​​Is San Francisco Really Becoming Detroit?

Journalist Charlie LeDuff, author of Detroit: An American Autopsy, minces no words on the comparison

San Francisco is turning into Detroit! Hyperbole or accurate portent? 

I took this question - and many more - to Charlie LeDuff, a Pulitzer prize winning reporter, Detroit News columnist and author of Detroit: An American Autopsy. LeDuff also went to UC Berkeley for graduate school, where he studied journalism and documentary filmmaking, so there are a few better people to jump in and help understand why the comparison between the two cities are becoming more frequent - and ominous. 

Detroit, Michigan evokes many images. A classic American city, in the past known for car production and Motown, hard working people. Now it’s associated with blight and abject civic failure. 

San Francisco, California had a reputation for being the Paris of the West, home to beatniks, hippies, tech and innovation. Today, drugs, squalor, and crime too frequently come to mind. 

Welcome to the conversation, Charlie. 

What are your thoughts on the warning, “We can’t let San Francisco become Detroit”? 

I’m surprised. Detroit has been abandoned. It’s violent, put upon. Is San Francisco unlivable? Does it have that much crime on the streets? I moved back here because of love, but it’s not a good place to go.  

I don’t think a real comparison can be made. San Francisco has a bigger population but the city is small. We have a smaller population and the city is very big.  

We’re also flat broke. Detroit was once the richest city in the U.S, now we’re one of the poorest. Imagine how fast that happened. You can laugh all you want at Detroit, but if you’re not careful, you could be next. 

What about drugs - how bad is the problem there? 

My sister was a street walker and a dope addict. She died on the street. 

Super meth, heroin, fentanyl, OxyContin… yeah, we have it all. The suburbanites are moving into the abandoned buildings that the city owns to do the drugs. There are thousands of junkie houses here. 

Across from an elementary school there is a shooting gallery. The kids get off the bus and they see it all. The junkies shit in buckets, party. There are needles in the schoolyard. The city owns the building but they won’t tear it down, or sell it to us so we can remove or clean it. 

San Francisco has adopted “harm reduction” to deal with the addiction issue. Has Detroit? 

No, we don’t do that. There’s no money for that nonsense. We have babies to feed that we can’t feed. Also, this is still the midwest and we are more conservative than you in San Francisco. 

We don’t give cash out to able bodied men, either. That’s why they go to you guys.

What about homelessness?

We don’t see as many people in the street as you do. It’s too cold. Detroit has the same issues as San Francisco, but your people are laying out in plain sight. There are about 25,000 abandoned houses in Detroit and homeless people live in them. 

Before the pandemic [the city] tried to claim there were 6,000 homeless people because they didn’t see them. The numbers are all wrong. They go out one day a year, on the coldest day, to do the “point in time” count. The people inside the abandoned buildings aren’t counted. The real estimate, if you ask me, is that a quarter million people in Detroit are homeless.

We have less than 1000 shelter beds, a few warming centers. We don’t have junkie motels either. No “homeless industrial complex” because there’s no money. I can’t say what we spend because no one knows. It's a mess.

Is there a difference in civic attitude toward these social ills?  

Just look up “frozen man,” Detroit. A man fell down an elevator shaft. He died, and his legs were sticking up through the ice. People just walked around his body, played hockey around him. Nobody gave a fuck. We had to ask ourselves, “how cold has our collective hearts become?”

You’ll see a lot of people wandering around with white wristbands. They come from our biggest mental hospital here. Wayne County Jail. It mainly just dispenses meds. It’s been condemned. 

Here’s what’s groovy about the Bay Area. At least superficially you don’t want that. 

What about crime in Detroit? 

Detroit is perpetually in the top five of most dangerous cities in America. It’s two times as violent as Chicago. The city said crime is going down, but I call my buddy in the police department and say, “Jimmy, send me the internal data,” and I find that crime is up. They just lie. 

The city went bankrupt in 2013. You can’t get an ambulance and those that do come are falling apart because there’s no money for mechanics. People are dying.

Last year there were 309 criminal homicides in Detroit (in San Francisco, there were 56). But that doesn’t tell the whole story because there were 37 more, called “justified homicides,” that didn’t go into the data. They erased 12 percent of the murders because they weren’t reported.

How do you stay safe? 

We carry [guns]. We don’t shop for gas at night. Even the Chief of Police said its too dangerous to do that. 

Is there still pride in Detroit? 

Yes, it's still here. If I said, “the community is lost,” they would beat my ass and say, “don’t speak for me, motherfucker.” We are the nicest meanest people in the country.

I love this city. Across the street from the drug house is a house with gorgeous rose bushes. I talked to that man who lives there. He cares. 

There are so many churches and they are full here! I don’t know if they’re working, but they’re full. The bells are beautiful.

What does Detroit think of San Francisco?

Most don’t give San Francisco a thought. Well, unless they look at it on TV. Then we laugh, and say, “What are you doing over there?”

What can San Francisco learn from Detroit? 

Anthony Bourdain, my friend, said, “I’m not the chamber of commerce. My job is to tell the truth, end of story.” You have to be truthful about your city. 

If you’re going to help human beings, do the work, don’t just say you will. Keep an eye on the special interests; the people who advocate for the homeless. Are they doing what they’re supposed to?

Look, I’m not a lock em up guy, but you also can’t be OK with criminals doing shit. Ten days in county jail can help, and that includes junkies. Next time they may think twice before sticking a needle in their arm in front of a kid just going to school. I’m into civil rights but they are hurting people. There needs to be consequences. And more rehabs.

Final thoughts about San Francisco turning into Detroit? 

San Francisco is the most beautiful city in all the continents. It’s breathtaking. The finest in the U.S., for me there’s no doubt. We all want to go there. I cried when I left.

You’re the city I’m most proud of as an American. Please get it together.

Follow Charlie LeDuff on Twitter/X at @Charlieleduff and on his show, No Bullshit News Hour: https://www.nobsnewshour.com/