Posted on 02/20/2018 12:35:19 AM PST by Altura Ct.
The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit surveyed 153 blocks of downtown San Francisco in search of trash, needles, and feces. The investigation revealed trash littered across every block. The survey also found 41 blocks dotted with needles and 96 blocks sullied with piles of feces.
How dirty is San Francisco? An NBC Bay Area Investigation reveals a dangerous mix of drug needles, garbage, and feces throughout downtown San Francisco. The Investigative Unit surveyed 153 blocks of the city – the more than 20-mile stretch includes popular tourist spots like Union Square and major hotel chains. The area – bordered by Van Ness Avenue, Market Street, Post Street and Grant Avenue – is also home to City Hall, schools, playgrounds, and a police station.
As the Investigative Unit photographed nearly a dozen hypodermic needles scattered across one block, a group of preschool students happened to walk by on their way to an afternoon field trip to citiy hall.
“We see poop, we see pee, we see needles, and we see trash,” said teacher Adelita Orellana. “Sometimes they ask what is it, and that’s a conversation that’s a little difficult to have with a 2-year old, but we just let them know that those things are full of germs, that they are dangerous, and they should never be touched.” In light of the dangerous conditions, part of Orellana’s responsibilities now include teaching young children how to avoid the contamination.
'There’s Poop in There'
“The floor is dirty,” said A’Nylah Reed, a 3-year-old student at the preschool, who irately explained having to navigate dirty conditions on her walks to school. “There is poop in there,” she exclaimed. “That makes me angry.”
Kim Davenport, A’nyla’s mother, often walks her daughter to the Compass preschool on Leavenworth Street in San Francisco. She said she often has to pull her daughter out of the way in order to keep her from stepping on needles and human waste. “I just had to do that this morning!”
The Investigate Unit spent three days assessing conditions on the streets of downtown San Francisco and discovered trash on each of the 153 blocks surveyed. While some streets were littered with items as small as a candy wrapper, the vast majority of trash found included large heaps of garbage, food, and discarded junk. The investigation also found 100 drug needles and more than 300 piles of feces throughout downtown.
Dried Feces can Lead to Airborne Viruses
“If you do get stuck with these disposed needles you can get HIV, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B, and a variety of other viral diseases,” said Dr. Lee Riley, an infectious disease expert at University of California, Berkeley. He warned that once fecal matter dries, it can become airborne, releasing potentially dangerous viruses, such as the rotavirus. “If you happen to inhale that, it can also go into your intestine,” he said. The results can prove fatal, especially in children.
Riley has researched conditions across the poorest slums of the world. His book titled, “Slum Health,” examines health problems that are created by extreme poverty.
San Francisco Compared to Some of the Dirtiest Slums in the World
Based on the findings of the Investigative Unit survey, Riley believes parts of the city may be even dirtier than slums in some developing countries.
“The contamination is … much greater than communities in Brazil or Kenya or India,” he said. He notes that in those countries, slum dwellings are often long-term homes for families and so there is an attempt to make the surroundings more livable. Homeless communities in San Francisco, however, are often kicked out from one part of town and forced to relocate to another. The result is extreme contamination, according to Riley.
'We Aren’t Addressing the Root Cause'
“Unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable,” said Supervisor Hillary Ronen. “We're losing tourists. We're losing conventions in San Francisco. All of this is happening because we aren't addressing the root cause, which is we need more temporary beds for street homelessness.”
San Francisco Spends $30 Million Cleaning Feces, Drug Needles
Until the problem is fixed, Mohammed Nuru, the Director of the Public Works Department, is charged with the towering task of cleaning the streets, over and over again. “Yes, we can clean, he said, “and then go back a few hours later, and it looks as if it was never cleaned. So is that how you want to spend your money?” The 2016-2017 budget for San Francisco Public Works includes $60.1 million for “Street Environmental Services.” The budget has nearly doubled over the past five years. Originally, that money, was intended to clean streets, not sidewalks. According to city ordinances, sidewalks are the responsibility of property owners. However, due to the severity of the contamination in San Francisco, Public Works has inherited the problem of washing sidewalks. Nuru estimates that half of his street cleaning budget – about $30 million – goes towards cleaning up feces and needles from homeless encampments and sidewalks. 'Human Tragedy' in San Francisco A single pile of human waste, said Nuru, takes at least 30 minutes for one of his staffers to clean. “The steamer has to come. He has to park the steamer. He's got to come out with his steamer, disinfect, steam clean, roll up and go.”
Asked if he’d be willing to give up part of his budget and allocate it to more directly addressing the homeless problem – which would likely alleviate his cleaning problem – Nuru said, “The Board of Supervisors, the mayor – those are decisions that they need to make." He added, “I want to continue cleaning and I want to be able to continue to provide services. The Public Works Department provides services seven days a week, 24 hours a day.”
Ronen acknowledges that finding the money to provide 1,000 additional beds for the homeless may very well take years. The city is planning on opening three new Navigation Centers for homeless people by the summer, but two centers will also be closing.
“We're not going to make a huge dent in this problem unless we deal with some underlying major social problems and issues,” she said. “There's a human tragedy happening in San Francisco.”
Ronen believes San Francisco has been too focused on permanent housing for the homeless and that the city has neglected to provide enough temporary shelter, which can provide the homeless a respite from the streets. The city currently has about 2,000 temporary beds. Ronen, however, believes an additional 1,000 are needed, at a cost of about $25 million.
“We need to find a source of revenue,” said Ronen. “Whether that's putting something on the ballot to raise business taxes or taking a look at our general fund and re-allocating money towards that purpose and taking it away from something else in the city.”
It is impossible to live in castles in the sky unless you have a bunch of people on the ground working the machines that keep the castles in the air.
Nothing in these $hit-hole cities will change as long as the elites can remain isolated from the disgusting nastiness that their policies have brought about.
This is what happens when Democrats have complete control of city government.
San Frans**tsco
Roadcat: “Poop free zone”.
______.
Love your idea!
Interesting that the first four metro areas are in the San Joaquin Valley. All the foul air trapped between the coastal mountains and the Sierras?
Arrogant f’ng hippies of the 60s, leave the clean, ordered homes of their parents, flock to SFO to plant seeds that their grandchildren reap today. From desecration to defecation. I think it’s a symbolic epitaph to their morally bankrupt dreams.
Spoken like the kindhearted guy we’ve come to know you to be.
What a stupid thing to post - wishing for the demise of innocent people, sick!
Easy answer. Post “Poop Free Zone” signs on every block. That will work as well as any other method of throwing money at the situation. Declare poop to be a lethal weapon, and jail those who flash it in public. Create a poop buy-back program and pay them a buck for each poop dropped off at public collection offices; main collection at City Hall. They’re used to piles of it there.
Good idea...Call the program..”Cash For Crap”...
[poop picture]
And I thought pigeons were the problem...
Isn’t that a Tony Bennett standard?
“I left my stool in San Francisco
High on a hill, it calls to me...”
You're probably thinking of Alcatraz Island, the former penal site. Owned by the feds, and part of a national park.
However, the city owns Treasure Island connected to the SF Bay Bridge (given them as a former naval base by the feds). SF turned it into low-income housing and it's already had millions of tax dollars dumped into it and is full of subsidized tenants. Best views of the bay, in use by the ones least able to afford it. They really should build a tent city in one of the city parks, but the problem is that the bums want to sit on sidewalks downtown begging for handouts. Best solution would be to just kill them off, but that's too radical.
Some might think beds are too expensive. However, SF throws in free van shuttles to pick up homeless and deliver them back to the streets in the morning (I kid you not). Additionally, they have free washing machines and dryers with detergent, shower facilities, free telephone use and recreational facilities provided to homeless at these shelters. Not to mention, free drug needles and condoms, as well as medical care. It's not just a bed for the night, it's a real money pit for tax dollars.
San Francisco is a garbage dump, has been for as long as I can remember. Walk out of your 5 star hotel to a bum living in the bus stop vestibule and dumping on the sidewalk.
I honestly feel sorry for the few honest families who try to raise normal kids there....
I had to travel to SF quite a few times in the 2013-15 period and did not observe any of these type of problems that have been in the news lately. Although I walked around quite a lot and took public transportation, I never once saw or smelled any of the things that are being described. Things must have really gone downhill in the last three years. It’s probably related to the dramatically worsening homeless situation which has also affected other west coast cities in the same period.
You speak of innocence.
San francisco is not innocent....... that’s the point of the article
... and, of course, liberal San Franciscans).
Liberalism is disease.
So you’re belief is that there are no innocent people residing in San Francisco and therefore an earthquake should rumble through and wipe it out? Sorry, that’s insane
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