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Dawn Over SF

It’s progressives vs. libs in Babylon by the Bay, where they’ve finally figured out that encouraging aggressive panhandlers, squatters and junkies to come to your city is a “quality of life” problem. Warning: Graphic references to drug use, “human poop,” “throwing up,” “George Bush,” ”the Iraq war” and “law enforcement.” SF Chron:   

San Francisco - the liberal, left-coast city conservatives love to mock - could be undergoing a transformation when it comes to homeless people. Although the city would still be a poor choice for a pep rally for the war in Iraq, indications are that residents have had it with aggressive panhandlers, street squatters and drug users.

“Maybe there has been an epiphany,” says David Latterman, president of Fall Line Analytics, a local market research firm. “People have realized they can hate George Bush but still not want people crapping in their doorway.”

That’s deep. But maybe people crapping in your doorway is Gaia’s way of telling you George Bush is right.

Consider the case of David Kiely, who has lived in the South of Market area for 18 years. He bought a home when prices were low and now lives there with his wife, Jenny, and their three boys, ages 7, 4 and 1. Kiely insists “we’re not some white, yuppie parents saying we can’t take this.” In fact, he says, they donate to programs for homeless people at Glide Memorial Methodist Church and the food bank at St. Anthony Dining Room. But he’s finally saying “enough is enough.”

“I don’t expect it to be Cow Hollow or Pacific Heights,” he says. “But the other day Jenny is bringing the kids back from the park, and some guy is standing on the corner throwing up on himself.”

This part is good:

Trent Rhorer, executive director of San Francisco’s Human Services Agency, is at ground zero for homelessness concerns. He’s heard it from local residents at meetings, he’s read the polls, and he noted the huge response to Chronicle columns about the homeless people and intravenous drug users in Golden Gate park. Like others, he thinks there’s been a change in the way San Franciscans think the homelessness problem should be approached.

“I don’t think this is a conservative or liberal thing,” he says. “This is quality of life for everyone. What research has shown and what we have seen from visits to cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, Portland and New York is that you need to combine good social outreach with law enforcement.”

That means something more than an offer of help, which often is declined anyhow. (One city official estimated that nine out of 10 say they are not interested in a shelter or housing when approached.)

“Maybe,” Rhorer says, “you just need a guy with a badge standing over them and saying, you can’t stay there any more.”

Billyclubs and pepperspray can be helpful, too.  But this is the precious part:

“Homelessness, and quality of life issues, are dividing the liberals and the progressives in this city,” says David Binder, a statistical analyst and founder of David Binder Research. “The liberals will say we’ve got to get tough on the homeless and the progressives are more old-line liberal.”

They’re turning on each other. Well, as ye sow, so shall ye reap. Kiely:

“We go out to drive the kids to school,” he says, “and there’s human poop between the cars.”

There must be many who are as fed up as Kiely, because politicians like Newsom are taking a tough stand. In an election year, you can bet he wouldn’t go out on an unpopular limb. Now it will be interesting to see how the Board of Supervisors, traditionally progressive and more pro-homeless people, will react.

One proposal that could come from the Newsom administration is some form of a “sit-lie” law. Rhorer says the idea is “that you can’t be in the same place on the sidewalk for longer than a certain time.” (Even Berkeley has a version of that for Telegraph Avenue.) That would create howls of protests from the advocates for homeless people (and it should be said that such laws have had mixed success), but usual arguments against strong action against vagrants might not be as effective with the new mind-set of city residents.

“This isn’t the war in the Iraq,” says Latterman. “We’ve been fed that line for a long time. If you support this, you’re a Bush supporter. You’re a fascist. Maybe people are fed up with that.”

Well, the libs are slowly starting to figure out that Bush is right about Iraq and Iran, as reluctant as they are to admit it … if you let bums run the place, you’re likely to step in poop. SF will be the last place to figure out, but meanwhile, closer to home, they seem to figuring out, that if you let bums run the place, you’re likely to step in poop.

Welcome, Small Dead Animals, etal.  So good to see you!  Come on in. Such a busy day. We’re celebrating the Anointment. We’ve been Perfected! We’re Answering the Call. 9 kids killed, a horrific tragedy anyway you cut it … unless you cut out al-Qaeda and stitch it up as an American war crime. Never mind, it’s a small world after all, right?  Let’s all put on our little brain thinking caps and noodle this out.

Topics: Bums

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:50 am on Wednesday, October 10, 2007

14 Responses to “Dawn Over SF”

1. Banjo Says:
   October 10th, 2007 at 8:49 am

   I worked in San Francisco for a quarter-century. The bum problem got worse when the ACLU put a stop to the rigorous enforcement of vagrancy laws. Fifteen years later, the environment has moved so far in the ACLU direction that the Board of Supervisors actually debated whether it should be against the law to shit on the sidewalk. All this sound and fury about the problem boils up with some regularity, but nothing is ever done. It’ll be the same this time around.

2. Robert Says:
   October 10th, 2007 at 8:55 am

   It’s not just the “homeless”. SF is over-run by other disgusting things. Check out zombietime. VERY NSFW.

3. saltydog Says:
   October 10th, 2007 at 9:06 am

   This problem is so predictable, given that there have always been people who live on the outskirts of society, that it is particularly distressing to realize that a whole city had to open their doors to “step in poop” before their eyes were opened. When I complain about those who live in a world of their own construction, this is what I mean. They begin with their abstractions–and never notice reality unless it literally assaults their senses.

   The fact that this situation is overtly linked with both the war and the Bush administration is a clue to their thinking; the same principle of their Noble Ideal informs everything. Basing your life on a Noble Ideal that is a fantasy having nothing to do with human life on this Earth leaves you disarmed in the face of reality. Plato rules, but no matter how hard you try, you always have to return to that damned cave–reality–a place which is for them, alien and degraded, not quite real.

   It is good to know that they are capable of coming to their senses–literally–and acting on the evidence of their senses. Notice, however, that it doesn’t make them question their fundamental premise. They merely separated out the homeless problem. The war and Bush administration are still only abstractions impinging on, and disturbing, the constructions of their minds. It’s people poop today. One hopes that it isn’t sudden, mass death tomorrow.

4. Vanguard of the Commentariat Says:
   October 10th, 2007 at 9:07 am

   B’ but I thought if liberals and progressives ran your city, things like poverty and homelessness and (blub) little girls without coats would disappear. You know, like New Orleans and Detroit, where they have had a free reign for 40 years. Ought to be a little slice of heaven, no?

   It’s mean selfish right wingers who cause poverty and inequality. Right?

5. tanstaafl Says:
   October 10th, 2007 at 10:43 am

   Robert, I had checked out zombietime.

   It absolutely and completely blew me away.

   It seems a major story, what can happen today in one formerly majestic American city, in broad daylight, in the streets.

   And yet it wasn’t.

   Anyway, the author of that article says (conservatives) love to mock SF, which couldn’t be farther from the truth.

   More like sadness.

   Best line from the article,:

   “People have realized they can hate George Bush but still not want people crapping in their doorway.”

   Pretty dumb to find some sort of relationship there in the first place, if some self–designated progressives or liberals did.

6. sdillard Says:
   October 10th, 2007 at 10:53 am

   I work here in San Francisco. Things are changing. One of the main reasons for this change is the influx of thousands of new residents who are buying $700,000 condos South of Market where the bum problem is severe. Our mayor is currently having the cops crack down on this same area, as he knows these new arrivals have no sympathy for the bums. The 60s generation here is getting on, and the new people are richer and have no interest in endless programs for “the homeless”. The new people just want them to go away. This city is also 35% Asian, and they have no interest in coddling bums, either. I actually left SF in 1999 for the burbs, where we do not have this problem. But then again, we’re Republican.

7. tanstaafl Says:
   October 10th, 2007 at 11:03 am

   “the homeless” has become something of a knee jerk cliché.

   Very un-chic for those who mechanically invoke the cliché to acknowledge….

   That means something more than an offer of help, which often is declined anyhow. (One city official estimated that nine out of 10 say they are not interested in a shelter or housing when approached.)

8. JammieWearingFool Says:
   October 10th, 2007 at 11:43 am

   Famously ‘Tolerant’ People No Longer Very Tolerant

   Of course, they’re only tolerant to a certain degree. If you’re a Republican or a member of the military, they hate you with ever fiber of their being, so my sympathy meter just isn’t registering on this one.

9. Don Surber » Blog Archive » Quote of the day Says:
   October 10th, 2007 at 11:56 am

   [...] was gonna expand on this but Jules Crittenden beat me to [...]

10. tanstaafl Says:
    October 10th, 2007 at 11:58 am

    In truth, the entire thought structure is nothing more than talking points.

    Including the (verbal) paeans to “tolerance” and “compassion”.

    Nietzsche had a great phrase to (seemingly cynically) sum up the phenomenon:

    the religion of human kindness

11. Ed Driscoll.com Says:
    October 10th, 2007 at 2:12 pm

    Dawn In San Francisco; Mourning In America

    Gee, this progress only took self-identified “Progressives” about twenty years:It’s progressives vs. libs in Babylon by the Bay, where they’ve finally figured out that encouraging aggressive panhandlers, squatters and junkies to come to your city is …

12. RebeccaH Says:
    October 10th, 2007 at 2:12 pm

    I’ve heard it said that a conservative is a liberal who got mugged. Maybe, sometimes, it doesn’t take a mugging, just stepping in human poop on your doorstep.

    Many of the homeless belong in mental institutions, if there were any to put them in.

13. Marginalized Action Dinosaur » Liberals in San Francisco have taken enough err poop, Says:
    October 12th, 2007 at 12:10 pm

    [...] http://www.julescrittenden.com/2007/10/10/dawn-over-sf/#more-2060 [...]

14. melody Says:
    October 12th, 2007 at 8:04 pm

    Hi, finally got logged in and can now comment here.

    With regard to SF and the Folsom Street, Zombie is so right!

    Michelle Malkin had much to say about the “festivites” there when
    it was on this year. Disgusting is the least can be said of these
    pictures.

    This goes on in a major city in the United States and none of us
    really knew.

    If this is not a clear comment to what can happen in a city when
    the liberal thinking rules, what can be?

    Can you imagine walking into to the big party with your children?
    It makes a person wonder how far we should go with making every
    group in the world “special.”

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