Not just San Francisco

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San Francisco Mayor London Breed blasts homeless coalition: held city ‘hostage for decades’

A federal judge has banned the city from clearing homeless encampments until there are more shelter beds than homeless individuals

"The homeless coalition has held San Francisco hostage for decades. It is time for their reign to end," Breed said, noting that the city has spent billions of dollars to help homeless people. 

People who want more tents cleared chanted "save our streets" while a smaller crowd of those supporting the injunction rallied on the sidewalk beside them, chanting "stop the sweeps." 

By San Francisco’s own estimates, there are more than 3,300 people sleeping in the city’s homeless shelters, with around 4,400 sleeping on the city’s streets on a given night. 

A city of 880,000 residents is allowing itself to be ruined by 7,700 people. It’s a little late for Mayor Breed to notice that, but perhaps a change is in the wind.

It’s not just large, liberal cities that have surrendered to a handful of drug-crazed zombies. Uber liberal Portland, Main, population 68,000, has done the same:

One example of this can be seen in Portland’s Deering Park, a 43-acre (by comparison, Binney Park is 33 acres) jewel, where the proprietor of “Queenie’s Castle” has given up, shuttered her coffee shop and walked away, citing the impossibility of operating with homeless “campers” who break into her store at night, steal chairs, and anything else not nailed down, and leave the ground strewn with needles and feces.

"This is just crazy that this is going on in our city. And it's just time to throw in the towel," Queenie's Castle Owner Victoria "Queenie" Thayer said.

Deering Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and has been the city’s premier park since 1879. Mothers with children use it, as well as joggers, walkers, and office workers on lunch breaks. The “Castle”, originally built as a warming hut for skaters on the park’s pond has offered coffee and snacks for years; no longer. And today, it would take a brave mother to push her child’s stroller past the crazies infesting the place.

So essentially, a park intended to serve 68,000 people has been taken over and occupied by 100-150 people. The city and the liberal voters who allowed this to happen moan piteously, wring their hands, and do nothing.

Deering Oaks Park, in better days

On the western side of town, the Western Promenade, a beautiful walkway that on crystal clear days affords a view of the White Mountains and Mt. Washington, is also under siege. A few recent incidents:

  • June 28, 2023: Outdoor furniture, bikes, plants, BBQ grills stolen from multiple West End homes.

  • August 3, 2023: Homeless man threatens the life of a West End home owner on his property and then collapses from drug overdose. Police let the man go with a warning.

  • August 5, 2024: Homeless man from the West End encampment waving a machete at people walking on the Western Promenade. Police were called and they never reported back on their findings.

view from the western promenade

My guess is that something is going to happen in these Blue cities: either the citizens will wake up, rise up, and take their city back, or they’ll pack up and move. The present status quo cannot last.

UPDATE: Don’t worry, be happy!