San Francisco has faced numerous challenges throughout its history, but it has always managed to bounce back. The latest threats to the city's survival include the Covid-19 pandemic, chronic homelessness, and a fentanyl epidemic.
For a city that has been declared dead more than a few times since its founding, rising from the ashes is more than a metaphor. It is a motto, burned into the soul of what feels like a bipolar city. Since San Francisco was founded by the Spanish in 1776, the Golden City has lived dangerously, a growth spurt alternating with a flatline every so often. After the Gold Rush peaked in 1852, the great shock was the earthquake and fire of 1906.
The tech boom and bust in the early 2000s was the next big disruption, followed by the foreclosure crisis after the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009. With 2020 came the triple whammy – the Covid-19 pandemic, the chronic homelessness and an epidemic of fentanyl deaths – which stoked the latest prophecies of the city’s demise, shared by many, including the world’s wealthiest man Elon Musk. “If you walk around downtown San Francisco right near the X (Twitter) headquarters, it’s a zombie apocalypse,” he said in an interview in Octobe
San Francisco City Challenges History Covid-19 Pandemic Homelessness Fentanyl Epidemic