[dougmccune]

This is so far from reality I have a hard time even knowing how to respond. Just in case people who don’t live here think the Bay Area cities have become this dystopian hell hole as described, no, they absolutely have not. Life is honestly nearly back to normal. I’m going out to dinner with a friend in Berkeley tonight. The streets will not be empty or filled with drug addicts.

[Fauntleroy]

I get what you're saying, but honestly both of your comments are true. You'll be going out to dinner in Berkeley with a friend while the streets are "filled" with our homeless problem. There are also definitely far fewer college students in the area than there were 2 years ago.

[dougmccune]

Homelessness has definitely increased in the last 2 years, as it has throughout all of California. The high cost of housing and income inequality are absolutely massive problems that have gotten significantly worse since the onset of the pandemic. We certainly have problems, and housing costs and drug overdoses are absolutely serious issues that are trending the wrong way. But to claim that Berkeley is a ghost town with almost no retail and half of restaurants shuttered is just pure fiction. I drove through campus the other day and a group of kids was playing beer pong on their front lawn. People are everywhere. The commercial areas are back with foot traffic. It’s not anything like the original commenter described. It’s like they went out once in March 2020 and then never left the house again.

[luckydata]

c'mon, I also live in the Bay and I think reality is somewhere in the middle between the original doom and gloom message and your rose colored glasses view. We have HUGE homelessness and untreated mental illness issues around here, and most urban centers are absolutely filthy cause of those.

This is a place that has big issues, no matter how much you manage to ignore them on your way to the nice restaurant for dinner with your friends.

[dougmccune]

Agree. And we haven’t even mentioned the new normal of the yearly smoke-filled skies from the increasingly severe wildfires.

All I was trying to do was push back on the bleak vision of boarded up commerce-less, restaurant-less, people-less streets being roamed by criminals, addicts, and the mentally ill. Yes, we have all sorts of issues, but the scene outside is much more like pre-pandemic life than the Walking Dead.