the whole west coast is dying. seattle. vancouver is already dead. san francisco is a bigger version of vancouver south with higher real estate prices and terrible traffic and oakland is their east side. los angeles is a cesspool of instagram wannabes. portland is ok especially if you like erotic fun. strip clubs, lingerie clubs, swingers clubs galore. san diego is still ok mainly because it's military.
As a person who has lived and/or travels frequently to all the cities you mentioned, constantly up and down the west coast. Its March but Ive been in LA, Por, SF/Bay Area, Sea and Vancouver multiple times. You're right about Por, its erotic fun :biggrin1: especially if you have a sidekick/partner in crime/fuck buddy. San Diego so far has not been hit as heavy yet. The OC/Anaheim/Arcadia has been hit with so much Chinese/foreign money. I have to say all the US cities mentioned have similar 3 major issues. There are of course other things as well but Im gonna mention these 3. We can go on for years arguing the issues. I'll put in my thoughts on Vancouver towards the end of my rant since I only know bits and pieces.
1. Gentrification. Documentaries, videos and articles have been written about the effect already. People who work in the city cant afford to live in it. A professor at a highly regarded school made 80k US/over 100k CAD, lived in his car for 2018 because he couldnt afford the rent in the area. Had a 1 bedroom in 2012 in SF was $1500 3 years later in went to $4500. In LA, they started having churches as safe zones for people to park and live in. One church had 35 spots but the Pastor said over 100 people were on a sign up list the first night. Outside money is driving up the market like crazy.
2. Horrible city leadership. From the mayors and city councilmen who don't understand first hand/out of touch with what their residents are going through to failure to come up with policy to match the changing times. Sea started scrapped started scrapped again a 4 year construction project that cost the city and its resident millions because how stupidity it was drawn up. Constant failures to set up enough affordable housing. In SF they had set aside a few buildings that were suppose to be affordable and had a list, something like 200 units and 10,000 applications. I know someone who got a 1 bedroom in those units for a family of 4 that makes 75k US and barley scrap by.
3. Police not able to do their jobs. Things like hands being tied, constant changing policies and no/lack of support from the city. Lots of qualified and experienced officers leaving. Like in the news report, many cities face similar problems. Look at a city like Sea who has spent money putting up billboards and other materials recruiting cops from the midwest because of the shortage of qualified ones there but when they do get to the Sea area, they see that big check that was promised is comparable to what they made back home due to cost of living. So more bs and not really a raise. In San Jose, CA they are so short they had to mandatory so much overtime were up against labor laws and violations. Oakland PD has had so much turnover at the top there is no stability.
Folks can agree or disagree and maybe shed more light to me about this. Im not trying to come off like I know it all on Vancouver. What Ive seen, there was something on the news about lack of skilled and blue collar workers. Couple that with all the businesses like restaurants as one example many have help wanted signs at a rate never seen before. Some want to open 7 days but cant because there's not enough staff. Ive been to places that have 1 waitress and 1 cook for 30 tables. The insane amount of homeless Downtown Eastside where they take over entire streets. People in Sea think homeless is bad there, they need to drive there and see whole sidewalks full of tents. Chinese/foreign money has driven up and helped skyrocket housing and rental prices in BC in general.
