This Is Why People Hate San Francisco: Volume 3
Once again it's time for an installment of this mildly confusing feature, in which we ask those ensconced too cozily in your SF bubbles to take a step back, summon your inner C.W. Nevius, and try to understand why some in this great country of ours (certainly not us!) might look askance at the way we do things here — if for nothing else than to enjoy an ironic chuckle at our own expense. If all of this seems too difficult, please refer to our other recurring feature, 7 Reasons to Love San Francisco, and be on your merry way.
Today's edition: The teenage summer campers in the Haight.
While many might be inclined to rush to the defense of any and all persons looking to exist freely on the public sidewalks of our fair city, others are quick to draw the line between the legitimately homeless and indigent, and those dreadlocked kids in the Upper Haight who probably just ran away from a cozy home in Tracy last month. Sure, some are runaways with rougher backgrounds, some are just potheads looking to chill, and still others are into some serious drugs and we should have some sympathy for our fellow humans, addictions and all. At least they can still care for a dog. (We'll set aside for the moment those two errant hippies who stole that golf cart in March and went on a crime spree.)
But when the topic turns to the upcoming Sit/Lie law on the November ballot, we have a few different contingents of sidewalk dwellers around town to defend/persecute, and the kids in the Haight are likely the ones who inspire the least sympathy.
For those on the outside looking in at San Francisco, the fact that we don't have enforce any sort of hyper-aggressive loitering laws is consistently a surprise — thus all the tourists who go home and talk about our homeless problem. But hey, this is San Francisco, and those very sidewalks in the Haight are where the Boomers invented love, so, there's that.
PREVIOUSLY: This Is Why People Hate San Francisco: Volume 1
This Is Why People Hate San Francisco: Volume 2