San Francisco is resorting to ungodly tactics in the war on homelessness with a soft bigotry against, well, the homeless. Instead of placing the blame squarely where it belongs – failed Democratic policies, lucrative big tech money soullessly driving up the housing market, and Mother Nature – San Francisco prefers to toy with and torture the downtrodden so they simply move elsewhere. And yes, Mother Nature makes the list because even the unsheltered know the weather is better in San Francisco than, say, Minneapolis.
Months of attempts to drive away the huddled masses include blaring Vivaldi and Bach at a Burger King restaurant near 8th and Market long into the wee hours of the early mornings. It has been moderately successful in clearing out shopping carts and overt drug use in the neighborhood. They moved along to another block for al fresco living – but certainly not because they were offered any kind of housing solution.
Desperate dwellers of the Mission Dolores neighborhood got together and raised $2,000 to buy giant rocks to line their sidewalks – which was not as successful as blaring concertos. The boulders added a touch of landscape designing for the mobile living and encampments that sprouted around them, forcing the sheltered people to walk into the streets to avoid any angry barks at the trespass.
What will be the next great idea to deter future bivouacs by the Bay?
Leading the Nation in Shame
San Francisco is in the midst of a government gone rogue on zoning for high rise developments, a static number of dwellings, and a sky-high median price for a rental apartment nearing $4K has forced the middle and upper-middle class out while leaving just the uber-rich and homeless residing in the once glorious confines.
Big rocks and Bach: That’s not going to cut it. In the home of big tech, freshly hatched programmers making six figures a year cannot afford the average home of around $1.34 million – for the compounding interest challenged, an affordable mortgage payment would require a modest down payment of over $250,000. Many of those shell shocked newbies are opting for transient pod-living and simply banking their pay.
The San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness has been a voice for the unsheltered for at least three decades and claims to have “developed the leadership skills of homeless San Franciscans to forge true solutions to the housing crisis and beat back mean-spirited attacks against them.” They should know what works and what doesn’t, and – after many attempts akin to tilting at windmills – the problem has only grown exponentially worse. Despite spending more than $300 million annually on homelessness programs, the unsheltered population in the city has risen 17% in just two years.
At the beginning of summer, San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted to allow a controversial pilot program granting city officials the right to force mentally ill and drug-addicted homeless people into treatment. As you would imagine, the ACLU and radical Democrats lost their marbles complaining about civil liberties being taken away from those needing medical care, and in a city known for its liberal policies, no less. But one Democrat representing San Francisco, California state Sen. Scott Weiner, broke from the delusional pack:
“Too many people are deteriorating and dying on San Francisco’s streets, and we have a moral responsibility to help them. It’s neither progressive nor compassionate to stand by while people die.”
Perhaps there is hope yet for the downtrodden and unwashed, mentally ill, masses, although Weiner may be exiled from his political party come election day.
That Shining City on the Hill
San Francisco, which was once an iconic city of progressive ideals and policies, has become the shame of a nation. Per capita, it boasts more billionaires than anywhere else in the world. And yet the homeless population is shockingly third world worthy. On the same city block, one can dodge piles of human feces, vomit, and used syringes while stepping into a tricked-out Ferrari. And the frustrated urbanites resort to boulders, Bach, and aggressive behavior while the homeless simply attempt to survive in a city that treats all its people in an unkindly manner.
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