San Francisco was found in the bottom of the heap as it was named the worst managed city in the United States in a recently released WalletHub study. The city, facing a staggering $1.4 billion budget deficit and struggling with the fallout from the pandemic, faced a dismal ranking among 148 of the largest US cities.
The survey, which looked at a wide range of factors from the effectiveness of local leadership to the quality of city services, looked at thirty-six metrics grouped into six service categories and compared them to budget per capita of the city. WalletHub's rating system took into account financial stability, education, health, safety, economy, infrastructure and pollution, evaluating each metric on a 100-point scale to calculate an overall score of the quality of city services for each city. San Francisco's less-than-stellar performance landed it at the bottom of the list, with nearby Oakland, California, following closely behind. Gulfport, Mississippi, also claimed unenviable locations; New York; and Flint, Michigan.
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On the other hand, the first positions were dominated by smaller cities, with Nampa, Idaho; Lexington-Fayette, Kentucky; and Boise, Idaho, taking the lead.
The pandemic has clearly affected San Francisco, compounded by challenges related to homelessness, crime and financially struggling public schools. The once-thriving downtown is now depleted as businesses choose to relocate to safer areas with less retail theft and law enforcement is unhindered by local leniency toward criminals .
In addition to the city's problems, a recent Gallup poll revealed that nearly half of respondents consider San Francisco unsafe and expressed reluctance to live in or visit the area. Embattled Democratic Mayor London Breed, who is up for re-election in November, has proposed ambitious but expensive plans to address the city's problems, but skepticism abounds about the timing and effectiveness of those initiatives.
Academics involved in the study highlighted the challenges facing large cities such as San Francisco, New York and Chicago, acknowledging their complexity and the strain of managing such sprawling metropolises. Associate Professor Cleopatra Charles of Rutgers University pointed to vagrancy, public safety concerns, aging infrastructure and other environmental threats as key obstacles to diverting funds from city budgets, warning against the unsustainable trajectory that these urban centers are facing.
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