Random Access Mutterings: Streets of San Francisco

I recently went to GDC 2018 on a press pass.  It was an interesting time, met some very interesting developers, saw some really cool games, got a little motion sick in my very first VR experience, and damned near drowned from all the rain coming down.  But a tweet from an Australian developer is causing a bit of a ruckus.

Emre Deniz, of Opaque Space, went on Twitter shortly after GDC closed out and proclaimed that his feedback to GDC organizers consisted of a single demand: "Stop hosting it in SF."   He went to say this:

"SF is a dangerous city and America is not welcome to non western developers.  The city hates us being there, we are worried being there, move it."

Other devs who replied directly to the tweet asked for more information.  According to an article on SFGate (the web companion site to the San Francisco Chronicle), Deniz claimed a number incidents happened, from racial slurs and an attempted mugging to credit card skimming and "toxic dudes in events."  He also indicated that other devs had their own problems, such as Airbnb hosts cancelling unexpectedly and international devs having visa related issues along with the usual TSA difficulties.  Morgan Jaffit (Hand of Fate) reportedly witnessed scenes such as a knife fight and large numbers of police cuffing one guy.

Me, I didn't see anything like that.  But that may have just been me not being in the right place at the right time.  For all of that, though, it did get me wondering if the devs in question have a point, or if they're blowing things out of proportion.

Mean Streets

First, a few numbers.  San Francisco proper has an estimated population of around 860,000 (give or take a few thousand).  Melbourne, by comparison, has a population of about 4.8 million.  In 2017, Melbourne reported over 26,000 criminal incidents.  San Francisco, well over 60,000, with the bulk of them being property crimes.  So, it certainly seems like Deniz and Jaffit are not overreacting.  When a city with one-sixth the population of a larger one has more than double the crime rate, there's kind of a problem there.

I will say some of the problems mentioned by Deniz are fairly serious, but hardly intrinsic just to San Francisco.  Credit card skimming may not be in the same league as attempted muggings or car smash-and-grabs, but it's still not cool.  Visa issues for international travelers aren't exactly a new thing, though, and I'm not going to pretend TSA hassling people is particularly shocking.  Hell, I got hassled by TSA going out of SFO, and I live in Arizona.  However, some of the problems Deniz mentions come off sounding like whining.  For a professional conference, racial slurs are completely uncalled for and should be condemned. While I'm deeply disappointed they happened, I'm not surprised some people still haven't gotten the memo.  But "toxic dudes in events" is so tremendously vague, you kind of wonder why he bothered mentioning it in the first place.  As for Airbnb cancellations and what not, I've got remarkably little sympathy for anybody trying to use that service when GDC organizers went to the trouble of making arrangements with local hotels to provide good rates on hotels.  Even as recently as a week before the conference, there were rooms available in some of the hotels.  Maybe not perfectly what certain people wanted, maybe not located as conveniently as people would like, but one would think close enough to slog through for a few days.  Then again, that may just be me being able to sleep anywhere so long as the ceiling and windows don't leak and the room isn't infested with roaches.

"And on your left, you can see Alcatraz . . ."

The last time I was in San Francisco on assignment, I'd had a little time to myself to go wandering about.  It was possibly one of the most depressing walkabouts I'd ever had. On the one hand, plenty of neat art deco architecture still remained downtown, and I'm a sucker for old buildings.  The Hibernia Bank building, in particular, is one that I really liked looking at, even when it was clearly abandoned and covered in pigeon crap.  On the other hand, I was seeing homeless people literally shitting on the sidewalks and lines at soup kitchens stretching around corners, while just a couple blocks away there were stupidly glitzy businesses which epitomized the term "wretched excess."

It's safe to say I have a love-hate relationship with San Francisco.  Phoenix certainly has its own problems, to be sure, but the sanctimonious attitude in San Francisco coupled to the blazing hypocrisy just punches every single one of my rage buttons.  For every pocket of genuine humanity I've found there, I see broad swathes of self-absorbed cretins who are more concerned about agonizing over the poor and the homeless (or holding them up as the proof that capitalism is evil) than actually trying to fix the problem.  And not to put too fine a point on it, but the proximity to Silicon Valley has probably done far more harm than good since it seems they're more interested in reducing people to data points which can be monetized rather than genuinely doing something useful.

Slamming The Golden Gate Shut?

Realistically, GDC is not going to leave San Francisco anytime soon.  Part of it is that same Silicon Valley element which makes the place so insufferable.  The city is so deeply in thrall to the tech sector, there are very few viable alternative venues.  And some of those venues, such as Seattle, have lots of "baggage" which would make them no more attractive than San Francisco.  The International Game Developers Association may have "international" in the name, but trying to have the location bounce around the world would be a logistical headache IGDA probably doesn't want to deal with.  Which means that San Francisco will be playing host for the foreseeable future.

As far as trying to improve the sense of hospitality and welcome within the city, that's going to be on the city government, and I'm not confident they have either the political will or the basic acumen to try and fix the problems they're experiencing.  Remember, the bulk of the crimes reported in San Francisco are property related.  That covers the credit card skimming Deniz complained about, as well as car break-ins, grand theft auto, and even muggings.  It's the natural consequence of a city gripped by an unconscionable divide between the haves and the have-nots.  Correcting the problem is possible if the city can do two important things.  First, it has to refuse to entertain failure.  Second, it has to see reality for what it is.  Not what they think it is.  Not what they want it to be.  It will likely mean pissing off those Silicon Valley types, and it will likely mean coming up with workable solutions for homelessness and economic opportunities in a city which is already pretty much out of room and overloaded with giants bloated by venture capital.

Whether San Francisco can clean up its act or not, Deniz, Jaffit, and I are going to be walking the streets again between our hotels and Moscone Center for a long time to come.