The San Francisco Travel Association reported a total of 10.2 million visitors to the city in 2020, down 61.0% from a record high of 26.2 million in 2019.
Total spending by visitors was $2.3 billion, down 77.7 percent from a record high of $10.3 billion in 2019, including spending on meetings and conventions.
Much of the drop-off could be attributed to the Coronavirus pandemic.
But another—and major—reason lay in a subject the city’s politicians refuse to acknowledge: The overwhelming presence of what they euphemistically called “the homeless,” but which is more accurately described as DDMBs: Druggies, Drunks, Mentals and Bums.
Downtown San Francisco
Christian Mehlführer, User:Chmehl [CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)%5D
In 2012, the association conducted a survey among San Francisco residents, who named tourism the city’s most important industry.
Yet San Francisco’s political establishment seems determined to destroy its main source of city revenues.
They do so by catering to a population whose legacies include the following:
- The city’s sidewalks reek of human feces and urine.
- Pedestrians must tread carefully to avoid used hypdermic needles and empty cans or bottles of alcoholic beverages.
- Sleeping bags and tents litter sidewalks, making it hard to pass by—especially for the elderly or those using canes or wheelchairs.
- Elevators in the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system are often unusable because “homeless” people urinate in them.
- Restaurants have been forced to close because they’ve become havens for DDMBs. A Burger King at Civic Center Plaza recently suffered this fate. So did a McDonald’s in the Haight Ashbury district.
- Tourists—and residents—are daily forced to sit next to filth-encrusted men and women who reek of urine and/or feces in restaurants and movie theaters, as well as on buses.
Bum passed out near the Cable Car Turnaround on Powell
So what are San Francisco’s politicians doing to curb these offenses against public health—and the tourism industry on which the city depends?
They’re opening a series of “Navigation Centers” to invite even more DDMBs to San Francisco.
According to the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing:
- “A Navigation Center is an asset to a community.”
- Such Centers are “a form of Temporary shelter that are low-barrier and high-service, have 24/7 access, and connect clients to resources and services to help them exit homelessness.”
- Services offered include: Health care, benefits counseling, mental health care, housing assistance, substance abuse treatment and employment services.
Since 2015, eight Navigation Centers have been opened throughout San Francisco; six are in operation.
Among the “amenities” they provide:
- Meals
- Privacy
- Space for pets
- Space separate from sleeping areas
- Laundry
- Access to benefits
- Wi-Fi
While city officials increasingly cater to the drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally ill and outright bums who comprise most of this population, San Francisco’s reputation as a tourist mecca is increasingly threatened.
“The large homeless population in San Francisco is more of a mental health and humanitarian issue, although it has affected the tourism and related industries,” said Christian Tong, operations manager for Intrepid Urban Adventures in San Francisco.
“Whether a visitor is staying in Fisherman’s Wharf, North Beach or Union Square, they’ll most likely run into a few of the city’s homeless people, with the largest concentration in the Tenderloin neighborhood.”
“A few?”
Current estimates peg the homeless population of San Francisco at about 7,500. And it hasn’t changed much during the last 10 years. In 2019, an estimated 2,831 members of this population were sheltered. Another 5,180 were unsheltered. This made for a total of 8,011.
Many DDMBs refuse to enter the city’s available shelters. Some claim these places are dangerous—understandably since they’re peopled with drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally ill and outright bums.
But another reason why many of these shelters go unused is they don’t allow their guests to drink up or drug up.
The city spends about $300 million each year on DDMBs. Dividing that amount by 8,011 provides the figure of $37,448 per DDMB.
Just as roaches flock to areas where huge quantities of food is available, so will DDMBs continue to flock to San Francisco. Especially if other cities/states don’t cater to them.
And while San Francisco politicians are going all-out to provide for DDMBs, they’re fighting a war against those who feed pigeons in parks. This includes posters erected by the Department of Public Works, which read:
“Large population of pigeons is a health hazard. Our huge feral pigeon population is a health hazard and creates many problems in the city.
“Pigeon droppings dirty public spaces, do costly damage to buildings, and can spread life-threatening diseases, especially to the elderly and immune-deficient. Their nesting materials block drains and harbor parasites like bird mites. Pigeon food makes a mess and attracts rats.
“Feeding pigeons promotes over-breeding. Pigeon feeding produces over-breeding.
“Pigeons are harmed when fed. When you feed pigeons, you are not doing them a favor. They lose their natural ability to scavenge and survive on their own.
“Pigeon over population leads to overcrowded, unsanitary conditions and produces sick and injured birds. A smaller flock is healthier and does less damage.”
Substitute “DDMBs” for “pigeons” and you have an accurate description of what San Francisco’s policy toward these people should be.
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A TARGET–FOR BUMS
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on September 27, 2021 at 12:10 amOn July 23, I sent the following letter to Brian Cormell, chairman of the board and CEO of Target.
I never received the courtesy of a reply. And the conditions I wrote about remain uncorrected.
Dear Sir:
On October 10, 2012, Target opened its main store in San Francisco at Geary and Masonic Streets. Its hours spanned 9 a.m. to midnight every day.
Today, its hours span 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Why?
Four letters will answer that question: DDMBs—Druggies, Drunks, Mentals and Bums.
That is: The legions of hardcore drug addicts, hardcore alcoholics, mentally ill and outright bums who have become this city’s untouchables.
And conferring that status upon them are none other than the Mayor, London Breed, and members of the Board of Supervisors.
In Politically Correct San Francisco, they are euphemistically referred to as “the homeless.”
Their rampant shoplifting has led to the closing of seventeen Walgreen’s stores in the city—as well as several CVS Pharmacies. And no wonder: Prices for illegal drugs—such as heroin—are high, and it takes a lot of stolen merchandise to translate into cash to buy them.
Many DDMBs refuse to enter the city’s available shelters. Some claim these places are dangerous—understandably so, since they’re peopled with drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally ill and outright bums.
But another reason why many of these shelters go unused: They don’t allow their guests to drink up or drug up.
Current estimates peg the “homeless” population of San Francisco at about 8,000. In 2019, a survey found that an estimated 2,831 members of this population were sheltered. Another 5,180 were unsheltered. This made for a total of 8,011.
The city will spend about $852 million in 2020-21 on DDMBs. Dividing that amount by about 8,000 DDMBs provides the figure of $106,500 per DDMB per year.
And yet the situation remains unchanged from year to year—as increasing numbers of DDMBs pour into San Francisco.
Huge areas of the city are covered in feces, urine, trash and used hypodermic needles. Hospitals overflow with patients that have fallen ill due to the contamination.
In February, 2018, NBC News surveyed 153 blocks of the city—an area more than 20 miles. That area includes popular tourist spots like Union Square and the cable car turnaround. It’s bordered by Van Ness Avenue, Market Street, Post Street and Grant Avenue. And it’s also home to City Hall, schools, playgrounds and a police station.
Most of the trash found consisted of heaps of garbage, food, and discarded junk—including 100 drug needles and more than 300 piles of feces throughout downtown. And once fecal matter dries, it can become airborne and release deadly viruses, such as the rotavirus.
There is no point in expecting the Mayor and Board of Supervisors to alter their Untermenschen-friendly policies.
Nor can Target expect to receive help from the police and District Attorney’s Office.
The website Only in Your State cites “the eight most dangerous places in San Francisco” as:
Those areas encompass the major parts of the city—which is only 46 square miles. That alone tells you how ineffective the SFPD is at preventing crime.
Then there’s District Attorney Chesa Boudin—the son of Weather Underground parents convicted of murdering two police officers and a Brink’s security guard in 1981. Boudin was raised by two more Weather members—Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers.
Chesa Boudin
SFGovTV, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Boudin blames “society” for the crimes committed by hardened criminals—and the victims they leave in their wake.
I realize that you are the CEO of a highly reputable, nationwide company—not a social worker or police administrator. Nevertheless, only you—and other prominent executives—have the power to turn this despicable situation around.
And you can do this by bringing social, political and economic pressure on the powers-that-be in this city—and thus forcing them to crack down on a population of parasites and predators that no city should tolerate.
It is as much in your own economic interest to do this as it is in that of law-abiding San Franciscans.
Thank you for the courtesy of sharing your time and consideration with me.
* * * * *
Ideally, a solution to the “homeless” problem should come at the Federal level, in a nationwide effort. Otherwise, those cities that attempt to provide free housing for Druggies, Drunks, Mentals and Bums will be swamped by legions of them.
Of these groups, the needs of the mentally ill can be most easily met—by returning them to the State mental hospitals closed by former Governor Ronald Reagan during the 1960s-70s.
Those who have burned out their brains on drugs and/or alcohol will remain forever incapable of leading productive lives. Putting them in subsidized housing will simply result in their trashing it. There is, in short, nothing that can be done for them.
As for those who prefer to sponge off others: They are parasites, and should be recognized as such. They should be bluntly told: “You’re not welcome here”—and shown the door.
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