I clicked on this thread because for reason, my Youtube recommendations are full of videos on the current social issues and closures happening in downtown San Francisco.
I talked to someone on my gaming discord who is a pretty wealthy individual who lives beside that mall that closed and he confirmed that the downtown is getting abandoned and it feels a bit like the white flight that happened to Detroit in the 60s and 70s. Shoplifting in broad daylight is rampant and to that effect, retailers are locking up their product until their leases end, and then they are leaving the area. He also said the city is controlled by 5 old money families and that also contributes to the lack of political will and power to make changes to the system.
This news crew was visiting a drug store and there were four brazen shoplifting attempts during the short time they were there filming the segment:
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