SOMETHING'S GOT TO GIVE { Homeless own SF's Sidewalks }

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 10/11/7 | C.W. Nevius

[fleagle]

I found the same thing when I was in SF a few years ago. I went to go biking in Golden Gate Park and had to ride through a homeless shanty town at the park entrance off Steiner (where I rented my bike). Terrible. Scary. Smelly.

What I recall most is the homeless problem.

It’s a beatiful city the ultra-libs/lefties are flushing right down the toilet.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Hey SF, keep doing what you’re doing... it keeps the bums away from us!

[ByDesign]

“It’s a beatiful city the ultra-libs/lefties are flushing right down the toilet.”

It’s not as beautiful as it used to be, through the gentrification of the .com boom and recent housing boom, a lot of the character of the city was wiped away with new construction and remodels. Add in the never ending construction from the Embarcadero, which has torn up downtown for the new on/off ramps, and it’s just lost it’s flavor. I’ve watched it deteriorate over the last 20 years, it’s really a shame.

I rarely go in anymore, it’s just not worth it. You have to fight traffic in (god help you if there’s a game at Pac Bell or Candlestick), there’s no parking, the bike riders rude, bums everywhere, and we won’t even go into the tourist areas. (Just stay away).

I used to haunt the zoo and Golden Gate Park, but the zoo is not what it used to be, and usually packed with immigrants and baby strollers and kids running wild (almost had my Nikon knocked out of my hands last time), and Golden Gate Park belongs to the homeless now - go into the bushes at your own risk, the city workers refuse to, as they get attacked, and it’s awash in broken booze bottles and used needles.

I’d live in the city or one of the coastal communities like Pacifica of 20 years ago in a heartbeat, now, forget it. That’s if you can afford it, prices there rival NYC.

Great way to run a city, Newsome. Make sure that visitors from around the world have their lasting memories of SF be the smell of urine and feces, and the sound of the insane attacking people on the street.

The last conservative mayor of SF cleaned up the city, and got rid of the homeless. Business went up, SF relies on a heavy traffic of conferences, tourists, and banking, among other things. Now, business is down. The libs that run SF never seem to be able to figure out that connection.

The SF City Council has floated the idea of no private ownership of land or housing in SF. Won’t that be fun, if they ram it through?

[paul51]

Those pics show the homeless lounging around and hanging out but they don’t show them accosting passersby requesting handouts. Some of them are very aggressive and try to intimidate people to give a donation. I was up in SFO a few weeks ago and almost decked some jerk. On a funnier note, one of the more enterprising bums raided one of those free newspaper boxes and was ‘selling’ the papers on the street. I was headed into a business when he made his offering. I said no thanks and he said, ‘maybe on the way out’. I had to chuckle at his strategy.