The once-proud city of San Francisco has fallen into decadence and danger, as evidenced by two news reports this week.
It’s been reported that conservative author Shelby Steele and his filmmaker son Eli had tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment stolen from them on Wednesday when they attempted to shoot a documentary. The Steeles wanted to make a film that investigates how defunding the police may be detrimental to society. Their theory was proven when the lack of police emboldened thieves to rob them in broad daylight.
The next day, ABC news anchor Matt Gutman advised his live viewers that filming in downtown San Francisco was too risky. During the George Floyd mayhem and the Rodney King riots in 1992 Los Angeles, Gutman saw television teams with a reporter in a helmet narrating the “mostly peaceful protests.”
Gutman’s profile states that he was a Jerusalem-based reporter for seven years, covering every major conflict in the Middle East. However, he considers the heart of San Francisco far more dangerous.
Gutman’s “Good Morning America” segment discussed the “dead zone” in the City by the Bay. That zone is a desert where businesses pulled up stakes to escape the crime (and needle and feces) ridden streets of San Francisco.
Westfield, the owner of the once-thriving San Francisco Westfield Mall, stopped making payments on a mortgage of more than $500 million. The mall is nearly half unoccupied.
Union Square used to be San Francisco’s hub. A recent poll, however, revealed that almost half of the area’s establishments had closed their doors in 2019. There seems to be nothing but vacant storefronts now.
The number of robberies in the city increased by 16 percent from the first quarter of 2022, while fentanyl-related fatalities increased by 41 percent.
It’s popping up suddenly everywhere you look. Businesses are abandoning the area.
In his talk, Gutman reminded his listeners that San Francisco was not the only city facing similar issues. Portland, Seattle, and Los Angeles are also West Coast cities seeing their downtowns decline.
(All of them are liberal strongholds encouraging homelessness and illegal immigration, have joined the “defund the police” movement, and are led by awake, soft-on-crime district attorneys.)
A major news company can’t even enter a downtown district after dark.
That’s the news story.
