Another business flees

[Josh]

Now AT&T is closing its flagship store in SF.

I posted a list earlier, but closings are happening so quickly, the list is probably already out of date. We might as well try to document how many businesses have fled Detroit since the decline of its heydey back in the 1960s.

[Bootstrap]

So what is the overall trend? There are always business closings and business openings, what is happening to total business employment?

[Bootstrap]

Here's the St Louis Federal Reserve - note the trend in private employment since 2020.

[Ken]

Now AT&T is closing its flagship store in SF.

I posted a list earlier, but closings are happening so quickly, the list is probably already out of date. We might as well try to document how many businesses have fled Detroit since the decline of its heydey back in the 1960s.

Or the county you live in in Ohio.

The current unemployment rate in San Francisco is under 3% and the median household income is $126,187 so it sounds like they are doing just fine and won't miss the odd Gap or Nordstrom in some tourist location. The crime issue in San Francisco and problem of violent crime (which is actually not particularly high by national standards) is really more of a symptom of the fact that the wealthy elites who run San Francisco seem uninterested in really tackling the larger social problems of which crime, addiction, and homelessness are just symptoms.

[Josh]

more of a symptom of the fact that the wealthy elites who run San Francisco seem uninterested in really tackling the larger social problems of which crime, addiction, and homelessness are just symptoms.

San Francisco has 8,000 homeless of which 4,000 are sleeping outside. The wealthy elites actually dump huge amounts of money into all kinds of social programs - certainly more money than is spent where I live.

Yet we have no visible homeless nor pervasive street crime despite addiction being a problem here as well.

[Josh]

So what is the overall trend? There are always business closings and business openings, what is happening to total business employment?

Employment isn’t the topic. The topic is that store closures and stores shrinking hours and putting everything behind lock and key has gotten to a level where it’s difficult for ordinary people (or tourists) to access basic goods and services.

Unemployment is low in Detroit too.

[Ken]

more of a symptom of the fact that the wealthy elites who run San Francisco seem uninterested in really tackling the larger social problems of which crime, addiction, and homelessness are just symptoms.

San Francisco has 8,000 homeless of which 4,000 are sleeping outside. The wealthy elites actually dump huge amounts of money into all kinds of social programs - certainly more money than is spent where I live.

Yet we have no visible homeless nor pervasive street crime despite addiction being a problem here as well.

The wealthy elites in San Francisco have deliberately and systematically made it impossible to build low income housing in San Francisco. Or practically any housing for that matter. Social programs are pointless if there is no place for people to live.

That is the fundamental difference between San Francisco and pretty much any place in Ohio. The cost of housing. Crime rates are basically the same. It is the cost of housing. For example, West Virginia has much higher crime rates and much higher addiction rates than California. But barely any homeless. That is because dirt cheap housing is abundant.

Housing isn't even that difficult of a problem to solve. They just don't want to solve it in San Francisco and so here we are. And no, housing won't solve addiction and crime. Witness West Virginia. But it will solve people living on the streets so at least it is a start. Each problem has its own solutions. And complex inter-related problems have complex inter-related solutions.

[MaxPC]

Now AT&T is closing its flagship store in SF.

I posted a list earlier, but closings are happening so quickly, the list is probably already out of date. We might as well try to document how many businesses have fled Detroit since the decline of its heydey back in the 1960s.

Indeed. It is a bad situation for the residents.

[Ken]

So what is the overall trend? There are always business closings and business openings, what is happening to total business employment?

Employment isn’t the topic. The topic is that store closures and stores shrinking hours and putting everything behind lock and key has gotten to a level where it’s difficult for ordinary people (or tourists) to access basic goods and services.

What basic goods and services do you think that ordinary residents of San Francisco have difficulty accessing? Not someone living in the Tenderloin which is San Francisco's skid row. But some ordinary neighborhood in San Francisco where most people actually live? Like say Sunset or Richmond?

[MaxPC]

A question for only the actively practicing Anabaptists on this group: how would you and your church seek to evangelise in a place such as S.F.?