Posts Tagged ‘TOURISM’
ABC NEWS, ALCOHOLISM, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BERNADINE DOHRN, BILL AYERS, BUMS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHESA BOUDIN, CNN, CRIME, CROOKS AND LIARS, CVS, CVS PHARMACY, DAILY KOZ, DRUG ADDICTION, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HEAPTITUS C, HEPATITIS B, HILLARY RONEN, HIV, HOMELESSNESS, HUMAN FECES, INFECTIOUS DISEASES, LONDON BREED, MEDIA MATTERS, MENTAL ILLNESS, MOHAMMED NURU, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAVIGATION CENTERS, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, ORACLE, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PUBLIC HEALTH, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SAN FRANCISCO, SAN FRANCISCO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, SAN FRANCISCO DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR'S OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO POLICE DEPARTMENT, SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT, SAN FRANCISCO TRAVEL ASSOCIATION, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TOURISM, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WALGREENS, WALGREENS DRUG STORES, WEATHER UNDERGROUND
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on September 20, 2022 at 12:17 am
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 vast majority of them fall into four groups:
- Druggies
- Drunks
- Mentally ill
- Bums.
Or, to put it more discretely: DDMBs.
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 is: They don’t allow their guests to drink up or drug up.
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.
The city spent 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.
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.
Another danger posed by DDMBs: Their rampant shoplifting has led to the closing of many Walgreens drug stores in San Francisco.
The Walgreens at 30th Street and Mission Street reported 16 shoplifting incidents between November 2020 and February 2021. Just six blocks away, Walgreens’ products were being sold at an outdoor market.
And there’s no point in expecting help from the police or district attorney’s office.
The website Only in Your State cites “the eight most dangerous places in San Francisco” as:
- The Tenderloin
- Hunter’s Point
- Bayview
- Mission District
- Outer Mission
- Western Addition
- South of Market and
- Golden Gate Park.
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.
From 2019 until June 7, 2022, District Attorney Chesa Boudin refused to hold such criminals accountable. Instead, he blamed “society” for the crimes they had committed.
Elected in 2019, Boudin is 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.
On June 7, San Francisco voters, furious about crime, recalled Boudin.
Low-income and disabled seniors who depend on these disappearing drug stores for prescriptions are especially at risk.
Walgreens is not the only pharmacy to be victimized by DDMBs. A CVS location a few blocks away, at 995 Market Street, also closed due to shoplifting.
The latest wrinkle in San Francisco’s “be kind to Untermenschen” campaign is the creation of “Navigation Centers.” These are essentially holding pens for DDMBs until they can be “navigated” to permanent housing.
But housing is in short supply in San Francisco, and there is no telling how long many of these drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally disabled and bums will stay in them. Or what harm they will wreak on the neighborhoods warehousing them.
Hundreds—if not thousands—of them are heroin addicts. Such people will commit virtually any crime to support their habit. And their crimes of choice are burglary and robbery.
Thus, pouring large numbers of them into San Francisco neighborhoods via “Navigation Centers” guarantees that countless decent citizens will become targets for desperate criminals.
Navigation Centers boast that they ban drug-abuse or drug-dealing on their own premises. But they allow DDMBs to come and go at will. Which means they are free to engage in drug-abuse and/or drug-dealing in the neighborhoods where these centers exist.
Most politicians set their priorities on how popular their programs will be among voters. But San Francisco’s politicians reject practicality for allegiance to Uber liberal ideology.
Drug addicts, alcoholics, the mentally ill and those who refuse to work are not reliable voters. Those who are productive, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens do vote.
And many of these people have voted—to not visit San Francisco again.
Hosting conventions is a lucrative business for San Francisco, bringing in about $2 billion each year. In 2019, the city hosted 40 large-scale conventions at the Moscone Center. This year, the number may reach 20.
“One of the things [international clients] are looking at is the conditions on the streets,” said Joe D’Alessandro, the president and CEO of SF Travel. “We need to be able to walk down the streets and not feel harassed.”
A quarter of all tourists visiting San Francisco in 2019 were international travelers—and comprised 63% of all tourism spending.
“Our numbers will not be what they were in 2019 until we see those markets return,” said D’Alessandro.
San Francisco’s embrace of DDMBs threatens not only its residents but the tourism industry on which it depends for its economic survival.
Like this:
Like Loading...
ABC NEWS, ALCOHOLISM, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BERNADINE DOHRN, BILL AYERS, BUMS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHESA BOUDIN, CNN, CRIME, CROOKS AND LIARS, CVS, CVS PHARMACY, DAILY KOZ, DRUG ADDICTION, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HEAPTITUS C, HEPATITIS B, HILLARY RONEN, HIV, HOMELESSNESS, HUMAN FECES, INFECTIOUS DISEASES, LONDON BREED, MEDIA MATTERS, MENTAL ILLNESS, MOHAMMED NURU, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAVIGATION CENTERS, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, ORACLE, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PUBLIC HEALTH, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SAN FRANCISCO, SAN FRANCISCO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, SAN FRANCISCO DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR'S OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO POLICE DEPARTMENT, SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT, SAN FRANCISCO TRAVEL ASSOCIATION, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TOURISM, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WALGREENS, WALGREENS DRUG STORES, WEATHER UNDERGROUND
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on September 19, 2022 at 12:10 am
Why are Walgreen stores disappearing from San Francisco?
The answer can be summed up in four letters: DDMBs—Druggies, Drunks, Mentals and Bums.
These are the untouchables of San Francisco. If you doubt it, consider the following:
If you are a firefighter, police officer, paramedic or schoolteacher, and want to live in San Francisco, forget it.
According to Rent Cafe, which provides apartment listings directly from top property managers: “The average [monthly] rent for an apartment in San Francisco is $3,397.” And “the average size for a San Francisco apartment is 740 square feet.”
So unless you’re a hugely successful IT professional—or narcotics dealer—your chances of being able to afford a San Francisco apartment are lower than Donald Trump’s of winning a “Mr. Congeniality” contest.
But there’s hope for you yet—if you’re a Druggie, Drunk, Mental or Bum.
Why?
Because the Mayor of San Francisco—currently London Breed—and Board of Supervisors have deliberately created an Untermenschen-friendly program that actually encourages such people to move to the city.
Run by the city’s Department of Public Health (DPH) it’s called the COVID-19 Alternative Housing Program. And it works in two stages:
Stage 1: Move the “homeless” into the city’s hotels—at city expense.
Stage 2: Provide them with not only free food and shelter but free alcohol, cannabis, and cigarettes.
According to a May 11, 2020 story in City Journal.org:
“The program’s primary purpose is to keep homeless people, the majority of whom are addicts, out of harm’s way during the pandemic. By getting their substance of choice delivered, the thinking goes, the guests may be more apt to remain in their government-funded rooms.
“Another purpose of the program is to protect the public against the spread of coronavirus. The city doesn’t want homeless people who should be staying in their rooms roaming the neighborhood in search of the substances, potentially infecting others.”
After news about these deliveries leaked on social media, DPH claimed that “rumors that guests of San Francisco’s alternative housing program are receiving taxpayer-funded deliveries of alcohol, cannabis and tobacco are false.”
Except that the reports weren’t false.
The program is funded by private philanthropists Nevertheless:
- DPH administers and oversees the program.
- It’s staffed by city workers, including doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, social workers, and security personnel.
- The department manages, stores, and distributes the substances.
- Employee time is involved.
Thus, the program is financed by taxpayers, even if an outside group provides some of the funding.
“Managed alcohol and tobacco use makes it possible to increase the number of guests who stay in isolation and quarantine and, notably, protects the health of people who might otherwise need hospital care for life-threatening alcohol withdrawal,” says DPH spokeswoman Jenna Lane.
“Many isolation and quarantine guests tell us they use these substances daily,” says Lane, “and this period in our care has allowed some people to connect for the first time with addiction treatment and harm reduction therapy.”
Notice the word “guests.” As if San Francisco—or any city—should welcome hordes of drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally ill and outright bums as assets to its community.
“Harm reduction” therapy, according to the Harm Reduction Coalition, is “a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use.”
DPH said in a statement that these “guests” are screened for substance addictions and asked if they’d like to stop or have support to reduce their use.
If they say they want to remain alcoholics and/or drug addicts, they’re provided with their substance of choice.
The department also provides methadone for “guests” who are addicted to opioids.
DPH staffers have helped people buy “medical marijuana,” the agency told local affiliate ABC7.
But the agency doesn’t “facilitate purchases of recreational cannabis,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s website, SFGate.
Nor does the agency require that its addict “guests” remain quarantined. It merely asks that they do so.
When they’re not injecting, swallowing or sniffing drugs, many of San Francisco’s “guests” spend a lot of their time ripping off retail stores.
Walgreens drug stores have proven a particular target for these DDMBs.
As a result, Walgreens has closed 17 stores in San Francisco.
“I feel sorry for the clerks, they are regularly being verbally assaulted,” a regular customer, Sebastian Luke, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
“The clerks say there is nothing they can do. They say Walgreens’ policy is to not get involved. They don’t want anyone getting injured or getting sued, so the guys just keep coming in and taking whatever they want.”
“Why are the shelves empty?” a customer asked a clerk at a Walgreens store.
“Go ask the people in the alleys, they have it all,” replied the clerk.
One store in the San Francisco area reportedly lost $1,000 a day to theft.
CVS Pharmacy has instructed its employees to not intervene because the thieves so often attack them.
Many shoplifters then sell their stolen goods on the street—often near the store where they stole them.
Under California law, theft under $950 is considered a misdemeanor, but many prosecutors prefer to free those charged rather than holding them in jail.
The maximum sentence they could get: Six months.
Like this:
Like Loading...
ABC NEWS, ALCOHOLISM, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT (BART) SYSTEM, BUMS, BURGER KING, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHRISTIAN TONG, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DDMBS (DRUGGIES DRUNKS MENTALS AND BUMS), DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS, DRUDGE RETORT, DRUG ADDICTION, DRUGGIES DRUNKS MENTALS AND BUMS (DDMBS), FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HOMELESS, INTREDPID URBAN ADVENTURES IN SAN FRANCISCO, LONDON BREED, MCCONALD’S, MEDIA MATTERS, MENTALLY ILL, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAVIGATION CENTERS, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, PIGEON-FEEDING, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SAN FRANCISCO, SAN FRANCISCO BOARD OF SUEPRVISORS, SAN FRANCISCO DEPARTMENT OF HOMELESSNESS AND SUPPORTIVE HOUSING, SAN FRANCISCO TRAVEL ASSOCIATION, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TOURISM, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on September 2, 2021 at 8:47 am
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.
Like this:
Like Loading...
ABC NEWS, ALCOHOLISM, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BERNADINE DOHRN, BILL AYERS, BUMS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHESA BOUDIN, CNN, CRIME, CROOKS AND LIARS, CVS, CVS PHARMACY, DAILY KOZ, DRUG ADDICTION, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HEAPTITUS C, HEPATITIS B, HILLARY RONEN, HIV, HOMELESSNESS, HUMAN FECES, INFECTIOUS DISEASES, LONDON BREED, MEDIA MATTERS, MENTAL ILLNESS, MOHAMMED NURU, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAVIGATION CENTERS, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, ORACLE, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PUBLIC HEALTH, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SAN FRANCISCO, SAN FRANCISCO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, SAN FRANCISCO DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR'S OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO POLICE DEPARTMENT, SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT, SAN FRANCISCO TRAVEL ASSOCIATION, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TOURISM, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WALGREENS, WALGREENS DRUG STORES, WEATHER UNDERGROUND, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on July 9, 2021 at 12:13 am
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 vast majority of them fall into four groups:
- Druggies
- Drunks
- Mentally ill
- Bums.
Or, to put it more discretely: DDMBs.
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 is: They don’t allow their guests to drink up or drug up.
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.
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.
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.
Another danger posed by DDMBs: Their rampant shoplifting has led to the closing of many Walgreens drug stores in San Francisco.
The Walgreens at 30th Street and Mission Street reported 16 shoplifting incidents between November 2020 and February 2021. Just six blocks away, Walgreens’ products were being sold at an outdoor market.
And there’s no point in expecting help from the police or district attorney’s office.
The website Only in Your State cites “the eight most dangerous places in San Francisco” as:
- The Tenderloin
- Hunter’s Point
- Bayview
- Mission District
- Outer Mission
- Western Addition
- South of Market and
- Golden Gate Park.
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.
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.
Low-income and disabled seniors who depend on these disappearing drug stores for prescriptions are especially at risk.
Walgreens is not the only pharmacy to be victimized by DDMBs. A CVS location a few blocks away, at 995 Market Street, also closed due to shoplifting.
Target stores in the city are now closing at 6 p.m. because of rampant shoplifting.
The latest wrinkle in San Francisco’s “be kind to Untermenschen” campaign is the creation of “Navigation Centers.” These are essentially holding pens for DDMBs until they can be “navigated” to permanent housing.
But housing is in short supply in San Francisco, and there is no telling how long many of these drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally disabled and bums will stay in them. Or what harm they will wreak on the neighborhoods warehousing them.
Hundreds—if not thousands—of them are heroin addicts. Such people will commit virtually any crime to support their habit. And their crimes of choice are burglary and robbery.
Thus, pouring large numbers of them into San Francisco neighborhoods via “Navigation Centers” guarantees that countless decent citizens will become targets for desperate criminals.
Navigation Centers boast that they ban drug-abuse or drug-dealing on their own premises. But they allow DDMBs to come and go at will. Which means they are free to engage in drug-abuse and/or drug-dealing in the neighborhoods where these centers exist.
Most politicians set their priorities on how popular their programs will be among voters. But San Francisco’s politicians reject practicality for allegiance to Uber liberal ideology.
Drug addicts, alcoholics, the mentally ill and those who refuse to work are not reliable voters. Those who are productive, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens do vote.
And many of these people have voted—to not visit San Francisco again.
Hosting conventions is a lucrative business for San Francisco, bringing in about $2 billion each year. But in 2018, a Chicago-based medical association boasting roughly 15,000 conference attendees canceled its planned visit.
And in 2019, Oracle’s OpenWorld voted to cancel its planned convention in San Francisco and be centered from 2020 to 2022 at Caesar’s Forum in Las Vegas. The San Francisco Travel Association estimates that the move will cost the city $64 million in lost revenue.
The reason for both cancellations: San Francisco’s fervent embrace of DDMBs-–and the refusal of attendees to wade through piles of trash, used hypodermic needles, beer bottles, human feces and huge tents on sidewalks.
San Francisco’s embrace of DDMBs threatens not only its residents but the tourism industry on which it depends for its economic survival.
Like this:
Like Loading...
ABC NEWS, ALCOHOLISM, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BERNADINE DOHRN, BILL AYERS, BUMS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHESA BOUDIN, CNN, CRIME, CROOKS AND LIARS, CVS, CVS PHARMACY, DAILY KOZ, DRUG ADDICTION, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HEAPTITUS C, HEPATITIS B, HILLARY RONEN, HIV, HOMELESSNESS, HUMAN FECES, INFECTIOUS DISEASES, LONDON BREED, MEDIA MATTERS, MENTAL ILLNESS, MOHAMMED NURU, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAVIGATION CENTERS, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, ORACLE, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PUBLIC HEALTH, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SAN FRANCISCO, SAN FRANCISCO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, SAN FRANCISCO DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR'S OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO POLICE DEPARTMENT, SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT, SAN FRANCISCO TRAVEL ASSOCIATION, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TOURISM, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WALGREENS, WALGREENS DRUG STORES, WEATHER UNDERGROUND, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on July 8, 2021 at 12:23 am
Why are Walgreen stores disappearing from San Francisco?
The answer can be summed up in four letters: DDMBs—Druggies, Drunks, Mentals and Bums.
These are the untouchables of San Francisco. If you doubt it, consider the following:
If you are a firefighter, police officer, paramedic or schoolteacher, and want to live in San Francisco, forget it.
According to Rent Cafe, which provides apartment listings directly from top property managers: “The average [monthly] rent for an apartment in San Francisco is $2,879.” And “the average size for a San Francisco apartment is 739 square feet.”
So unless you’re a hugely successful IT professional—or narcotics dealer—your chances of being able to afford a San Francisco apartment are lower than Donald Trump’s of winning a “Mr. Congeniality” contest.
But there’s hope for you yet—if you’re a Druggie, Drunk, Mental or Bum.
Why?
Because the Mayor of San Francisco—currently London Breed—and Board of Supervisors have deliberately created an Untermenschen-friendly program that actually encourages such people to move to the city.
Run by the city’s Department of Public Health (DPH) it’s called the COVID-19 Alternative Housing Program. And it works in two stages:
Stage 1: Move the “homeless” into the city’s hotels—at city expense.
Stage 2: Provide them with not only free food and shelter but free alcohol, cannabis, and cigarettes.
According to a May 11, 2020 story in City Journal.org:
“The program’s primary purpose is to keep homeless people, the majority of whom are addicts, out of harm’s way during the pandemic. By getting their substance of choice delivered, the thinking goes, the guests may be more apt to remain in their government-funded rooms.
“Another purpose of the program is to protect the public against the spread of coronavirus. The city doesn’t want homeless people who should be staying in their rooms roaming the neighborhood in search of the substances, potentially infecting others.”
After news about these deliveries leaked on social media, DPH claimed that “rumors that guests of San Francisco’s alternative housing program are receiving taxpayer-funded deliveries of alcohol, cannabis and tobacco are false.”
Except that the reports weren’t false.
The program is funded by private philanthropists Nevertheless:
- DPH administers and oversees the program.
- It’s staffed by city workers, including doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, social workers, and security personnel.
- The department manages, stores, and distributes the substances.
- Employee time is involved.
Thus, the program is financed by taxpayers, even if an outside group provides some of the funding.
“Managed alcohol and tobacco use makes it possible to increase the number of guests who stay in isolation and quarantine and, notably, protects the health of people who might otherwise need hospital care for life-threatening alcohol withdrawal,” says DPH spokeswoman Jenna Lane.
“Many isolation and quarantine guests tell us they use these substances daily,” says Lane, “and this period in our care has allowed some people to connect for the first time with addiction treatment and harm reduction therapy.”
Notice the word “guests.” As if San Francisco—or any city—should welcome hordes of drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally ill and outright bums as assets to its community.
“Harm reduction” therapy, according to the Harm Reduction Coalition, is “a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use.”
DPH said in a statement that these “guests” are screened for substance addictions and asked if they’d like to stop or have support to reduce their use.
If they say they want to remain alcoholics and/or drug addicts, they’re provided with their substance of choice.
The department also provides methadone for “guests” who are addicted to opioids.
DPH staffers have helped people buy “medical marijuana,” the agency told local affiliate ABC7.
But the agency doesn’t “facilitate purchases of recreational cannabis,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s website, SFGate.
Nor does the agency require that its addict “guests” remain quarantined. It merely asks that they do so.
When they’re not injecting, swallowing or sniffing drugs, many of San Francisco’s “guests” spend a lot of their time ripping off retail stores.
Walgreens drug stores have proven a particular target for these DDMBs.
As a result, Walgreens has closed 17 stores in San Francisco.
“I feel sorry for the clerks, they are regularly being verbally assaulted,” a regular customer, Sebastian Luke, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
“The clerks say there is nothing they can do. They say Walgreens’ policy is to not get involved. They don’t want anyone getting injured or getting sued, so the guys just keep coming in and taking whatever they want.”
“Why are the shelves empty?” a customer asked a clerk at a Walgreens store.
“Go ask the people in the alleys, they have it all,” replied the clerk.
One store in the San Francisco area reportedly lost $1,000 a day to theft.
CVS Pharmacy has instructed its employees to not intervene because the thieves so often attack them.
Many shoplifters then sell their stolen goods on the street—often near the store where they stole them.
Under California law, theft under $950 is considered a misdemeanor, but many prosecutors prefer to free those charged rather than holding them in jail.
The maximum sentence they could get: Six months.
Like this:
Like Loading...
ABC NEWS, ALCOHOLISM, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BUMS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, CVS, DAILY KOZ, DRUDGE RETORT, DRUG ADDICTION, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HEAPTITUS C, HEPATITIS B, HILLARY RONEN, HIV, HOMELESSNESS, HUMAN FECES, INFECTIOUS DISEASES, LONDON BREED, MEDIA MATTERS, MENTAL ILLNESS, MOHAMMED NURU, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAVIGATION CENTERS, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, ORACLE, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PUBLIC HEALTH, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SAN FRANCISCO, SAN FRANCISCO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR'S OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TOURISM, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WALGREENS, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on April 21, 2021 at 12:28 am
Thanks to its mild climate and social programs that dole out cash payments to virtually anyone with no residency requirement, San Francisco is often considered the homeless capital of the United States.
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 vast majority of them fall into four groups:
- Druggies
- Drunks
- Mentally ill
- Bums.
Or, to put it more discretely: DDMBs.
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 is: They don’t allow their guests to drink up or drug up.
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.
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.
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.
Reporters found trash littered across every block. Forty-one blocks were covered with needles and 96 blocks were contaminated with piles of human feces.
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. If you step on one of these needles, you can get HIV, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B or a variety of other viral diseases.
And once fecal matter dries, it can become airborne and release deadly viruses, such as the rotavirus.
In a 2018 news story on NBC’s San Francisco affiliate, KNTV, Mohammed Nuru, the director of the Public Works Department, said: “Yes, we can clean, and then go back a few hours later, and it looks as if it was never cleaned. So is that how you want to spend your money?”
Another danger posed by DDMBs: Their rampant shoplifting has led to the closing of many Walgreens drug stores in San Francisco.
Low-income and disabled seniors who depend on these stores for prescriptions are especially at risk.
Walgreens spokeswoman Alexandra Brown claimed that the closures were part of a “transformational cost management program.”
Apparently, even the chief victim of these thefts refuses to publicly blame the “homeless.”
An employee at the closing Walgreens store at 730 Market Street said the store couldn’t cope with losing $1,000 a day due to shoplifting.
Walgreens is not the only drug store to be victimized by DDMBs. A CVS location a few blocks away, at 995 Market Street, also closed due to shoplifting.
The latest wrinkle in San Francisco’s “be kind to Untermenschen” campaign is the creation of “Navigation Centers.” These will supposedly warehouse DDMBs temporarily until they can be “navigated” to permanent housing.
But housing is in short supply in San Francisco, and there is no telling how long how many of these drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally disabled and bums will stay in them. Or what harm they will wreak on the neighborhoods warehousing them.
Hundreds—if not thousands—of them are heroin addicts. Such people will commit virtually any crime to support their habit. And their crimes of choice are burglary and robbery.
Thus, pouring large numbers of them into San Francisco neighborhoods via “Navigation Centers”—essentially holding pens for DDMBs—guarantees that countless decent citizens will become targets for desperate criminals.
Navigation Centers boast that they ban drug-abuse or drug-dealing on their own premises. But they allow DDMBs to come and go at will. Which means they are free to engage in drug-abuse and/or drug-dealing in the neighborhoods where these centers exist.
Most politicians set their priorities on how popular their programs will be among voters. But San Francisco’s reject practicality for allegiance to Uber liberal ideology.
Drug addicts, alcoholics, the mentally ill and those who refuse to work are not reliable voters. Those who are productive, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens do vote.
And many of these people have voted—to not visit San Francisco again.
Hosting conventions is a lucrative business for San Francisco, bringing in about $2 billion each year. But in 2018, a Chicago-based medical association boasting roughly 15,000 conference attendees canceled its planned visit.
And in 2019, Oracle’s OpenWorld voted to cancel its planned convention in San Francisco and be centered from 2020 to 2022 at Caesar’s Forum in Las Vegas. The San Francisco Travel Association estimates that the move will cost the city $64 million in lost revenue.
The reason for both cancellations: San Francisco’s fervent embrace of DDMBs—and the refusal of attendees to wade through piles of trash, used hypodermic needles, beer bottles, human feces and huge tents on sidewalks.
For a city whose lifeblood is tourism, its fervent embrace of DDMBs threatens to become a fatal one.
Like this:
Like Loading...
ABC NEWS, ALCOHOLISM, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BUMS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, CVS, DAILY KOZ, DRUDGE RETORT, DRUG ADDICTION, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HEAPTITUS C, HEPATITIS B, HILLARY RONEN, HIV, HOMELESSNESS, HUMAN FECES, INFECTIOUS DISEASES, LONDON BREED, MEDIA MATTERS, MENTAL ILLNESS, MOHAMMED NURU, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAVIGATION CENTERS, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, ORACLE, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PUBLIC HEALTH, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SAN FRANCISCO, SAN FRANCISCO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR'S OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TOURISM, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WALGREENS, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on April 20, 2021 at 12:30 am
Why are Walgreen stores disappearing from San Francisco?
The answer can be summed up in four letters: DDMBs—Druggies, Drunks, Mentals and Bums.
These are the untouchables of San Francisco. If you doubt it, consider the following:
If you are a firefighter, police officer, paramedic or schoolteacher, and want to live in San Francisco, forget it.
According to Rent Cafe, which provides apartment listings directly from top property managers: “The average rent for an apartment in San Francisco is $2,879.” And “the average size for a San Francisco apartment is 739 square feet.”
So unless you’re a hugely successful IT professional—or narcotics dealer—your chances of being able to afford a San Francisco apartment are lower than Donald Trump’s of winning a “Mr. Congeniality” contest.
But there’s hope for you yet—if you’re a Druggie, Drunk, Mental or Bum.
Why?
Because the Mayor of San Francisco—currently London Breed—and Board of Supervisors have deliberately created an Untermenschen-friendly program that actually encourages such people to move to the city.
Run by the city’s Department of Public Health (DPH) it’s called the COVID-19 Alternative Housing Program. And it works in two stages:
Stage 1: Move the “homeless” into the city’s hotels—at city expense.
Stage 2: Provide them with not only free food and shelter but free alcohol, cannabis, and cigarettes.
According to a May 11, 2020 story in City Journal.org:
“The program’s primary purpose is to keep homeless people, the majority of whom are addicts, out of harm’s way during the pandemic. By getting their substance of choice delivered, the thinking goes, the guests may be more apt to remain in their government-funded rooms.
“Another purpose of the program is to protect the public against the spread of coronavirus. The city doesn’t want homeless people who should be staying in their rooms roaming the neighborhood in search of the substances, potentially infecting others.”
After news about these deliveries leaked on social media, DPH claimed that “rumors that guests of San Francisco’s alternative housing program are receiving taxpayer-funded deliveries of alcohol, cannabis and tobacco are false.”
Except that the reports weren’t false.
The program is funded by private philanthropists Nevertheless:
- DPH administers and oversees the program.
- It’s staffed by city workers, including doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, social workers, and security personnel.
- The department manages, stores, and distributes the substances.
- Employee time is involved.
Thus, the program is financed by taxpayers, even if an outside group provides some of the funding.
“Managed alcohol and tobacco use makes it possible to increase the number of guests who stay in isolation and quarantine and, notably, protects the health of people who might otherwise need hospital care for life-threatening alcohol withdrawal,” says DPH spokeswoman Jenna Lane.
“Many isolation and quarantine guests tell us they use these substances daily,” says Lane, “and this period in our care has allowed some people to connect for the first time with addiction treatment and harm reduction therapy.”
Notice the word “guests.” As if San Francisco—or any city—should welcome hordes of drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally ill and outright bums as assets to its community.
“Harm reduction” therapy, according to the Harm Reduction Coalition, is “a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use.”
DPH said in a statement that these “guests” are screened for substance addictions and asked if they’d like to stop or have support to reduce their use.
If they say they want to remain alcoholics and/or drug addicts, they’re provided with their substance of choice.
The department also provides methadone for “guests” who are addicted to opioids.
DPH staffers have helped people buy “medical marijuana,” the agency told local affiliate ABC7.
But the agency doesn’t “facilitate purchases of recreational cannabis,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s website, SFGate.
Nor does the agency require that its addict “guests” remain quarantined. It merely asks that they do so.
When they’re not injecting, swallowing or sniffing drugs, many of San Francisco’s “guests” spend a lot of their time ripping off retail stores.
Walgreens drug stores have proven a particular target for these DDMBs.
On March 17, Walgreens closed its 10th store in the San Francisco area.
The reason: Rampant shoplifting, courtesy of DDMBs.
“I feel sorry for the clerks, they are regularly being verbally assaulted,” a regular customer, Sebastian Luke, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “The clerks say there is nothing they can do. They say Walgreens’ policy is to not get involved. They don’t want anyone getting injured or getting sued, so the guys just keep coming in and taking whatever they want.”
“Why are the shelves empty?” a customer asked a clerk at a Walgreens store.
“Go ask the people in the alleys, they have it all,” replied the clerk.
One store in the San Francisco area reportedly lost $1,000 a day to theft.
Under California law, theft under $950 is considered a misdemeanor, but many prosecutors prefer to free those charged rather than holding them in jail.
The maximum sentence they could get: Six months.
Like this:
Like Loading...
ABC NEWS, ALCOHOLISM, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT (BART) SYSTEM, BUMS, BURGER KING, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHRISTIAN TONG, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DDMBS (DRUGGIES DRUNKS MENTALS AND BUMS), DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS, DRUDGE RETORT, DRUG ADDICTION, DRUGGIES DRUNKS MENTALS AND BUMS (DDMBS), FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HOMELESS, INTREDPID URBAN ADVENTURES IN SAN FRANCISCO, LONDON BREED, MCCONALD’S, MEDIA MATTERS, MENTALLY ILL, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAVIGATION CENTERS, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, PIGEON-FEEDING, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SAN FRANCISCO, SAN FRANCISCO BOARD OF SUEPRVISORS, SAN FRANCISCO DEPARTMENT OF HOMELESSNESS AND SUPPORTIVE HOUSING, SAN FRANCISCO TRAVEL ASSOCIATION, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TOURISM, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on January 13, 2020 at 12:08 am
The San Francisco Travel Association reported a total of 25.8 million visitors to the city in 2018, up 1.2% over 25.5 million in 2017.
Total spending by visitors was $10 billion, up 2.3% over $9.8 billion in 2017 (including spending on meetings and conventions) and creating 82,538 jobs.
In 2012, the association conducted a survey among San Francisco residents, who named tourism the city’s most important industry.
The study found that 98% of San Franciscan respondents agreed that “tourism is very important or important to the vitality of the city’s economy.” Additionally, when directly asked if they believe tourism is “the city’s most important industry,” almost 70% agreed or strongly agreed.
Downtown San Francisco
Christian Mehlführer, User:Chmehl [CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)%5D
Yet San Francisco’s political establishment seems determined to destroy its main source of city revenues.
They do so by catering to a population euphemistically called “the homeless,” but which is more accurately described as DDMBs: Druggies, Drunks, Mentals and Bums.
Their 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.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Bureaucracybuster's Blog 
ABC NEWS, ALCOHOLISM, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BERNADINE DOHRN, BILL AYERS, BUMS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHESA BOUDIN, CNN, CRIME, CROOKS AND LIARS, CVS, CVS PHARMACY, DAILY KOZ, DRUG ADDICTION, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HEAPTITUS C, HEPATITIS B, HILLARY RONEN, HIV, HOMELESSNESS, HUMAN FECES, INFECTIOUS DISEASES, LONDON BREED, MEDIA MATTERS, MENTAL ILLNESS, MOHAMMED NURU, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAVIGATION CENTERS, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, ORACLE, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PUBLIC HEALTH, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SAN FRANCISCO, SAN FRANCISCO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, SAN FRANCISCO DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR'S OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO POLICE DEPARTMENT, SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT, SAN FRANCISCO TRAVEL ASSOCIATION, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TOURISM, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WALGREENS, WALGREENS DRUG STORES, WEATHER UNDERGROUND
BUMS APPEAR AS DRUGSTORES DISAPPEAR: PART TWO (END)
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on September 20, 2022 at 12:17 amCurrent 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 vast majority of them fall into four groups:
Or, to put it more discretely: DDMBs.
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 is: They don’t allow their guests to drink up or drug up.
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.
The city spent 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.
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.
Another danger posed by DDMBs: Their rampant shoplifting has led to the closing of many Walgreens drug stores in San Francisco.
The Walgreens at 30th Street and Mission Street reported 16 shoplifting incidents between November 2020 and February 2021. Just six blocks away, Walgreens’ products were being sold at an outdoor market.
And there’s no point in expecting help from the police or 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.
From 2019 until June 7, 2022, District Attorney Chesa Boudin refused to hold such criminals accountable. Instead, he blamed “society” for the crimes they had committed.
Elected in 2019, Boudin is 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.
On June 7, San Francisco voters, furious about crime, recalled Boudin.
Low-income and disabled seniors who depend on these disappearing drug stores for prescriptions are especially at risk.
Walgreens is not the only pharmacy to be victimized by DDMBs. A CVS location a few blocks away, at 995 Market Street, also closed due to shoplifting.
The latest wrinkle in San Francisco’s “be kind to Untermenschen” campaign is the creation of “Navigation Centers.” These are essentially holding pens for DDMBs until they can be “navigated” to permanent housing.
But housing is in short supply in San Francisco, and there is no telling how long many of these drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally disabled and bums will stay in them. Or what harm they will wreak on the neighborhoods warehousing them.
Hundreds—if not thousands—of them are heroin addicts. Such people will commit virtually any crime to support their habit. And their crimes of choice are burglary and robbery.
Thus, pouring large numbers of them into San Francisco neighborhoods via “Navigation Centers” guarantees that countless decent citizens will become targets for desperate criminals.
Navigation Centers boast that they ban drug-abuse or drug-dealing on their own premises. But they allow DDMBs to come and go at will. Which means they are free to engage in drug-abuse and/or drug-dealing in the neighborhoods where these centers exist.
Most politicians set their priorities on how popular their programs will be among voters. But San Francisco’s politicians reject practicality for allegiance to Uber liberal ideology.
Drug addicts, alcoholics, the mentally ill and those who refuse to work are not reliable voters. Those who are productive, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens do vote.
And many of these people have voted—to not visit San Francisco again.
Hosting conventions is a lucrative business for San Francisco, bringing in about $2 billion each year. In 2019, the city hosted 40 large-scale conventions at the Moscone Center. This year, the number may reach 20.
“One of the things [international clients] are looking at is the conditions on the streets,” said Joe D’Alessandro, the president and CEO of SF Travel. “We need to be able to walk down the streets and not feel harassed.”
A quarter of all tourists visiting San Francisco in 2019 were international travelers—and comprised 63% of all tourism spending.
“Our numbers will not be what they were in 2019 until we see those markets return,” said D’Alessandro.
San Francisco’s embrace of DDMBs threatens not only its residents but the tourism industry on which it depends for its economic survival.
Share this:
Like this: