In a city where the streets are clogged...

[K Frame]

with the homeless, trash, feces, and drug paraphernalia, what does San Francisco worry about?

A bench and a Little Free Library.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/san-francisco-hits-family-1402-fee-built-free-library-neighbors-report

[MechAg94]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/san-francisco-fights-urban-disorder-little-free-library-42e9b80a
The WSJ always has read restrictions for me, but they at least show a picture of the "free library".  Just a little box with a handful of books.  The bench isn't pictured as far as I can tell.  Definitely not an eye sore and doesn't seem to be in the way of anything.

[Ben]

It has been a while, but I seem to recall that kind of a little neighborhood "library" was a pretty popular and harmless fad just to make neighborhoods more friendly.

[K Frame]

We have a Little Free Library in my community.

I've gotten a couple of books out of it and put a bunch of books in it.

It's really popular with the kids in the community.

[Kingcreek]

Last fall we went for a walk while visiting my wife’s brother. On a walking path around a marsh in the middle of nowhere was a little free library. I snagged a great book about shackleton’s Antarctic adventure, Endurance was the name of the ship and the book.

[HankB]

The story is missing the name of the bureaucrat who wrote the people up with a violation.

[MechAg94]

The story is missing the name of the bureaucrat who wrote the people up with a violation.

And that person's boss along with the entire chain of leadership up to the first elected official. 

[WLJ]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/san-francisco-fights-urban-disorder-little-free-library-42e9b80a
The WSJ always has read restrictions for me, but they at least show a picture of the "free library".  Just a little box with a handful of books.  The bench isn't pictured as far as I can tell.  Definitely not an eye sore and doesn't seem to be in the way of anything.

The box was taking up space on the sidewalk a homeless junkie could be shooting up drugs and pooping in.

[WLJ]

More news out of SF

Checkout's closed: Whole Foods FLAGSHIP San Francisco store closes after just one year because of rampant drug use in restrooms, violence towards staff - and theft of ALL 250 shopping baskets
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11959697/Whole-Foods-flagship-San-Francisco-store-closes-just-one-year-safety-concerns.html

We're outta here!

[Hawkmoon]

Checkout's closed: Whole Foods FLAGSHIP San Francisco store closes after just one year because of rampant drug use in restrooms, violence towards staff - and theft of ALL 250 shopping baskets
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11959697/Whole-Foods-flagship-San-Francisco-store-closes-just-one-year-safety-concerns.html

From the link:

The Democrat later announced in a series of tweets on Monday that he would introduce a ballot measure next year to fully staff the city's police department within five years.

Wow! So this mental giant will introduce a ballot measure (which might not pass) NEXT YEAR that would [hope to] fully staff the city's police department within five years. So that's SIX YEARS until the PD is fully staffed -- and that's IF the ballot measure gets passed. Things are going to get a lot worse within those six years.

[MillCreek]

^^^But where will SF get the money if they are paying out the reparations?

[WLJ]

Carmignani has since appealed to Breed to enact policy changes to make the city safer.

Rather than heed those calls, she defended the city on Saturday and even appeared to suggest that the incidents were not examples of senseless crime.

That makes me feel better 

She also claimed social media - where many have complained about the state of the city - was exacerbating the problem.

'It is really heightened events like this as well as people who are jumping to conclusions about what they think is happening.'

'People will be surprised when the facts come out': San Francisco Mayor London Breed tells residents not to 'jump to conclusions' about murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee and attack on ex fire commissioner
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11960561/San-Francisco-Mayor-says-people-shouldnt-jump-conclusions-Cash-App-boss-Bob-Lees-murder.html

[JTHunter]

It ain't just SF.

[230RN]

That's endemic to every large city in the US.  It's demonstrative of Terry's Rule of Group Intelligence.

TRGI:
Group intelligence is inversely proportional to the number of minds in the group.

I_G = f  ( 1 / N_Group)

The actual function is indeterminate because intelligence scales (at present) do not have an actual zero point and are not "rational" scales in the sense that ratios are valid.  IOW, an IQ of 40 is not necessarily "twice" as intelligent as an IQ of 20.

Terry, 230RN

[HeroHog]

That's endemic to every large city in the US.  It's demonstrative of Terry's Rule of Group Intelligence.

TRGI:
Group intelligence is inversely proportional to the number of minds in the group.

I_G = f  ( 1 / N_Group)

The actual function is indeterminate because intelligence scales (at present) do not have an actual zero point.

You KNOW I'm stealing THIS!

[230RN]

I added a bit about rational scales, so quote that, too, if you like.

[WLJ]

Be sure to vote democrat, they have all the solutions

EXCLUSIVE: Shocking images show the TWO-MILE long vehicle encampment - made up of people living in RVs, trucks and trailers - along Highway 101 north of San Francisco as low income people are pushed out of the housing market
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12050937/Shocking-images-TWO-MILE-long-encampment-people-living-RVs-trucks-trailers.html

[RoadKingLarry]

I wonder how long before groups of people in such enclaves begin stopping cars and demanding a "toll"?

[MechAg94]

I wonder how long before groups of people in such enclaves begin stopping cars and demanding a "toll"?

That is sort of what is happening:

Residents of the surrounding area are now coming together to try to help bring the encampment to an end by helping people find services they need.

Every month they are given free groceries, assistance with their housing case management, medical assistance and much more.

There will be a push for the services to be expanded after state funding was awarded to Novato, Sausalito and San Rafael and to Marin County for unincorporated areas like Binford Road.

Each city, and Marin County, received $500,000 to address their encampment issues – with the county bringing in $1million in resources to help each of the regions.

I am curious how many of those people were living there and got evicted or couldn't afford rent? and how many just found that a convenient place to stop?

I am sure all the residents and the local officials are doing everything they can to prevent anyone from actually building more housing in the area and possibly spoiling their view.  That might reduce their home values or reduce the rent they charge on the properties they already own. 

[WLJ]

A shop lifter every 10 minutes

On target to close? Shoplifters at San Francisco Target strike every 10 MINUTES: Helpless staff watch thieves stuff bags with food, lipsticks and nail polish as soft-on-crime city suffers retail exodus
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12072675/San-Francisco-Target-store-shoplifted-10-MINUTES-worker-says.html

[Angel Eyes]

A shop lifter every 10 minutes

On target to close? Shoplifters at San Francisco Target strike every 10 MINUTES: Helpless staff watch thieves stuff bags with food, lipsticks and nail polish as soft-on-crime city suffers retail exodus
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12072675/San-Francisco-Target-store-shoplifted-10-MINUTES-worker-says.html

Even with the merchandise locked up?

[MechAg94]

You really can't have normal commerce without basic rules that are enforced.  Even the big corporations will only tolerate it for a while.  Since they can't stop the thieves, all they can do is close up shop and go elsewhere. 

I was wondering if some of those stores would go to online order only or force the customers to wait at the front while a worker goes and gets their items.  To do that, they would need to physically block anyone from entering the merchandise area. 

[zahc]

 Isn't that how it always used to be? You go ask the storekeeper for what you want, haggle, get discriminated against, get the worst goods in the pile/whatever they deem worthy to give you, etc. etc.

I think it was Piggly Wiggly that pioneered the idea of choosing your own merchandise from the shelves. Maybe that was just a golden era, and I will have to tell my grandchildren about how we used to just browse merchandise left unlocked on the shelves and nobody stole it because most people thought stealing was wrong and the rest of them were afraid of penalties.

[K Frame]

I made the point in another thread that all of the stores that are fleeing these areas because of the rampant crime are creating shopping waste lands.

In a few years we're going to start hearing about how these heartless, racist corporations are making it impossible for the poor inner city people (yeah, as if there are actually poor people in San Francisco) to survive and aren't they horrible.

So, the stores start getting government incentives to move back in, which creates a cycle of recovery in growth, and once again the racist corporations are at fault, this time for making it impossible for the poor folk to afford their gentrifying areas.

That cycle happened after the crime and violence of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It happened to a degree, again, in Washington, DC, along the Georgia Avenue Corridor after the Cinco de Mayo riots in 1992.

[Bogie]

Here in STL, we have a bunch of folks from Iraq or Afghanistan who open neighborhood stop'n'rob groceries... They charge more than the big groceries, who aren't there anymore.