From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   In San Francisco, a Troubled Year at a Whole Foods Market Reflects a City’s   
   Woes   
   By Thomas Fuller and Sharon LaFraniere, April 30, 2023, NY Times   
      
   In the famously liberal city, where Republicans make up just 7% of the   
   electorate, moderate Democrats like Mayor Breed are calling for aggressive   
   steps to address public safety concerns while progressive voices decry   
   law-and-order strategies as kneejerk    
   responses that trample on the vulnerable.   
      
   City leaders face some limitations. A federal judge in April determined that   
   San Francisco cannot clear homeless people from public spaces because it has   
   not done enough to provide shelter. Mayor Breed is backing bills in the State   
   Legislature that would    
   make it easier to force mentally ill people into treatment. The mayor has also   
   proposed addressing homelessness by building more: slashing the permitting   
   process for construction with the goal of building 83,000 additional homes and   
   apartments — a 20    
   percent increase from the city’s current total housing stock — in eight   
   years.   
      
   Even though the downtown is plastered with “for lease” signs, the city’s   
   unemployment rate is under 3 percent and the mayor and other officials say the   
   engineering talent pool remains the city’s top asset. And there is much more   
   to San Francisco    
   than its downtown. It has always been a constellation of very different   
   neighborhoods, some of which have very few of the social ills that afflict the   
   area near the closed Whole Foods.   
      
   Officials add that the downtown may ultimately emerge more resilient if it   
   attracts industries like life sciences and bio-tech whose employees still need   
   work space. There is growth in the tech industry, too: The development of   
   artificial intelligence,    
   which promises to transform the way that people live and work, is centered in   
   San Francisco.   
      
   Garry Tan, the president of Y Combinator, a prominent venture-capital company,   
   says he sees signs of renewal in San Francisco. “It’s the gold rush over   
   and over and over again,” he said.   
      
   Mr. Tan is part of a generation of tech workers who are more assertive in   
   their demands on city officials, unafraid to take sides in the city’s   
   internecine politics and funding organizations that press for more emphasis on   
   public safety.   
      
   “Now the narrative out there for some of the founders in our community is,   
   I’m not sure if I feel safe here. I’m not sure if I want to stay here. The   
   quality of life issues are the question. Can I raise a family here?”   
      
   In early April, some tech leaders seized upon the recent fatal stabbing   
   downtown of Bob Lee, a prominent industry executive, as an alarming sign that   
   the downtown was unsafe. But an acquaintance was later accused of murder, and   
   San Francisco’s murder    
   rate is quite low compared with other major cities. Overall, police statistics   
   show fewer property and violent crimes in 2022 than in 2018, before the   
   pandemic began.   
      
   Still, Bill Scott, the city’s police chief, says many residents complain   
   that they feel less safe, and the open-air drug use, much of it tied to   
   fentanyl, is a major contributor.   
      
   Matt Dorsey, a member of the board of supervisors who lives steps away from   
   the shuttered Whole Foods, said recent elections had signaled a shift in voter   
   priorities. He pointed to last year’s recall of the city’s progressive   
   district attorney, Chesa    
   Boudin, who was replaced by a prosecutor who vowed to be tougher on crime.   
      
   “San Francisco is in the midst of a voter revolt on public safety,” Mr.   
   Dorsey said. In a poll conducted by the San Francisco Chronicle in September,   
   nearly two-thirds of respondents said life in the city was worse off than when   
   they moved here.   
      
   The new district attorney, Brooke Jenkins, has begun prosecuting more drug   
   crimes than Mr. Boudin, but the city experienced a 40 percent jump in fatal   
   overdoses in the first quarter compared with the same period last year.    
   Citing that statistic, Gov.    
   Gavin Newsom on Friday authorized an antidrug task force in San Francisco that   
   will include members of the California National Guard and California Highway   
   Patrol.   
      
   The mayor and the police chief have vowed to hire hundreds of additional   
   officers, which would expand the force by more than one-fourth, a difficult   
   proposition when law enforcement agencies nationwide are facing shortages.   
      
   Not everyone is on board with that.   
      
   Dean Preston, a member of the board of supervisors who was re-elected in 2020   
   on a Democratic Socialist platform, is against increasing police staffing and   
   believes the idea of a shift in the electorate’s view about public safety is   
   overstated.   
      
   “There’s been a massive propaganda effort to change public opinion around   
   policing and public safety,” he said.   
      
   Mr. Preston uses his district as an example of how uneven the pandemic   
   recovery has been. Some areas like Japantown and Haight Ashbury are thriving,   
   he said. Others like the Tenderloin, which is adjacent to the shuttered Whole   
   Foods, are beset by drug    
   dealing and homelessness.   
      
   One of the next big tests for downtown might be this summer’s expected   
   opening of an Ikea store not far from the Whole Foods site.   
      
   Police described theft as rampant at Whole Foods, with thieves walking out   
   with armfuls of alcohol, at least at the start. After 250 shopping hand   
   baskets were stolen, the company restocked with 50 more. Those went missing,   
   too.   
      
   During the store’s 13 months in operation, at least 14 people were arrested,   
   including on charges of grand theft and battery, according to official   
   reports. Chief Scott said that plainclothes officers were sent there and   
   security improved over time,    
   but seemingly not enough for the company.   
      
   On a recent chilly night across from the shuttered store, Joseph Peterson, a   
   former construction worker who lost both of his legs to diabetes and is   
   homeless, rolled down the sidewalk in his wheelchair. Mr. Peterson could see   
   the 2,000-unit Trinity    
   apartments, the high-end complex that Whole Foods had hoped would be its   
   customer base. Across the intersection, security guards stood sentry in front   
   of the Orpheum Theater, where “Pretty Woman: The Musical” was playing. A   
   few dozen steps away,    
   dealers peddled fentanyl and crystal meth.   
      
   Mr. Peterson said he understood why Whole Foods had closed the store.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)