November 10, 2006
Homeless in the Park, I Think It Was the 4th of July
Two months after Newsom became the umpteenth Mayor to try and roust the homeless from the parks the Examiner checks on in to see how everything is going. The answer? Just swell says Recreation and Park Department General Manager Yomi Agunbiade. According to their stats, the city has torn down 380 encampments and placed 66 homeless people in housing and 33 have been given services. They also tallied who was in the park and discovered that the majority of them are between 18 and 34 and between 30 and 40 percent were from out of town.
Mayor McDreamy himself went to take a tour of the park and said the park was "looking good" and talked about how this is going to be an ongoing project. He also said he was thinking about creating a special police force to monitor the park and that's a good idea because we totally have extra cops lying around with nothing to do right now. Agunbiade said that after a 90 day trial period, they will check in and reevaluate everything to see how everything is going.
It's been awhile since we've been to the park so we have no idea how much better it is. We just know how bad it was (ever go biking through one of the park trails and make a wrong turn somewhere? Zoinks). Everyone interviewed in the story says things are looking better but all the people they interviewed would say that. So what do you think? Is the park better or worse these days?
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"...torn down 380 encampments..."
In other words, they destroyed 380 people's homes, quite possibly including their papers, medicines, bedding and personal keepsakes. McDreamy indeed.
the mayor wants to create a special police force?
Maybe he could run that one as long as they aren't unionized.
How about maybe he focus on the police force he currently has and get them to, you know, solve some fucking crimes and maybe, you know, reduce the number of HOMICIDES.
Hey Martha,
I'm going to build myself an encampment on your front porch tomorrow. I'm also going to piss and sh*t on the public sidewalk in front.
You might want to wear some hard soled shoes so that you dont stick yourself on any of my used needles. I mean, its my home now.
Get real. The park is for everyone to use and for NOBODY to live in. Anything less is just supporting dysfunctionality.
Look, the election's over. Can you give us a break from the "all poor people are incontinent" nonsense?
Insted, how about you and Mayor McDreamy get busy building some low-cost apartments so people don't have to live in the park?
It's striking to me that 'the park' in these stories, and for all I know in this entire lovely effort, seems to mean the block's worth of Golden Gate Park that's at the foot of Haight Street.
This is a tiny slice of a very large park.
The homeless are not moving out into the streets, they are simply moving west. The thickets around Metson and Mallard lakes are regular boomtowns now; the little hill looking over the 25th Avenue ingress to MLK Jr. Drive is the new town commons.
Just this week, I got to enjoy a friendly knife-fight over ownership of a Sunset Super shopping cart, right in my own front yard! Thanks, Mayor Newsom!
did anyone else see the part where they said that most of the people who were living in the park were from out of town?
I did. It's not like we're talking about SF residents down on their luck here. I can't think of any major city where squatting is legal. If you camp out illegally, you know the risks.
Awe the dreaded houseless people again. How dare they try to find a place to dwell. And they don't pay taxes either? Oh my.
But if they aren't in the park then I guess they must move to the Street. Hope they find a public toilet there!