Is San Francisco the next Detroit? To the architect of Motown’s turnaround, we should hope so
Editor-at-large
The San Francisco Standard
Published Aug. 12, 2024 • 6:00am
Detroit. It’s a real city in the Midwest but also a one-word metaphor for what horrifies San Franciscans most. People have been warning for years that we’re in danger of someday becoming Detroit. The prediction has become a scary meme and a real dialogue among online chin scratchers.
The fear is not far-fetched. We’re a one-industry town, and we’ve staked our bloated budgets on the expectation that the tech gods will continue to rain riches on our tax rolls in perpetuity. So the parallels with automobile-dependent Detroit are obvious. And, recently, so are some of the degradations we’ve seen on our downtown streets.
But while the comparison is laughable when you consider San Francisco’s geographical advantages, it’s less of a stretch when you account for the real progress made of late by the actual Detroit. Could it be that we self-satisfied San Franciscans actually have some things to learn from Detroiters?
That was the question on my mind when I met recently with the city’s mayor, Mike Duggan, at The Standard’s offices. He had been on vacation in wine country and was doing what any politician with ambitions for higher office does before departing California: taking a few meetings, seeing a few sights and spreading the gospel of his town’s political and financial turnaround.
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