Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) – San Francisco’s Department of Public Works wants to replace 3,000 existing green trash cans with bigger and better-looking ones. The prototype being considered will cost taxpayers about $20,000 per can. “It’s insane. Insane,” said Fred, a San Francisco resident. READ MORE: San Jose Police In Standoff With Suspect Who Fired From Balcony; Homes Evacuated Too often, residents say trash put into the cans end up on the sidewalks. “They go looking for drugs. They go looking for things to recycle. In the neighborhood I live in, they bust them open, pull things out. Sometimes they...

Sharon Smith has to plunge her toilet to get it to flush. On rainy days, wastewater spills into her yard from nearby drainage ditches. Twice in the last year her house has flooded, leaving behind the sickening smell of sewage, she said. Her carpets are ruined, the floorboards are buckling, the bathroom wall is pulling away from the tub, she said. In the laundry room, the worst-hit part of the house, the smell of mold lingers. “I want to move, because this flooding is ridiculous,” said Smith, 59. For decades, residents of Centreville, a nearly all-Black town of 5,000 in...

More than 70 bandits have been arrested three or more times in the last six months for muggings and armed robberies, and many are on the streets as judges give them multiple shots at freedom. Among them is teenager Anderson Ortiz, who was sprung three times this spring following arrests in Queens and Brooklyn — only to go on and violently mug an elderly Asian couple in May, according to police and court records. Cops say Ortiz, 19, grabbed the 63-year-old male victim from behind as he walked along 60th Street near Bay Parkway, Brooklyn, punched him several times in...

This week's death toll from fires in Oregon, Washington and California now stands at 18, as at least 100 major fires burn in 11 western states. As flames push closer to the city of Portland, the mayor has declared a state of emergency — and state officials say they're now preparing for a "mass fatality incident." More than half a million people — 12% of the state's population — have fled from their homes in Oregon and mass evacuations are underway across the region. Oregon's governor said Thursday that dozens may be missing in her state. The monstrous fires are...

Nearly two dozen Bronx principals say they’d love to have outdoor classrooms — if only they didn’t have to worry about their students getting shot or picking up used drug syringes off the ground. The day after Mayor Bill de Blasio and schools Chancellor Richard Carranza crowed about turning city parks and streets near schools into classrooms amid the coronavirus, principals in the borough’s District 7 fired off a blistering letter. “Our District has been in the grips of a wave of gun violence that is dangerously affecting and can further exacerbate the safety conditions for all members in our...

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Winston Ortiz, an 18-year old Bronx resident, was lured Wednesday into a stairwell by someone he had a dispute with. He was stabbed, doused with gasoline and set on fire. Ortiz died in the hospital Wednesday. Just the latest depravity in an increasingly depraved city. Each day brings reports of fresh horror. More than 1,000 people have been shot so far this year, which is shaping up to be twice as bloody as 2019. There have been four murders on the subway — usually there are one or two a year — and felony assaults underground are way up, even as ridership...