Response to Zero Coronavirus infection: Staged “State of Emergency”
San Francisco fathers and mothers have for decades presided over a
crisis and failed to fix it.
A United Nations Special Rapporteur in 2018 visited and interviewed
residents in San Francisco’s homeless camps and compared conditions with “those
of Mumbai” (Bombay), India, where billionaires in 2008 “had the highest average
wealth of any city in the world.
After New York City (103) and Hong Kong (93), San
Francisco ranks third (74) in the number of billionaires (latest update
Business Insider / Wikipedia).
By any measures, the United States as a whole and the city of San Francisco are “rich”; but “the deplorable conditions” allowed by government in San Francisco, are “by international human rights standards …, unacceptable,” said the UN Rapporteur.
And the various remedies employed by changing city officials have treated homeless people with contempt, “like nonentities.” The conditions and remedies were described as “horrible,” “undignified,” “illogical,” and “tragic.”
The picture of San Francisco’s homelessness presents permanent
conditions, open to the world, of drug syringes, trash, and feces on streets — a
level of contamination that reportedly exceeds that of “communities in Brazil
(South America), Kenya (East Africa), or India” (South Asia).
Instead of housing the homeless, San Francisco, alternatively, turns to
activism to preserve the state of homelessness (and camps), or violent sweeps to
remove unsightly homelessness. The city fathers and mothers choose to hand out needles
and issue lucrative contracts to their friends (basically maintaining squalor
and dependency) to remove needles (if found) and feces from public view.
The estimated number of people in poverty in “the San Francisco Bay
Area grew from 573,333 (8.6 percent) in 2000 to 668,876 (9.7 percent) in
2006-2010.” A minimum-wage worker in San
Francisco “would have to work approximately 4.7 full-time jobs to be able to
rent a two-bedroom apartment.”
Homelessness may be caused by and may manifest a complex cycle of
illnesses (physical and mental), that worsens when there is no access to
treatment or healthy community, and one is unable to handle day to day chores and
challenges. Homeless people are vulnerable to (at the mercy of) feckless
politicians and profit-making “do-gooders”; predators and other physical and psychosocial
threats which compound troubling mental and physical conditions.
Homelessness in the United States and in San Francisco (among other
major cities, not to mention conditions in rural America) emerged as a
prevalent condition in the late 1970s and early 1980s’ deindustrialization without
alternative planning by competent and caring leadership (similar today rapid pace of workplace automation
and leaders’ failure see the scope of the problem and plan ahead) in the United
States.
Change without Thought or Care
Deindustrialization, Negligence, Force
Regional
deindustrialization (New England to Great Lakes, 1979-1984); second wave deinstitutionalization
(1970s following 1950s’ first wave); and the 21st century’s further deindustrialization
and job losses, population shifts and investment alternations (2001-2009).
Since the (1929-1930s)
Great Depression’s devastating epidemic of poverty, hunger, and homelessness, millions
of people have migrated across the United States in search of work and housing.
In San Francisco in the
1980s, wages stagnated, funding for welfare reform decreased, the social safety
net for underserved communities disappeared, and the number of people without
homes increased.
San Francisco officials
clamped down with zoning laws and redlining, “depriving certain neighborhoods
of essential resources such as housing, schools, clinics, and grocery stores”;
creating divisions within San Francisco districts; widening the income
inequality gap; and polarizing resource accessibility and socioeconomic
demographics. A critical consequence is today’s high rates of homelessness.
San Francisco’s “Model” Leadership better not replicated
- Dianne Feinstein years (1978-1988): open temporary shelters and handed out “a sandwich and a bed for a night”
- Arthur Christ Agnos (b. Arthouros Agnos) (1988-1992) for the homeless constructed “two” multi-service buildings for housing, mental health counseling and substance abuse assistance
- Frank Jordan (1992-1996): imposed police and law enforcement power against the homeless and homelessness activists, issuing criminal citations; using police officers accompanied by social service workers to systematically sweep city blocks, engage homeless communities and dismantle homeless encampments
- Willie Brown (1996-2004): ratcheted up the force with his “militarized clearance of the homeless encampments” and police citations to the homeless from Jordan’s high of 11,000 to more than double that number, rising to 23,000
- Gavin Newsom (2004-2010 before becoming California’s governor) played both “good cop” “bad cop” roles: a little cash to house a few hundred homeless people some shuttled substance-abuse or mental health centers coupled with panhandling citations.
Treatable conditions and diseases untreated affect individuals and
society at large
- Hunger
- Mental disorders (wide ranging)
- Skin disorders
- Dental disease
- Parasitic infections
- Venereal disease
- Hepatitis due
Contempt prevails. In San Francisco today, a “sit-lie law” (Section 168
of its Police Code) criminalizes homelessness by making it “unlawful to sit or
lie down on a public sidewalk” between the hours of 7 a.m. and 11 p.m.
- Ed Lee 43rd Mayor of San Francisco (January 11, 2011 – December 12, 2017)
- Mark E. Farrell (appointed) 44th Mayor of San Francisco (January 23-July 11, 2018)
- London Nicole Breed 45th Mayor of San Francisco (July 11, 2018 - ); acting mayor (December 12, 2017 – January 23, 2018); President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (January 8, 2015 – June 26, 2018); Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (January 8, 2013 – July 11, 2018)
Yesterday’s News: Amidst persisting conditions of homelessness and no coronavirus
cases diagnosed, San Francisco Mayor London Breed declare a “coronavirus” “state
of emergency”
The Chronicle writer writes “Amid intensifying worldwide concern about
the spread of the new coronavirus, Mayor London Breed declared a state of
emergency for San Francisco Tuesday, which will ramp up the city’s efforts to
prepare for and confront potential cases.”
Sources
Wikipedia
List of cities by number of billionaires https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_number_of_billionaires
Homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_San_Francisco_Bay_Area
Deinstitutionalization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinstitutionalisation#United_States
Deindustrialization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deindustrialisation_by_country#United_States
San Francisco Chronicle In “SF Mayor London Breed declares state of
emergency over coronavirus” Dominic Fracassa February 25, 2020 https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/SF-mayor-London-Breed-declares-state-of-emergency-15083811.php
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