My personal experiences tell me that New York is in rapid social decline. I used to say, “New York is the best city in the world, and I’ll never move out.” Even after I moved to the Bay Area, I maintained, “New York is the best city in the world.” Now, I have come around to thinking: maybe it is not. Maybe I don’t remember it well. Maybe 12 years ago was not as different as I think. Or maybe I am more sensitive now because I also see so much of it in videos online. But my experience of being in New York definitely feels worse than it did when I lived here a decade ago. It is not because of one major incident. It is the accumulation of ordinary experiences. You walk into a subway station and see someone sleeping near the entrance, surrounded by blankets, bags, food containers, and all of their belongings. You carefully walk around them. You know not to enter a nearly empty subway car that arrives during rush hour. It's usually empty because a homeless person is sleeping on an entire row of seats, the smell has taken over the car, or someone is behaving unpredictably. Sometimes I see someone pacing on the streets, shouting at random people, and even punching doors or kicking trash cans. People just quietly move away. Nobody knows when the yelling will stop or whether the person will become violent. Nobody intervenes because nobody knows how the person will respond. Everyone is afraid of escalation. You wait for the next stop and move. I have done it multiple times. I brought my mom here for a trip. It was her first time in New York. One day, a train looked as though it was waiting at the station, so we ran to catch it. As soon as we entered, we understood why it had stopped. A man was lying barely responsive (clearly drugged out) between the doors while everyone waited for city services to arrive. It was awful for him, and everyone else stood there helplessly, waiting for city services. We eventually took a cab. Then there are the smaller things like loud music in the trains on the phone without headphones or a speaker, vaping in trains or stations. They have become increasingly common. We've probably had these experiences, and they just keep happening. When I ask friends who have lived here for 15+ years whether it's just me, I hear some version of, “what can we do?”, “it’s the way it is,” or “we don't engage; what if they hurt us?” It's not only the behavior, but it's also how normal our helplessness around it has become. Drip, drip, drip. You start changing your own behavior. You cross the street when someone ahead appears unstable; you avoid eye contact because you don't want it to be interpreted as a provocation. You stand farther from the edge of the subway platform. You move to another train car. You avoid a station entrance because someone is regularly sleeping or encamped near the stairs or escalator. You stop walking through certain streets. None of these decisions feels dramatic. You "adjust." Then you adjust again. Eventually, the adjusted behavior starts to feel normal. You almost forget that you once lived in the city without constantly assessing everything. The person causing the disruption does not change their behavior; everyone else changes theirs. That is what I feel happening in New York. Little by little, you give up space, comfort, and freedom because confronting the behavior feels too risky, and you want to seem nice. You don't want to Maybe New York was always like this, maybe I was younger and noticed it less, maybe spending time away changed what I am willing to tolerate. Maybe it has even gotten better. But I don't remember feeling this way all the time. I don't remember so many people acting as though basic public rules were optional. The things I love about New York are still here: the summer events, the waterfront, the parks, the walking paths, the restaurants, and the ability to reach almost anything within a short distance. That is part of what makes this feel like a loss. The city still has so much of what made me love it, but enjoying those things increasingly requires tolerating experiences that wear you down. The social deterioration is difficult to describe because there is no single day when the city becomes intolerable. There are simply more situations each day when I feel worn down, and more behavior I am expected to ignore. Drip, drip, drip. I used to imagine living in New York long term. I thought it was the one city I would always return to. Now, that seems increasingly unlikely.

Many of the loudest voices in tech have no real beliefs, just a deep fervent need to be relevant at all times & at all costs. When the winds change so too will the beliefs. Desire to do what they want is for many subservient to desire for status and access.