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San Francisco fights over its character (Barf Alert)
Associated Press ^ | December 8, 2006 | Justin M. Norton

Posted on 12/09/2006 9:01:41 AM PST by Zakeet

SAN FRANCISCO - An effort to clean up some of the city's seedier neighborhoods and rid the streets of junkies, hookers and runaways has run headlong into San Francisco's free-to-be-who-you-are ethos.

Nearly four decades after the Summer of Love, residents and merchants frustrated with what they regard as blight are turning to the city for help or taking revitalization into their own hands.

But other residents of the Tenderloin district and Haight-Ashbury contend a crackdown would rob their neighborhoods of their identity and violate everything San Francisco stands for.

Joey Cain, a board member of the Haight-Ashbury Neighborhood Council, complained that those who would drive the vagrants from the neighborhood are turning their backs on the Haight's "historic obligation" to shelter the downtrodden.

This is, after all, the city that proved so appealing to the Beats, the hippies and practically every other brand of noncomformist.

Haight-Ashbury was the very capital of the Summer of Love in 1967, when young people flocked for the music, sexual freedom and drug culture. They are still coming, panhandling on corners and sleeping under the trees in nearby Golden Gate Park.

But the neighborhood has changed. Its stately Victorian homes sell for millions, and the head shops are mixed with chain stores and trendy cafes. Business owners and longtime residents complaint that street kids harass the elderly and leave playgrounds littered with needles.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: culture; liberalism; liberalland; sanfrancisco; sanfransickocvalues
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The lunacy of the liberal mind never ceases to amaze me -- even when make allowances for the fact the people mentioned in this article elected Nancy Pelosi .

The above cite where cleaning out panhandlers would rob their neighborhoods of their identity and violate everything San Francisco stands for is but one example.

Another includes the city's decision earlier this year to pair (homeless persons) with social workers who advised them on how to find housing ... those who had someone back home to care for them were given a one-way ticket. This resulted in diatribes accusing the city of pandering to well-to-do residents and abandoning its principles.

Still another involved a community group that wanted to employ homeless people to plant hundreds of trees in the Tenderloin district, San Francisco's seediest quarter with its flophouses, strip clubs and sex shops. However this proposal, the beautification project angered some gay and transgender residents.

You are well advised to take anti-nausea medication before reading the article.

1 posted on 12/09/2006 9:01:47 AM PST by Zakeet
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To: Zakeet

The sooner the place becomes a habitat for Pacific Ocean marine life, the better for the country.

I DO hope Ghiardelli moves to Vegas before the next BIG ONE, however.


2 posted on 12/09/2006 9:07:18 AM PST by Dick Bachert (--)
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To: Zakeet

The Green Goes UP! (punchline to an old joke, about hiring the less-than-capable to plant trees...)


3 posted on 12/09/2006 9:07:25 AM PST by patton (Sanctimony frequently reaps its own reward.)
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To: Zakeet

"...liberal mind...?

I believe you are in the lead for the 2006 "Oxymoron of the Year" award.


4 posted on 12/09/2006 9:08:52 AM PST by Dick Bachert (--)
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To: patton
The Green Goes UP!

Auburn students... I s'pect

5 posted on 12/09/2006 9:10:26 AM PST by Wings-n-Wind (The answers remain available; Wisdom is obtained by asking all the right questions!)
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To: Zakeet
At some point after the vagrants, hookers, homeless and druggies, drive the property values down in these areas and decrease the taxes collected by the city start to go down, watch the uber liberals Stalinist tendencies start to emerge.

Off to the social services concentration camps they will go.

6 posted on 12/09/2006 9:13:43 AM PST by Popman ("What I was doing wasn't living, it was dying. I really think God had better plans for me.")
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To: Wings-n-Wind
Now, I am not going to mention any group by name...flame wars have started over less.

But you could tell the joke that way, yes. ;)

7 posted on 12/09/2006 9:13:59 AM PST by patton (Sanctimony frequently reaps its own reward.)
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To: Zakeet
I'm sure that someone at NASA is working on the problem of how to deflect asteroids on a collision course with Earth. Maybe in addition we could be addressing the problem of how to direct one to San Francisco?
8 posted on 12/09/2006 9:14:20 AM PST by Stultis
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To: Zakeet

It's good to see the majortity of the citizens of SF may be finally getting some common sense. What kind of moron would think that letting bums, drug addicts, crazy people and thieves roam the streets like packs of wild dogs is anything but a blight?


9 posted on 12/09/2006 9:14:47 AM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham (Democracy: The worst form of government, except for all the others.)
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To: Zakeet

I lived in Frisco for 4 lousy years. My ex is still there. Better her than me.

Ah yes, I remember the stench of urine, the filth, the beggars and bums. And those silly boys, light in their loafers.


10 posted on 12/09/2006 9:31:14 AM PST by garyhope (It's World War IV, right here, right now courtesy of Islam.)
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To: patton
Concur....

But worth the risk...
It's a waaaay back southern tradition...

Have a good one...

11 posted on 12/09/2006 9:36:16 AM PST by Wings-n-Wind (The answers remain available; Wisdom is obtained by asking all the right questions!)
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To: Zakeet

This is a perfect article to read out loud in its entirety with that self-important, haughty, liberal mouthpiece voice that Michael Savage uses on his show when mocking news stories written by leftist tools. The article just oozes with liberal values. I'm sure the author gets all nostalgic when seeing a glob of phlegm on the sidewalk on Market Street or being panhandled by alcoholics and drug addicts at every corner.


12 posted on 12/09/2006 9:52:34 AM PST by SpaceBar
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To: Zakeet
Earlier this year, the city decided to enforce an ordinance that makes overnight camping in Golden Gate Park a misdemeanor. It gave 200 homeless people time to remove their belongings; they were paired with social workers who advised them on how to find housing. Those who had someone back home to care for them were given a one-way ticket.

Elected officials in San Francisco know they must tread lightly to avoid offending people's ultraliberal sensibilities.

The City could outsource the job to the ChiComs. They'd get it done in a couple of hours.

.Tiananmen Square 1989

13 posted on 12/09/2006 10:00:01 AM PST by Donald Rumsfeld Fan ("Fake but Accurate": NY Times)
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To: garyhope
the beggars and bums

Who get what, $300 a month from the city, no questions asked?

14 posted on 12/09/2006 10:41:46 AM PST by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: Puppage

Is that true?


15 posted on 12/09/2006 11:14:32 AM PST by Howlin (42 days to Destin!)
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To: Zakeet
Despite creeping gentrification, San Francisco continues to draw transients, like the young people in tattered black sweatshirts who sat on a street corner in the Haight with leashed pit bulls recently, asking for change. "You can get around by the kindness of people's hearts," said Jaclyn, a 25-year-old who would only give her first name.

Unbelievable!

16 posted on 12/09/2006 11:42:50 AM PST by Clink ("Government is not the solution, government is the problem".--Ronald Reagan)
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To: Clink

The fun part of living here is riduculing hippies without fear of recourse. They wouldn't even raise a hand to save their own lives.


17 posted on 12/09/2006 11:47:57 AM PST by Ieatfrijoles
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To: Mad_Tom_Rackham

"It's good to see the majortity of the citizens of SF may be finally getting some common sense. What kind of moron would think that letting bums, drug addicts, crazy people and thieves roam the streets like packs of wild dogs is anything but a blight?"

New Orleanians?


18 posted on 12/09/2006 11:59:35 AM PST by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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To: Zakeet

How does a city "fight over its character" when any character it had was lost long ago?


19 posted on 12/09/2006 12:10:07 PM PST by DakotaRed (Kerry Should Resign!)
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To: Zakeet

It's why I left and moved. :)

I do have a LJ group for Bay Areans who are conservatives

http://community.livejournal.com/sf_conservative/profile


20 posted on 12/10/2006 2:41:49 AM PST by I_Love_My_Husband (http://community.livejournal.com/_2008_repubpres/profile)
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