A Safer San Francisco
The most interesting thing about San Francisco, to me at least, is just ignorant some residents seem to be of just how bad the situation is. You simply can&#x27;t walk down the Mission or anywhere near the Tenderloin and not see open drug use, drug dealing, homelessness and crime.<p>By &quot;ignorance&quot; I mean I know a lot of people who work in tech (as I do), many of whom live in SF. I&#x27;m actually shocked at how often they&#x27;ll tell me how amazing SF is. Like where do they live? Do they go out? I really don&#x27;t get it.<p>I&#x27;m against the culture of mass incarceration but not prosecuting thefts below $950 [1] isn&#x27;t the answer.<p>There&#x27;s no simple answer here. There are lots of contributing factors. But pretty high on that list is income inequality and housing unaffordability.<p>If it were up to me, I&#x27;d also get rid of the &quot;are you a felon?&quot; question that permanently excludes you from many jobs, renting somewhere to live and generally from many aspects of society, forever, with no recourse. If you do your time then your record should be expunged (except for sentencing for future convictions). Some crimes may exclude you from certain jobs (eg sexual or violent crimes and working with children). But it should be pretty limited.<p>Felons should certainly not be stripped of the ability to vote. That should be illegal.<p>If you exclude felons from society, what do you expect these people to do when crime is the only way they can support themselves?<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2021&#x2F;05&#x2F;21&#x2F;us&#x2F;san-francisco-shoplifting-epidemic.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2021&#x2F;05&#x2F;21&#x2F;us&#x2F;san-francisco-shoplift...</a>