XPost: alt.tv.pol-incorrect, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.usa   
   XPost: ca.news   
   From: Glock"@localhost.com   
      
   On 2023-08-18, Ubiquitous  wrote:   
   > Are the people of San Francisco finally ready to reject the progressive   
   > policies destroying one of the world’s most beautiful cities? Hope springs   
   > eternal, and there’s a compelling new call for reform. George Kelly writes   
   in   
   > the San Francisco Standard:   
   >   
   >      The owner of Gump’s, one of San Francisco’s most storied department   
   >      stores, issued a scathing rebuke to city leaders this weekend over   
   >      business and street conditions Downtown.   
   >   
   >      John Chachas, who acquired Gump’s following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in   
   >      2018, paid for ad space in the print edition of Sunday’s San Francisco   
   >      Chronicle to run an open letter decrying the state of the city’s   
   >      Downtown, and what he sees as dereliction of leadership from Mayor   
   >      London Breed and the city’s Board of Supervisors, as well as California   
   >      Gov. Gavin Newsom.   
   >   
   > Mr. Chachas wrote:   
   >   
   >      San Francisco now suffers from a “tyranny of the minority” —behavior   
   >      and actions of the few that jeopardize the livelihood of the many. The   
   >      ramifications of COVID policies advising people to abandon their offices   
   >      are only beginning to be understood. Equally devastating have been a   
   >      litany of destructive San Francisco strategies, including allowing the   
   >      homeless to occupy our sidewalks, to openly distribute and use illegal   
   >      drugs, to harass the public and to defile the city’s streets. Such   
   >      abject disregard for civilized conduct makes San Francisco unlivable   
   >      for its residents, unsafe for our employees, and unwelcoming to visitors   
   >      from around the world.   
   >   
   > This kind of straight talk might have gotten someone cancelled a few years   
   > back, but Mr. Kelly of the Standard has encouraging news on this week’s   
   > public reaction:   
   >   
   >      On Sunday, Chachas told The Standard he has received nothing but   
   >      support through the comment section on Gump’s website.   
   >   
   >      “No one’s told me, ‘Oh my, how uncaring you are toward the   
   homeless,’”   
   >      he said. “I received multiple responses saying ‘truth to power,’   
   ‘You’re   
   >      saying exactly what everybody believes.’ It’s just that no one   
   >      listens.”...   
   >   
   >      “I’m hoping that what this galvanizes is a real conversation to change   
   >      what San Francisco’s doing,” said Chachas, who said he believes that   
   >      city and state leaders act “like there’s something humanitarian and   
   >      evolved in their permission of that kind of behavior. There’s nothing   
   >      evolved.”   
   >   
   > This is well stated, and isn’t it nice that he’s willing to state it? Erica   
   > Sandberg writes in City Journal:   
   >   
   >      Did you feel that? It wasn’t an earthquake; it was the sound of   
   hundreds   
   >      of thousands of San Franciscans standing up and clapping.   
   >   
   >      San Francisco has entered the post-fear era. Where once it was taboo to   
   >      discuss the so-called homeless situation without first carefully   
   >      qualifying one’s speech with assurances of compassion, today people   
   >      bluntly call it what it is. San Francisco has a serious drug, crime,   
   >      and “let people do whatever they want” problem. Chachas’s letter   
   >      resonated with the rapidly growing number of city advocates who are no   
   >      longer willing to sit back and hope for circumstances to improve.   
   >   
   >      Next year, the city will hold a municipal election. Mayor London Breed   
   >      will likely find it a struggle to remain in office, and as many as half   
   >      of the Board of Supervisors may be replaced. Supervisor Dean Preston,   
   >      a wealthy democratic socialist, is particularly vulnerable, with a Dump   
   >      Dean movement gaining momentum. Viable challengers cut from an entirely   
   >      different cloth politically are emerging.   
   >   
   >      San Franciscans are getting louder and making demands: restore law and   
   >      order, support retailers, bring back workers, make the city appealing   
   >      to families, tourists, and innovators. It’s not complicated or costly.   
   >      Change the policies that have created the mess.   
   >   
   > Meanwhile in nearby Oakland, Katie Nielsen reports for CBS station KPIX on an   
   > effort to clean up a similar mess:   
   >   
   >      The effort to oust Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price moved   
   >      forward Tuesday afternoon as an organization filed the intent to recall   
   >      paperwork and the needed signatures to officially begin the process...   
   >   
   >      Seven months into her tenure, Price has already become a lightning rod   
   >      in the heated conversation about criminal justice reform and public   
   >      safety. She ran on a platform emphasizing restorative justice policies   
   >      including reducing sentences for younger offenders, eliminating most   
   >      sentencing enhancements and holding law enforcement accountable.   
   >   
   > “Anytime that we can divert someone from the criminal justice system, that   
   is   
   > a goal, because the criminal justice system has been shown to be racially   
   > biased,” said Ms. Price in a recent interview with KPIX. “The DA’s role   
   has   
   > really no impact on crime. To create a safe community, we need to invest in   
   > alternatives to incarceration,” she added.   
   >   
   > Why would someone even want to serve as a district attorney if she believes   
   > that the job has no impact on crime—unless she has another agenda in mind?   
   >   
   > Last month Cynthia Adams of the Oakland branch of the NAACP and Bishop Bob   
   > Jackson of Acts Full Gospel Church wrote:   
   >   
   >      Oakland residents are sick and tired of our intolerable public safety   
   >      crisis that overwhelmingly impacts minority communities... African   
   >      Americans are disproportionately hit the hardest by crime in East   
   >      Oakland and other parts of the city. But residents from all parts of   
   >      the city report that they do not feel safe. Women are targeted by young   
   >      mobs and viciously beaten and robbed in downtown and uptown   
   >      neighborhoods. Asians are assaulted in Chinatown. Street vendors are   
   >      robbed in Fruitvale. News crews have their cameras stolen while they   
   >      report on crime. PG&E workers are robbed and now require private   
   >      security when they are out working. Everyone is in danger.   
   >   
   >      Failed leadership, including the movement to defund the police, our   
   >      District Attorney’s unwillingness to charge and prosecute people who   
   >      murder and commit life threatening serious crimes, and the proliferation   
   >      of anti-police rhetoric have created a heyday for Oakland criminals.   
   >      If there are no consequences for committing crime in Oakland, crime   
   >      will continue to soar...   
   >   
   >      We urge African Americans to speak out and demand improved public   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)