The streets of San Francisco…
They’re well known, not merely for being associated with the TV crime show that launched the career of actor Michael Douglas, not merely because Lombard Street is famous for being one of the curviest in the world, and not just because they are very hilly, overlooking the beauty of San Francisco Bay.
Recently, they’ve become well known as sites of crime and filth, including human waste, that have inspired many residents to decry the tax-and-spend leftist city government, even as that government made it official policy to not prosecute many forms of shoplifting (California statute categorizes the shoplifting of items worth up to $950 as a “misdemeanor”) and as the San Fran government’s minimum wage mandates have harmed existing workers and driven away startup job opportunities.
Yet, somehow – and likely not due to the efforts of actors Karl Malden and the aforementioned Mr. Douglas – some of those streets now are magically clean, and free of the drug-addled homeless who once filled the sidewalks.
Marjorie Hernandez reported November 10 for the New York Post that the city, which, until this week, seemed incapable of handling the homeless and human fecal problems on many streets in San Fran, appears to have sprung into action, perhaps to offer the impending visit of Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jingping a lovely, not-so-stinky, backdrop.
“Drug addicts, dealers and homeless who have plagued San Francisco’s downtown have miraculously disappeared this week as the city cleans up for a huge international event.
Sources tell The Post the homeless have been pushed to other parts of the city in preparation for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which starts tomorrow and runs through Nov. 17.”
No word as to whether the Pelosi house will be open to XI and Biden, or more homeless people, but that’s beside the point…
“However, residents and business owners said city officials’ attempts to ‘herd’ transients and drug addicts is only a ‘Band-Aid’ to a severe problem as drug overdoses continue to plague the city.”
But… why wouldn’t the city officials want collectivists like Biden and Xi to see the results of collectivism on the streets? Why not let them experience the hardship and joblessness dealt people when politicians take people’s money and issue nearly limitless mandates that drive jobs out of the city?
“The city focused on seven intersections in the Tenderloin and South of Market, or SoMa, neighborhoods which is home to some of the more concentrated encampments where drug-addled people high on fentanyl and heroin can be seen passed out on the streets every day.”
Related: San Francisco Spends $16.1 Million To Shelter 300 Homeless People In TENTS | MRCTV
How is that possible? Those drugs are federally banned! They have a whole “Drug Enforcement Agency” and sundry other federal employees sucking up our tax cash for the stoppage of those drugs, so, clearly, this report must be telling us things that are happening in a different dimension, not our own.
“‘They started clearing the tents earlier this week and there is definitely a lot more police presence,’ SoMa resident and community activist Ricci Lee Wynne told The Post.”
Michael Douglas and Karl Malden? No.
Said Wynne:
“They’ve cleared out the tents that were near the Moscone Center on Howard Street, which tells me the city had the capability to do this all along — instead they just do the bare minimum.”
If only there were some other solution, a way to privatize areas of San Fran and allow local people to stop shelling out cash to politicians like Mayor London Breed, she who infamously imposed business-killing lockdowns in 2020 but defied her own edicts in order to dance and party at a nightclub to the music of Tony Toni Tone…
Perhaps that legendary band will play for the visiting dignitaries, as more tax cash is burned at the conference…
“Among the APEC attendees will be President Joe Biden, who will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which was announced on Friday. The event is expected to draw over 20,000 visitors to the City by The Bay.”
Locals might not get a long-term answer here. But observers of economics will get to note the classic example of Frederic Bastiat’s dictum regarding “what is seen and not seen.” Government operates by promoting what can be seen. It promotes “clean streets” when the limelight is turned on. It promotes a “project” or a “public-private partnership” (also knowns as fascism) while hiding the multitudinous opportunities it steals from people who would prefer to direct their resources into projects, hiring, or savings that they prefer.
Thus, this week, two of the most recognizable faces of collectivism will meet in one of the most infamous American sites of collectivism in action. But the face of the city will be different.
The face will be cleaner, while it’s being seen by the world.