>>>olitically , California's s foundering because of the wretched political correctness and self-proclaimed Wokeness
That is spot on. I read a research study the other day about homelessness in San Francisco. The author's politically correct unwillingness to "blame the victim" led her to blame society and the economy. She ignored the obvious twin issues of drug and mental health problem that is at root of probably the majority of homelessness in San Francisco (at least from the sixties to the mid-2000's when I lived there).
Consequently, the solutions she prescribed (more affordable housing) ignored things like more drug abuse counselling, more mental health facilities and the like.
Hell, a kid who grew up in the house next door (and is now in is late 50's) was arrested in December for panhandling on CalTrain and attacking a train worker. He's homeless because he's mentally ill. He inherited a million dollar home and let it go to sh## and was thrown out.
In the 1990's I walked past a homeless beggar that looked like a human cockroach, smelly, filthy and wretched. Turns out I went to grade school with him. His demise was crack.
When I lived in the Mission in the 1980's through the early 2000's, there was a fat old hag that used to ply her body on two blocks away. When I saw her boyfriend, a thin ratty man who looked to be twenty years older I recognized them. The woman was younger than I and he was about my age. He was dating her since high school. He used to be handsome mixed race boy, part black and white. The teenaged girl went to a Catholic high school where my own girlfriend attended as well. They were both hooked on heroin.
Seriously, how can one address a homelessness without acknowledging the root problems of mental illness and drugs?
As far as the base price of a home in 2000 as $420,000 that's incorrect. As I recall the base price of a home was closer to $700,000. By 2004, when I was in the market, you couldn't buy a condo in Berkeley for less than $500,000 and homes were already selling for around $700k.
That Millenium Tower is going to collapse during the next major earthquake. Remember what happened to the landfill specials in the Marina in 1989? They all sunk. If that building is sinking now, in an earthquake the water is going to rush in and shift the sand beneath it. Large portions of south of market were destroyed in 1989.
