{"id":23014,"date":"2022-07-17T14:19:08","date_gmt":"2022-07-17T21:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=23014"},"modified":"2022-07-17T14:57:21","modified_gmt":"2022-07-17T21:57:21","slug":"23014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/07\/17\/23014\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It really feels like we\u2019re in hell\u2019: This video on the state of life in S.F. is riling people up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/author\/roland-li\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Roland Li<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>July 15, 2022Updated: July 15, 2022 2:49\u00a0p.m. (SFChronicle.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.hdnux.com\/photos\/01\/26\/47\/53\/22706884\/3\/1200x0.jpg\" alt=\"Abraham Woodliff and screenshot of his viral video reacting to a Chronicle story.\"\/><figcaption>Abraham Woodliff and screenshot of his viral video reacting to a Chronicle story.Abraham Woodliff \/ Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier this week, I wrote about Salesforce&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/realestate\/article\/Salesforce-gives-up-another-big-chunk-of-office-17301088.php\">cutting back on its office space<\/a>&nbsp;in downtown San Francisco, another sign of tech companies downsizing as workers stay remote during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>South of Market resident Abraham Woodliff read the headline and saw it as another sign of corporate and tech wealth abandoning the city. He&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Cf9Q69SDPMY\/\">recorded a furious reaction<\/a>&nbsp;accusing city leaders of screwing over artists, the LGBTQ community and residents in favor attracting businesses with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/projects.sfchronicle.com\/2019\/mid-market\/\">policies like the 2011 payroll tax break<\/a>&nbsp;in Mid-Market, which Twitter benefited from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The disastrous result, in his opinion: San Francisco has some of the most expensive living costs in the country and some of the most drug-ridden and poverty-stricken streets, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/sf\/article\/S-F-population-fell-6-3-most-in-nation-to-17199403.php\">now residents and businesses are departing.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe money that you sold all these people out for is leaving too. Now San Francisco is just a big piece of s\u2014. It\u2019s just a bunch of fentanyl addicts &#8230; in the street and just throwing feces,\u201d he said in the video. \u201cWow. I\u2019m really glad&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/politics\/article\/Ed-Lee-1952-2017-SF-s-first-Asian-American-12424649.php\">Ed Lee<\/a>&nbsp;gave all those tax incentives. It\u2019s really working out you f\u2014 morons. And clearly they\u2019re very loyal to the city, considering they\u2019re all f\u2014 leaving \u2019cause you made it hell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such criticisms of San Francisco aren\u2019t new, but Woodliff\u2019s passionate words resonated with people on social media as the city grinds its way through the third year of the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More for you<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/crime\/article\/200k-worth-of-stolen-retail-items-seized-from-17306551.php\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/crime\/article\/200k-worth-of-stolen-retail-items-seized-from-17306551.php\">$200,000 worth of stolen retail items seized from S.F. man\u2019s home, police say<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/crime\/article\/200k-worth-of-stolen-retail-items-seized-from-17306551.php\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/crime\/article\/200k-worth-of-stolen-retail-items-seized-from-17306551.php\"><\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/sf\/article\/Tenderloin-drug-crackdown-Here-s-what-D-A-17300897.php\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/sf\/article\/Tenderloin-drug-crackdown-Here-s-what-D-A-17300897.php\">Tenderloin drug crackdown: Here\u2019s what D.A. Brooke Jenkins plans to do<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/sf\/article\/Tenderloin-drug-crackdown-Here-s-what-D-A-17300897.php\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/sf\/article\/Tenderloin-drug-crackdown-Here-s-what-D-A-17300897.php\"><\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The 50-second video, posted to Woodliff\u2019s @realbayareamemes pages, has racked up over 117,000 views on Instagram and nearly 50,000 on TikTok as of Friday. The Instagram video has over 6,700 likes and 300 comments \u2014 itself another example of how potent tech is in influencing public discourse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSF traded culture for money and this is the result,\u201d said one comment. \u201cTired of the rich running natives out of their own homes,\u201d said another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Woodliff didn\u2019t read the story he\u2019s responding to, which reports that Salesforce isn\u2019t leaving the city, just shrinking its office space in a building that it owns. Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff is a fourth generation native San Franciscan and donates millions annually to support local schools and homelessness assistance efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Salesforce hasn\u2019t received local tax breaks and Benioff and Salesforce&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/bayarea\/matier-ross\/article\/Benioff-uses-personal-and-corporate-power-to-get-13349594.php\">spent $8 million in 2018<\/a>&nbsp;to support a ballot measure that raised taxes on large employers, including themselves, to fund homelessness services. (Hearst, owner of The Chronicle, also saw a tax increase.) Salesforce didn\u2019t have immediate comment when contacted on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the omissions, Woodliff\u2019s anger and despair over the state of the city reverberated widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Woodliff\u2019s frustration is genuine, but said in an interview with The Chronicle that his video persona incorporates dark humor and outrage, boiling down complex issues into short clips. He didn\u2019t prepare a script for the video and was speaking in a stream of consciousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOnline, I\u2019m way more spicy than I am in real life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Woodliff started his meme page on Facebook in 2016. He saw people were stealing his posts, so began posting on Instagram in 2019. He said he only sporadically makes money from his Instagram account through sponsored posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Woodliff said his goal is highlighting the hypocrisy of the city\u2019s stated progressive ideals and the brutal realities on the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe reality of life here is terrible,\u201d he said, citing homelessness, crime, the pandemic and occasional toxic smoke from wildfires. \u201cIt really feels like we\u2019re in hell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And yet, it\u2019s \u201cstill way too expensive,\u201d he said. The city\u2019s massive&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/projects\/2022\/san-francisco-budget\/\">$14 billion budget<\/a>&nbsp;contrasted with the poor quality of life is, in his view, evidence of incompetence and corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Woodliff said his rhetoric in the video was based on real experiences: He saw someone throwing feces near Powell Street BART station before the pandemic, and in the last few months he said he has seen two dead bodies, which may have been from drug overdoses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said this week he had to intervene to protect his neighbor, who is blind, from being attacked by a homeless person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt can\u2019t keep going like this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For all his criticisms, Woodliff can\u2019t imagine leaving the Bay Area. His family is in San Francisco and his mom grew up in the Mission. Woodliff was born in Walnut Creek and has experienced the Bay Area\u2019s inequality first-hand, previously living in a homeless shelter in Concord and public housing in Martinez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\u2019s worked in tech for a year, as a sales development representative for Prime Trust, a financial technology company that works with cryptocurrency. He was living in Oakland, but the pay raise from starting his tech job enabled him to move to South of Market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Woodliff, who also writes for Broke Ass Stuart&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/essays\/article\/Can-San-Francisco-survive-itself-16525102.php\">and SFGATE<\/a>&nbsp;\u2014 which is also owned by Hearst but operates separately from The Chronicle \u2014 said he doesn\u2019t blame tech workers for leaving or for driving up rents. He\u2019s more upset about city officials not doing more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He wants the city to mandate that all homeless people are provided health and support services and apartments, where they are allowed to do drugs. If they refuse to accept shelter, Woodliff thinks they should be arrested. Letting people die on the street is a far worse approach, he said. However, a similar city program to house the homeless saw 166 residents die from overdoses and many residents ended up back on the street,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/projects\/2022\/san-francisco-sros\">a Chronicle investigation found.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Woodliff hopes that in the future, the city never gives companies concessions like tax breaks to attract them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think government\u2019s job in any capacity is to placate businesses,\u201d he said. \u201cGovernment\u2019s job is to monitor businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m fine with making money and doing well,\u201d he said, but \u201cyou shouldn\u2019t make the world hell by rigging the system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Woodliff said the Salesforce video was the first time he\u2019s done a reaction video to a news story. The response was so strong that he plans to continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His second reaction video, posted this week, referenced an&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/abc7news.com\/brooke-jenkins-sf-district-attorney-crime-chesa-boudin-replacement\/12050416\/\">ABC7 news story<\/a>&nbsp;about&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/sf\/article\/Tenderloin-drug-crackdown-Here-s-what-D-A-17300897.php\">new District Attorney Brooke Jenkins\u2019<\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/bayarea\/article\/san-francisco-brooke-jenkins-17298428.php\">plans.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t read this article, but let me guess what\u2019s going to happen&#8230;\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Roland Li is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email:&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:roland.li@sfchronicle.com\">roland.li@sfchronicle.com<\/a>&nbsp;Twitter:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rolandlisf\">@rolandlisf<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/projects\/podcasts\/fifth-and-mission\/\" target=\"_blank\">Fifth &amp; Mission<\/a><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/author\/roland-li\/\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Written By <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/author\/roland-li\/\" target=\"_blank\">Roland Li<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Roland Li covers commercial real estate for the business desk, focusing on the Bay Area office and retail sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He was previously a reporter at San Francisco Business Times, where he won one award from the California News Publishers Association and three from the National Association of Real Estate Editors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He is the author of &#8220;Good Luck Have Fun: The Rise of eSports,&#8221; a 2016 book on the history of the competitive video game industry. Before moving to the Bay Area in 2015, he studied and worked in New York. He freelanced for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and other local publications. His hobbies include swimming and urban photography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Top of the News<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/img\/logos\/black\/logo.svg\" alt=\"San Francisco Chronicle Homepage - Site Logo\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/img\/core\/hearst_newspapers_logo.svg\" alt=\"HEARST newspapers logo\">\u00a92022 Hearst<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Roland Li July 15, 2022Updated: July 15, 2022 2:49\u00a0p.m. (SFChronicle.com) Earlier this week, I wrote about Salesforce&nbsp;cutting back on its office space&nbsp;in downtown San Francisco, another sign of tech companies downsizing as workers stay remote during the pandemic. South of Market resident Abraham Woodliff read the headline and saw it&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/07\/17\/23014\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23014"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23017,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23014\/revisions\/23017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}