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Matier & Ross were all over this nugget of news today: bronze plaques will be placed in locations where the city's homeless have died. The "memorials" will be placed in Chris Daly and Ross Mirkarimi's districts, which include the Tenderloin, Civic Center, Haight-Ashbury and Western Addition. Each will be 2 feet by 2 feet "human-shaped plaques" and "[inscribed] with details of the deceased's lives and the circumstances of their deaths," according to the Chron. Let's just hope they don't look like the mockup the Gate created above.
Matier & Ross also couldn't help but get some digs in at both Mirkarimi and Daly, whose districts will be displaying the sidewalk plaques.
... However, it doesn't seem many of the supes bothered to read the resolution before voting "yes."Mirkarimi, for example, was listed as co-sponsor - but he knew little about the project when we contacted him after the vote, and he referred us to Daly's office.
Great. Not only are we getting odd plaques about homeless people dying on our streets, but our supes barely read the proposal before approval. Perhaps it's a good idea to put up these plaques, but do they have to be "human-shaped"? It takes away from the seriousness of the plaque and makes the whole project seem like some viral Truth campaign or the like.
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"Perhaps it's a good idea to put up these plaques"
Only if we get accurate accounts of the deceased and the circumstances of their death. I imagine we'd see a lot of:
"John Doe came to San Francisco with paranoid schizophrenia, $112 and a crippling heroin addiction. He was sent here via bus by (insert city name), in lieu of prison time. John passed his ample free time with public defecation, screaming gibberish at passersby, aggressive panhandling and having his open wounds cleaned at SF General Hospital.
A two-time voter for Supervisor Chris Daly, John died from spiking some tainted China White. He will be missed."
This is a very stupid idea for a city whose #1 business is tourism. Do you really think tourists wants to see plaques dedicated to homeless? No! They don't want to see anything related to homelessness on their vacation.
Cindy: Won't make a difference, since the plaques are only going to be located in the districts where people already expect the homeless to die.
It will be interesting to how fast before the booze and dope infested bums piss and shit all over the memorials. Isn't it ironic, don't ya think... (sing along if you know the words)
I wonder how much job training could've been paid for with the money used to install that art.
With proper taxidermy, the homeless themselves could be reinstalled on the street permanently.
Cindy: Thank you for helping me make up my mind about this issue.
This is just another spadeful of dirt from the hole that the "progressives" are digging for themselves. As the advocates keep pushing left, more and more people will wake up and move right (still left but just more toward the center).
Can we also have plaques memorializing all the local businesses, nightclubs, and stores that died due to excessive regulations from the Mayor and the Board?
These are human beings. I suppose these plaques well serve to remind us of this on a regular basis. Not that I particularly want to be reminded.
Generati is right. These are human beings and the whole point of this installation is to remind us of that. Based on some of the comments posted here, it's an issue about which we decidedly need to be reminded, tourists be damned.
I hope that they are pee-decay proof.
"These are human beings"
So what?
Should we memorialize every person who dies in San Francisco? Have we actually gotten to the point where the homeless are THAT special? Everybody dies.
Why don't we just have a fucking award show at Symphony Hall for them as well? Best Original Cardboard Sign, Best Use of Profanity in an Improvised Tirade, Best Track Marks, Best Use of Malt Liquor in a Leading Role...
i don't care if they are human beings. do not spend my money on this shit. if daly and the monotone retard ross want to spend their own salaries this crap, go for it. spend my money, you are through!
"These are human beings"
And there is a list a mile long of dead human beings more worthy of a memorial.
There should be a memorial to sanity, which died the day this was approved.
Sounds like a boon for whomever makes the materials for these things .... hope it isn't material that is worth a buck, otherwise it'll be stolen. Any metals they can use that aren't worth anything?
Retarded idea. Absolutely retarded. Nope, no Ross Mirkarimi for Mayor signs for me, thanks. I've lost any notion he had any common sense.
+100 to RonAlbertson
lmao
Ron Albertson, you crack me up.
I see this becoming a tourist *attraction*, kind of like when people pose next to the giant pirate on the wharf. They'll lay down and try to fit their Idaho bodies into the chalk marks, "Hey, Jethro, take a picture of me!!"
I can so see this happening...
"And there is a list a mile long of dead human beings more worthy of a memorial."
This isn't a memorial to these people, per se. What it is, is a testament to the way our society devalues and demeans human life. Don't get me wrong, I have as much limited sympathy as the next guy for people who repeatedly make bad choices and end up on the streets as a result of those choices. However, to characterize all homeless people as layabouts and losers is unfair. A sizable proportion of the homeless are mentally ill and lack both the faculties and resources to attend to their diseases. That's tragic enough as is, but the fact that people like you, fizzandpop, seemingly consider these people some kind of expendable human garbage is a lot worse.
as long as this doesn't cost the city anything, why not do it? The article says that the project is privately funded by a guy named Ian Brennan. Commenters here may not want to spend their money on homeless memorials, but Brennan clearly does want to spend his on them. I don't see the harm in letting him, which from what I can tell is all that the Supervisors did by approving the plan.
@angry young man
Thank you for cutting and pasting. You're doing god's work, really.
Thank you for helping me make up my mind about this issue.
Yeah, we'll really be sticking it to those square toursists by reminding them every few hundred yards how loudly we talk as a city about the homeless issue but how badly we fail at it.
Just seeing the live ones everywhere in this city is reminder enough of the issue.
I get a bad feeling that this kind of cutesy garbage is only going to spread. What next, plaques in the sidewalk memorializing everyone who dies of AIDS, Cancer, Herpes, hit by a bus, beaned by a meteorite, stabbed in the ass... The list goes on and on forever.
y'all should remember that in all likelihood, those folks who died on the street ... would really prefer not to have done so.
it's a bummer for you that they offend your sight, but guess what, it's more of a bummer for them.
so if a few 'cutesy' plaques get the message out ... maybe then we'll finally do the right thing with city services so homeless deaths won't happen so often.
ps: my dad was one of those guys who died homeless, a lot of years ago.
Here's an idea: Instead of spending money on dead homeless people, how about we spend that money on those that are still alive?
How much will these plaques cost and how many people could each plaque feed?
Alternately, I'd like to put up plaques anywhere the public's money is spent frivolously by Supervisors.
@ stv:
Thank you. It's not that these people are human garbage and aren't worth remembering. It's that this memorial is more bullshit demonstration about how much some people care without any action that will make a palpable difference in getting these people off of the streets and improving their lives to back it.
davepyne:
so?
i'm not sure which is worse, the loser making that shit up to get sympathy for the issue or the guy making fun of her
regardless. if you let your dad die on the street homeless and you didn't do anything about it, the wrong person died.
didn't make it up.
didn't see or hear of him for the last four years of his life.
heard about it a long time later.
but gee, thanks for wishing me dead. that's super classy.
and it really lends a lot of credibility to all of your takes.
OK, this sure has degenerated. Lovely.
Anyway, I think jlantsberger has it partly right in that this is a BS demonstration. Other things to consider: How many of these dead would want to be "memorialized" in this way? Does it really serve them, or does it serve some other BS agenda? Regardless of the expense, all it does is serve to shame our city, which by and large DOES care about homelessness (even if our city government is helpless and hopeless in doing anything substantive about it).
MODERATOR, Paging the MODERATOR?
so you want sympathy for letting your dad die on the streets homeless???
[edited by SFist]
sucka,
feel free to point out where i say i want sympathy.
also, feel free to point out where this idea uses public money.
but gee, don't let me get in the way of your cussing on the internet. that's always a classy way to prove your arguments.
(sorry, daithi. and thanks for the reminder.)
Okay. That's enough. Let's keep the personal insults away from the comment section, and keep the discussion on track.
You've all been warned.
tell us all how many personal sacrifices you made to save your dad, other than having lost touch with him for 4 years till he wound up dead.
that will get my sympathy, not much else.
i can only imagine the things i'd do to keep someone like my dad off the streets.
i'd work 5 jobs, sell everyhing i own, you name it.
ps if he molested you or your kids and you wanted nothing to do with him, i totally understand but you have not offered anything to explain the situation, even vaguely.
none of your business, sucka.
i'm not interested in your sympathy, never have been.
and i don't need to explain myself to the likes of you.
get over yourself and try sticking to the subject of the article instead.
This is a great example of a brouhaha resulting from a little dishonesty, a little carelessness, and some sensationalism thrown in for fun.
First, the plaques are proposed to be privately funded. Daly sponsored/wrote the resolution, and the title is not so illuminating - something about "approving Mr. Ian Brennan's proposal for sidewalk plaques." The dishonesty is in that, as well as in the fact that he requested for the item NOT to go to a committee, but to be voted on without discussion at the next full board meeting. This designation is meant for legislation that is too minor to need a full discussion (like an official commendation), but also gets used to "sneak" things through.
So, we come to the carelessness. Peskin, as the president, can choose to send ANYTHING to committee, no matter what a member asks for. So, someone in that office didn't read the resolution carefully, or ask Daly what it was about, and let it slide. Because Supervisors are used to these items being minor - and because they have a lot of MAJOR stuff on their plates that is more important to read - they almost always vote "yes" without a second thought. (If you got huge 100-page packets to read every week, you'd have to filter too.) Which is why Mirkarimi and Peskin didn't even register it when M&R asked. (Although if Mirkarimi is co-sponsor... that means he should know something about it.)
Finally! The sensationalism. The resolution URGES DPW to install these plaques - doesn't force them. DPW gets to have the final say and even without this bad publicity, once DPW actually heard the details someone would call someone (someone #2 being another Supe or the Mayor's office) and the plaques would be stonewalled like that. So, not gonna happen, don't worry about it.
Would definitely be creep-tastic to walk out of your place on Howard or something every day to this, though!
great post rachdiggs. it just speaks to the classic irresponsible du jour actions that folks like daly, peskin and mirkirimi take at city hall. i really don't care that private money would pay for the plaque. who owns the street where it would be installed and maintained? we do! who gave them permission to permanently make it a monument to their cause du jour? nobody!
teerash, i respect that you don't want to divulge anything but you brought it up.
"Cindy: Won't make a difference, since the plaques are only going to be located in the districts where people already expect the homeless to die."
you mean like Haight Street, Market Street, the Embarcadero, Peir 39, all of down town.... tourists don't go here ever... neither do the bums..... the bums go where the people go, and where better then places where people who aren't from here, or arent accustom to panhandling or what ever.... either way I think this is a ridiculous waste of money...
RonAlbertson said it spot on
"Cindy: Won't make a difference, since the plaques are only going to be located in the districts where people already expect the homeless to die."
By manys
you mean like Haight Street, Market Street, the Embarcadero, Peir 39, all of down town.... tourists don't go here ever... neither do the bums..... the bums go where the people go, and where better then places where people who aren't from here, or arent accustom to panhandling or what ever.... either way I think this is a ridiculous waste of money...
RonAlbertson said it spot on