United States | The doom loop

Downtown San Francisco is at a tipping-point

The city faces several crises, but one stands out

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - SEPTEMBER 6: A bicyclist is seen on California Street as the Bay Bridge behind during sunrise in San Francisco, United States on September 6, 2022. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Image: Getty Images
|San Francisco

MANY IMAGES have symbolised San Francisco over the years. Fog enveloping the Golden Gate Bridge. Hippies tuning in and dropping out on Haight Street. Tents lining the pavement. These days, a “Retail for lease” sign in a vacant storefront seems appropriate. San Francisco itself has become a symbol, too, though what it represents depends on your politics. It is a hub of technological innovation or a bastion of inequality; a laboratory for the country’s most progressive policies or a fief of the radical left. No mid-size American city—San Francisco has fewer people than Indianapolis—has had a bigger effect on global culture or financial markets.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Deciphering the “doom loop””

From the May 27th 2023 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from United States

Police Officers at the scene of a crime where three people were shot in Brooklyn, New York

An alternative theory to explain America’s murder spike in 2020

What if it wasn’t about policing?

cartoon of Donald Trump, wearing a feathered headdress, a cowboy hat, and a police hat, holding a globe with pins and a needle

Donald Trump’s Defining Decade

Will America’s president overcome the 1970s, or just refight its battles?


Members of U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command.

Donald Trump revives ideas of a Star Wars-like missile shield 

He wants a swarm of missile-toting satellites to take out incoming threats


America’s foreign aid pause puts lives at risk

Donald Trump sought disruption. He hurt America first.

Donald Trump goes to war with his employees

The president wants to shrink and remake the civil service

Kash Patel is a crackpot

Is he also a menace?