San Francisco

This article is about GritCult's view of San Francisco. For a general overview, see San Francisco on Wikipedia.

San Francisco appears in 15 posts. GritCult uses it as a cautionary example of what restrictive housing, venture money and soft policing do to a city, while conceding that the people drawn there can be impressive.

Views

His case against the city is mostly about housing. In 2018 he traced a chain from restrictions on new building to rising prices, "but homelessness increases" ^[1], and he later argued that a large share of venture capital "went direct to landlords" ^[2], contrasting the result with the better public infrastructure of countries where housing is cheaper ^[3]. The jokes are blunter. In 2022 he asked whether a visitor could "start stealing things with no consequences" ^[4], and in 2024 he wrote that San Francisco "can learn a thing or two from the Taliban", which he said had forced addicts into rehab ^[5].

The city also works as a byword in other arguments: an expensive "lifestyle shredder" that drains a person's options ^[6], a politics to be left behind, and one of two places he would show people "to scare them off" ^[7]. Yet his view is not wholly hostile. In 2023 he wrote that despite the jokes there are "still a lot of high quality people there", adding "i admire it when someone goes all in with conviction" ^[8], and that summer he conceded the hype around the city was higher than anywhere else in America.

Recurring themes

• housing restriction and homelessness
• venture money feeding landlords
• crime without consequence
• expensive cities as option killers
• respect for conviction

Notable post

The most retweeted GritCult post on the subject, with 9 retweets:

Selected posts

All 15 posts in the archive about San Francisco, ranked by retweets. Select a column heading to sort.

Date	Retweets	Likes	Post	Media	Source
4 January 2024	9	69	San Francisco can learn a thing or two from the Taliban. It forcibly rounded up all addicts. And made them go to rehab and now they are all functioning members of society.		View
8 October 2022	7	185	Just wanna know something. If I go to San Francisco. Can i start stealing things with no consequences?		View
18 August 2020	1	14	This will affect house prices and land price, particularly in San Francisco, where a large portion Venture Capital went direct to landlords. House prices will fall and we will see alot more people travelling and working, like @tferriss predicted.		View
18 June 2022	1	13	Most vc funds went to land lords in San Francisco. Not sure why they love the cult of the office so much. Maybe trust the people you invest in.		View
4 August 2023	1	7	Hype around San Francisco rn is higher than any other place in america. I’ve shitted on SF pun intended but I may need to check it out		View
21 September 2023	1	6	I’d either show them Delhi or San Francisco to scare them off.		View
30 October 2020	0	46	San Francisco. Rent down : 50% Street shitting up : 50%		View
17 November 2024	0	18	The world’s 10 richest cities in 2024, according to number of millionaires and billionaires. 1New York 2The Bay Area 3Tokyo 4Singapore 5London 6Los Angeles 7Paris 8Sydney 9Hong Kong 10Beijing		View
18 April 2023	0	13	a lot of people shit on san francisco (literally too lol) but there are still a lot of people there who i would deem high signal to noise ratio theres still a lot of high quality people there i admire it when someone goes all in with conviction		View
31 May 2026	0	11	Best place / hotel to get in San Francisco?		View
5 January 2022	0	10	The year is 2122. The Amish dao buy San Francisco from the decentralised crypto polycule.		View
1 October 2022	0	10	Look at San Francisco and many parts of London. Capital just gets stuck into housing. Into land lords. And public infrastructure starts declining. Where as in other developed countries with lower population and thus lower housing prices. Better public infrastructure.		View
6 March 2021	0	9	leverage => can be turned into arbitrage too particularly geo-arbitrage, lifestyle shredders are usually expensive to live in, such as singapore or san francisco higher amount to maintain the basic cost of living thus these places reduce options value by costing more.		View
11 August 2022	0	6	I hope you left your San Francisco politics in San Francisco		View
28 June 2018	0	0	@AmericanZabiha schumpeter and creative destruction NIMBYS san francisco =restrict new housing => house price increases (good for rent seekers and householders) but homelessness increases cost of living increases lack of supply due to restriction of businesses allowed to build houses		View

History

GritCult first posted about San Francisco on 28 June 2018, and most recently on 31 May 2026. Across the archive the subject comes up 15 times, most often in 2022 (5 posts).

See also

Places portal

References

1. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (28 June 2018). san francisco =restrict new housing => house price increases (good for rent seekers and householders) but homelessness increases. X.
2. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (18 August 2020). particularly in San Francisco, where a large portion Venture Capital went direct to landlords. X.
3. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (1 October 2022). Capital just gets stuck into housing. Into land lords. And public infrastructure starts declining. X.
4. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (8 October 2022). If I go to San Francisco. Can i start stealing things with no consequences? X.
5. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (4 January 2024). San Francisco can learn a thing or two from the Taliban. X.
6. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (6 March 2021). lifestyle shredders are usually expensive to live in, such as singapore or san francisco. X.
7. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (21 September 2023). I’d either show them Delhi or San Francisco to scare them off. X.
8. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (18 April 2023). theres still a lot of high quality people there... i admire it when someone goes all in with conviction. X.

Further reading

• Short Airbnb, Long Hotels, an essay by GritCult

External links

• Posts about San Francisco by GRITCULT on X
• San Francisco on Wikipedia