As we discussed:
https://medium.com/@Scott_Wiener/helping-the-homeless-doesn-t-mean-anything-goes-on-san-francisco-s-streets-b7063296aeb5
Supervisor Scott Weiner differentiates between homelessness and problematic street behaviors. We need to working on [sic] both, and not be shamed by homeless rights activists that we are trying to criminalize the homeless. As San Francisco, we are a compassionate City, if we did not want to have deal [sic] with homelessness we would move to Walnut Creek.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/nevius/article/Combatting-homelessness-requires-making-tough-6472089.php
Best, John
John Caner, CEO
Downtown Berkeley Association
Anyway, the bit about Walnut Creek just caught my eye. It fascinates me how the people that run these paramilitary booster organizations profess their love for the culture of the places they occupy while at the same time doing everything they can to destroy that culture in the name of civility, investment protection, whatever. Our local BIDs have the same syndrome. You can also spot the “if we did not want X we would move to Y” meme in discussions of homelessness in Venice. The very people who’ve moved in there over the last 30 years and destroyed the culture and ambiance of the place preface all their statements about cracking down on homelessness with hat-tips to the rebel traditions of the neighborhood: If we didn’t like living on the edge we’d move to Santa Monica1 but we still have to arrest all these homeless people because they’re scary and they smell bad. There’s no conclusion here, I just thought it was interesting.
Image of the astonishingly beautiful city of Berkeley, California, is via Wikimedia. Image of Berkeley BID Patrollie punching homeless man is a screenshot from this video and appears here under a claim of fair use.
