# They actually cleaned up San Fran City.

**Published by:** [Durwin](https://paragraph.com/@durwin/)
**Published on:** 2023-12-19
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@durwin/they-actually-cleaned-up-san-fran-city

## Content

Never thought they could actually do it, clean up SF city.They actually did it. I never thought they could. Its like turning water to wine. Its like stapling water to a tree. Its like we found out who was Satoshi Nakamoto. San Francisco, the heart of Silicon Valley, home to the brightest minds, coolest tech founders, and wealthiest billionaires, underwent a dramatic makeover. The city known for its dichotomy of innovation and AI boom amidst homelessness, dirty streets, and rampant crime suddenly cleaned up its act. But why? Or more importantly, how? The trigger was the APEC summit, featuring high-profile leaders like President Biden and President Xi Jinping.Newsom trashed for admitting San Francisco was cleaned up for China summit: ‘Slap in the face’.San Francisco, eager to impress, scrubbed its streets, clearing tent cities and trash. Millions were spent, hundreds of sanitation workers, city officials, cleaners and workers toiled over days to clean up the city. They even repainted the roads and streets! All these just to impress some world leaders? The irony is hard to miss. San Francisco, a city where the tech elite and the homeless collide, desperately trying to hide its less glamorous side from the world’s gaze. But can a quick clean-up truly mask the city’s deep-rooted issues?The dichotomy of poverty and wealth in SF is quite stark.California Governor Gavin Newsom’s tacit acknowledgment that the city was polished up for the global elite raises questions. He assured onlookers concerned the changes were only temporary: ‘I know folks say, “Oh, they’re just cleaning up this place because all these fancy leaders are coming into town.”’ ‘That’s true because it’s true,’ he quickly added. Lovely. It is just one Google away, to see just how scary, crime-ridden and unsafe the city has become over the years. Most people think SFC will just go back to rotting after the APEC summit. Nobody has much faith that this clean-up will be sustainable. This move is more than just a city trying to look its best.Singapore is a clean and green city. Will other cities follow suit?It’s a reflection of a broader societal issue. San Francisco, the poster child of technological advancement, struggles to solve fundamental human problems. The juxtaposition is stark — glittering tech headquarters and venture capital flowing like water, yet just steps away, homelessness and crime persist. You can have the smartest engineers working on world-changing ideas in billion-dollar startups. And extreme poverty, drugs and crime just a block away. Its so extreme, its not even funny. So, what about the city’s glory days? Can San Francisco return to a time when its streets were as renowned as its innovations? Or is this dichotomy now an inextricable part of its identity?They actually managed to clean up SF before world leaders arrive.Like two-faced Harvey Dent, where one cannot exist without the other. The recent clean-up, while impressive, seems more like putting a band-aid on a deep wound. It’s a temporary solution to a permanent problem. It’s akin to dressing up for a party, but the party ends, and the reality sets back in. They need to address the root cause of the problems, make sustainable actions, step by step and slowly improve the situation. - Is San Fran City too unsafe and dirty today? - #SanFranciscoCleanup #APEC2023 #UrbanMakeover #SiliconValleyContrasts #CityTransformation #TechGiantsAndHomelessness #CleanStreetsFacade #GlobalSummitGlamour #SanFranDichotomy #HomelessnessCrisis #UrbanChallenges #TechCapitalRealities #CityImageMakeover #SustainableUrbanSolutions #SanFranciscoFuture

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