California

[Quillz]

A lot of retailers have closed and yes, you could attribute that to the pandemic, but they've also attribute it to an increased and retail theft so there's more to it.

Retailers learned about 20 years after Amazon that many people like ordering things online and having them delivered. So many retail stores started doing at-home delivery, and found out it doesn't really impact their bottom line to close down stores, so they do that. Yes, theft doesn't help, but having worked in retail and seeing the numbers that AP won't make public, it's more a good excuse than the reality of why they do it. As always, follow the money. Closing stores and shifting to at-home delivery means less rent to be paid, fewer employees to be paid, and so on.

[Quillz]

My dad and I witnessed a shooting leaving a Tigers game in Detroit (where I'm originally from) during the mid-1980s.  I still go back to visit, I don't recall ever having bringing it up in the forum.  I would hazard a guess that Detroit has been by far the more crime prone city compared to San Francisco in living memory. 

When I hear vague stories like about crime in San Francisco it makes me curious as to what people are referring.  Generally it is something about the homeless in conjunction with someone publicly peeing or defecating. Homeless people and someone publicly relieving themselves isn't high on the echelon of scary things I personally find scary or even off putting.

I can't fathom what a homeless person would do to an able bodied person like myself other than an attempt at panhandling.  It isn't exactly simple to find a publicly available restroom in any city in California let alone San Francisco.  Considering how much I have had to relieve myself on remote public roads or even during distance runs I guess that I can sympathize with the problem there. 

Exactly. Many of the issues you hear are things like this, to create the narrative that [insert city here] is scary and dangerous. You hear it with all the major cities of America. Which is funny because crime rates have been dropping in America for decades, and continue to do so. But the rate of reporting keeps going up, creating the illusion things are a lot more dangerous than they really are.

[Quillz]

Then again, it would be fair to mention that police response to shoplifting varied greatly in other states I've worked.  Scottsdale was big on trying to convince us to let misdemeanor cases walk also.  They often made us hold onto detainees for two-four hours or just flat out told us they weren't going to show.  That is probably not the popular perception one has of an Arizonan city.  The city DA actually met with me once and spelled it out clearly that they viewed prosecution misdemeanor theft cases as a waste of time. 

Another thing that often goes unmentioned is most retail chains will track people stealing and not stop them, because they almost always return and once it gets over a certain $ amount, it becomes a felony. This is the reason why it often appears people just take stuff and leave, because the stores let them. I saw this first hand when I did some AP work. We had about 3-4 known shoplifters, and once they got over the felony amount, had the police waiting for them when they left.

[Quillz]

My dad and I witnessed a shooting leaving a Tigers game in Detroit (where I'm originally from) during the mid-1980s.  I still go back to visit, I don't recall ever having bringing it up in the forum.  I would hazard a guess that Detroit has been by far the more crime prone city compared to San Francisco in living memory. 

When I hear vague stories like about crime in San Francisco it makes me curious as to what people are referring.  Generally it is something about the homeless in conjunction with someone publicly peeing or defecating. Homeless people and someone publicly relieving themselves isn't high on the echelon of scary things I personally find scary or even off putting.

I can't fathom what a homeless person would do to an able bodied person like myself other than an attempt at panhandling.  It isn't exactly simple to find a publicly available restroom in any city in California let alone San Francisco.  Considering how much I have had to relieve myself on remote public roads or even during distance runs I guess that I can sympathize with the problem there. 

Well, this is anecdotal I've been frequenting San Francisco for a decade now and it's been noticeably worse since the pandemic. A lot of retailers have closed and yes, you could attribute that to the pandemic, but they've also attribute it to an increased and retail theft so there's more to it. But some of the things I've witnessed since 2020 just in the last few years I've never seen in the five years leading up to it. In fact, I rarely saw crime at all.

The only civilian agency in California I've not had issues prosecuting misdemeanor shoplifting cases was Riverside County Sheriff.  Most agencies (especially cities) have always been pushy about picking up anything that wasn't a felony.  While that mindset is not something I particularly agree with it is one I've dealt with in the state since 2007. 

Even still, outside of what I do daily I tend to not really think about retail theft when I go places.  Probably doesn't hurt in my case that I despise shopping in general and do what I can to avoid it.  I'm certainly not visiting a store when I go visit a city like San Francisco. 

I think it's pretty well-known the issues San Francisco is facing. I'll shop pretty much every city I go to. I'm sure San Francisco will bounce back but for me and what I've witnessed it's just pretty different from the city I knew before the pandemic. Selfishly, I'm hoping property prices go down so I can afford to buy my own row house somewhere along Golden Gate Park, but I'm not holding my breath.

The stance of district attorneys on retail theft seems to sway from extreme to the other over time.  The National Retail Foundation has done a considerable amount of lobbying in San Francisco for prosecuting shoplifting to be taken seriously.  That lobbying didn't really seem to work out and a lot of retailers left.  I suspect eventually things will start to reverse and head the other direction given money tends to do a lot talking. 

Then again, it would be fair to mention that police response to shoplifting varied greatly in other states I've worked.  Scottsdale was big on trying to convince us to let misdemeanor cases walk also.  They often made us hold onto detainees for two-four hours or just flat out told us they weren't going to show.  That is probably not the popular perception one has of an Arizonan city.  The city DA actually met with me once and spelled it out clearly that they viewed prosecution misdemeanor theft cases as a waste of time. 

Hey, a silver lining of all this may be that some of San Francisco shopping may go back to the old days where it wasn't all glitzy an upscale. I wasn't to experience it so I can't say exactly how it was. But I do enjoy some of the more unique and quirky shops.

Certainly possible. The history of Times Square is interesting and full of examples of how it shifted back and forth. At one point it was a seedy, dangerous part of NYC, then it shifted into the LED Mecca it is today. Cities always go through cycles, no doubt SF is any different. History of full of examples of the pendulum swinging in one direction, then going the other direction, then going back, and so on. If the people living there don't like how things are, they will change them. Have to be patient.

[bing101]

[Quillz]

Last year I finally clinched the entirety of CA-49 in one day. Was a really fun (albeit long) drive. One of the more interesting drives in the state.

[roadfro]

Last year I finally clinched the entirety of CA-49 in one day. Was a really fun (albeit long) drive. One of the more interesting drives in the state.

Haven't done that, but I clinched CA 49 from I-80 to the southern terminus at Oakhurst two days ago on my way to the Bakersfield meet—the original plan was to go north from Reno and clinch all of 49 from north to south, but had to work part of the day and left later than intended. Even still, I think the 49 part of the journey alone took me about 6 hours.

A very fun and interesting drive with lots of scenery and narrow winding sections (and a lot of historical markers that I unfortunately didn't have time to stop at). I found myself thinking a couple times "how is this a state highway?"...especially I think it was the little bit just north of US 50 in Placerville that is essentially a residential street and probably not even 20 feet wide.

[Quillz]

CA-49 originally began at CA-140 in Mariposa, the extension down to CA-41/Oakhurst didn't appear to be completed until the 1950s or so. Even then it's a weird mash-mash of various roads that only makes a completed route via concurrencies. I always saw it as the western/southern counterpart to CA-89, another interesting but weird route. (And for bonus points, they have a wrong-way concurrency!)

I clinched the whole thing in one day as part of my trip to Lassen and the Modoc Plateau. Goal was Fresno to Susanville in one day, I had many options. Wanted to do one of the various Sierra crossings (probably 4, 88, or 50), but decided to take the longer way and do 49 to 70 instead.

[Max Rockatansky]

49 makes a lot more sense the further back in time you go to when the mines played a prominent role in the state.  Much of the highway segments were really early additions to the state highway system and haven't changed a great deal.  Some portions get a surprisingly high amount of traffic, especially around Sonora and Grass Valley. 

Some of the maps in Interstate Kyle's video were those that I originally drew for the Golden Chain Highway blog.  The shame is that there was once a multi-county effort to get a webpage going to promote CA 49 as a major touring route.  I went a little overboard detailing those historical alignments at the request of the committee which was heading that page.

[pderocco]

Last year I finally clinched the entirety of CA-49 in one day. Was a really fun (albeit long) drive. One of the more interesting drives in the state.

Your next assignment is CA-89. That's also a fun, long drive, but interesting in very different ways.

[Max Rockatansky]

89 mile for mile is probably the most scenic California State Highway.  I'm not sure how it doesn't get more mainstream attention with stuff like Emerald Bay, Lassen Peak and Mount Shasta along the routing.

[cl94]

89 mile for mile is probably the most scenic California State Highway.  I'm not sure how it doesn't get more mainstream attention with stuff like Emerald Bay, Lassen Peak and Mount Shasta along the routing.

Almost certainly. 1, 4, 70, 108 have enough dull to drag down their ratings.

[Quillz]

Last year I finally clinched the entirety of CA-49 in one day. Was a really fun (albeit long) drive. One of the more interesting drives in the state.

Your next assignment is CA-89. That's also a fun, long drive, but interesting in very different ways.

I clinched it years before 49. But I did it in stages. 395 to 49 was 2020, 49 to 5 was last year.

[TheStranger]

89 mile for mile is probably the most scenic California State Highway.  I'm not sure how it doesn't get more mainstream attention with stuff like Emerald Bay, Lassen Peak and Mount Shasta along the routing.

Almost certainly. 1, 4, 70, 108 have enough dull to drag down their ratings.

The section of 1 between Pismo Beach and Orcutt is definitely...far from interesting.

[heynow415]

89 mile for mile is probably the most scenic California State Highway.  I'm not sure how it doesn't get more mainstream attention with stuff like Emerald Bay, Lassen Peak and Mount Shasta along the routing.

Almost certainly. 1, 4, 70, 108 have enough dull to drag down their ratings.

The section of 1 between Pismo Beach and Orcutt is definitely...far from interesting.

The original alignment through Oxnard and the section from Venice to east Long Beach doesn't win any prizes either.

[TheStranger]

The original alignment through Oxnard and the section from Venice to east Long Beach doesn't win any prizes either.

Rice Avenue in Oxnard does have its legacy of "will this ever be signed as Route 1" (which took 15 years from when the reroute was announced in an article for future signing back in 2008, to late last year when it was finally marked on US 101) - the thread I started about it in 2012 highlights the entire saga https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=6208

I haven't been back in that area in a while to see if 1 shields are now actually on the avenue.

IIRC there's at least one planned spot where Rice will have a grade separation with Route 34...with a projected completion date of 2028.  (almost two full decades after signage was originally planned to move to the new routing)

The Rice realignment had been on the books as far back as the 1970s too.

[pderocco]

I just commented in that other thread that perhaps they should raise the tracks over the road instead.

[Quillz]

The original alignment through Oxnard and the section from Venice to east Long Beach doesn't win any prizes either.

Rice Avenue in Oxnard does have its legacy of "will this ever be signed as Route 1" (which took 15 years from when the reroute was announced in an article for future signing back in 2008, to late last year when it was finally marked on US 101) - the thread I started about it in 2012 highlights the entire saga https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=6208

I haven't been back in that area in a while to see if 1 shields are now actually on the avenue.

IIRC there's at least one planned spot where Rice will have a grade separation with Route 34...with a projected completion date of 2028.  (almost two full decades after signage was originally planned to move to the new routing)

The Rice realignment had been on the books as far back as the 1970s too.

I was there recently and there is still no CA-1 signage on Rice Avenue, all there is is a CA-1 shield on a BGS (and it's a horrible hack job, the shield doesn't line up with any elements at all). I've said before that CA-1 effectively disappears between the end of the freeway segment south of Oxnard to roughly the historic beginning of CA-1 at the Las Cruces Junction. There is almost no signage (although nowadays the little segment of PCH that parallels the freeway is pretty well signed), so navigation outside of GPS or paper maps can be hard.

[bing101]

https://lastreetnames.com/street/


Here is a cool road geek page on the history of LA Area street names. Yes its like gribblenation but for local streets.

[ClassicHasClass]

Speaking of horrible hack jobs, anyone noticed the pasted-up CA 66 shields on CA 210 at Foothill Blvd in San Dimas, or is that just me?

[Max Rockatansky]

Speaking of horrible hack jobs, anyone noticed the pasted-up CA 66 shields on CA 210 at Foothill Blvd in San Dimas, or is that just me?

I've seen it but I didn't bother to get a picture.  I was much more interested in the uni-sign in Upland that day:

https://flic.kr/p/2n4m4GT

[Quillz]

https://lastreetnames.com/street/


Here is a cool road geek page on the history of LA Area street names. Yes its like gribblenation but for local streets.

Neat. No history on Valley Circle, unfortunately. But a lot of stuff I didn't know. Quite a few wordplay puns, for example. Also didn't catch onto the Spanish explorer theme in the S.F. Valley as some of those streets have since been renamed.