Enough already.
"Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone"
Joni Mitchell
A counter-trend is in place. Residents of San Francisco want their city back.
San Francisco had a well-deserved reputation for being on the leading edge of progressive, unconventional, avant-garde behavior. That was part of San Francisco's charm. That special San Francisco Bay character made it a magnet for innovation in technology and the vanguard in progressive politics. That attitude increasingly included a philosophy of law enforcement as regards small crimes: Don't sweat the small stuff. The city got rougher, dirtier, and less livable.
The counter-trend of frustration with what San Francisco had lost got national attention. Last year voters recalled School Board members who appeared to be putting time and attention to renaming schools. Earlier this month voters recalled a District Attorney who wasn't prosecuting small crimes. Voters realized they could not have a liberal paradise without law and order.
My Guest Post author lived in San Francisco and witnessed the slow erosion of her city. She describes why she left. Jennifer is a retired attorney.
Guest Post by Jennifer A.
The counter-trend of frustration with what San Francisco had lost got national attention. Last year voters recalled School Board members who appeared to be putting time and attention to renaming schools. Earlier this month voters recalled a District Attorney who wasn't prosecuting small crimes. Voters realized they could not have a liberal paradise without law and order.
My Guest Post author lived in San Francisco and witnessed the slow erosion of her city. She describes why she left. Jennifer is a retired attorney.
Guest Post by Jennifer A.
I left San Francisco after calling it home for sixteen years because my mother's health required me to move to the east coast. I had lived on the line between the Mission and the Castro from the start, and I knew there were plenty of things I'd miss: easy access to public transportation and restaurants; a walkable neighborhood with lots of history; a casual environment where no one cared what I wore or how I earned a living; good (though boring) weather, and almost unlimited opportunities to walk in nature, hear music and watch live sports. I wish I could say the living was easy. But over the years, the dark side of San Francisco had begun to gnaw at me. By the time I left, I was convinced that people (like me) trying to live day to day in relative peace and security were invisible and expendable to the city government. Meaning no one was expected to take so-called quality of life rules seriously. We had our newspaper delivered and it was stolen about half the time. We couldn't leave so much as a paper clip in our parked car for fear of having the window smashed. Forget about leaving a bag of groceries in the back while carting the first batch upstairs. People woke us at 3 a.m. calling our intercom, hoping we would buzz them into our building. The Little Free Library a few blocks away was vandalized so often that its owner took it down. Walking from my front door to the grocery store was an invitation to verbal abuse from mentally ill or drug-addled people. I might open my garage door to discover someone sleeping in front of it. Any public park or seating area was taken over by homeless people.
None of these were major crimes, and many were just annoyances, but I was sure they wouldn't be tolerated in most communities around the country - and certainly not where homes cost what they do in San Francisco. But San Francisco just wasn't good at setting limits. Reporting any vandalism or theft felt pointless. Perpetrators ignored court summonses for minor offenses with impunity. Those convicted usually didn't serve time. Even something like the theft of an expensive bicycle would be of no interest to the authorities. In fact, thieves brazenly displayed dozens of stolen bikes for sale on sidewalks. For property crimes, the standard advice was"call your insurance company." And openly complaining about it made you vulnerable to criticism. Compassion for drug addicts and the mentally ill - which we did have - was supposed to erase any feeling that our own rights were important.
The San Francisco annual budget is $13.1 billion this year, more than some states. The city pours money into homeless shelters, drug treatment, mental health care, street cleaning, social workers, nonprofits and community policing. Yet in the years since I left, things have deteriorated more, to the point where the city has become a symbol of failed "liberal" policies. New people are always arriving in San Francisco needing help, and many are successfully moved into housing, jobs and a drug free life. But big picture, daily life for the average citizen continues to be frustrating and sometimes infuriating.
Walking away from San Francisco's problems was a relief, and I know other former residents feel the same. I love living where I can leave tools and porch furniture outside all night with no fear they'll be stolen. And if they were stolen, my neighbors would be sympathetic. In San Francisco, all would agree it was my own fault, because anything not nailed down is fair game. It's not like my new neighbors are all about law and order. They just have the expectation of a peaceful, secure life. And most importantly, that extends to the people who enforce the laws. Sure, there are car break-ins and thefts. But they're taken seriously, investigated and prosecuted.
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8 comments:
They paved paradise, and put up a vagrant camp?
Thankfully, an operative qualifier to Jennifer's summary is "the Mission and the Castro". Russian Hill, the Marina, Pac Heights and the Presidio are all still pretty unscathed compared with the now thoroughly blighted neighborhoods, and there are a few like North Beach which split the difference. Like Portland and Seattle, San Francisco is testing that line between liberty and license, and between compassion and enabling.
I lived in the Bay Area for 25 years, beginning in 1973. My personal story could be illustrative, but I'd rather comment on something broader.
It's way to easy to blame the problems in SF on politics. I'd focus on economics. The effects of income inequality driven by the influx of tech money has driven low and middle class workers out of the city, people who own modest property and have pride in their neighborhoods. What's left are renters, and landlords who have driven the average rent to over $3000 a month.
Like any city, San Francisco has bad neighborhoods, but even the Mission was relatively safe and clean until recently. It's also historically been a mecca for hoboes and homeless, something that has gotten worse as the economy has ejected more and more people into poverty and the attendant crime and drug addiction.
The voters do elect Progressive leaders, and the city is trying to clean up but it seems to me it's fallen victim to the problem caused by trying to solve problems humanely but falling short by not spending enough. I certainly don't see how firing a DA is going make a difference when the issues are systemic.
If a society closes all the mental hospitals, poorly funds mental health and drug addiction services and doesn’t build sufficient low income housing what would you expect to happen? Cities like LA, SF, Seattle, Portland, Medford… with temperate climates, will see an influx of homeless people of all sorts. Families making $50k a year can’t afford to live in these cities. In the absence of a Federal government solution to the problem, local jurisdictions can only play whack a mole. If Medford gets tough on homeless, they’ll move to Ashland. If a homeless camp under the Hawthorn Bridge in Portland is bulldozed, they’ll move to the Columbia River shore by the airport.
Downtown Portland is dying. Idealistic progressive policies are killing it. No one who can avoid the resulting squalor and disorder of downtown Portland is willing to put up with it.
Problems need to be nipped in the bud, not ignored.
I have called the police fairly frequently, particularly about noisy neighbors (including an Air BnB, which showed be outlawed). I also regularly report rule violations to my landlord. Call me Karen, I could care less.
Everyone needs to step up to make our communities safe and liveable. Complain to City Hall. Support and elect people who care about quality of life issues. Volunteer in the community if you are able.
Great post. What we allow will continue.
Jennifer A;s calm, reasoned article sounds chilling and smacks of accuracy free of any personal biases, and it describes a nightmare of gigantic proportions,
the people who "run" 'San Francisco should "lend an ear" to her realistic
criticisms,
Bob Warren
I disagree, Bob. Compassionate is cheap. She could afford to “walk away.“ Excuse me, but your defensiveness is showing…
Too much wealth in the portfolios of too few billionaires. Thanks, Elon and pals.
Too many people for the requisite resources. Look at the failed water supply to Arizona, California, and so many other areas.
People need to think about WHY they need to produce more than one or two kids.
Do I believe this will happen? No. At least not until we are rationed to a couple of quarts of water per day. Some areas are already getting damned close.
As WC Fields once said (maybe Mark Twain?) “whiskey is for drinking; water is for shooting”. And he said this BEFORE we’d reached our current water crises.
We in western Oregon are fortunate. I’ll bet none of us have ever taken a bucket into our showers, in order to catch water bouncing off our bodies. I’ll bet none of us has resorted to painting our dead lawns green.
I’m hoping our super wet bioregion will stay that way for many more years. We’ve had a massively wet year this year, and I love it. Sorry L.A.
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