C.W. Nevius:
San Franciscans still love their city, but they seem to be getting crankier than ever about its ills.
The sun is out and the spring air is crisp, yet it seems the people of San Francisco have never been crankier. Frankly, they have their reasons. The city seems dirtier, more crime-ridden and less functional than ever.
The calls and emails flood in, and they’re not just angry. People love this place, and when they see it in its current state, they’re more frustrated than exasperated. Put simply, we expect better of a worldclass city. For example: Smash and grab: Several readers sent over a New York Times story that says San Francisco “has the highest per-capita property crime rate of the nation’s top 50 cities. About half of the cases here are thefts from vehicles, smash-and-grabs that scatter glittering broken glass onto the sidewalks.”
Taking a report from the Central Police Station as an
example, in six days from April 13 to 18, there were 22 “theft from locked vehicle” reports. Over at Park Station, there were “only” 13 smash-andgrabs in four days — and for one of the crime victims, “This is the third time in the last three weeks that their vehicle has been broken into.”
A look at the FBI numbers shows how far off the charts San Francisco is. San Diego, with a population of 1,368,690, had 13,759 property crimes in 2014 and 13,776 in 2015. San Francisco, population 850,294, had 21,330 in 2014 and 27,001 in 2015 by comparison. Tent cities: Reader Ian Birchall, who has been actively trying to clean up the area near his office, writes that although the campers have been removed from Division, “It seems the city ... does not care one iota about the 20+ camps less than a block away.” Birchall even included photos.
Trent Rhorer, executive director of the Human Services Agency, says the street campgrounds are a new issue.
“A year ago, we didn’t have the tents on the street,” Rhorer said. “Tents allow people to stay in one place longer — to the person’s detriment.”
At least some of the tents are being provided by misguided do-gooders like local resident Shaun Osburn, whose Tents for San Francisco Go Fund Me account continues to raise money to buy tents and hand them out. Forgive the neighbors impacted by the tent cities if they don’t thank Osburn for his efforts.
And things don’t look like they’ll improve soon. Rhorer says the Pier 80 shelter, housing 180 people, will be closing this summer. The structure belongs to the Port of San Francisco, which has rented the space. Rhorer says the new Navigation Center near the Civic Center should open in six to eight weeks.
But, as he says, “We don’t have places for all 3,000 people on the street.” The Fellini Express: That’s what one reader calls one of those Muni rides when the bizarre behavior of some of the passengers seems right out of a Federico Fellini film.
Reader Jane Weil had a memorable experience riding the 14-Mission back from a movie Friday night.
“Coming back at 11:30, the bus was like a rolling asylum,” she said.
There was “a shaking man, swigging from a whiskey bottle ... a wildeyed guy, asking everyone for a dollar because he needed a beer ... but the worst was a young man, leaning against the rail, bloody injection site still visible, who began to pass out and drool and fall over onto my husband.”
In a separate email, she added: “In case anyone labels me as a ‘hater’ or unsympathetic, I had a brother who died from his addictions and actually lived on the street for a brief time, and our family did all it could to help him. … It breaks my heart to watch the suffering on our streets every day.” Judging judges: From the Richmond Police Station, Capt. Paul Yep tells the story of officers who arrested a subject for eight auto burglaries in the city. They obtained a search warrant and were able to find both evidence and stolen property.
Kristen “Jason” Bell, 31, was charged with nine counts of auto burglary, four counts of possession of stolen property and five counts of burglary tools. He was arraigned and bail was set at $360,000, although the assistant D.A. strenuously argued that Bell should be kept in custody in the interest of public safety. Instead, Judge Ross Moody released him with conditions. Sigh. Park problems: Adam Mesnick, the owner of the popular craft sandwich shop Deli Board on Folsom, has been complaining about the drug use and drinking at Victoria Manalo Draves Park, across the street, for years.
“It is obvious that people find this a cool place to chill, shoot up in the bathroom, or hang out and drink beer, and nobody is going to bother you,” Mesnick said.
Mesnick notes that it isn’t just his business that’s affected, Bessie Carmichael Elementary School is next door to the park. So Wednesday, when a man was stabbed in the chest at Manalo Draves Park, Mesnick was upset but not surprised.
“It is baffling that there is not a security guard there,” he said. “It’s cleaning up garbage. It’s people being exposed to drugs. Shame on the city.”