San Francisco was not always overrun with homeless. Back around 2006, I visited downtown San Francisco and it was a different world. There were some homeless, but nothing like today. The stores were filled with tourists packed wall to wall. You felt safe and there were no drug dealers seen in the touristy downtown area.
Drug dealing back then was not tolerated. Homeless encampments were also not tolerated. If homeless people were causing a disruption, the police would clear them out.
Business was booming and stores were busy. There were tourists everywhere and the business scene in the city was doing pretty good.
Today, the police are understaffed and they cannot respond to every call. Homeless people deal drugs out in the open and mentally ill people poop on the street.
Things were kept under control before. What happened?
Whole Foods San Francisco Flagship Is Closing
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storewanderer
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Re: Whole Foods San Francisco Flagship Is Closing
Costs get out of control, some people who were living in very bad condition type buildings before, the buildings have been closed/condemned or they have been priced out of such buildings so many end up homeless. Many also seem to think they want to be homeless so they can do whatever they want when they want with no liabilities and nobody to answer to (no boss, no landlord, etc.). Along with a multitude of other reasons.
Why San Francisco has this problem- look at the climate. Look at the public transit. Also they have programs spending so much money trying to help the homeless, it is like a homeless industrial complex (like the military industrial complex), if you solve homelessness all those jobs go away... But if you go walk around a large portion, the majority actually, of the city, you do not see homeless people anywhere, you do not see trash anywhere. It is as nice and clean as can be. The homeless seems to continue to expand their territory outside of that Union Square area/Tenderloin area though and eventually they will work their way up more of the hills into the currently still clean areas- or will they- I suspect the police, etc. are protecting those nicer neighborhoods.
Why San Francisco has this problem- look at the climate. Look at the public transit. Also they have programs spending so much money trying to help the homeless, it is like a homeless industrial complex (like the military industrial complex), if you solve homelessness all those jobs go away... But if you go walk around a large portion, the majority actually, of the city, you do not see homeless people anywhere, you do not see trash anywhere. It is as nice and clean as can be. The homeless seems to continue to expand their territory outside of that Union Square area/Tenderloin area though and eventually they will work their way up more of the hills into the currently still clean areas- or will they- I suspect the police, etc. are protecting those nicer neighborhoods.
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storewanderer
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Re: Whole Foods San Francisco Flagship Is Closing
Realistically you could say it about many things. Think about it. More and more public and private funding to build programs to address the issue yet it keeps getting worse and worse despite increased spending. Not unlike a lot of other unrelated things. But that is enough of that topic here.
The issue is back to the closed store that may or may not reopen.
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storewanderer
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Re: Whole Foods San Francisco Flagship Is Closing
More news on this closure:
Initial article.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/30/us/s ... onomy.html
This article paywalls depending who/when it is accessed.
The below article with no paywall cites the above NY Times Article somewhat selectively.
https://nypost.com/2023/05/01/san-franc ... ng-report/
Some quotes from the article:
"more than 250 baskets were stolen before the store stocked another 50 that also went missing"
Gee, so much for giving people baskets who are trying to shop into reusable bags. As I said before, the baskets keep getting stolen...
"Records of 568 emergency calls to the Market Street store over 13 months showed chaotic incidents, including vagrants throwing food, yelling, engaging in fights and attempting to defecate on the floor, according to the New York Times."
Sickening.
"One man reportedly overdosed from fentanyl and methamphetamine in the bathroom in September, according to the Times."
Where are the social workers who are supposed to be helping these types of situations? The city has them, where are they? Working from home hundreds of miles from San Francisco?
"At least 14 people were arrested during the 13 months the Whole Foods in the downtown was open, which included serious charges of grand theft and battery, according to the outlet."
14 arrests out of 568 calls? That seems like an awfully low arrest rate unless there were many bogus calls. I wonder how many of the 568 calls were actually responded to?
"The San Francisco Police Department has hemorrhaged more than 330 officers since 2017 and its staffing level of about 1,500 officers falls short of its goal of 2,100 officers."
No comment.
Initial article.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/30/us/s ... onomy.html
This article paywalls depending who/when it is accessed.
The below article with no paywall cites the above NY Times Article somewhat selectively.
https://nypost.com/2023/05/01/san-franc ... ng-report/
Some quotes from the article:
"more than 250 baskets were stolen before the store stocked another 50 that also went missing"
Gee, so much for giving people baskets who are trying to shop into reusable bags. As I said before, the baskets keep getting stolen...
"Records of 568 emergency calls to the Market Street store over 13 months showed chaotic incidents, including vagrants throwing food, yelling, engaging in fights and attempting to defecate on the floor, according to the New York Times."
Sickening.
"One man reportedly overdosed from fentanyl and methamphetamine in the bathroom in September, according to the Times."
Where are the social workers who are supposed to be helping these types of situations? The city has them, where are they? Working from home hundreds of miles from San Francisco?
"At least 14 people were arrested during the 13 months the Whole Foods in the downtown was open, which included serious charges of grand theft and battery, according to the outlet."
14 arrests out of 568 calls? That seems like an awfully low arrest rate unless there were many bogus calls. I wonder how many of the 568 calls were actually responded to?
"The San Francisco Police Department has hemorrhaged more than 330 officers since 2017 and its staffing level of about 1,500 officers falls short of its goal of 2,100 officers."
No comment.
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Alpha8472
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Re: Whole Foods San Francisco Flagship Is Closing
San Francisco Bay Area Walmart stores also have a problem with stolen hand baskets and shopping carts.
Homeless people tend to steal the shopping carts, while the hand baskets can be accidentally taken home by paying customers and the homeless.
Would the crime problem be cured if the Police Department was fully staffed?
Homeless people tend to steal the shopping carts, while the hand baskets can be accidentally taken home by paying customers and the homeless.
Would the crime problem be cured if the Police Department was fully staffed?
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storewanderer
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Re: Whole Foods San Francisco Flagship Is Closing
I am not convinced the crime problems would be cured if the SFPD was fully staffed. I think it may be better, but there are a lot of variables. How productive are the officers? How are they allocated in terms of scheduling etc.? We don't know just how backlogged the department is.Alpha8472 wrote: ↑May 3rd, 2023, 3:56 pm San Francisco Bay Area Walmart stores also have a problem with stolen hand baskets and shopping carts.
Homeless people tend to steal the shopping carts, while the hand baskets can be accidentally taken home by paying customers and the homeless.
Would the crime problem be cured if the Police Department was fully staffed?
I also have no idea how they will recruit officers. The obvious answer is money, but living costs are so high there... and since it is Union scale and a government entity (where budgets have to be done/approved well in advance), they can't just arbitrarily increase wages today, it is a long process involving many parties to do a wage increase.