Showing posts with label homelessness. Show all posts
Liberty, Fraternity, Equality In Berkeley? Non!
Just so you know, Solano Ave. is not a nest of reactionary right-wingers. Everyone knows that Berkeley's Republican population lives in caves in the Oakland Hills (AKA Tora Bora West). And I can understand their concerns about homeless people - a broad category that includes drunks, lunatics, and itinerant gutter punks - given that Berkeley's sidewalks are already overflowing with layabouts and their leavings. But, Goodwill is not what attracts the homeless. Berkeley itself is the attractant. I'd say it's well known on the street that places like Berkeley and San Francisco promise relatively easy living if all you want to do all day is get drunk and cage for change. Loitering and drunk-in-public laws simply have no meaning when progressives are in charge of every level of government, and even if the voters become disgusted, there are homeless advocates who somehow manage to carry a greater voice in city government than the voters and merchants who are degraded by the presence of the homeless.Goodwill isn't getting a whole lot of it in Berkeley.
Solano Avenue merchants are trying to stop the nonprofit giant from opening a thrift store in the upscale commercial district, saying it would be a magnet for the homeless, noisy delivery trucks and bargain-hungry shoppers not likely to patronize the area's boutique baby stores and Persian rug shops.
"We need specialty stores that will draw people here, and that's not going to be Goodwill," said Anni Ayers Forcum, owner of a jewelry store on Solano Avenue.
Goodwill Industries of the East Bay began looking to open a store at 1831 Solano Ave. last summer and asked the city for an administrative use permit.
The permit is still pending, and Goodwill has not yet signed a lease for the storefront that was once occupied by a dance studio and a video store.
(...)
That has not stopped some merchants from circulating anti-Goodwill petitions and asking the city to stop the project on the grounds that it would alter the character of the neighborhood.
"We have nothing against Goodwill, we just don't think they belong on upper Solano," said Gerry Ruskewicz, who works at Sottovoce women's clothing boutique. "We're worried about the homeless and people leaving bags of donations outside."
Blaming Goodwill for attracting the homeless is not only wrong, it's a jerk move and snobby as well. I've never seen a Goodwill that wasn't clean, well lit, and orderly, even when they are located in rougher areas like the Tenderloin. What Solano Ave merchants don't like are the down scale shoppers who might appear in their delicately balanced land of Persian Carpets and Whole Foods Markets.
That's liberals for you: always ready to fight for the little guy as long as the little guy stays in their own neighborhoods.
Conflict Of Vision: S.F. Homeless Politics
I've been hanging out with the Haight Street kids. Over the course of a week or so, I smoked weed, drank malt liquor, witnessed nasty run-ins with police officers — all events that anyone who has walked down the sidewalks of that legendary street would expect. But I also met people who'd give away their last dollar to a friend, people who know a thing or two about community, and people who don't see sidewalks only as thoroughfares to commerce.
Ironically, though the homeless kids on Haight are the explicit inspiration for Proposition L, the sit-lie measure on the Nov. 2 ballot, their voices have been significantly absent from the vitriolic debate on its merits and faults. Ironic because of all people, it's these young men and women — and the citizens of San Francisco who interact humanely with them — who could teach us the most about what public space in San Francisco could be.
Most of the stories in this special anniversary issue are about marginalized youth — young people trying to survive and make their way against all odds in an increasingly hostile city and a bitter, harsh economy.
But there's an important difference about San Francisco today, something earlier generations of immigrants didn't face. The cost of housing, always high, has so outstripped the entry-level and nonprofit wage scale that it's almost impossible for young people to survive in this town — much less have the time to add to its artistic and creative culture.
I met the 21-year-old daughter of a college friend the other day. She's as idealistic as we all were. She wants to move to San Francisco for the same reasons we did and you did — except maybe she won't. Because she felt as if she had to come visit first, to use her dad's network, see if she could line up a job and figure out if her likely earnings would cover the cost of living. When I mentioned that I'd just up and left the East Coast and headed west, planning to figure it out when I got here, she gave me a look that was part amazement and part sadness. You just can't do that anymore.
The odds are pretty good that San Francisco won't get her — her talent and energy will go somewhere else, somewhere that's not so harsh on young people. I wondered, as I do every once in a while when I'm feeling halfway between an angry political writer and an old curmudgeon: would I come to San Francisco today?
Would Harvey Milk? Would Jello Biafra? Would Dave Eggers? Would you?
If you were born here, would you stay?
Are we squandering this city's greatest resource — its ability to attract and retain creative people?
Down & Out in SF: The Homeless Face Eviction
Seven years from now, the downtown Transbay Terminal will be a gleaming, glass-walled showpiece of transit glory, drawing travelers from all over to its ultramodern train and bus stations.
At the moment, though, it is a decaying pit of despair for the homeless hordes who have used it as shelter for decades. For them, life is about to become complicated.
The 1939-vintage terminal will be closed for demolition, to make way for construction of the new showpiece, at one minute after midnight on Aug. 7. The complex at First and Mission streets is to be cleared of all people - which, at that hour, will mean dozens who are still clinging to vain hopes that they can keep sleeping in the hulking terminal despite daily warnings that the wrecking ball is on its way.
Among them is the gray-bearded Cat Man, who mumbles angrily as he strides around the terminal all day with a huge orange cat on his shoulder. He sleeps with the cat in a coffin-size cardboard box and rebuffs all offers of help with "Go away!"
Also facing eviction is Olawaye Fabunmi, 55, who sits all night against the concrete terminal wall with his head and shoulders covered by a beige blanket that is as tattered as his clothes. He refuses all help, even dollar donations.
"I have a plan, I have a direct marketing advertising company that I run, and I am just waiting for the right business opportunity to market new things," Fabunmi said the other night before covering his head with the blanket again.
"I've been sleeping in this terminal for a year, and nobody has offered me anything I want," said 44-year-old Connie Britton, slumped inside on a bench at 10 p.m. one recent night. "I have emphysema and bad depression, and I've spent half my life in jail, so I can't stand to be inside with a bunch of people in a dormitory kind of situation like a shelter.
"They say they're going to tear this place down, but I'll believe it when I see it," Britton said. "I'm staying here until something better comes along."
