No it is not. Reject this line of thinking at all cost. The health of our cities depends on them being places that are both safe and are perceived as such. Without this, they are doomed.

Nov 21, 2025 · 2:32 PM UTC

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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
I've lived in cities for 2+ decades and I have never had this happen once. That is not normal and should not be normalized or tolerated. It's crime.
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
What led to this being so commonplace and accepted? Well intended policies that back fired or what?
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
Low trust environment
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
This has been a thing in every major city for as long as locked cars existed lol the only way to prevent this shit is Orwellian policing and criminal penalties (bad). Just don’t leave stuff within public views. Someone yanked $200 headphones out of my car in rural ass Florida once
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
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BART serves five counties, which collectively suffer 350 to 400 traffic fatalities each year — roughly one person dead EVERY DAY. Imagine the effect on BART ridership if even just 50 petty criminals a year were gibbetted atop the towers of San Francisco. MASSIVE gain in DALYs.
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
Yeah this happened to me in Yukon, Oklahoma.... lived in DC for 15 years - never happened to me
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
This is not even as common in other cities with more violent crime than SF. This is a problem that the Bay Area really does suffer from disproportionately as far as I can tell
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
The nuance here is not that cities will be doomed per say, it’s that they will continue to bifurcate with super wealthy and super poor. This gets lost on people who say “nyc/sf is turning into Detroit. With that said 100% agree this thinking should not be tolerated
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
When you have DAs like we do in Charlotte that don’t prosecute and let offenders out over and over it’s the reality.
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
never happened once to me or anyone I know in Austin, nor have I heard about it in Dallas or Houston. I’m sure it’s happened but I can’t imagine what kind of broken culture of crime SF has to produce these outcomes
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
We absolutely do not have to live like this. Allowing criminals, most of them repeat offenders, to freely walk the streets menacing society is a choice.
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
1% of the population accountable for 63 % of all violent crime convictions. Crime is a choice! pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/article…
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
Criminals have no fear here….also, criminals are attracted to places that have no functioning criminal justice system. In fact, we coddle criminals, even the ones who kill our most vulnerable with Fetty. Safety is now DIY here.
Replying to @YIMBYLAND
It’s so pathetically passive as well. “Oh this just comes with the city.” No, this is a criminal choosing to commit a crime and a government choosing not to meaningfully punish or prevent it. This isn’t a “reality” like bugs getting into a country home that needs to be accepted.
Replying to @YIMBYLAND
People that seek to normalize the abhorrent should be conscripted for Mars duty
Replying to @YIMBYLAND
He's right. San Francisco is a great place to live if your line of work is petty theft.
Replying to @YIMBYLAND
It is literally a right of passage in SF. Maybe not other cities, but it IS reality until California turns majority republican.
Replying to @YIMBYLAND
You’re not YIMBY if you don’t also protect public safety. Risk is real. People don’t build in unsafe cities.
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
"Reject this line of thinking at all cost." id bet everything I own that your not willing to pay this cost. hahaha
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
So many pro-crime, pro-criminal urbanists, your stance is refreshing.
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
Having been to New York and Tokyo, I resent the implication that I should have felt unsafe there.
Replying to @YIMBYLAND
As crappy as New York is I never had this happen to me and if it ever did I'd probably have moved sooner
Replying to @YIMBYLAND
its ok bc “cars ruin cities” as we are repeatedly told by tweeter urbanism
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
But it is and pretending otherwise doesn't help. You're problem is with soft on crime Democrats , that made the problem way worse.
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
Good luck creating a city of millions where not one person will break a car window to steal something lmao
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
the social contract is dead and about to be cooked in a crock pot
Replying to @YIMBYLAND
I live in the country. This happens all the time in rural areas as well. What a silly comment by "Grace".
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
Ppl will see a mass murderer in the suburbs and not think twice
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
The ugliness is owning a car
Replying to @YIMBYLAND
People do this because they get a slap on the wrist rather than public execution.
Replying to @YIMBYLAND
You can't just reject reality, dude, that's not how you fix things. This is 100% undeniably the cost you pay for urban living, and until people are willing to change that: tough on crime, deport all illegals, heavily restrict immigration, etc it always will be.
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Replying to @YIMBYLAND
I love this account
Replying to @YIMBYLAND
It literally is the current reality
Replying to @YIMBYLAND
Far too late to fix unfortunately, it’s the reality for far too many people.
Replying to @YIMBYLAND
You just don’t appreciate the hustle and bustle of the big city!