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m_d_hI read the Atlantic article “How San Francisco Became a Failed City” even though I disagree with the headline at the outset — how is it a failed city? It seems what the author describes are mainly problems affecting the entire country, but with an air of “how could this happen here, to me, to my own precious city”, along with some specific examples of how Democrats in SF have been unable to fix the problems — but as unable as anybody else anywhere else. Crime is up everywhere. Fentanyl deaths are up everywhere. The political class is out of touch everywhere, regardless of party. Every large city is hamstrung by zoning restrictions. Every large city has seen arrests go down after the GF protests and especially COVID as police quit and courts got backed up.
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In recent years when I've visited SF it has felt like a caricature of its supposedly progressive past -- mainly colonized by tech firms and their highly-paid staff, with its old legendary LGBT bars and bookstores steadily closing one-by-one, clinging to its annual kinky street festivals as though SF were still some sort of cultural touchstone for the radical left in the US.
But you can't be a cultural touchstone for the radical left when the average rent for a 2BR is over $3,200/month while the minimum wage is $16/hour -- people simply cannot afford to live there on a minimum wage job, it takes 200 hours to pay the monthly rent, not counting taxes.
In 1970, you could rent a 2BR in SF for $140/month, when the minimum wage was $1.65 -- 85 hours could pay the rent. The ratio of rent to minimum wage has gone up 135%.
Similar stories could be told about other large cities in the US, rents have increased so much faster than working class wages during my lifetime.
A radical left city would be doing something about this monstrous inequity. But instead we worship at the altar of property values and stock options -- whatever the tech workers are focused on.
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There's actually no state in the US where you can afford even a studio apartment on the state's minimum wage, assuming 30% of income going toward rent.
The closest you get is Arkansas, followed by New Mexico, then South Dakota -- mainly the emptier states. These aren't radical left states LOL, South Dakota doesn't even have an income tax. They just don't have crowded cities. The market hasn't bid up prices as high in those states.
To the extent we have a Left in the US anymore, it is either powerless or it doesn't give a shit about the working class and housing affordability. What could be more important to workers than the ability to pay your rent and have a place to live? Why don't Democrats do something about this? Because now the Democratic Party is run by people with graduate degrees who can afford the rent in big cities, and by billionaire donors who can live wherever the fuck they want. And these folks are way more concerned about identity politics and abortion rights and "saving democracy" than about making sure the people who work at Chipotle can afford to pay their rent.
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In recent years when I've visited SF it has felt like a caricature of its supposedly progressive past -- mainly colonized by tech firms and their highly-paid staff, with its old legendary LGBT bars and bookstores steadily closing one-by-one, clinging to its annual kinky street festivals as though SF were still some sort of cultural touchstone for the radical left in the US.
But you can't be a cultural touchstone for the radical left when the average rent for a 2BR is over $3,200/month while the minimum wage is $16/hour -- people simply cannot afford to live there on a minimum wage job, it takes 200 hours to pay the monthly rent, not counting taxes.
In 1970, you could rent a 2BR in SF for $140/month, when the minimum wage was $1.65 -- 85 hours could pay the rent. The ratio of rent to minimum wage has gone up 135%.
Similar stories could be told about other large cities in the US, rents have increased so much faster than working class wages during my lifetime.
A radical left city would be doing something about this monstrous inequity. But instead we worship at the altar of property values and stock options -- whatever the tech workers are focused on.
-----
There's actually no state in the US where you can afford even a studio apartment on the state's minimum wage, assuming 30% of income going toward rent.
The closest you get is Arkansas, followed by New Mexico, then South Dakota -- mainly the emptier states. These aren't radical left states LOL, South Dakota doesn't even have an income tax. They just don't have crowded cities. The market hasn't bid up prices as high in those states.
To the extent we have a Left in the US anymore, it is either powerless or it doesn't give a shit about the working class and housing affordability. What could be more important to workers than the ability to pay your rent and have a place to live? Why don't Democrats do something about this? Because now the Democratic Party is run by people with graduate degrees who can afford the rent in big cities, and by billionaire donors who can live wherever the fuck they want. And these folks are way more concerned about identity politics and abortion rights and "saving democracy" than about making sure the people who work at Chipotle can afford to pay their rent.