Speaking of being cruel to the homeless, the managers of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium have taken to using loud and offensive noise as a last-ditch effort to shoo homeless people away from camping under their big awning. They're blasting a bunch of "industrial" sounds taken off of iTunes, like revving motorcycles, chainsaws, sirens, and presumably the early-90s oeuvre of Nine Inch Nails out of their outdoor speakers after 11 p.m. in order to deter the dozens of people who like to call that sidewalk home.

Mustache twins Matier & Ross get a quote from a homeless dude who claims to have 6,100 quality-of-life citations under his belt (does he keep them all in a box somewhere?), who calls this tactic "shitty behavior," but Another Planet Entertainment, who now runs the under-used auditorium, says they've tried everything and this is working so far. They say they've gotten "an enormous amount of complaints" from opera- and symphony-goers who must trek back to their Mercedes after performances amidst the flotsam and jetsam of Civic Center, and being private property they're doing their best to do what the city apparently can't.

The city, as represented by new homeless czar Bevan Dufty, says they're "doing their best" to deal with the Civic Center homeless encampments. Except that they've been around the area for decades, so...

[Chron]