Wealthy Buyers Reportedly in “Mad Rush” to Leave San Francisco
There&#x27;s some good articles discussing how after a major natural disaster, cities aren&#x27;t really fundamentally derailed in how much they rebound to success vs. slide into oblivion by the actual disaster.<p>To spell it out more concretely, it&#x27;s suggested that if a city is vital and people want to live there, a disaster will not hurt that growth and city&#x27;s long-term trajectory.  Physical damage, or even population damage will recover and people will still move there to be around other productive people.<p>On the other hand, if a city was already losing its vitality and drive and attractiveness, no amount of stimulus afterwards will stop it.   People simply don&#x27;t want to live and work there, or be part of the city&#x27;s growth.  The examples (I&#x27;ll try to dig up the articles) were:<p>- Kobe after their earthquake (stimulus and reinvestment did not stop a general decline of that city that was happening long before the earthquake)<p>- New York, after natural disasters, 9&#x2F;11, etc. (the city rebounded and people continued moving there no matter the physical aftereffects)<p>So for SF, you ask, aside from this virus situation, what was San Francisco and California incentivizing people to do?  It has been a confused message.   Tech and jobs, weather, and pleasant environment clearly drive SF&#x27;s growth and attractiveness.  However, homelessness, traffic, zoning, high housing prices&#x2F;unaffordability, all the problems of SF that the supervisors have been too ineffective to tackle meaningfully, drive unattractiveness.<p>I think the virus (like any other natural disaster) just exposes to a greater extent what people really think and are likely to do about a city.<p>San Francisco (and any other city&#x27;s) fate was made long before the current situation, and short-term popular messages of &quot;we will get through this and get stimulus money or reform x,y,z&quot; generally will not outweigh the years and decades of what the city had set up for itself up to now.  Personally though, I think SF + Bay Area will manage to slide (survive) through it, despite many faults, because it&#x27;s been fundamentally a desireable place to be.