San Francisco is a fortress city. Parts of it are beautiful, although almost no one can afford to live in those parts. But every time I go there I am staggered by the number of people living in sleeping bags on the street - one small block can easily have 15-20. New York and LA are like that, although maybe slightly less so. Wherever the left rules, opportunity for those most in need of it dies, and the much lamented “inequality” becomes most manifest.
Too bad the streets are little more than public toilets.
The liberals there will not enforce vagrancy laws, panhandling laws...or any other law for that matter.
However if you look at the riot history of the Bay Area, the riots are in Oakland. There's just not enough primitives in SF to actually RIOT. The residents will watch the smoke rising from across the Bay.
San Jose and the areas surrounding Silicon Valley may present a different calculus. The population surrounding Silicon Valley is easily 60% Hispanic, and at least 1/2 of those illegal. The majority of the rest born to illegals.
The dominant theme being poor, "uneducated" and ENVIOUS.
To top it off, most white residents of the Bay Area consider it uncool to own a firearm.
A slaughter just waiting to happen.
Seattle also has people sleeping in the streets. Poverty isn’t the only reason for this—mental health policies have a lot to do with it. Also tolerance for panhandling. Also “harm reduction” policies such as needle exchanges and the mentality that goes with them may actually cause some harm. Street people gravitate to the cities for a variety of reasons.
I would not engage in a spitting contest with SF, but when I lived in Seattle, it wasn’t unusual to get panhandled 2 or 3 times just going a few blocks to the store.