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The headline is click-baity and tailored to create outrage. If you don't live here, you probably don't know that the Embarcadero area is, as the article says,

The headline is click-baity and tailored to create outrage. If you don't live here, you probably don't know that the Embarcadero area is, as the article says, right by the bay bridge. Heavily tourist-y area. The "wealthy people" of San Francisco actually live a mile or so away, in Russian Hill, Pacific Heights, Lake District (by Bakers Beach) etc. Embarcadero is also right by the FiDi / downtown area where Salesforce, Affirm, BlackRock, Lending Club and several other startups and major Corps have offices. So it's also a safety concern for the workers in downtown as the homeless population in SF is generally more aggressive than in the rest of the country. A lot of homeless people in San Francisco also are drug users. It's not common to walk in downtown and step on a used needle. So building the housing in the downtown, touristy area is only going to deter people from coming to San Francisco, and deter companies from holding their conventions[1]. There's already 1 such example of a major medical convention cancelled from Moscone cos they were concerned with safety of their attendees due to homeless person crimes. That area has a lot of homeless people around there, many of who are quite aggressive, mentally ill etc. This is not a case of NIMBY. It's far more complex than that. I'm just calling it as I see it. [1] Major medical group cancels San Francisco convention due to safety concerns => https://sf.curbed.com/2018/7/3/17531240/convention-moscone-center-homeless-crime https://sf.curbed.com/2018/7/3/17531240/convention-moscone-c...

brianpgordon 8y ago
I'm not sure I buy the whole "homeless person crimes" angle. I've lived here for about four and a half years, in a real sketchy part of the city (SoMa, south of mid-market) and I've never had a problem with homeless people. Yes they sleep in doorways or in tents on the sidewalk, and yes you see people shooting up without trying to hide it. Sometimes they yell at night when I'm trying to sleep and it's annoying. But I have a real hard time making the mental leap from "these people are an eyesore" to "I think we should force these people to leave." They're just living their lives, trying to make it day to day. They're people. I pass the same homeless people on the way to work and back every day. They're as much a part of the community as I am. The crime angle seems transparently like dog whistling for people who are really concerned with property values, or for people who turn up their nose at the powerless and wish they'd go be someone else's problem. A few decades ago "crime" and "safety" were euphemisms deployed against urban youth who made middle-class white people nervous. It's depressing to see another generation of the same prejudice, now applied to a different marginalized group.

brianpgordon 8y ago

I'm not sure I buy the whole "homeless person crimes" angle. I've lived here for about four and a half years, in a real sketchy part of the city (SoMa, south of mid-market) and I've never had a problem with homeless people. Yes they sleep in doorways or in tents on the sidewalk, and yes you see people shooting up without trying to hide it. Sometimes they yell at night when I'm trying to sleep and it's annoying. But I have a real hard time making the mental leap from "these people are an eyesore" to "I think we should force these people to leave." They're just living their lives, trying to make it day to day. They're people. I pass the same homeless people on the way to work and back every day. They're as much a part of the community as I am. The crime angle seems transparently like dog whistling for people who are really concerned with property values, or for people who turn up their nose at the powerless and wish they'd go be someone else's problem. A few decades ago "crime" and "safety" were euphemisms deployed against urban youth who made middle-class white people nervous. It's depressing to see another generation of the same prejudice, now applied to a different marginalized group.