San Francisco confronts a crime wave unusual among U.S. cities
LA TimesMark Dietrich, a 51-year-old retail analyst, has positioned himself as an anti-crime crusader defending his Richmond district neighborhood in San Francisco. “Lots of people have just said, ‘I’m not putting up with this mess.’” Unlike nearly every other big U.S. city, San Francisco did not see a significant uptick in homicides during the pandemic. Crime rates in Dietrich’s neighborhood, a foggy stretch of northwestern San Francisco known as the Richmond district, have traditionally been some of the lowest in the city. San Francisco’s high property crime rate probably reflects the widening wealth gap that accompanied the tech boom, which flooded the city with jobs and money and drove up the cost of housing, said Magnus Lofstrom, a criminal justice researcher for the Public Policy Institute. “Around here, we’re all small merchants who don’t have $18,000 to pay for high-tech security gates,” said Michael, who owns Toy Boat by Jane, a beloved dessert cafe and neighborhood fixture of nearly 40 years.
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