1984.
Sad to see the buildings I spend 31 years building sitting empty. Working from home isnt the future it's here, the office space isn't needed
Sounds like they are going through the stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. If only they could fast track to acceptance that people will not be returning to those offices.
Lol, yeah, there's definitely a stages of grief thing here. The real problem is it's hard to deconstruct the pyramid. labor and material costs go up then a company just charges more for their product and hope people still buy their stuff. This is "easy" to manage because it's usually incremental a few percent a year maybe. The other way is harder, people don't want your stuff? well lower the rent and maybe they will, but then they need to repay the loan, if they can't, the bank has a problelm like we're seeing in Califorrnia - gee,what a coincidence - right now. just a lot harder problem to manage.
The implementation of remote work is a giant win for the middle class. It's a win for mental health, single parents, and the environment. It doesn't impact quality of work and companies can save a huge chunk of money by not having to rent office space. Unfortunately it took a pandemic to remind landlords and city officials that a city is unsustainable without its middle class, which they alienated. Everyone can go almost anywhere else in the world for a better quality of life at half the cost. There is absolutely no good reason for anyone to live here, to invest here, to visit here. SF deserves to rot.
Remote work means more American jobs will be outsourced overseas.
Depends on your skill and field. If you're in a line of work that doesn't require much skill then an employer is more likely to outsource. There's a lot to factor in. Choosing to work for a company that cares about quality matters too. A lot of uneducated people chime in on the remote work/outsourcing debate with no real knowledge so there's a lot of false info out there. @@rxg9er
@@rxg9er Not really. Govt has things in place to prevent that going rampant. On top of that, a lot of overseas can't do the jobs.. at the quality needed. Some can, for sure, but not as many overseas tech capable employment. Now.. customer service, sure. But with AI coming in faster than anything else has.. that too is going to disappear very soon.
And I would add... be vary wary of the wealthy people that own commercial real estate that's hurting now.. you know they're trying to cut losses by extolling the virtues of working in office while at the country club and at supper with the ceo and managerial class
You all voted for this, stop whining.
Parts of NC is getting unreasonably high due to hi tech industries moving in particularly around Charlotte and Raleigh and NY and CA people keep moving here driving up the cost of living; you cannot find a decent rental under 1,000 or a decent home to buy under 200. And for those saying that’s cheap must be from one of the two aforementioned locations
Nice. Maybe house pricing will go down.
I reside in close proximity to Los Angeles, and the situation here mirrors what many are experiencing. The desire to return to office spaces in Culver City, Santa Monica, and Hollywood is virtually nonexistent. It appears that cities lack a forward-thinking approach; they permit a saturation of companies in a given area, causing a rapid surge in rental prices. Only those in the C-suite can comfortably afford to live near these offices, while everyone else faces lengthy commutes. This situation is quite absurd.
There is a clear consensus that most individuals prefer to continue working from home. If companies fail to provide salaries that enable employees to reside near their offices, they are essentially shifting the financial burden onto their workers. It is a matter of concern that remote work opportunities have not been codified into law yet. This legislation should allow people to live in areas they can afford without wasting precious time and money on commuting for jobs that can easily be performed remotely.
For those who genuinely require a collaborative workspace, tax deductions for expenses such as gas, vehicle insurance, and a percentage of vehicle costs should be made available.
The problem is that most cities are surrounded by a huge metro area that has its own business centers, its own shopping and entertainment.. Why go downtown in the city when you have everything you need in your own community that is 10 miles from downtown??
It's telling that your extremely accurate and reasonable comment has very few replies or engagement lol
I could not agree more. We need either to reinvest the ways we restructure our city planning to more sustainable models that allow ppl to *afford* living near their jobs. Cities in general need to stop relying on the unsustainable model of endless expansion into suburbs that creates expensive travel maintenance infrastructure, and it's corresponding costs that outpace what the city can afford.
Either that or they need to return everybody to dial up and landline technology so that it's no longer possible to do most work remotely LOL
LA is such a dump, we closed our hub their. I have to visit the US for work and EVERYONE DREADS half of it.
Noone likes going to the NYC hub either we look at it like a war draft.
We do however love our NC office and wish our visits were longer , its beautiful clean the people in the mid-west are so much nicer too.
The Americans in CA were so much different, totally self obsessed, ignorant of Europe and anything outside of their vapid realm.
Northern CA is beautiful and my family loves it, but San Fran, San Diego LA are complete & total trash.
We will NEVER go back to LA again.
@@inasez our company owns houses in suburbs we stay at in our biannual work tours, they are HEAVEN
Just a 30 min drive and we have huge back gardens with pools. We would never dream of having to actually live in LA or NYC
@bubandlisa it's always nice in the suburbs until the city can't afford to maintain and repair the roads and streets. So then the city keeps building out further and further and those new roads and streets add to the infrastructure burden in a vicious cycle. Cities in the US and Canada are usually planned unsustainably for sprawl. Which leads inevitably to decay.
I lived in SF during the 80's-90's. It was a great place because there were forward-thinking people who were willing to solve some of the city's big issues, on top of also dealing with the AIDS epidemic. The moment the tech bros showed up and rents skyrocketed, many of those folks had to move across the Bay or elsewhere, leaving a solution vacuum. Meanwhile, the tech bros were far less concerned about the growing social problems like homelessness and drug addiction and basically just needed them to go away which obviously didn't happen. The only way SF can rescue itself from the slump is to bring back the brain trust who had workable solutions and make the city (somewhat) affordable again. They need to reinvest in their public transportation as well. I'm rooting for the city.
What they need to do is kick all the real estate investors out and help drop rental and property prices so that long term residents can actually establish roots in the city. Right now the city just acts as a a place to invest and then leave as soon as people turn a profit.
Not coming back
The techbors have also made SF a soulless place. They are aloof, no sense of humor, very cold and reserved. Some has to do with the culture. Some cultures are also more introverted and lack that warm and kindness. It's all about $$$$$$$$$$$ being stingy. Seattle is the same way. I used to love SF and went there couple times a month, but not anymore. And by the way I'm a progressive liberal person saying these things.
Don't blame the tech bros. The only reason they were ever in SF is because the government gave massive tax cuts to corporations who rooted themselves in the Bay Area, and then those companies blew up and hired tons of people. Until COVID, it was next to impossible to find a tech job that wasn't in one of the ~4ish major tech cities - so what were the tech workers supposed to do, move to Kentucky and pack groceries at Walmart instead? Seattle sucks, and NYC isn't for everyone.
And the other massive issue was the lack of housing, and the NIMBYs that refused any and all new construction in most of the city. It's kinda obvious that if your community wants to invest in a growing economic sector, then their city should have the proper infrastructure and plan to support that kind of influx. San Francisco, and in particular the selfish NIMBY landowners who bought their homes for next to nothing decades ago, utterly failed in this regard.
And then yeah, COVID made everything remote. And surprise, when your entire economy is based on a single industry and doesn't diversify, when that industry leaves you're left with scraps. And when your company leaves or allows remote work, why would anyone stay in SF? The city was overpriced, overrun with homeless, and not very livable towards the end of the decade. You can't blame people for leaving, just like you can't blame them for coming.
I really hope SF learned their lesson and that the city recovers. It's one of the most beautiful places on Earth, and there's something inexplicably magic about it. But if you have a gem like that, you have to be willing to share, give and take. Otherwise, the social divide will keep widening.
I lived there in the 60 and 70s - if was even better!!
It's almost like all of that space was a waste
No mention of rampant crime and open drug use? What business will stay open downtown when they get their goods stolen and their customers get mugged?
I visited SF back in the late 90's/early 2000's. Such an amazing, vibrant city. The park by the bay was literally filled with people running, playing, lounging...I never saw so much going on in such a small area. And later, we visited the asian district. We saw people inside this outdoor strip mall of sorts doing what looked like tai-chi. The stores has imported stuff straight from Japan. And for the life of me, I don't remember seeing one homeless tent anywhere (maybe they were hidden somewhere?).
It was such an interesting city that I don't recognize anymore. I have no desire to ever visit it again.
I remember I lived in the city back then it was a different place.
Same great experiences visiting in 2005 and 2009, and now I see no reason to return to such a broken and abused place.
Homeless come here because the weather is "livable" year round vs east coast, texas, etc. Winters are not harsh most of the time, summers the same.
@@b3owu1f I lived in San Francisco and Willie Brown would bus the homeless out of town, that stopped when Gavin Newsom was Mayor and it started the whole problem.
if you think 2005-2009, try the 60s and 70s when I was going to school there. Can't even compare to the 2000s. rapples and oranges.@@neilybobmojo_railfanning
I just saw a story saying workers were returning to the office and tourism was back. I went downtown and it was like a ghost town. The mayor really has no clue how she destroyed the city.
Worst and most disrespectful mayor ever, no wonder petitions to remove her are flying everywhere.
One day you will wake up and realize she knows EXACTLY what she's doing and that her goals are quite different from yours.
Just like people post false comments about San Francisco improving, so do news stories. Explore San Francisco with Google Maps and you will see very few people walking on the sidewalks along with very little traffic too.
@@nexussays Either you are lying with your post or your friend lied to you. San Francisco is a ghost town. Almost every store on Powell Street is empty with "For Lease" banners on the windows. The intersecting street stores are mostly empty too. There are few people walking on the streets and traffic is sparse.
I knew it well also. Such a shame.
Anyone who thinks that a bunch of down market art galleries will bring back tourists really should quit smoking the cheap stuff.
Yes Real Estate agents normally call it progress when the property market shuts down music venues and community centres.
People don't like commuting 1-3 hours for work. If San Francisco can address that and people can travel 30 minutes to work, then it can compete with work from home.
That is still 5 hours a week plus fuel and stress as opposed to the comfort of your own space and wearing comfortable clothes everyday.
Sorry, but the talent (workers) have spoken and they aren't going to be connived into working and commuting their lives away like my generation was.
Nothing about the crime deterring people to stay
The crime and homelessness is the biggest problem.
What a bummer.
Maybe some of the classes of people who made San Francisco famous; the writers and artists can return. Maybe San Francisco can turn away from being an enclave for the wealthy and embrace once more the working class who used to be the foundation of this grand metropolis.
No, they've forced out the working class, the middle class.
This is a direct effect of democrat policies in action. This is their Utopia and this is the model they want followed by the rest of the country.
Every place democrats are in control, all their cities suffer the same result.
But that's OK because,
"Vote Blue, No Matter Who!"
Good job Comrades.
Impossible without defeating the NIMBYs and building housing. Housing construction has basically been banned in San Francisco for 40 years.
🤣
If only they wont push them out again once it becomes cool and artsy again. It's always the same loop. Artists and creatives come in, make a crappy place cool and wonderful, then landlords capitalize on the draw of the up & coming neighborhood by raising their rents until artists can't afford it anymore and are forced to leave....rinse, repeat. They left SF and moved to Oakland, then they were forced out of Oakland and moved to Vallejo, now they're leaving the Bay altogether and going to Reno, Sacramento, etc.
@@jpunx3133Same thing in NYC!
What about the crime?
Crazy how safety was not brought up. Homelesss, rampant stealing and drug use in the streets is the reason many are leaving
Gee, I can’t understand why a city with some of the most outrageously expensive rents in the world is having a problem finding tenants…🙄
I love the idea of converting office space into housing. They need to do this in Toronto. There's a huge demand for affordable rentals, but the supply is so low. Yet, so many office towers sit vacant since nobody wants to return to the office post pandemic.
It’s extremely complicated and expensive to convert office space into housing. That is why you rarely ever see it happening. That scenario is not realistic.
@@gnarlycat Remove the unnecessary regulations that prevent the conversion from being easy then. If the market still says it doesn't make sense, so be it, but I don't think it's been given a sufficient chance.
Everyones back to the office though. I cant think of a single person still wfh full time
@@karlwithak. What a pack of BS. You were defintely denied a good education, wherever that was.
@@angelwu86 I--office work has not returned to SF's Financial District.
My company, family, and friends will no longer go to SF because it is way too dangerous. Tourists cannot even rent a car, because it will absolutely, positively be broken into. The DA refuses to keep dangerous offenders off the streets.
Not even discussing the main issue, bravo for NBC "journalism"
I was in SF 9 years and had to leave. Just not safe anymore.
How about fix that first?
SF is a victim of its own success. I feel bad for the small businesses located there, but the city needs to diversify its economy to keep itself afloat
2:22
That will never happen. As more and more people are working from home. Its better to just convert those buildings into apartments.
Over 80% of jobs can be done from home. People will be much happier, and companies in return will see a skyrocket in job performance and results.
Not to mention that soon working days will be 4 days instead of 5 days. Which will make people overwhelmingly happier.
They won't be happier when the country is completely steamrolled by countries with 6 day work weeks.
SOON WHEN? 😂
Actually only about 35% of Jobs can be done remotely. Of those 35% a large number will be replaced by AI eventually. 61% of all US jobs require repetitive and intensive physical work. The lala land of SF doesn't represent the US at all
@@DamianBadalamenti
The trend towards remote work is here to stay, and companies and job seekers alike can benefit from it. Companies can see increased productivity and reduced overhead costs, while job seekers have access to more opportunities and increased job satisfaction.
As Forbs stated.
Also It's been estimated by the government that by 2025, 70% of the workforce will work remotely.
Large and small companies were already adopting remote work. As more and more job openings for the technical field increases and AI hikes up further.
Off topic - I like how the guy in the chair, getting his hair cutt is chill and like "I just want my hair cutt"
That's all roots back to 1998 when feds dropped interest rate and homes prices skyrocketed, corrupting on its way the whole economy. ☹
I find it funny that artists are included in the list of things that can bring people back into the city when the past year has proven that people don't care about us or think we make enough to even afford anything let alone live in SF
They don’t want artists. They want tourists and high end businesses.
but you voted for this???
did you not?
your policies created this mess?
so why do you even complain?
say you guys all moved to my hometown of nashville,tn?
you'd turn it into another SF in under a year.
its the people who vote these things in that should be locked up and left to die.
them running away doesn't solve anything as now its someone elses problem.
I was in San Francisco yesterday, and I walked about 3 blocks and counted 10 different location available for lease. Much different than 3 years ago or even 1 year ago.
Maybe they should lower the RENT in the city!!!
Crazy that they think in 10 years people will be flocking back to downtown offices.
I live in a city that has a 33% vacancy rate in its downtown core, it has been that way since 2105-2016 when the oil price collapsed and there are no signs of it bouncing back. As with SF the homeless problem has escalated making the core even less attractive to tenants. This is a a problem that needs to be addressed on multiple fronts as there is no single solution.
Affordable housing needs to be priority #1 in reviving any downtown... Be it Calgary, Edmonton or San Francisco...
Edmonton?
@@Guomond1 Calgary.
@@TR-pu9tp That was my second guess.
And they didn’t mention even the SF Federal Office is telling employees to work from home because of the crime and condition near the building..
Simple: convert all vacant buildings to housing and keep the first floors for businesses.
I need almost a million dollars to buy a house in the Bay Area. 750k for a questionable condo or townhouse. It’s nuts.
Lived here all my life, This place is becoming so seriously desolate that my house is actually now having paranormal activity.
People are packing their things and leaving like there is no tomorrow, I hardly even see a soul walk the streets nowadays
Its not even over yet, they're talking like they solved the homeless and crime issues causing a lot of this.
No, but we are working on it and like to take the high road, as in: We are hardworking Americans who care about others. We will weather any storm because we will use our brains, brawn and positive energy to get things done.
Rents are and continue to be out of hand. Until that is fixed SF will continue to empty out.
Used to love going to SF back in the day, 1960's through 1990. What a great city it USED to be.
Now it is a disgusting mess.