Four Things Dems Must Do to Save SF and Improve ’24 Election Chances
These problems are certainly not confined to San Francisco, but since the issues are well-known Nationally and (SF is in the right-wing crosshairs), they must be fixed. Count me as one of those who once loved this City and then watched in dismay as its tolerance veered too far leftward. Aside from the liberal Court system (which is a kind of wild card), these problems seem also a relatively easy fix. So here goes…Homelessness, Drug-dealing/Petty Crime, Education, and whacko Trans…
As a kid, we would drive the approximate 100 miles from my dreary rural hometown to the magical Emerald City of San Francisco. There, beyond the foggy mists, awaited Mays, McCovey, Chamberlain, Broadway plays, fancy restaurants with people that wore ties, cable cars, the smell of cooking crab, beatniks, strippers, and later Golden Gate Park hippiedom. When I was 5, I won the Chronicle “Junior Art Champion” contest, and got a storybook key to the SF Zoo, which seemed just a half step from a real African jungle or savannah. Relatives from NY State (and there were many, as Dad had perfected the one-day San Francisco tour) would rave about how “polite” SF drivers were…”they actually wait to let you cross the street!” No one epitomized SF better than late columnist Herb Caen, who described late 50s San Francisco as a big small-town. The 1958 Hitchcock movie “Vertigo” was a perfect love-letter to the town we all worshipped. Later, I lived in the City during post-hippiedom (around the “Tales of the City” era). The Harvey Milk gay-culture had taken hold, but didn’t seem overly threatening. After all, San Francisco took pride in its tolerance, which seemed to create a great education and business environment (along with the usual tourist-attracting curiosities).
But something went wrong. I am not alone in watching the demise of this once-great city. As Dave Chappelle recently said “San Francisco has become a cross between ‘Glee’ and a Zombie movie”. The seeds were sown somewhere in a few “Dirty Harry” movies, with ever-weird people moving in (fake Hippies that lost the idealism and just wanted the free-love and drugs, grafted onto overzealous gay men with public-health denial, melded with the Schizo “thinks he’s Jesus or Hitler” guy at the old Greyhound Station?). Next, an overly officious police force, and extremely permissive court system finished the job. Everyone welcomed more minority involvement in City politics, but then it seemed these minorities couldn’t get along with each other and began infighting. Since there were essentially no more Republicans left in town after the 60s, everything became a referendum between “left” and “far left” (and I began to miss the Republicans, as any of them brave enough to stick around suddenly seemed like pillars of sensibility). Low and behold, some of these emergent problems weren’t really that hard to solve, mostly born from a “suburban leadership flight” issue (many potential leaders, minority, white, and Gay/Lesbian had moved to the suburbs, tired of getting their cars broken into or stepping in dog shit). Ok, now after that backdrop, let’s take on these problems one by one:
1) The Homeless: San Francisco, like other West Coast cities, is a desirable place for the homeless, due to great weather and liberal policies. The SF and LA mayors have been trying to build homeless shelters (actually treatment centers, as many homeless are mentally ill or drug addicted), but bureaucratic red-tape has caused delays and price hikes. Actually, at this point I should say also that there’s a few constituencies (Coalition on Homelessness and Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights Under Law) that are fighting homeless relocations on the grounds that it violates homeless rights. Some studies believe that up to 80% of the non-vehicle-bound (“street”) homeless are mentally ill or drug-addicted (40% of homeless live in vehicles, 60% live on streets with 50% overall mentally-ill/drug addicted, assuming those in vehicles are lucid, the street homeless math = 80%). The Homeless advocacies counter-argue that the mental-illness/addiction number is closer to 30%, and that the homeless are victims of high home prices, and an unjust society where the “haves” victimize the “have nots” (the basic Socialist premise, which is popular in SF). Nevertheless, on the eve of homeless “sweeps” demanded by businesses and citizen groups (who have watched crime and drug-dealing skyrocket while stepping around homeless poop), the courts decided that relocations could only take place if homeless shelters were in place. Since only about half the homeless population had shelters built and ready, this meant that many homeless were able to remain on the street. Meanwhile, many homeless resist shelters as they cannot bring their pets and significant others, while losing many of their other “freedoms” (like being able to commit petty crimes and be annoying, all apparently under the SFPD radar). Fair enough though, now the City is busy building the remaining homeless shelters, under considerable pressure from many angles. This will cost San Francisco a great deal of money ($1.4 Billion by one estimate), as these people require treatment and significant staffing (they may even need to be staffed like prisons and hospitals), but apparently the City has the tax base to pay for it, and recovery of the Market Street business community may help bring San Francisco to its former fiscal glory. What doesn’t seem fair is that other States may be “dumping” homeless onto West Coast cities (similar to Florida and Texas giving illegals one way Blue State bus tickets…hey! maybe we can ship our ultra Liberals to FL and TX?). A National policy on homelessness may eventually be in order (as people are becoming increasingly drug-addicted/ mentally ill with less societal and family safety nets), but there’s no time for that.
Solutions: Build more homeless shelters, and fast. Allow shelters to accept pets and partners, but require treatment of homeless with criminal charges or relocation as alternatives. Restrict in and out privileges.(Johnson,2023),(Kupfer,2022),(unitedtoendhomelessness.org,nd),(Streeter,2022),(Dourif,2022),(Schmid,2021),(theguardian.com,2017)
2) Drug-dealing and Petty Crime: Next on the list would be open-air drug-dealing and petty crime (related to homelessness, as this provides both a source and a market). Fentanyl is readily available on Market Street, and Gov. Newsom recently called in the California Highway Patrol (who ordinarily police the State Highways) to crack down, resulting in several arrests. The Chronicle recently ran a series about how Honduran immigrants had been running the fentanyl trade (Mayor Breed announced one year prior that drug-dealing was suspected to be a Honduran operation, and got shouted down for racial stereotyping). As such, it appears that San Francisco’s “Sanctuary City” status may indeed be getting it into trouble, as it provides a shelter for Latin Americans hiding from Federal Immigration (and Crime) Authorities. Several Market Street businesses have left (Whole Foods, Old Navy, Nordstroms, Office Depot, etc) as customers have been driven away by lawlessness and sloth, while they cannot cover shoplifting losses (and SFPD is often nowhere to be found). Recently “smash and grab” crimes have become common (allegedly because California “decriminalized” lesser thefts to relieve prison crowding, $950 is now the Grand Theft/felony threshold, and smart criminals can get off light if they steal less than that). In “smash and grab”, gangs of up to 50 people arrive in a convoy and work in teams to steal high value items (like jewelry and pricey clothing), knowing that if caught, their individual portion of the theft will be less than $950. Recently, a homeless woman shoplifted in Whole Foods, and when caught broke a bottle and threatened staff members. The Hallinan Law Firm (run by ousted former far-left DA Terrence Hallinan), said “this is really a poverty issue”, and it appears the perp will get off easy (Yikes, back to the Rose Bird courts and “twinkie defense” of the 70s and 80s here?) I guess by extension, she had no choice but to threaten the staff with a broken bottle also, but in any case she’ll likely get off with a misdemeanor. Meanwhile, catalytic converters are being stolen, rear windows smashed to grab purses and laptops right and left. This system of “Restorative Justice” (invest in more education than prison sentences) favored by many far-left attorneys (like recalled SF District Attorney Chesa Boudin), has victim’s rights groups angry, and is seemingly complicit in this crime upsurge. Governor Newsom may need to bring in the National Guard If he really wants to solve this thing and perhaps run for President.
Solution: It will take time, but change the silly Grand Theft threshold, and appoint more sensible judges (sheesh, where did they find these people, Cuba?) I hate to say it, but get rid of “Sanctuary Cities” and deport these Central American idiots, hiding here under the guise of “political asylum” and making millions selling fentanyl. I’m not kidding about the National Guard, bring them in for crime “sweeps” (and soon). Bring in more cameras and install checkpoints for “smash and grab” rings (who are from outside the City). Actually, the “Restorative Justice” concept is really what’s on trial here (and deserves its own article), but I suspect we may need to fall back to a system of more prisons and mental hospitals (essentially what homeless shelters are becoming), in addition to societal preventatives (which may be more drugs to help keep people off drugs?). The high-cost of housing is often blamed for these problems, as though instead of moving to Idaho (or even Fresno), Joe homeless is allowed to steal booze or shoot-up in the Tenderloin, then set up his tent and latrine in front of Saks Fifth Avenue. Those “cruel” vagrancy laws are starting to look pretty good all of a sudden! (Cassidy,Leary,2023),(valerynechaylaw.com,nd),(Eden,2019),(sanfranciscopolice.org,2022),(Ting,2022)
3) Education: Recently, the San Francisco school board made National news of the wrong sort when they decided to rename several schools, including ones carrying the names of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and even Dianne Feinstein (remember, she’s just “left”, and by some strange contrast, the “far left” thinks she’s a right-wing oppressor). The Board consisted of one Black woman, one Latina, a Pacific Islander, and several other ethnicities that were made to look extremely diverse, ethnic, not-necessarily cis (a big deal in SF), and non-sexist. At this point, I should say that the Asian-Americans (of mostly Chinese descent) and Jews dominate the educational meritocracy of the City, and when the others gained power it was revenge time. But here, Japanese-American Chronicle historian (Gary Kamiya) railed against this decision, saying it “will provide valuable ammunition to Fox News” and did not consider the context of the historic times. But sadly, this Board was not done, and next changed admission standards for the leading high school (Lowell High School, filled with Chinese-Americans and Jews), so that it was now a meritocracy/lottery (ie meet basic standards and then hope Black, Hispanic, Islander kids get in there by the luck of the draw). They also changed Math so that everyone had to wait until Freshman year to take Algebra (a kind of one-hand-tied-behind-back for Chinese Americans and Jews, causing them to seek private math advancement). Everything blew up under the pressure of National news media, the finding that the Black woman heading the board had previously written racist comments about Asians, a few lawsuits, and finally a successful recall.
Solutions: I suppose that if you lean on the Chinese Americans and Jews too much, they’ll just bail on the Public School system and go private, while overall public school performance declines further. Why not just let Lowell be Lowell and make the non-Lowell schools better? (Hint: Because this violates the far-left principle of punishing the haves instead of helping the have-nots). Remember that as bad as our Country and its white overlords may have been, they at least brought us Democracy and Capitalism and by-and-large won WW II, so that SF doesn’t now have to speak Japanese (so lay off the school renaming, unless its some disgusting racist Confederate General). Learn that no ethnicity is free from prejudice, and know the basic law of the jungle, “everyone secretly hates everyone”. Obviously, Education is a vast subject and I don’t mean to be flippant, but why not also stick to simple fact-based education (with early-intervention for troubled kids), and leave the editorializing (free-will reading lists with critique), for late high school and college? Name the new school after Harriet Tubman, but keep the Thomas Jefferson one…he was the Declaration of Independence author and 3rd President…tough shit. (Kamiya,2021),(Stinson,2021),(Camp,2022),(Kamiya,2022)
4) Weird and Militant LGB and Mostly T: This partially seems to be taking care of itself, as militant trans people have become so annoying that traditional gays, lesbians, and feminists are taking trans out to the back shed for a whippin’. “Pride Day” has become “Pride Month” (and soon “Pride Year”?), becoming a bacchanal where people stopped campaigning for Civil Rights, free will, and dignity long ago. Now the SF Pride advocacy mostly asserts their right to run around naked and scare children, while Trans has reached a whole new level of illogic and disgust. Trans women are the would-be selfish interlopers, who want to crash women’s sports, bathrooms, and prisons, plus even blur the line between genetic males and females. The trans advocacy wants to let teenagers decide their “preference” and “sexual identity” (without their parent’s knowledge or consent), resulting in surgeries to fit these preferences (often a plus or minus boob-job). As Bill Maher said “at 8 years old I wanted to be a pirate. If these laws were in place then, I would’ve grown up with an eye-patch and peg-leg”.
Solution: Don’t allow trans women in women’s sports or women’s bathrooms. Have an “open” sports category for trans athletes. Don’t allow any surgeries or hormones relating to sexual identities until the age of consent (currently 18 in California). Make “Pride Month” into at most “Pride Week”…enough already, Harvey Milk is blushing in his grave. (Compton,2019),(McCaughey,2023),(Johnston,2015),(Haring,2022)
Conclusions: These things need to be done quickly, as they are giving Democrats a black eye, and Fox News/MAGA Republicans plenty of ammo. And you-know-who is waiting in the wings to make us a dictatorship (and probably “ban” San Francisco and/or put everyone in an Alaskan gulag). MAGA looks silly or is outvoted on almost every other issue (Climate Change, Foreign Policy, Budget, Entitlement, Abortion Rights, Guns, Rule of Law). Aside from hiring manly 49ers Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, and George Kittle to run around body-slamming all the criminals, nuts, and Commies on Market St, its hard to think of immediate solutions. With the Repubs going so far right, this is a golden opportunity for Dems to reclaim family values (perhaps by doubling-down on devotional gay-marriage, parents-rights, and personal responsibility), Crime (jettisoning “Defund the Police” and selling better training and more effective high-tech methods, while filtering out the judicial molly-coddling of felons), Education (Stick to fact-based learning, eliminate social agendas) and standing up to the bizarre/self-serving Trans agenda (what’s next, the right to cut off an ear and become ear-binary?…er, bineary?, With special privileges and protections?). Why is any of this so hard to fix, and how did all this get so far down the road? Its sort of like permissiveness run amok, with a bunch of Socialist attorneys to justify it as “see what happens when the 1% squirrel away all the money?”. Well, judging from my childhood SF-wonderment database (Playland by the Beach, Cliff House, Nob Hill, Fleishhhacker Pool, Coit Tower, etc) it seems the 1% may have built San Francisco in the first place, and are now in places like the Bahamas or Cyprus (or as far away from San Francisco as they can get). Honestly, the 1% are just as likely to be nice people like George Soros, Melinda Gates, MacKenzie Scott, or Warren Buffet as they are to be the Koch Brothers or Rupert Murdoch. Message to the 1%…HELP! COME BACK! SF NEEDS YOU!
