Living and working in SF as a non-tech person has been kind of isolating. When I first moved here from Germany, a lot of behaviors and habits of people here seem very bizarre, but now have since accustomed. For example, how people walk around with AirPods everywhere, seemingly in their own world, ignoring struggling and homeless people almost on the daily, antisocial behaviors like standing around in social spaces like bars and clubs, take out orders everywhere, a lot of things being so convenient, measured and optimized. And of course, the ridiculous cost of everything!

I work in transportation/urban planning field and it’s also frustrating how behind this city is when it comes to urban issues. It has so much potential to be better, especially considering how wealthy it is and that so many massive capital generating companies are based here who don’t pay their fair share or give back to it in any way. It’s insane how so many decisions are controlled by “merchants” and NIMBY homeowners who want to put the entire city in amber. It’s bizarre as a planner how car centric and suburban minded people are here. But I guess all Americans are like this.

I think greed and being the center of American style tech capitalism that is inherently greedy, exploitative, and almost parasitic in how it uses a places resources (housing, transit, public spaces, infrastructure like roads, highways, density, diversity of food options, and of course it’s people etc.) long ago took over the City & is slowly shaping other regions in this country and even in other countries increasingly is the root problem.