The one thing that has done the most to ruin San Francisco has been money. Not politics not ideology, not even the
Folsom Street Fair.
When the dot com boom hit in the nineties, obscene amounts of cash flowed into the city. Small family businesses -- the Italian Deli, the craft store, the neighborhood shoe repair shop -- that had been operating successfully, though not spectacularly, for years were suddenly faced with fivefold rent increases and more. They were forced out and replaced by internet startups willing and able to pay the freight. Those companies are now mostly gone, but the damage remains. Ironically, the very things that made San Francisco such a desirable place to live were destroyed by the people with the money to enjoy them.
Housing likewise became unaffordable. All these new millionaires moved in, and ordinary people can no longer afford to live here. A teacher or cop or fire fighter in San Francisco simply cannot buy a house or raise a family here any more.
So when you’re looking for a villain to blame the changes in the city on, it’s not the boys in leather, it's the millionaire computer geek and the hedge fund manager and the ubiquitous chain stores.
