Almost half of San Francisco’s residents said they plan to leave the city due to rising crime and a deteriorating quality of life, according to a recent poll.
The poll, commissioned by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, showed that 40% of the 500 residents they interviewed plan to leave the city permanently in the next few years.
Additionally, eight out of 10 residents polled said crime had increased in the city, and almost 90% of those polled said the homelessness crisis has gotten worse. About 75% of residents said their quality of life has declined over the past year.
A San Francisco police officer recently blamed the city’s leftist officials for the deteriorating quality of life, arguing that leftists’ refusal to prosecute crime is causing people to leave.
“The ‘criminals first’ agenda from the district attorney [is to blame] because he’s not prosecuting any of those crimes as felonies [or] as a commercial burglary,” Lt. Tracy McCray said of District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who has ordered law enforcement not to prosecute “quality-of-life crimes,” such as drug possession and shoplifting.
McCray cited a recent incident caught on video in which a man with a bicycle was seen filling a trash bag with goods from a Walgreens while a security guard and customer watched and filmed the theft.
This just happened at the @Walgreens on Gough & Fell Streets in San Francisco. #NoConsequences @chesaboudin pic.twitter.com/uSbnTQQk4J
— Lyanne Melendez (@LyanneMelendez) June 14, 2021
“What happened in that Walgreens has been going on in the city for quite a while,” McCray told Fox News. “I’m used to it. I mean we could have a greatest hits compilation of people just walking in and cleaning out the store shelves and security guards, the people who work there, just standing by helplessly because they can’t do anything.”
The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce said the poll proves the city needs to take rising crime and homelessness more seriously.
“Considered in light of the pandemic, these views are somewhat unsurprising. However, what stands out in the polling results is the strikingly high and consistent number of respondents who now view homeless and crime as the leading problems facing the City,” the chamber said.
