by Randy Shaw on May 16, 2023 (BeyondChron.org)
Nordstrom closure reignited SF’s Doom Loop Debate
Censoring City Problems is Wrong
Here’s my two big takes from the avalanche of social media posts about San Francisco’s potentially “doomed” future.
First, many commenters know little about San Francisco’s recent history. The city faced tough economic times from 1986-1995 but many of today’s activists are unaware of this period. Many of the “structural” challenges being debated now were also argued about then. Today’s challenges seem greater but San Francisco successfully overcame longterm economic stagnation decades ago and can reposition itself again.
Second, many believe that the city’s thriving neighborhoods are the true if not exclusive measurement of San Francisco’s status. They claim the media is too focused on a handful of problem blocks near City Hall while ignoring the Marina, Noe Valley and other areas.
I find this analysis insulting and wrongheaded.
Media focuses on San Francisco’s drug markets because they are the most openly displayed in the industrial world. Many cities have neighborhoods with thriving cafes and restaurants but San Francisco’s open drug scene is unique. That’s why it keeps getting coverage.
A city is not defined by ignoring what occurs only blocks from City Hall. Residents of thriving neighborhoods do not live in a vacuum. These are the voters who recalled the former DA and who are mad as hell about the city’s lack of public safety.
Who favors a San Francisco that ignores its extreme drug crisis so to avoid contributing to a “doom loop”? The whole concept of the “doom loop” assumes the city can’t solve its problems—yet when it comes to closing open air drug markets it certainly can.
I thank all those media and social media activists who refuse to sugercoat what it happening in San Francisco. The primary victims of this drug crisis are low-income renters who progressives claim to support. City Hall must support these tenants by closing these open drug markets. City Hall must ensure that the working-class Tenderloin is as free of sidewalk drug dealers as is the case in most city neighborhoods.
Want to avoid a doom loop? Join those demanding the closure of open air drug markets now.
Randy Shaw
Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw’s latest book is Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. He is the author of four prior books on activism, including The Activist’s Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century, and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. He is also the author of The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco
