San Francisco: the city of $20,000 trash cans, free drug paraphernalia, and routine car break-ins. Surely the hundreds of thousands of residents who have fled the city over the past several years simply failed to recognize the city’s charms. Or perhaps they just weren’t cut out for the urban life.

So says John Hamasaki, the city’s former police commissioner and a failed candidate for San Francisco district attorney. According to Hamasaki, residents and visitors who dislike having their property stolen and violated are simply unprepared for “basic city experiences.”