I agree with so much of this article. Safe consumption sites are a joke as is Harm Reduction! People should be offered rehabilitation sites, coupled with decent housing not rat/flea infested hotels. If they don’t choose rehab and continue to use publicly then jail time should be the other option. Have a mandatory drug rehabilitation program put in place for when people exit jail.
People of all communities should not be subject to people smoking or mainlining drugs where they live, be it the Tenderloin or Pacific Heights.
Most of what you said is common sense. I know of a huge non-profit - The Tides Foundation which leases privately owned old (SRO) single room occupancy hotels in conjunction with the City DPH, rehabs them to decent safety standards, and runs them clean with housing rules. I don't know if this model is fully successful, or what the stats are surrounding it. From what I saw personally, there wouldn't be fleas unless the people bring them in. And there should not be rodents.
Why isn't the DPH providing a detailed report on all City subsidized housing, noting the number of units, the condition, how many are not rent ready, how long tenants have lived at each location, how many are just poor working people, v how many are recovering addicts from drugs or alcohol?
Agree. She keeps talking about revitalizing downtown, but nothing is being done to bring retail back, clean up the drug dealing/use in our public parks around the Embarcadero, or remove encampments from around office buildings. You need to made it safe and attractive for people to want to work and shop here!
Downtown is a big economic engine. Mayor Breed ignorantly shut it down out of extreme fear of COVID. Each neighborhood business street is a smaller engine, and she damaged all of those too. Before the disastrous COVID shutdown - things were bad, but they were also semi-normal. After the carnage of "Breeds Folly" what's left is a diminished rental base, diminished commercial taxes, probably lower payroll taxes, great loss of foot traffic, and I suspect tourism
has not fully recovered. In addition - violent crime is up, quality of life crime is up (urban Camping, motorhomes, and cars in residential areas, and street trash with potential record amounts of feces (animal and human). SFPD staffing was defunded while in a declining
employment curve, and now can't even fill cadet classes. As people retire from SFPD, we should expect less coverage, longer response time to calls, and longer times to solve cases,
but the Mayor and any other City employees who get SFPD security won't have to worry, because they come first.
Damaging San Francisco's "brand" is probably the one thing that Mayor Breed will be remembered for though the Mayor certainly didn't do it all without the help of the BOS
who run the City like a political club instead of a sacred trust. To fix what's broken would
require an epiphany and a rejection of long standing foundational Progressive Democrat
values which are the root of all the current problems.
This is not about the COVID shutdown. That lasted until June 2020. I’ve been back in my office in E4 since then. The deterioration of downtown started beforehand with declining street conditions and declining public transit and then COVID gave people as excuse to stay home. Fix those problems and they’ll come back.
You are not giving the COVID abuses fair credit. Maybe you agreed with them. That's fine either way. Saying they ended in JUN 2020 is flat wrong, and also ignores the depth and scope of damages done by them.
I guess E4 is for Embarcadero - whatever works for you is fine. I've been crusading for Work From Anywhere/Work From Home for ever since the technologies made it practical to do. The only benefits of Commute slavery are; mtg in person/personal supervision, attracting 100's of thousands of people to the financial district and other areas where they in turn spend money supporting local businesses, the resulting increases in commercial rents and taxes.
The old model never made sense, but there was no alternative. Even when large employers opened satellite offices San Francisco office workers numbers kept growing. Now that the WFH model has been proven a win/win/win (good for the employer, good for their employees, good for the environment), and a high percentage employees would rather walk away than submit to the commute, the disruption is likely permanent.
You are right that San Francisco was badly mismanaged pre COVID, however, I think your assumptions are equally wrong; COVID wasn't an excuse to stay home, it was an order! "Fix those problems and they’ll come back." assumes someone, anyone can actually FIX those problems. There is ZERO reason to expect success on those items. I own 70 years to back up my observations.
There is an old song by Robert Palmer – Simply Irresistible – you could have adapted to your
your article’s title: Mayor London Breed: Simply Unbelievable!
Q: What qualified London breed for Supervisor?
A: Political connections.
Q: What qualified Supervisor London Breed for Mayor?
A: Years serving as Supervisor was all it took. No vision or special talent.
Q: What prevented Mayor London Breed from fighting for our beloved City?
A: The Mayor has no innovative ideas, no conviction, and is an empty suit.
Q: Why does the Mayor own your “missteps” laundry list of failures?
A: The Mayor is too weak to dare breaking out of the Progressive Democrat box and
upsetting all of the Supervisors and others who play in the Progressive sandbox.
Q: Why is none of this likely to change anytime soon?
A: It would require an epiphany coupled with an outright rejection of Progressive Democrat
principles. The Mayor might be able to navigate that minefield with donors and the
San Francisco business community, but the majority of S.F. voters are renters who are
not known for putting the needs of the City ahead of their own financial and ideological
opinions. I think most if not any politician these days would lose those votes by way of
Example as we saw happen in Chicago’s recent election of the Leftist over the more
Conservative choice.
You end by asking who will be the White Knight to come into this stew of challenges, and be
capable of restoring San Francisco to its greater glory? I’m guessing that you could have
listed a few names, but the reality is that San Francisco doesn’t want any of them! San Francisco
is addicted to being exactly what it has become. A sanctuary city - It is corrupt, cultish, arrogant, and maybe terminally proud without justification. We’ll see.
Safe injection sites saved hundreds of lives. Since we closed them overdoses have rocketed up 41%. Maybe the goal is to have all the fentanyl users kill themselves so you all won’t have to deal with them.
I agree with so much of this article. Safe consumption sites are a joke as is Harm Reduction! People should be offered rehabilitation sites, coupled with decent housing not rat/flea infested hotels. If they don’t choose rehab and continue to use publicly then jail time should be the other option. Have a mandatory drug rehabilitation program put in place for when people exit jail.
People of all communities should not be subject to people smoking or mainlining drugs where they live, be it the Tenderloin or Pacific Heights.
Most of what you said is common sense. I know of a huge non-profit - The Tides Foundation which leases privately owned old (SRO) single room occupancy hotels in conjunction with the City DPH, rehabs them to decent safety standards, and runs them clean with housing rules. I don't know if this model is fully successful, or what the stats are surrounding it. From what I saw personally, there wouldn't be fleas unless the people bring them in. And there should not be rodents.
Why isn't the DPH providing a detailed report on all City subsidized housing, noting the number of units, the condition, how many are not rent ready, how long tenants have lived at each location, how many are just poor working people, v how many are recovering addicts from drugs or alcohol?
Nailed it...she’s an unmitigated disaster...everyone needs to face facts and move on.
Correct, yet not half of everyone ever seems willing to do that.
Agree. She keeps talking about revitalizing downtown, but nothing is being done to bring retail back, clean up the drug dealing/use in our public parks around the Embarcadero, or remove encampments from around office buildings. You need to made it safe and attractive for people to want to work and shop here!
Downtown is a big economic engine. Mayor Breed ignorantly shut it down out of extreme fear of COVID. Each neighborhood business street is a smaller engine, and she damaged all of those too. Before the disastrous COVID shutdown - things were bad, but they were also semi-normal. After the carnage of "Breeds Folly" what's left is a diminished rental base, diminished commercial taxes, probably lower payroll taxes, great loss of foot traffic, and I suspect tourism
has not fully recovered. In addition - violent crime is up, quality of life crime is up (urban Camping, motorhomes, and cars in residential areas, and street trash with potential record amounts of feces (animal and human). SFPD staffing was defunded while in a declining
employment curve, and now can't even fill cadet classes. As people retire from SFPD, we should expect less coverage, longer response time to calls, and longer times to solve cases,
but the Mayor and any other City employees who get SFPD security won't have to worry, because they come first.
Damaging San Francisco's "brand" is probably the one thing that Mayor Breed will be remembered for though the Mayor certainly didn't do it all without the help of the BOS
who run the City like a political club instead of a sacred trust. To fix what's broken would
require an epiphany and a rejection of long standing foundational Progressive Democrat
values which are the root of all the current problems.
I'm not holding my breath.
This is not about the COVID shutdown. That lasted until June 2020. I’ve been back in my office in E4 since then. The deterioration of downtown started beforehand with declining street conditions and declining public transit and then COVID gave people as excuse to stay home. Fix those problems and they’ll come back.
You are not giving the COVID abuses fair credit. Maybe you agreed with them. That's fine either way. Saying they ended in JUN 2020 is flat wrong, and also ignores the depth and scope of damages done by them.
I guess E4 is for Embarcadero - whatever works for you is fine. I've been crusading for Work From Anywhere/Work From Home for ever since the technologies made it practical to do. The only benefits of Commute slavery are; mtg in person/personal supervision, attracting 100's of thousands of people to the financial district and other areas where they in turn spend money supporting local businesses, the resulting increases in commercial rents and taxes.
The old model never made sense, but there was no alternative. Even when large employers opened satellite offices San Francisco office workers numbers kept growing. Now that the WFH model has been proven a win/win/win (good for the employer, good for their employees, good for the environment), and a high percentage employees would rather walk away than submit to the commute, the disruption is likely permanent.
You are right that San Francisco was badly mismanaged pre COVID, however, I think your assumptions are equally wrong; COVID wasn't an excuse to stay home, it was an order! "Fix those problems and they’ll come back." assumes someone, anyone can actually FIX those problems. There is ZERO reason to expect success on those items. I own 70 years to back up my observations.
Erica –
There is an old song by Robert Palmer – Simply Irresistible – you could have adapted to your
your article’s title: Mayor London Breed: Simply Unbelievable!
Q: What qualified London breed for Supervisor?
A: Political connections.
Q: What qualified Supervisor London Breed for Mayor?
A: Years serving as Supervisor was all it took. No vision or special talent.
Q: What prevented Mayor London Breed from fighting for our beloved City?
A: The Mayor has no innovative ideas, no conviction, and is an empty suit.
Q: Why does the Mayor own your “missteps” laundry list of failures?
A: The Mayor is too weak to dare breaking out of the Progressive Democrat box and
upsetting all of the Supervisors and others who play in the Progressive sandbox.
Q: Why is none of this likely to change anytime soon?
A: It would require an epiphany coupled with an outright rejection of Progressive Democrat
principles. The Mayor might be able to navigate that minefield with donors and the
San Francisco business community, but the majority of S.F. voters are renters who are
not known for putting the needs of the City ahead of their own financial and ideological
opinions. I think most if not any politician these days would lose those votes by way of
Example as we saw happen in Chicago’s recent election of the Leftist over the more
Conservative choice.
You end by asking who will be the White Knight to come into this stew of challenges, and be
capable of restoring San Francisco to its greater glory? I’m guessing that you could have
listed a few names, but the reality is that San Francisco doesn’t want any of them! San Francisco
is addicted to being exactly what it has become. A sanctuary city - It is corrupt, cultish, arrogant, and maybe terminally proud without justification. We’ll see.
as always, thank you for your astute comments
Safe injection sites saved hundreds of lives. Since we closed them overdoses have rocketed up 41%. Maybe the goal is to have all the fentanyl users kill themselves so you all won’t have to deal with them.