Sadness: San Francisco neighborhood forced to give up protective boulders used to discourage homeless camping
Meanwhile, Los Angeles city officials are pushing to declare a “State of Emergency” because of the homelessness.
Legal Insurrection readers will remember last week’s report of residents of a San Francisco side street trucking in boulders to discourage homeless camping near their homes.
The The “boulder battle” is over, as city officials have removed the boulders.
Residents who placed boulders on sidewalks to deter homeless camps have asked the city to remove the rocks, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
News of the effort unleashed a deluge of criticism, along with repeated incidents of people shoving the boulders off the sidewalk into the street, KPIX reported.
One woman falsely listed the boulders as free giveaways on Craigslist, then offered them for sale for $5 each, but the listings were taken down, KTVU reported.
“At the request of neighbors, San Francisco Public Works will remove the boulders on Clinton Park today and work on a longer-term solution,” said agency spokeswoman Rachel Gordon on Monday, according to The San Francisco Examiner. “We already are back at the drawing board.”
A work crew spent 30 minutes to haul the boulders away Monday morning. San Francisco officials promise something will take their place.
Many neighborhood residents are skeptical, while others were harassed by “tolerance squad” for having them installed in the first place.
“You know the rocks are a symbol of what’s going on in the city,” said Edward Chmelewski. “The rising frustration of residents, and a problem that seems to be intractable.”
If San Francisco did need a symbol for the seemingly endless, Sisyphean struggle unfolding on city streets, the rocks were that. Installed by residents of Clinton Park, they quickly became a lightning rod for criticism.
“To do this, to put these boulders here, it’s not the San Francisco way,” said Greg Aherne. “We’re more accepting and that’s not right.”
The criticism, it turns out, had even become threatening.
“That is true, they were getting emails,” explained Mohammed Nuru, Director of San Francisco Public Works.”There was some kind of bullying.”
Meanwhile, Los Angeles city officials are pushing to declare a “State of Emergency” because of the homelessness.
The latest proposal from Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and City Councilman Joe Buscaino would have the governor declare a state of emergency on homelessness in California.
Supporters view such a declaration as a novel strategy to free up state and federal funding typically reserved for natural disasters, such as earthquakes or wildfires, and to suspend or streamline the regulatory hurdles that often slow down shelter and housing development. It also could block NIMBY opponents from using environmental reviews to sue and delay or block homeless facilities from opening.
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Be ye not unequally yoked together……..
Moral of the story Leslie? Is it when chained to and trapped with Democrat people haters one should chew their leg off to escape?
California Dreaming….. la la la la….
Last night I dreamed I wore my MAGA hat through California….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt1wToYKmpM
“To do this, to put these boulders here, it’s not the San Francisco way,” said Greg Aherne. “We’re more accepting and that’s not right.””
I do not find human feces and urine on my streets and property to be acceptable. Sorry, Greg, at least boulders don’t excrete!! The human garbage you feel sorry for does excrete — NIMBY!!
RE: “I do not find human feces and urine on my streets and property to be acceptable.”
But Geologist “That’s who the Democrats are” to quote them.
Just means they need bigger boulders, and some quick-drying concrete.
Is a state of emergency for natural disasters and comes with federal dollars to bail them out?
This is a problem of their own making. This is their open borders push. Their “sanctuary city” status. Their high taxes which pushes people of average means to starve as they can’t afford anything after they pay taxes.
I keep expecting the left coast to look for Federal bail out. I hope they never get it, or if they do, it comes with having to leave the Union and join Mexico.
They didn’t say they were fixing anything, just declare an emergency, take the money, do nothing except invite more addicts. That’s how this game works. Seattle, Olympia, Portland…they’re all doing the same thing with the money flowing in.
Personally I want to see California go bankrupt, get busted down to federal territory status, and readmitted to the Union in pieces.
So long as the problem gets blamed on an affordable housing shortage, it’s just another money grab and the only ones who will benefit are the crooked politicians and there real estate developer cronies. This is about illegal immigrants, emptying the prisons and widespread mental illness linked to drug abuse.
Before they released so many prisoners, they raised the bar for what defines “violent’ crime and other felonies. As a result the crime rates initially went down but are now exploding again as the penalties for these crimes were lowered. Shop lifting has exploded, for instance. And with police on notice that everything they do is racial harassment and/or unlawful use of force, they are increasingly looking the other way. Most 911 calls originate from poor minority neighborhoods so guess who suffers the most?
As with gun control, every liberal solution calls for punishing the innocent with higher taxes and loss of liberty. It’s as a self-destructive political mental illness no different than mental illness linked to drug abuse.
No they can’t leave the union, that’s what Aztlan wants. It’s priceless wonderful real estate. They stay in, they follow our laws, they pay for problems they cause themselves.
A judge has ruled that any public sidewalk can be camped on by homeless. I guess the idea of vagrancy is gone. Since gated communities are exempt the rest of us will have new neighbors.
Vagrancy laws were struck down decades ago. There really was no way to defend them. States don’t have the power to criminalize poverty, nor can they criminalize the mere act of walking around aimlessly, which the Supreme Court noted is “historically part of the amenities of life as we have known them”. Also, most vagrancy laws were so vague that it was impossible for anyone to know exactly what conduct was being prohibited, and police therefore enforced them completely arbitrarily.
I propose they reside at Milhouse’s “House”
Public defecation
Public urination
Littering
Vandalism
Theft
Public intoxication
Assault/Battery
Rape
Those are crimes and they are rampant in homeless encampments. Waving away the root cause of HOMLESSNESS/VAGRANCY as being heartless and illegal somehow is to live in denial. Take the homeless challenge when you have the time. Take a week off, get a tent, a sleeping bag and a weeks worth of supplies. Go on down to LA’s Skid Row, find a spot amongst the existing populace, and stake your claim. Wear a hidden camera so we can all see how this experience works out for you.
If someone builds a little cardboard shanty under a freeway overpass, somehow the government has to look the other way. If someone wants to build an addition to their existing home in SF, God forbid they don’t hire a licensed architect/engineer and contractors, file for all the necessary permits, pay all the fees, and have the building inspector come and sign it off.
What SF is doing is creating a tiered justice system. It is, at a minimum, immoral, unethical, and devoid of any true compassion.
So….with political ilk struck them down? Health and sanitation issues… It isn’t about being poor. Pericles said that not trying to get out of poverty is a sin…not poverty itself. Since that average Greek citizen circa 500 BC was smarter than most citizens to day..I’ll go with Pericles.
Vagrancy laws are different from allowing people to permanently camp on public property without sanitation, garbage pickup, etc. Add to that the fact that the vast majority of the people are junkies and the health hazard as well as damage to a civil society must be addressed. This is not throwing bums out of town.
More pointless pedantry by Millhouse. We KNOW the sick legal pathology that took us to where we are. Do you ever have a suggestion for solving problems? I swear, you would have been standing on the beaches in Normandy on D-day making speeches to the Allied troops about the illegality of storming beaches. I’m sure you would cover all of the small legal nuances too.
most vagrancy laws were so vague that it was impossible for anyone to know exactly what conduct was being prohibited
Bullpuckey, Milhouse. For hundreds of years people understood exactly what “vagrant” meant. Only once a certain sort of textual criticism came into vogue did we all of a sudden start wondering about the “vagueness” of these sorts of things. The push against it came hand-in-hand with the same argument about “obscenity” – with similar results.
The train is fine.
In Washington State, if you’re squatting on DNR land, they can and will arrest you immediately if you refuse to leave. Had a long discussion with one of their enforcement officers after an incident with some squatters. The teeth of the state statutes have a little more bite.
When the homeless move into the cemetery and pee on Milhouse’s grave (because he died from contracting typhus after visiting CA) Milhouse will come back from the grave to tell us all how nitrogen is good for the grass.
WHY are gated communities even legal? Everyone including those who are property deprived should have the right to go and camp out wherever they please. In fact, since these illegal gated communities generally have large lots, there would be plenty of room for permanent campers.
I live in a gated community in the countryside. It’s called the 20 acres I own. I won’t tell anyone how many guns or how much ammo, other than to say we’re well stocked. Anyone who tries to camp on our land without permission is going to be in a world of trouble.
[..]A work crew spent 30 minutes to haul the boulders away Monday morning.
As if. It takes three hours and forty five minutes for the city crew to get the truck warmed up.
Ten to stand around and supervise.
It takes them ten months to fill a pothole, but they can be right there to zip away the rocks in an hour.
‘Nothing to see here, folks, totally not a news story, move along now, we’re busy impeaching drumpf.’ – News today
“It also could block NIMBY opponents from using environmental reviews to sue and delay or block homeless facilities from opening.”
Only Sierra Club environmentalists are allowed to use environmental reviews to block infrastructure and housing development projects.
We just knew this was coming. Sad…
There weren’t any homeless camping out on public walkways in my hometown until a few weeks ago, when a pair decided the rubberized sidewalks between the hand rails going into the long since closed state liquor store was a great place to set up home.
Patrons of the businesses on either side have been complaining to the owners, who have complained to the building (strip mall) owner and to the police, who say nothing can be done by them unless they damage something.
So the other day I was there to do business and saw that the sleeping bag and other things were left there unattended. Why if left unattended on the sidewalk of a business can’t someone simply collect all that crap like garbage and throw it away? I reckon they person would move on if all their crap was gone.
Fire hosing down the step is a good start.
If it were a private owner couldn’t they be sued for not taking care of their facilities?
Glue a chimney on the top and call them 80% houses just in need of a little more hollowing.
Replace the boulders with land mines.
And for whom will they vote in the next election?
More of the same. It is San Francisco after all.
Well, now that the city has removed them, I don’t think they can vote for anybody.
Oh, wait, you didn’t mean the rocks……
The established Pro-Choice quasi-religion does not work in a public space outside of walls designed to hide the choices within and other sociopolitical constructs (e.g. “=”). The solution is to construct affordable (before subsidy) housing outside of city limits (to mitigate progressive prices and other collateral damage from redistributive change).
Amusing
I don’t waste my time anymore. I used it spending, wasting, it on useless things. I have a Veteran’s Administration somebody that I can trust. And she, I can trust.
He has a name.
Stones lose, Stoners win. 21st Century Stone-Age comntinueth.. Has anyone considered the FEELINGS of those poor rejected boulders..? Just clean & polish them up a little -after all they ‘ain’t no Human rejects.
What if the landowners recycled human waste into boulders. Would that he acceptable? I mean, nothing says SF more than feces and urine.
We were somewhere around San Francisco on the edge of the continent when the drugs began to take hold.
Smoking rocks, while dropping rocks in a toilet, would probably be as effective a means of combating homelessness, as San Francisco’s idly moving rocks around.