Meme - Kane 謝凱堯 @kane: "The reason why a lot of people in SF aren't allowed to have grocery stores is because progressives literally banned them in most of the city:"
Steven (Buss) Bacio: "Oh, you want to open a grocery store? LMAO get fucked"
Meme - Kate Willett @katewillett: "I know it’s not a popular opinion these days but: I still it’s fucked up a bunch of rich white guys in SF self-appointed to tell the victims of urban renewal they aren’t allowed to have a playground or a grocery store or affordable housing. It’s an uh, imperfect dynamic at best"
Armand Domalewski: "it is not "democracy" to ignore the will of voters expressed via surveys and elections because a small loud angry group of cranks shows up at an obscure commission at 2 PM on a Tuesday. it is the opposite"
"Both Klein and the Tech Right agree on one thing: democracy interferes with the market's ability to generate abundance, While Klein's version is more toned-down-limiting community input on development-his allies on the Tech Right are willing to go much further."
New International: "Kate Willett (@katewillett) considers the groups funding and promoting the "Abundance" faction in the Democratic Party:"
Readers added context they thought people might want to know: "Most grocery stores are prohibited from being built in areas of San Francisco as a result of legislation brought by Matt Gonzalez in 2004. It was expanded by, among others, Aaron Peskin. Both Gonzalez and Aaron Peskin are recognized as progressives."
End Wokeness on X - "India - 1 day to count 640M votes
Germany - 8 hours to count 50M votes
Argentina - 6 hours to count 27M votes
California - 4 weeks to count 16M votes"
Meme - "LOS ANGELES IN MOVIES *hot blonde girl going down boulevard with 2 shopping bags*
LOS ANGELES IN REAL LIFE *tents on sidewalk*"
Oakland looters ransack gas station as store owner Sam Mardaie claims cops took hours to respond - "A mob of looters ransacked an Oakland gas station convenience store and caused thousands of dollars in damage as the frustrated store manager claimed police took nine hours to respond to his plea for help. The horde, who had just attended a nearby car sideshow, broke into the 76 Station near the San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport around 4:30 a.m. on Friday, according to ABC 7 News Bay Area. Owner Sam Mardaie estimated approximately 80 to 100 people broke through his store’s front door and grabbed everything they could get their hands on... The mob was reportedly upset they weren’t allowed inside the store as the business was only offering window service, a normal occurrence for the 24/7 shop during the overnight hours. Approximately $25,000 in cash was taken from the store’s register and ATM, but the looters couldn’t grab the safe. Two employees inside the store were threatened during the mass pillaging, which lasted around 40 minutes, Mardaie told KTVU... A call was placed to Oakland police but the dispatcher informed the caller the crime was listed as a Priority 2, as no suspects were on scene, adding it could be reported online. It was only after a video of the mass looting was shared with the department that it was raised to a Priority 1 and an officer was sent to the store nine hours after the robbery began, according to KTVU... The store’s customers shared their fears of the ongoing crime in the area. “It’s very disheartening, I’m scared to go out after dark and I don’t know it’s just alarming,” customer Ebony Bolton told KTVU. Oakland’s recent spike in crime forced several restaurant chains to close their stores in the area and caused one family to pull their son out of a local college. The 76 station is located in the same area where In-N-Out closed its only location in Oakland in March because of the out-of-control crime and for the safety of their customers. In February, a Texas attorney offered a $10,000 reward after her son, who had been refueling his rental car, was robbed at gunpoint at the same gas station, according to CBS News. “It’s crazy. I mean it’s a daily thing. It hasn’t been a day since we opened in August that we don’t have an incident,” Mardaie told the outlet at the time. “I come from Yemen, a third world country, and we don’t have those incidents in a third world country where there’s no law and order.”"
Oakland in crisis: Shocking images show homeless encampments in dystopian California city as vagrants openly defecate on the streets and locals declare it a 'war zone' - "It could be a scene from Mad Max: on one side of the street, a man lies sprawled on a heap of trash and prostitutes work in broad daylight while on the other, a row of stolen cars are stripped for parts in front of a straggle of shabby tents. But this is no horror movie: it is modern-day Oakland, San Francisco’s smaller, shabbier neighbor and a place that has become synonymous with mass looting, rampant crime and sprawling homeless encampments that cover entire city blocks. Surveying the devastation, a resident who asked not to be named told DailyMail.com: ‘This place… It makes San Francisco look like paradise.’ The encampment, sprawled along the side of the 880 freeway across from the city’s famous Embarcadero, is one of 170 such homeless camps blighting Oakland... dystopian is what it is: filthy tents, people openly defecating in the streets, hollow-eyed zombies jacked up on fentanyl and mounds of trash everywhere you look. As a result, the city’s progressive mayor Sheng Thao and DA Pamela Price are both facing recall elections in November – Thao after she was caught up in an FBI corruption probe and Price over her ‘woke’ refusal to prosecute low-level criminals. In February, California Governor Gavin Newsom was forced to flood the city with California Highway Patrolmen in a bid to shore up the city’s flailing police department – left leaderless for over a year due to Thao’s decision to fire Chief LeRonne Armstrong after he turned whistleblower. But despite their efforts, crime has continued to shoot up with burglaries up 23 per cent compared to last year and motor vehicle thefts up by a whopping 44 per cent. Meanwhile, the homeless population now stands at a record 5,490 – double what it was 10 years ago – with 67 per cent of the unhoused living in camps on the street... Ken Houston, 60, the director of the city’s Beautification Council and a community activist who revels in the nickname ‘son of Oakland’ says the city is the worst he has ever seen it and describes the situation as being like a ‘war zone’. Houston said: ‘We're in war times. I mean, we had three homicides in three days – one person ran up into the store around my corner and killed them in the store. ‘That's war when you have trash being dumped on the street where kids have to walk around it and it has contamination in it. ‘When your seniors can't even walk on their sidewalks, when you're scared as a senior to walk down the street [for fear of] getting robbed, beat thrown down.’ Making the situation worse is Price who he says has fostered an approach to crime that is so lax, criminals refer to her as ‘Auntie Pam’ because they know they can expect a slap on the wrist from her and nothing more. Houston explained: ‘They [criminals] had a healthy fear and respect back in the day of the law. ‘They have no fear of the law right now. They feel that they won't be prosecuted, which is one of the main issues, and that's why the DA is facing a recall because she's one of the main problems. ‘I run across the individuals that commit the crimes. I hire the individuals that commit the crimes. I help them change their lives. And I hear it from them that I'll be out tomorrow if I get arrested... ‘I’ve found bullets. Knives, prescription vials of blood, 765 needles, used needles, in a park. ‘I found everything except for a body. And the reason why I didn't find the body is because the morgue had already picked them up.’ In a statement, Thao said she is working hard to address both issues but also said she does not intend to take advantage of the Supreme Court’s recent Grants Pass ruling. That decision, handed down two weeks ago, allows city officials to clear homeless encampments and enforce no camping laws, overturning rulings by judges from the 9th Circuit that covers the West Coast who had banned it on human rights grounds. Thao said: ‘The Supreme Court ruling does not change what my administration has been focused on and committed to from Day One. ‘The best way to prevent homelessness and to create long-term solutions is to create more affordable housing units... But. the problems in Oakland just keep mounting. In May, DailyMail.com reported how the city removed traffic lights from a busy intersection near one of the major homeless camps because because electrical boxes that controlled the lights were repeatedly tampered with and copper from them was stolen. On one occasion the malfunctioning lights sent a truck into the fence of Tam Le's repair shop. 'If you really want to fix the stop sign, I think you really have to clean up this homeless encampment,' he said. Le said several of businesses have already closed in his area on E. 12th and he isn't sure 'how long we're going to be here'. 'Because once they (occupants of the homeless encampment) move to our side of the sidewalk, we will be gone,' he added... ‘We have a responsibility to address the homelessness crises with compassion and humanity by moving people into temporary, and ultimately, permanent housing so they can live with dignity.’ But Houston remains unconvinced. ‘Public health and safety, environmental protection – that is what creates a healthy, safe, and enjoyable city. ‘Who doesn't want to have a city where you rest your head that’s enjoyable. Pleasant. Everybody wants to be able to go home and live in peace. Here, people live in fear.’"
Damn Trump!
Imagine how bad things would be if Oakland didn't follow "The best way to prevent homelessness and to create long-term solutions"
Despite California Spending $24 Billion On It Since 2019, Homelessness Increased. What Happened? - "Since 2019, California has spent about $24 billion on homelessness, but in this five-year period, homelessness increased by about 30,000, to more than 181,000. Put differently, California spent the equivalent of about $160,000 per person (based on the 2019 figure) over the last five years. With this level of spending, it was reasonable to expect that homelessness would decline substantially. What went wrong? There are three major problems with California’s homelessness policies that are facilitating this increase. One problem is a significant lack of oversight and information about homelessness spending. The state auditor recently evaluated this spending and submitted a report that highlights the failure of the state to track spending and outcomes... The auditor attempted to closely evaluate the costs and benefits for five separate homelessness programs, though they only found data that permitted this for two of those programs. More broadly, the failure of investing in adequate information technology infrastructure and data collection within California’s state government has been a chronic problem and has been very costly. In 2020, California’s antiquated hardware and software within the Employment and Development Department (EDD) was a key factor in about $32 billion in unemployment benefits fraud. The department’s computer system is based on 1980s architecture running 1950s software. And the EDD not only was overrun with fraudulent claims, it delayed legitimate payments for months. The former deputy director of unemployment insurance described EDD’s ability to deal with the high number of COVID claims as follows: “The best way I can describe it is like going to a gunfight with a squirt gun.”... A second key problem with California homelessness policy, one that is rarely, if ever, discussed, is that there are too many California households who simply do not earn enough to live sensibly in California, given the state’s very high cost of living... These statistics about the number of Californians who don’t earn enough to realistically live here, particularly in the expensive areas near the coast, raise important questions about the state’s approach to homelessness and how taxpayers should view its homelessness safety net. A social safety net exists to provide support for those who experience an adverse event that they cannot realistically insure themselves against. Our homelessness safety net should exist for those who become homeless as a result of family crises, such as a child running away or a family dissolution that results in a parent and children with nowhere to go. It should also exist for those who suffer disabilities and for seniors who may have a limited ability to relocate. However, there is no justification for reliance on the safety net to pay for those who do not have the resources to responsibly live in California. Perhaps the most important reason that many Californians are financially burdened is housing affordability. The sensible policy response to this is to facilitate building housing in the state that low-income households can realistically afford without significant public assistance. This means building low-cost housing, which likely means utilizing manufactured housing (housing that is built from start to finish within a factory, and then shipped to the homesite)—which can be built at only about $100 per square foot—and building in areas where land values are not so high, which means outside of the state’s very expensive coastal areas. For example, a 1,000-square-foot manufactured home placed on a small lot that is outside of California’s highest-land-cost areas can likely be created for under $200,000. A household earning $50,000 per year, which is far below California’s median household income of over $90,000 annually, could realistically afford such housing on their own. But the state’s policy toward building housing for the homeless is the opposite of this approach... The state’s existing practice of building over-the-top expensive housing for the homeless is not fiscally responsible, nor is it feasible within the context of a realistic budget. And reducing building costs to a level commensurate with the budgets of those who are vulnerable to financial risk also means freeing up funds for mental health, drug addiction, and physical therapy services that can help many homeless individuals get back on track."
Clearly, the problem is that they didn't spend enough
California Spent $24 Billion on Homelessness and It Can’t Measure the Impact - Bloomberg - "The audit revealed that the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, the state’s key coordinating body, hasn’t maintained up-to-date financial tracking since 2021. The council “has neither ensured the accuracy of the information in the state data system, nor has it used this information to evaluate homelessness programs’ success,” the auditor’s office said. The report casts doubt on California’s ability to address one of its most intractable problems – and spending is only set to continue. The state and its municipalities have raised billions of dollars to fund homelessness programs, in part by raising sales taxes and selling bonds. In March, Governor Gavin Newsom narrowly won voter approval for a more than $6 billion bond initiative to battle drug addiction and mental illness, as well as build more affordable housing. To many observers, the closeness of that vote suggests growing public frustration over the state’s costly efforts to alleviate the crisis and its track record of mixed results."
Autism Capital 🧩 on X - "🚨GAVIN NEWSOM: "We've been working before DOGE was DOGE. It's like a promo project. We're going to eliminate 62,000 positions. California is a leader in that space." LMAO Gavin seriously tries to say California is a leader in gov efficiency. WHAT? 🤦♂️😂"
ALX 🇺🇸 on X - "California spent $24 Billion “fighting homelessness” but didn’t track outcomes and the number of homeless people increased by 30,000 during that period. The state also accounts for 30% of all of the homeless people in the U.S."
Elon Musk on X - "If you pay organizations according to the number of homeless people they “manage”, you create an incentive to maximize the number of homeless people, which is exactly what happened here"
San Francisco homeless nonprofit was 'irresponsible' with $240 million of taxpayer money, showering staff with pay bumps, in latest scandal to rock California's charity housing sector - "Auditors have slammed a homelessness nonprofit in San Francisco for being 'careless and irresponsible' with $240 million of taxpayer money, in the latest scandal to rock California's bloated charity housing sector. HomeRise, one of the city's main providers of homeless housing, 'misused' funds, lacked financial controls and engaged in other practices that 'heightened the risk of fraud,' says a damning city report. It's the latest in a slew of revelations about waste in California's so-called 'homelessness industrial complex' — a gravy train of funders, officials, and shelter owners more keen on swallowing public funds than solving the problem... Auditors found 'unallowable, imprudent, or questionable spending' by HomeRise that broke rules about using city dollars for fundraising, paying staff bonuses, and providing lunches and gifts to staff. At the start of last year, the nonprofit had 118 active credit cards in use, many with limits exceeding $10,000 that were easily abused, auditors said in their report... They also found that HomeRise gave out 'signing bonuses' to staff who had been at the nonprofit for years. One staffer got an $87,000 or 74 percent pay bump in the span of just nine months, they found. Other controversial costs included $12,500 for a social event. The big payouts came even as the nonprofit lost millions of dollars because its mismanaged buildings were sitting empty. In July 2023, two of its buildings in the gritty Tenderloin district were about one third empty. Vacancies not only lost the company revenue but also 'represent missed opportunities to provide unhoused people with permanent, supportive housing,' auditors said. Auditors said the charity was badly run and suffered from an 'alarming rate of turnover.'... More than two thirds of US adults say homelessness is out of control and that officials need to move those sleeping rough into tented encampments outside towns and cities, a recent DailyMail.com/TIPP Poll shows. Our survey revealed that 67 percent of Americans are fed up with the country's fast-rising number of homeless people and want mayors to take drastic steps to tackle the scourge... Our survey of 1,401 adults, however, found that a tough policy resonated with swathes of voters across the US — with more than two thirds saying they favored resettlement camps."
Kevin Kiley on X - "Gavin Newsom put out a Top 10 list: “Ten Ways California Leads the Nation.” Some are vague, like “belonging and unity.” Others are farcical, like "high-speed rail." And there are several key omissions from the list:
-homelessness (1 out of 50)
-poverty (1 out of 50)
-Retail crime (1 out of 50)
-Anti-business regulations (1 out of 50)
-frivolous lawsuits (1 out of 50)
-unemployment (1 out of 50)
-wage stagnation (1 out of 50)
-restrictions on workers (1 out of 50)
-gas prices (1 out of 50)
-housing costs (2 out of 50)
-water bills (2 out of 50)
-energy/electricity costs (3 out of 50)
-inequality (3 out of 50)
-income tax (1 out of 50)
-gas tax (1 out of 50)
-budget deficit (1 out of 50)
-road disrepair (3 out of 50)
-illiteracy (1 out of 50)
-educational inequity (2 out of 50)
-COVID school shutdowns (1 out out of 50)
-COVID business shutdowns (1 out of 50)
-COVID mandates (1 out of 50)
-illegal border crossings (1 out of 50)
-funding for illegal immigrants (1 out of 50)
-People leaving state (1 out of 50)
This is what Newsom and Kamala Harris call a "model for the nation.""
California has the lowest literacy rate of any state, data suggests - "Nearly 1 in 4 people over the age of 15 lack the skills to decipher the words in this sentence. Only 77% of adults are considered mid- to highly literate, according to the nonpartisan data crunchers at World Population Review... “It doesn’t surprise me at all,” said Niu Gao, a senior fellow who studies education issues at the Public Policy Institute of California, as Capital Weekly cited. “California in general does not do very well, and you can see this throughout the entire education pipeline.”"
Damn useless red states!
Meme - "Thank God California banned plastic straws *homeless tents and rubbish strewn everywhere*"
Meme - Squatters as Hela: "You can't kick me out, I know my rights"
Californian police as Thor: "I know, but he can"
unhinged Vietnamese Kick streamers: *Surtur destroying Asgard*"
Streaming the squatter struggle: Asian Andy's viral videos raise legal questions
Clown World ™ 🤡 on X - "A Waymo car was vandalized while a passenger was inside in San Francisco"
Ashley Zavala on X - "JUST IN: Gov. Gavin Newsom signs bill extending alcohol sales in CA until 4am in one place and one place only—the 100 person VIP club in the new Intuit Dome/LA Clippers arena."
Lee Hepner on X - "The wife of the owner of the LA Clippers made a $1 million political donation to Newsom. You just can’t make this stuff up."
Halle Berry Criticizes Gavin Newsom for 'Devaluing' Women at Summit
Naturally, on reddit people were criticising her. Black women are only sacrosanct if they push the left wing agenda
Thread by @TeamJConr on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "After completing a map of The Mission Neighborhood I found:
- 232 Drug Addicts
- 213 Closed Businesses.
- 81 Empty/Abandoned Homes
- 50 Tents
- 37 Rvs
- 23 Prostitues
- 1 Raccoon See 🧵 for findings because it’s MASSIVE.
The drug addicts have completely taken over blocks in the Mission. I’ve noticed a trend where the street squatters have taken over small spots around resident’s homes so do beware and be careful. The closed businesses found ranged from small hole in the wall to massive buildings. Mission St and Valencia St have blocks of closed businesses. Even in the warehouse area near the Central Freeway are for sale. Something I found interesting is there are many burned and abandoned homes scattered through the neighborhood. There are no signs specifying what is going to be done with them. We also have those luxary condos that have yet to be filled. So much for housing crisis narrative. I found that the tents are massive in the Mission than they are in the Tenderloin. I even got a video of a squatter cooking food inside one of the tents. The many tents I passed had the squatters playing games in their iPhones and other electronics. In many areas, there are a concentration of RV invaders. I spoke to one RV squatter who said they are coming from the D7 area into the Mission because they don’t get the same push back. Another guy walked around his RV with a screwdriver in a weapon like manner. I checked out the reported areas of active prostitution and definitely confirmed they are active. Their pimp was parked in an SUV across the street and moved the girls as soon as it was discovered that I was surveying the area. There was one girl who looked no older than 17.
I want to point out is the Mission is very dirty and if we are serious about climate change, the first thing we need to do is massive clean up the trash. The rats even have grown to NYC size. No wonder why we have epidemics and pandemics."
Richard Hanania on X - "Reportedly, all they had to do to make the San Francisco metro safe and clean was to make it hard to evade the fare. Many things are like this."
