The Tipping Point Has Passed
Market & Powell, San Francisco
My experience has taught me that solutions become elusive when we look only at the problems. There is much to love in San Francisco, but we are at a critical point where there is everything to lose.
My daughter works at the SaleForce Tower, and it is for her and my niece, who works in the Tenderloin, that I write this.
My niece stopped by my apartment in SF for dinner last week and told me about a homeless man without feet who was trying to get on BART. He asked a man to carry his wheelchair while he crawled down the stairs at the Civic Center BART Station that day. My niece said he had a small dog running up and down the stairs, barking, trying to help. The look on her young face as she recounted this tale was heartbreaking. I felt like this was a story from a third-world country, but no, it was from one of the wealthiest cities in the world that spends more on each homeless person than anywhere else in the world.
Morning Commute at Powell Street Station
Spending $1.1 billion on homelessness is just the latest installment in San Francisco's constant failure to sensibly and humanely deal with an issue that it chronically misdiagnoses and mismanages about as much as is humanly possible. Since fiscal year 2016–17, San Francisco has spent over $2.8 billion on homelessness, and the city's politicians remain seemingly baffled, year after year, as the number of homeless in the city skyrocket, as opioid overdoses kill more than COVID-19, and as the city has become nearly the most dangerous in the country. https://www.hoover.org/research/why-san-francisco-nearly-most-crime-ridden-city-us.
The New Vision For San Francisco
The political groups formed to fight this downward slide support a slate of issues that seemingly anyone across San Francisco's political spectrum would agree on: a need for safe and clean streets, housing, and better schools.
How these new groups seek to improve the city can best be seen in the candidates and ballot measures they support.
This year, for instance, GrowSF and SF Together are seeking to unseat progressives Dean Preston in District 5 and Connie Chan in District 1, financing "Dump Dean" and "Clear Out Connie" PACs that have fundraised more than $301,000 and $72,000, respectively, as of Feb. 12. Here are is the SF Together Voter Guide and the Grow SF Voter Guide.
What do the BigMoneySF groups want?
Neighbors for a Better San Francisco and TogetherSF Action are backing Proposition E, a measure that would undercut police oversight, require less reporting on police uses of force, allow more surveillance cameras, and rewrite policy to allow for more police chases.
Educate yourself, San Francisco, and vote accordingly in the next election. Here is the SF Elections Voter Guide FAQ on how you can vote.
Sydney is a professor at UC Berkeley, a writer, and founder of oceansf.co, a sustainable sailing apparel brand, see sydneychaneythomas.com to read more.
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