San Francisco’s vaunted tolerance dims amid brazen crimes

Politically liberal San Franciscans are used to living cheek by jowl with open drug use, feces-infested streets and petty crime. But a surge in home break-ins and brazen shoplifting has some residents feeling that the city they fell in love with is in decline.

Caitlin Foster is among San Francisco shopkeepers who have repeatedly had to clear away used needles and other drug paraphernalia outside the bar she manages. And after too many encounters with armed people in crisis, the Seattle transplant’s affection for her adopted city has soured.

“It was a goal to live here, but now I’m here, and I’m like, ‘Where am I going to move to now?’ I’m over it,” said Foster, who manages Noir Lounge in the trendy Hayes Valley neighborhood.

A series of headline-grabbing crime stories — mobs of people smashing windows and grabbing luxury purses in the

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