Fix Homelessness How to rebuild human lives
Topic

San Francisco

fredrick-lee-JP5sP-dVabQ-unsplash

Searching for solutions

In July, walking around the fifty blocks of the Tenderloin, San Francisco’s fentanyl epicenter, I often saw notes like this one posted on lampposts: “Mimi—5’, 100 lbs.—we miss you terribly. Please call any family member. Please call 202 [number].” The Mimis are often hidden in tents, but even for a first-time visitor like me, the dealers and their deals were highly visible. Dealers, often teenagers in clean Nikes, walked alongside potential buyers. They did not just stand at particular corners, as a great streaming television series based in Baltimore, The Wire, showed: These dealers floated up and down a block. Police say they are independent contractors, trying to establish their own clientele, and earning $300 or more on an average Read More ›

san-franciscos-iconic-bridge-wrapped-in-fog-as-seen-at-night-generative-ai-stockpack-adobe-stock
San Francisco's iconic bridge wrapped in fog as seen at night. Generative AI
San Francisco's iconic bridge wrapped in fog as seen at night. Generative AI

Doom Loop City

It should come as no surprise that an enterprising San Franciscan came up with the idea to host a “doom loop” tour of the moldering city on a hill. The plot twist is that Alex Ludlum, who put together the tour, canceled and refunded tickets for his “Downtown Doom Loop Walking Tour” before its intended Aug. 26 debut. That would be the weekend Nordstrom shuttered its flagship store in downtown San Francisco. It turns out, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, Ludlum serves on Ess Eff’s Commission on Community Investment and Infrastructure. He had planned on giving the tour as an “anonymous insider.” After his identity was outed, Ludlum apologized for a “deep error in judgment” and canceled the tour. “How Read More ›

multiple-exposure-of-people-in-overcrowded-city-resembling-a-zombie-apocalypse-stockpack-adobe-stock
multiple exposure of people in overcrowded city resembling a zombie apocalypse
multiple exposure of people in overcrowded city resembling a zombie apocalypse

Heartless in San Francisco

This column is the second in a series. To read part one, click here. I’ll come back to the sights and sounds of the Orange County Rescue Mission, but after four days there I flew to San Francisco and walked around that city. The old song notwithstanding, few Americans these days leave their hearts there. Tourists still visit Fisherman’s Wharf and ride the cable cars, but books with titles like San Fransicko hit hard, and videos of addicts in SF’s Tenderloin neighborhood are stomach-churning. What’s happening in San Francisco is both better and worse than those dramatic presentations. The Noe Valley neighborhood, for instance, features Victorian houses, small markets, and cafes. Nearby Bernal Heights (sometimes referred to as “maternal heights”) Read More ›

josh hild unsplash

San Francisco Does Detroit

I left San Francisco just in time — at the end of 2016. Sure, I saw the occasional junkie shooting up in public when I still worked in the city. And yes, I saw men use the sidewalk at the intersection of 5th and Market Streets as a toilet. But I never saw swarms of shoplifters emptying pharmacy shelves. If I needed new shoes, I could pop over to Nordstrom at the Westfield San Francisco Centre at 5th and Market. The number of friends who had stopped going into the city entirely — and switched to shopping in suburban malls — was unsettling, but tourists could help fill the gap. This week, sadly, Nordstrom announced it won’t renew its lease Read More ›

a-homeless-people-camp-at-the-base-of-a-bridge-over-the-willamette-river-in-portland-oregon-stockpack-adobe-stock
A homeless people camp at the base of a bridge over the Willamette River in Portland Oregon
A homeless people camp at the base of a bridge over the Willamette River in Portland Oregon

Not Just Seattle: Homelessness Plaguing Major West Coast Cities

This is Portland @RJBalpha continuing his journey throughout West Coast/PNW. He says sweeps continue under @tedwheeler in #Portland, but homeless encampments continue to spread further out from Downtown core. Similar pattern developing in #Seattle. San Francisco is Dystopian @RJBalpha was also in Tenderloin neighborhood. Bay Area is one of wealthiest regions in America and epicenter of Big Tech. Yet this is what’s being allowed. Greetings from Los Angeles Homeless crisis is out of control on West Coast. @RJBalpha driving through parts of California this week and documenting. These are truly America’s slums. It looks like a war zone.

homeless-in-san-francisco-sheltering-in-place-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-stockpack-adobe-stock
Homeless in San Francisco sheltering in place during the COVID-19 pandemic
Homeless in San Francisco sheltering in place during the COVID-19 pandemic

Do Homeless Lives Matter? Nine Fatal Minutes, Two Years Later

“Internet trolls said out loud what many people may be ashamed to even think: Just two more dead bums.” Read More ›
unique-methadone-mile
Unique at Methadone Mile in Boston
Video still by Jonathan Choe, © Discovery Institute

Struggling at Boston’s Methadone Mile

But the situation is far from perfect.  On the outskirts of Boston, some call this place “Methadone Mile.” Others give a more hopeful moniker: “Recovery Road.” Either way, city officials say it's a humanitarian and health crisis.  Read More ›
Robert-Marbut-JZ0A4976

Robert Marbut on America’s Homelessness Crisis, Strategies for Uplifting the Homeless, and Effective Government Policies

Homelessness has reached crisis proportions. Few issues of human dignity are as heart wrenching as the wretched scenes in our most prosperous cities—San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle—where one can drive down main thoroughfares and be confronted with tent encampments lining streets that provide scant shelter for thousands of destitute people. Read More ›
California street at sunrise
Downtown San Francisco with California Street at sunrise, San Francisco, California, USA
Downtown San Francisco with California Street at sunrise, San Francisco, California, USA

California’s Epic Homeless Nightmare

What’s the matter with California? “It’s suffering from San Fransickness,” which is “pathological altruism,” answers Michael Shellenberger, author of the book “San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities.” Read More ›