GOLDEN GATE PARK SWEEP - CAN CITY MAKE IT STICK? HOMELESS ROUSTED

[EFerrari]

(Note: Gavin Newsom ran on ending homelessness in San Francisco)


GOLDEN GATE PARK SWEEP - CAN CITY MAKE IT STICK?
HOMELESS ROUSTED: 4:30 a.m. wakeup for the park campers

Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, August 2, 2007

For 19-year-old Brandon Krigbaum, who goes by the name Repo Violence, the wake-up call came at 4:30 a.m.

Police officers and homeless outreach workers rousted him and his friends from their sleeping bags Wednesday morning in an encampment on Chicken Hill, near Golden Gate Park's popular tennis courts.

Similar awakenings happened throughout the park, as well as Buena Vista Park, Corona Heights and other outdoor expanses as Mayor Gavin Newsom's pledge to clear the city's parks of homeless encampments once and for all continued to take shape.

Teams of police officers and city outreach workers took Krigbaum and 58 other bleary-eyed homeless people in vans to a huge, off-white canvas tent set up for one morning in Sharon Meadows. An additional 25 homeless people came to the tent on their own - perhaps drawn by the coffee, bagels, orange wedges and blueberries provided by the city.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/02/MNVMRBFPB2.DTL


I hope people read this article because it illustrates 1) How homeless people are misrepresented in the media (they are all teenagers on an adventure and on the public dole) and 2) How truly uninterested most city governments are in homelessness. Newsom has had years and plenty of community interest and money to deal with this problem. But here he is, sending cops to roust people and cite them WHILE providing a froufrou breakfast that will read well in the paper.

And, the comments on this article are truly disgusting. I didn't know so many freeps read the Chronicle.

[WilliamPitt]

1. They did this in 1994

5,000 people driven from the park...and then left with no help or accomodations.

Most wound up downtown, on Haight Street, or dead.

[Midlodemocrat]

2. I let a homeless student live with me from 1984-1988

He headed out to San Francisco when I left teaching and was living in one of the parks.

Died of a drug overdose after being driven out of the park one too many times.

[EFerrari]

4. I think the outreach in the park idea is a good one but wtf does it

have to be punitive? :shrug:

Newsom's team has organized a bi-monthly event where homeless people can go to a hall downtown and find a roomful of prospective help.

It looks good on paper but the problem is, most of the homeless people I know can't get there from here for lots of different reasons.

[EFerrari]

3. I caught Newsom rousting people and denying it once.

We were dealing with local press over a fundraiser I was producing for the Homeless Coalition and I get a call from KTVU -- there was a roust in progress and did I have a comment? So, I called Newsom's office and very nicely asked what was happening. This was while it was IN PROGRESS.

The next day, the Mayor's press release said their office had no knowledge of the SFPD's action until it was all over.

:mad:

[bridgit]

5. Our situation here in Sac isn't quite as intense, though they do make runs...

down by the river. K St is troublesome though not with the per se homeless, but long term solutions are not on the horizon while many have been 'outside' for so long they are unable to come within...it's a sadness http://www.sacramentoloavesandfishes.org

[EFerrari]

8. One of my homeless neighbors is in a wheelchair and I don't know

what it would take to get him indoors. When you control so little, the last thing may be that you can control where your body is. :(

[originalpckelly]

6. It's always surprised me that we'll give a murderer shelter, food, and clothes...

yet we won't do that with a homeless person.

[shance]

7. Didn't Hitler begin with the "undesirables"?

n/t

[EFerrari]

9. What's weird here to me, anyway, is that the policy is so bifurcated.

Roust them at 4:30 AND give them a chichi breakfast. Offer services AND talk about "cleaning up the Park" as if people are refuse. Where is Jack Handey when you need him?

[Gormy Cuss]

10. "Repo Violence" will become a poster boy for the Freeps.

That 19-year old comes across as a pretty unsympathetic character, with that bravado about living free and doing what he wants. He's projecting exactly the teen-on-an-adventure persona that you mentioned.

That said, this reads like a Gavin dog and pony show. The question I have how many other supportive services have been lined up for those who chose shelter options and for those who did not.

Half accepted some services initially, which is good if only because they may get some small needs met before returning to the streets.

[EFerrari]

11. Exactly. This policy is about half an inch deep and this is essentially

a puff piece for Gavin.

I've met him and while very "produced", he's not a bad guy. But I really don't think he understands what's going on here, and the Chronicle enables that ignorance now -- unlike when my friend Kevin Fagan was writing his real and award-winning series on homelessness. I miss Kevin being at the Chron. :(

/oops

[Le Taz Hot]

12. So, is this plastered all over the California

forum too or is that "honor" just reserved for Fresno? Sorry, I just couldn't resist. I don't mean to minimize the topic, just amazed at the double standard.

[EFerrari]

13. I'm sorry, I didn't think to post it there.

What are you meaning by double standard? :shrug:

[Le Taz Hot]

14. I'll PM you.

[Jed Dilligan]

15. Good luck with that, Gavin

People will be sleeping in GG Park long after your pretty boy ass is dead and in the ground.

[EFerrari]

17. Can you imagine rousting destitute people at 4:30 in the morning

so you will be perceived as "doing something"?

It's nauseating.

I don't know who to call first, this is so wrong. But, the Chronicle is complicit as hell.

[Jed Dilligan]

20. Been one of those destitute people

And yes, the Chron's whoring for Gavin has been repulsive. Good luck getting anything out of them. They have been scratching each other's backs for years. Remember the trumped-up study that showed how CnC was "working"?

[EFerrari]

21. We used to call it "Crap not Care!"

Yes, I remember that study. The Newsom people declared homelessness was 66% over or some such absurdity.

I don't expect sh!t from the Chronicle. Or, I do expect it from them and they deliver.

[EFerrari]

16. This is an example of my enlightened neighbors' comments on this story:

"Go Gavin! Roust the parasites and take the park back for the real people."

:wtf:

[bridgit]

18. Sadly, while the bay area is liberal/free-leaning, there are ramparts...

of conservative thought as well :(

[EFerrari]

19. Where conservative = dehumanizing hatefulness.

I wonder how many of these freeps are a check away from the street themselves. I guess a sturdy delusion is better than a frightening reality for some people. :(

[EFerrari]

22. Here is a link to my friend's expose of homelessness in San Francisco.

Unfortunately for this town, he no longer works at the Chronicle (which may be fortunate for him):

SHAME OF THE CITY

We trip over them on the sidewalk every day. We curse, hand them a dollar, or don't. We feel pity, guilt and rage at their presence. The city spends $200 million a year trying to get homeless people off the streets and into a better way of life - but over 20 years, the problem has only gotten worse.

The more able of the homeless find their way into shelters, counseling and housing programs. But the most chronically indigent, called the hard core, steadfastly refuse most help and stay outside. These 3,000 to 5,000 homeless at the very bottom are the most visible, and they give the city its dubious distinction of having what many call the worst homeless problem in the country.

San Francisco Chronicle reporter Kevin Fagan and photographer Brant Ward spent four months in the streets, parks and alleys with the homeless and those who deal with them-health care workers, police, tourists, residents, businesspeople, commuters-in an attempt to answer the question: How did San Francisco, one of the most sophisticated and cultured cities in the world come to have so many people living so blatantly, so visibly, in misery?

Below is the original "Shame of the City" series published in December 2003.

http://www.sfgate.com/homeless/

[bobbolink]

23. I don't even know where to begin....

So, what is this for?

What's the purpose?

I really don't even know what to say.

First, I'm sure the good people of San Francisco were outraged to hear how homeless people were treated, right?

:nuke:

Second, not even ONE recommend for this article on such a "leftist fringe" forum?????

All I can do is quote Michael Moore..."Who ARE we??"

[EFerrari]

25. Who ARE we?

:nuke:

[Greyhound]

28. The same two-faced shitheels we've always been.

From our initial invasion of the continent, through the founding of our nation, and straight through to today, we've always been like this. Oh sure there have been brief moments of guilt and a very few actual attempts to change our nature, but all in all we suck as much as we ever have.

We will continue to suck until enough of us realize that we are the problem and change ourselves. Maybe someday we will stand up and say "no more!", but I'm not holding my breath. In the meantime I just do what I can when I can.

[bobbolink]

30. Excellently worded! My thoughts exactly, but "we" don't want to look at ourselves.

And that includes most liberals. Just point at the "other guy', and everything's fine.

You have pinpointed the problem. What to do about it...

Love your Buffet quotation!

Thanks..... really..... :applause:

[EFerrari]

31. Yes.

:)

[defendandprotect]

24. They've been making "homelessness" illegal -- while creating it --

[EFerrari]

26. You bet. And all over.

This is war.

[bobbolink]

27. "This is war."

Not yet. Not by a long shot.

Yes, you care.

Yes, you're angry on our behalf, and that is greatly appreciated.

But... to most, and that includes "LIBERALS", it's just a big yawn.

It's "THEM", not "US".

They just can't relate.

It's like we're not even the same species.

War?

Nope... no shots fired.

Not at all.

There will continue to be a lot of deeaths.

Until it widely reaches the muddleclass, and begins to HURT.

[defendandprotect]

32. Much of the problem has to do with lack of MSM coverage over decades --

It can be easily understood that homelessnes is a threat to us all --
just like other folks not getting health care -- AIDS -- and dirty water --
Katrina -- we can be the victim we can be victimized by these things.

America knows more about Paris Hilton than it does about our economy and our homeless -- or the state of the nation's health -- physical and mental.

[Raksha]

29. K & R