A TikTok celebrity food critic has cut short his trip to the Bay Area due to ‘shocking’ safety concerns – as he claimed San Francisco and Oakland are filled with tents and burned-out cars.
Keith Lee, who has 15.6million followers on TikTok, announced on Thursday that he would be abandoning the anticipated trip, citing unsafe conditions and less-than-stellar food choices.
‘The Bay Area food tour is officially over prematurely,’ the content creator said before explaining the three major reasons behind his decision.
He added: ‘I truly don’t believe the Bay is a place for tourists right now… the people of the Bay are just focused on surviving…. The amount of tents and living structures and burnt-out cars that we saw people living in was shocking to say the least.
‘Just from the outside looking in, it don’t seem like it was much city interference.’
Keith Lee, who has 15.6million followers on TikTok, announced on Thursday he would be abandoning his anticipated trip to the Bay Area
‘The Bay Area food tour is officially over prematurely,’ the content creator said before explaining the three major reasons behind his decision
The available food in the Bay Area was also not up to standard, Lee said, explaining that he went to six food spots he decided to not review because he had ‘nothing constructive’ to say.
He said: ‘I’ve always been big on honesty, I’ve always been big on transparency, but I’ve never been big on completely tearing down anybody, and I feel like those six videos were only doing that.’
Lee claimed if he can’t post the videos, he would lose the money he invested on the trip.
Finally, Lee shared that he was hospitalized after suffering an allergic reaction to food he was served in the Bay Area. He claimed he asked the restaurant to clean the grill after cooking shellfish, but that he ‘blew up like a balloon’ after eating his meal.
Lee had previously claimed he was not concerned about his trip to the Bay Area, posting a TikTok where he shared social media comments showing people warning him about safety there.
‘I go where I feel like I’m supposed to go, I go by faith and not by sight, and I heard a lot of people calling the Bay Gotham City, and the way my mind works, that’s even more reason for me to go,’ he said before the trip.
‘Just from the outside looking in, it don’t seem like it was much city interference,’ Lee said
Lee shared that he was hospitalized after suffering an allergic reaction to food he was served in the Bay Are
‘I was born and raised in inner city Detroit … it taught me that the toughest situations reed the toughest people, so I’m still extremely excited too see what the Bay offers.’
The Bay Area has been on a downward spiral in recent years, with countless business shutting down.
Robberies in Oakland where a gun was used increased by 37 percent in 2023.
Moreover, burglaries were up 24 percent and motor vehicle theft surged by 45 percent – an all-time record for Oakland.
Last month, a businessman had both his businesses and his car broken into over the same week.
A recent report showed 95 retailers in downtown San Francisco have closed since the start of the Covid pandemic – a decline of more than 50 percent from 2019.
Office vacancy rates hit a record high of 34 per cent in September as shops were driven out of the downtown area by heightened crime and economists warn the city is spiraling into an ‘urban doom loop’.
Looting specifically became a huge problem for the city while rampant theft caused the downfall of San Francisco’s main shopping area – Union Square – and forced many major chains and local businesses to permanently close their doors.
Homeless encampments also represent a problem for the Bay Area, and last month a federal judge temporarily banned San Francisco from clearing them
The Bay Area has been on a downward spiral in recent years, with countless business shutting down
A recent report showed 95 retailers in downtown San Francisco have closed since the start of the Covid pandemic
Starbucks, Whole Foods, IKEA, Nordstrom and the Disney store have all shut some of their San Francisco locations as a result of the city’s drastic surge in crime.
Homeless encampments are also a huge problem for the Bay Area. Last month a federal judge temporarily banned San Francisco from clearing them, saying the city violated its own policies by failing to offer other shelter.
The move came in a lawsuit filed on behalf of homeless plaintiffs that sought to stop San Francisco dismantling homeless encampments until it has thousands of additional shelter beds.
In a statement, Mayor London Breed decried the emergency order.
‘Mayors cannot run cities this way,’ she said. ‘We already have too few tools to deal with the mental illness we see on our streets. Now we are being told not to use another tool that helps bring people indoors and keeps our neighborhoods safe and clean for our residents.’
Breed said many people encountered during the cleanups ‘are refusing services or are already housed’ and some use the encampments for ‘drug dealing, human trafficking and other illegal activities.’
There are an estimated 7,800 homeless people in San Francisco.