San Francisco waterfront residents: Not in my backyard (1 Viewer)

[IntenseSaint]

https://www.apnews.com/3a5aaa8ed10d46ba9fd84fe8242ada49

It's always interesting to see this happen. San Francisco residents like to boast about being some of the most forward thinking and progressive people in the country, but when it comes to helping their fellow citizens who are homeless their tune changes rather quickly.

Pretty telling quote right here, "“We have homeless people. I see them every day, and they’re nice people, but this is going to attract more,” she said. “I used to love the city and be proud of the city. Now I’m not anymore. It’s dirty, and it’s ugly.”

They are nice people, but please don't put them anywhere near me.

 

[SystemShock]

Hmm.. I guess they prefer their homeless sprawled all over the city, sleeping on benches on every single park and every other business threshold.

I was in SF last about 3 years ago for the big Oracle convention (I don't go anymore, the only purpose it serves is to generate spam emails, although I got to see Aerosmith for free that one time, I digress), and I was floored by the number of homeless people in the city. You just don't see that in the Carolinas, not at that level. And this may will sound crass, but the SF homeless are the real homeless type, not the fake type we mostly see here; you know a person is really homeless because they have this brownish hue to them, and an empty stare.

 

[Mr. Blue Sky]

Why isn’t this on the Political Debate Board? It seems pretty obvious that the OP has an agenda, and is attempting to incite debate, nothing wrong with it but should be on the appropriate board IMO.

 

[Taurus]

https://www.apnews.com/3a5aaa8ed10d46ba9fd84fe8242ada49

It's always interesting to see this happen. San Francisco residents like to boast about being some of the most forward thinking and progressive people in the country, but when it comes to helping their fellow citizens who are homeless their tune changes rather quickly.

Pretty telling quote right here, "“We have homeless people. I see them every day, and they’re nice people, but this is going to attract more,” she said. “I used to love the city and be proud of the city. Now I’m not anymore. It’s dirty, and it’s ugly.”

They are nice people, but please don't put them anywhere near me.

The lady you're quoting is a disabled retiree. Far from the privileged NIMBY you're making her out to be.

It's a hard question and one that SF and other successful cities have to grapple with.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Hmm.. I guess they prefer their homeless sprawled all over the city, sleeping on benches on every single park and every other business threshold.

I was in SF last about 3 years ago for the big Oracle convention (I don't go anymore, the only purpose it serves is to generate spam emails, although I got to see Aerosmith for free than one time, I digress), and I was floored by the number of homeless people in the city. You just don't see that in the Carolinas, not at that level. And this may will sound crass, but the SF homeless are the real homeless type, not the fake type we mostly see here; you know a person is really homeless because they have this brownish hue to them, and an empty stare.

I was in SF for a wedding 3 years ago and it was ridiculous how widespread the homeless are across the city. Walk half a block to the local starbucks - 2 aggressive guys camped out there...the wedding reception was in the Asian Art museum (great museum btw) by city hall - the entire green space in front of city hall was a homeless encampment... everywhere we went you were guaranteed to deal with at least one panhandler. Its one of the most beautiful cities on the planet but it smells like urine.

 

[LuvNOLA]

I was in SF for a wedding 3 years ago and it was ridiculous how widespread the homeless are across the city. Walk half a block to the local starbucks - 2 aggressive guys camped out there...the wedding reception was in the Asian Art museum (great museum btw) by city hall - the entire green space in front of city hall was a homeless encampment... everywhere we went you were guaranteed to deal with at least one panhandler. Its one of the most beautiful cities on the planet but it smells like urine.

With all of the massive amount of IT brains & $$$, it just does not seem possible that they cannot find a better solution than having people peeing all over their city.

I don’t get it.

 

[DaveXA]

With all of the massive amount of IT brains & $$$, it just does not seem possible that they cannot find a better solution than having people peeing all over their city.

I don’t get it.

Stating the obvious, but, IT isn't the same thing as social engineering. Homelessness is a complex problem that pretty much every large metropolitan region has to deal with. Homeless shelters and ministries do a lot of work and help to some degree, but they're ill-equipped to deal with it in a larger scale. Every city government has to find ways to deal with it and there's no one size fits all solution. I see them all the time here in the DC metro area.

 

[RazorOye]

Stating the obvious, but, IT isn't the same thing as social engineering. Homelessness is a complex problem that pretty much every large metropolitan region has to deal with. Homeless shelters and ministries do a lot of work and help to some degree, but they're ill-equipped to deal with it in a larger scale. Every city government has to find ways to deal with it and there's no one size fits all solution. I see them all the time here in the DC metro area.

homelessness suffered a setback in the 80s under Reagan. Prior to those years, homelessness was seen as something that was a community problem and in need of community solutions. But in the 80s, when there was this sense that homeless people were homeless by choice or the rhetoric and representation changed the image of homelessness from families and children homelessly invisible, out of sight, to substance-abusing, mentally addled men under overpasses, attitudes hardened. It affected policy, as well.

There's a fascinating study done about a decade ago now that looked at newspaper coverage of homelessness in LA, DC, and NYC throughout the 80s and how reporting of homelessness and the words of elected officials changed the landscape of what homelessness was, what it looked like, how it needed to be treated.

It's been a bit of a backslide since then and for every person you see on the streets, homeless, there are many, many, many more that you don't see. Women. Children. Families. Living in cars. In shelters. Living with friends or family.

The scale is, indeed, large. And the ones you see are only a fraction of the homeless. Until we can get a grip on that conceptually, things aren't going to improve. It's policy and resources, sure, but it's also ideological and attitudinal.

 

[LuvNOLA]

Stating the obvious, but, IT isn't the same thing as social engineering. Homelessness is a complex problem that pretty much every large metropolitan region has to deal with. Homeless shelters and ministries do a lot of work and help to some degree, but they're ill-equipped to deal with it in a larger scale. Every city government has to find ways to deal with it and there's no one size fits all solution. I see them all the time here in the DC metro area.

You are correct......but still, with all of the brains in this country, it seems that there is better solution than the current one.

Small example, there is a small park that I walk by every day with my rescue dog. It became a haven for drug addicts & some homeless. Finally a bunch of moms got tired of the police not correcting the problem. The moms went in mass, pushing their kids in strollers, down to the Mayor’s office. They called it the “stroller brigade.” That park got cleaned up fast & now looks beautiful again.

When I lived in Washington DC, the homeless would sleep, in freezing weather on the side walks. What was shocking to us, was that during the Inauguration, paddy wagons would come down Pennsylvania Ave & take all of the homeless away. After the Inauguration was over, the paddy wagons would dump the homeless back on the street.

Just a horrendous way to treat the mentally ill homeless people, in the greatest country in the world.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

https://www.apnews.com/3a5aaa8ed10d46ba9fd84fe8242ada49

It's always interesting to see this happen. San Francisco residents like to boast about being some of the most forward thinking and progressive people in the country, but when it comes to helping their fellow citizens who are homeless their tune changes rather quickly.

Pretty telling quote right here, "“We have homeless people. I see them every day, and they’re nice people, but this is going to attract more,” she said. “I used to love the city and be proud of the city. Now I’m not anymore. It’s dirty, and it’s ugly.”

They are nice people, but please don't put them anywhere near me.

maybe the SF of 2 decades ago
now it's mostly tech industry, with some squishy politics at best
not much different than this guy

 

[SystemShock]

With all of the massive amount of IT brains & $$$, it just does not seem possible that they cannot find a better solution than having people peeing all over their city.

I don’t get it.

The people in tech who make big money either work from home or are chauffeured into the city.

 

[FLIPPY]

 

[DaveXA]

The people in tech who make big money either work from home or are chauffeured into the city.

True, and a lot of their offices are in Silicon Valley, which is actually outside the city as well.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Tbf 9ers fans are considered human waste, so..,

 

[RazorOye]

I see Robin from Teen Titans GO!