Has San Francisco Been ‘Bud Lighted,’ Or Far Worse?

  By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

I fell in love with San Francisco too many years ago to count.  Perhaps it began with a rainy trip up the magnificent Big Sur Coast, to look at a college in the Bay Area with a high school classmate of mine.  Or maybe it was when I decided to attend law school at Berkeley, after having grown up in Los Angeles—a mile or so west of the UCLA campus in Westwood, from which I graduated.

Arriving at Berkeley, I lived in a one-room garret on Mosswood Road above Cal’s football stadium, with ivy growing through the walls.  My only means of transportation was a small but reliable Honda motorscooter, which took me everywhere—even across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to Fisherman’s Wharf.  There, I went over an old railroad track and was flung to the ground, thankfully not suffering any serious injuries except to my pride.

After graduating from Cal’s law school in the midst of the Vietnam War, I was honored to work briefly for a prestigious law firm in San Francisco, before spending two years as an Army officer assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency’s headquarters in the Pentagon.  After that, I could have gone back to San Francisco, but instead decided to work in and with the U.S. Senate.

In the private practice of law, I acquired failing savings and loans from the federal government in both San Francisco and LA for my firm’s clients, and one of them was in San Francisco.  It was the largest minority bank in the country, and located at the edge of Chinatown; and it was a heady experience.  I spent lots of time in the city working on that; and often I stayed in Sausalito and took a ferry to and from the city.

Fast forward, and lovely Kate Steinle (see photo below) was killed at Fisherman’s Wharf by an illegal alien who had been arrested many times.  In an unrelated matter, I testified as an expert in San Francisco, and realized then how seedy and dangerous the city had become.  Walking to and from a BART subway station—in a business suit and carrying my laptop—I felt that I could be attacked at any moment, and the chances of someone helping me was slim.

I used to walk Golden Gate Park from its eastern end to the ocean, and then watch the sunset at the Golden Gate Bridge before having dinner in Chinatown.  But not anymore.  There are legitimate reasons why businesses have been closing in San Francisco.  Criminals have been emboldened; and law enforcement seems shackled or nonexistent.[2]

Yet, the uber-woke in the city are crusading for reparations, even though California was not a slave state.[3]  Put together, it is as if the inmates are truly running the asylum; and at least parts of San Francisco are dangerous to visit these days, which is so so sad.  Throw in the possibility that a major earthquake might hit the city, like the devastating Loma Prieta Quake, and it is not surprising that lots of Americans are avoiding it like the plague.

In no small sense, it is being “Bud Lighted,” just like the Anheuser-Busch brand has been boycotted after it advertised with the image of a “freak of nature” on its beer can.  Many years may pass before the once-great San Francisco recovers.  In the interim, lots of us have wonderful memories of how the city by the Bay once was.  Chicago and other seemingly-lawless American cities are being boycotted too.

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© 2023, Timothy D. Naegele

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[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/   He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service).  Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams.  He can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2]  See, e.g., https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12101001/Crime-ridden-San-Francisco-lost-HALF-downtown-stores-COVID-hit-95-shuttering.html (“Ghost town San Francisco: Crime-ridden city has lost HALF its downtown stores since COVID hit, with 95 shuttering, and just 12 new retailers opening in their places, as homeware store Williams-Sonoma announces it’s closing too”)

[3]  See, e.g., https://abcnews.go.com/US/californias-approval-recommendations-historic-reparations/story?id=99253083  (“What to know about California’s approval of recommendations for historic reparations”)