Want to play a new game? Come to San Francisco and play “Count the Stupids.”
Just walk down any major street during a pandemic that’s killed more than 100,000 Americans and count:
- The people who refuse to wear face masks;
- The people wearing face masks below their noses;
- The people wearing face masks around their necks like bandannas.
On some days—depending on how far you walk—you might spot 10 to 60 or more such people.
Those who wear masks below their nose negate the purpose of wearing a mask. If they have COVID-19 and sneeze on someone else who’s not wearing a mask, that person is going to be stricken. And if someone who’s also not wearing a mask sneezes or coughs on them, they will be infected.
Face masks
Many of those wearing masks as bandannas are smoking. Clearly they value getting their intake of cancer as more important than protecting themselves against a deadly virus. Many mask-less men sport heavy beards—which would make a mask impossible to seal properly.
And as for complying with social distancing requirements that put at least six feet between people: Countless people casually pass others only inches away without any apparent concern—for their own safety or that of others.
On May 28, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced that a new policy would take effect the next day:
San Francisco will enforce the wearing of masks or face coverings when people leave their home and are within 30 feet of anyone that doesn’t live in their household.
That includes when you’re waiting in line to go into a store and when you’re inside shopping. A mask or face covering will not be needed when:
- You’re in a car by yourself;
- You’re with people you live with;
- You’re picnicking with members of your own household and are more than six feet from other groups;
- You’re walking, hiking, running or biking alone or with people you live with.
Even then, you should still have a mask or face covering on hand.
Of course, that will require police to enforce the new ordinance. This in a city where police have refused to crack down on “homeless” encampments—and their piles of feces, hypodermic needles and trash.
For all the kudos offered city residents by Mayor Breed for complying with social distancing, the blunt truth remains that many of them do not. And the fact that Breed felt forced to legally require citizens to wear face masks is a telling point in its own right.
But to return to life in San Francisco in the Age of COVID-19:
Civic Center—which lies directly across from City Hall—might better be renamed COVID-19 Center. Once it housed farmers markets and offered easy access to the Civic Center BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station.
Today it is fenced off and serves as shelter for countless “homeless” tents—and all the drugs, trash, alcohol, feces and hypodermic needles that come with this population.
Tent “city” in San Francisco
Of course, Civic Center isn’t the only place in San Francisco where you’ll find huge tents occupied by DDMB’s—Druggies, Drunks, Mentally Ill and Bums.
Walk down almost any major sidewalk and odds are you’ll find your path blocked by one or more huge tents able to house two to four people.
If you’re in a wheelchair or elderly or on crutches, you’ll likely be forced to step into the street or cross the street to continue your journey.
If you call the police on your cell phone, expecting them to remove the tents, you’re in for a big surprise. In bum-loving San Francisco, that sort of action is no longer handled by police.
Instead, they’ll refer you to a “help-the-homeless” agency that specializes in defending the rights of DDMBs over those of law-abiding, tax-paying San Francisco residents.
The “homeless problem” has become so outrageous in San Francisco that Hastings College of the Law—one of the foremost law schools in the nation—recently filed a lawsuit against the city “to end dangerous and illegal conditions in the Tenderloin neighborhood.”
Among its goals: To compel the City
- To clear sidewalks to allow unfettered safe passage for neighborhood residents and workers; and
- To provide healthy and safe solutions for “homeless” people who now use sidewalk encampments as their residence.
And when it comes to public transit: Forget about using the underground stations of the Municipal Railway (MUNI) bus system. Those have been closed since March—allegedly to protect riders and drivers from COVID-19.
MUNI underground station
Pi.1415926535 / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)
MUNI, which serves only San Francisco, has 4,800 employees and an annual budget of $1.28 billion.
The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system serves 33 cities and has an annual budget of $2.3 billion.
Yet BART, which uses many of the same stations is still providing railway service throughout northern California.
MUNI refuses to say why BART has managed to provide service for its passengers—while MUNI has made transit far more complex and time-consuming for its own.
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THE CHANGED FACE OF SAN FRANCISCO PART ONE (OF TWO)
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on June 2, 2020 at 12:05 amWant to play a new game? Come to San Francisco and play “Count the Stupids.”
Just walk down any major street during a pandemic that’s killed more than 100,000 Americans and count:
On some days—depending on how far you walk—you might spot 10 to 60 or more such people.
Those who wear masks below their nose negate the purpose of wearing a mask. If they have COVID-19 and sneeze on someone else who’s not wearing a mask, that person is going to be stricken. And if someone who’s also not wearing a mask sneezes or coughs on them, they will be infected.
Face masks
Many of those wearing masks as bandannas are smoking. Clearly they value getting their intake of cancer as more important than protecting themselves against a deadly virus. Many mask-less men sport heavy beards—which would make a mask impossible to seal properly.
And as for complying with social distancing requirements that put at least six feet between people: Countless people casually pass others only inches away without any apparent concern—for their own safety or that of others.
On May 28, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced that a new policy would take effect the next day:
San Francisco will enforce the wearing of masks or face coverings when people leave their home and are within 30 feet of anyone that doesn’t live in their household.
That includes when you’re waiting in line to go into a store and when you’re inside shopping. A mask or face covering will not be needed when:
Even then, you should still have a mask or face covering on hand.
Of course, that will require police to enforce the new ordinance. This in a city where police have refused to crack down on “homeless” encampments—and their piles of feces, hypodermic needles and trash.
For all the kudos offered city residents by Mayor Breed for complying with social distancing, the blunt truth remains that many of them do not. And the fact that Breed felt forced to legally require citizens to wear face masks is a telling point in its own right.
But to return to life in San Francisco in the Age of COVID-19:
Civic Center—which lies directly across from City Hall—might better be renamed COVID-19 Center. Once it housed farmers markets and offered easy access to the Civic Center BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station.
Today it is fenced off and serves as shelter for countless “homeless” tents—and all the drugs, trash, alcohol, feces and hypodermic needles that come with this population.
Tent “city” in San Francisco
Of course, Civic Center isn’t the only place in San Francisco where you’ll find huge tents occupied by DDMB’s—Druggies, Drunks, Mentally Ill and Bums.
Walk down almost any major sidewalk and odds are you’ll find your path blocked by one or more huge tents able to house two to four people.
If you’re in a wheelchair or elderly or on crutches, you’ll likely be forced to step into the street or cross the street to continue your journey.
If you call the police on your cell phone, expecting them to remove the tents, you’re in for a big surprise. In bum-loving San Francisco, that sort of action is no longer handled by police.
Instead, they’ll refer you to a “help-the-homeless” agency that specializes in defending the rights of DDMBs over those of law-abiding, tax-paying San Francisco residents.
The “homeless problem” has become so outrageous in San Francisco that Hastings College of the Law—one of the foremost law schools in the nation—recently filed a lawsuit against the city “to end dangerous and illegal conditions in the Tenderloin neighborhood.”
Among its goals: To compel the City
And when it comes to public transit: Forget about using the underground stations of the Municipal Railway (MUNI) bus system. Those have been closed since March—allegedly to protect riders and drivers from COVID-19.
MUNI underground station
Pi.1415926535 / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)
MUNI, which serves only San Francisco, has 4,800 employees and an annual budget of $1.28 billion.
The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system serves 33 cities and has an annual budget of $2.3 billion.
Yet BART, which uses many of the same stations is still providing railway service throughout northern California.
MUNI refuses to say why BART has managed to provide service for its passengers—while MUNI has made transit far more complex and time-consuming for its own.
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