America’s worst-run city is revealed: and it’s not New York or Chicago…

San Francisco has been ranked as the worst run city in America, thanks to a looming $1.4 billion budget deficit and social problems from homelessness to crime to cash-strapped public schools.

Researchers at WalletHub found that San Francisco was the worst managed of all 148 major cities assessed in the report, in a scathing indictment of Mayor London Breed’s administration.

The personal finance website ranked other major cities among its worst performing ten.

Among them were Oakland, New York, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Flint and Los Angeles.

Paul Helmke, a professor at Indiana University involved in the study, said expensive housing and large numbers of homeless people were among the problems hurting San Francisco and other laggards.

“Public safety, transportation, economic development and environmental issues also continue to rank highly,” added Helmke, who is also director of the Civic Leaders Center.

San Francisco has suffered a plethora of negative headlines in recent months about the social ills plaguing a city that until recently was known as a picturesque cultural center on the Pacific coast.

The desolate reality of San Francisco’s hollowed-out city center was laid bare earlier this month by images showing every store on an entire shopping block closed and empty.

The prime real estate was once home to stores such as Uniqlo, H&M, Rasputin Records and Lush, but they have all disappeared in a city center plagued by crime, drugs and homelessness.

The empty downtown means businesses pay less in property taxes, leading to a crippling budget deficit of about $790 million this cycle that is expected to continue growing, experts warn.

Meanwhile, the Bay Area’s descent into lawlessness is on display in a series of terrifying nighttime shows in Oakland and on the waterfront.

The illegal gatherings of local residents who perform car stunts, play loud music after midnight and even set vehicles on fire are seen by many residents as a major nuisance – especially when the police refuse to intervene.

“We are standing here alone,” one resident tweeted after a night of dangerous, free-wheeling stunts earlier this month.

‘Why are we paying taxes again?’

San Francisco Mayor London Breed praised figures showing recent cuts to street sleeping

A map shows the major companies that have left San Francisco or announced they will leave in recent months. Retailers like Whole Foods, Anthropologie, Old Navy, AmazonGo, Saks Off Fifth and now American Eagle are among those participating in the mass exodus

Homelessness, drug use and mental health issues highlight the social problems in Denver, Colorado

With low debt and rising home prices, the Boise suburb of Nampa ranks as the best-managed city in America

Other of the low-ranking cities have also had their share of negative publicity.

New York Mayor Eric Adams has complained that his city has been swamped by more than 180,000 asylum seekers who have passed through the city’s intake system since the spring of 2022.

The influx, caused by arrivals at the southern border, has pushed the city’s shelter and education systems to their limits.

Rutgers University academic Cleopatra Charles

Researchers noted that major cities such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco were more difficult and “complex” for mayors to govern.

Still, Rutgers University academic Cleopatra Charles said vagrancy, poor public safety, aging infrastructure and environmental threats were among the seemingly insurmountable problems draining city coffers.

“Many cities are in financial trouble due to persistent inflation, underfunded pension obligations and the high cost of providing retiree health benefits,” Charles said.

“We are on an unsustainable path.”

Lesser-known, smaller cities showed the big-name mayors how to manage their budgets, researchers said.

They named Nampa, a city of about 100,000 people west of Boise, Idaho, as the best-managed hub in the US.

The city scored high thanks to its low crime rates, strong economic growth, steadily growing property values ​​and ‘extremely low’ national debt of $564 per person, many times lower than elsewhere.

Lexington, Kentucky, Boise, Idaho, Nashua, New Hampshire and Oklahoma City rounded out the top five.

They “use their budgets most effectively to provide their residents with high-quality financial security, education, health care, safety and transportation,” says WalletHub analyst Cassandra Happe.

Researchers used Moody’s city credit ratings, home prices and graduation rates, life expectancy, crime, unemployment, poverty, homelessness, traffic congestion and other measures.