3 ms·

> "Part of the city's image"? I'd argue the city's image is dominated by homelessness, poop on the streets, lackluster enforcement of the law, corruption in cit

by ginko 5y ago

> "Part of the city's image"? I'd argue the city's image is dominated by homelessness, poop on the streets, lackluster enforcement of the law, corruption in city hall. I mean I've only been to San Francisco a few times, but apart from the Tenderloin I thought it was a very beautiful city. Yeah, homelessness and public defecation are a problem, but do these have to be brought up in ANY discussion regarding SF? Groups of people can deal with multiple issues at once.

refurb 5y ago
SF is a unique city in a beautiful location with a ton of organization problems. And yes, people love to exaggerate the problems, but I live outside the Tenderloin and still see poop on the street (though rarely) so these aren't limited to certain areas. As a tax payer, I've noted that San Francisco has actually been removing trash cans, that worked perfectly well, because people just dump trash beside them for the city to pick up. No trash can, no dumping? No, they dump anyways. So the solution isn't to use the old design which seemed to work "ok". Or even talk to other cities to see if they have better options SF could just buy. It was to completely redesign a trash can. Insane. I'm waiting for SF to hire an outside firm to resign the tires on their city vehicles. So yes, you can solve multiple problems at once, but there are also only so many hours in the day and so many tax dollars to work with and spending any time/money on new trash cans is less time solving actual quality of life problems.
sgtnoodle 5y ago
It seems at least tangentially relevant to the discussion more so than most, doesn't it? Memories of human waste in the streets is the first thing I thought about after reading this article. I usually see at least one pile when I go into SF and walk around. I've also seen people actively relieving themselves and worse, and I've only wandered around SF maybe a dozen times. Designing custom trash cans to optimize for esthetics in this context seems analogous to polishing a turd. It sounds like the bigger issue, ignoring potential corruption, is that they expect telemetry and sliding mechanisms in what notionally should just be some bent sheet metal, and assumed the stuff on the market was overpriced.
- ryan_lane 5y ago
  I lived in SF for a decade and saw poop on the street maybe once a year. I saw a needle maybe twice total. You're a tourist and you go to tourist places and most of those areas suck. They also tend to have more homeless people than average because tourists give more money to them than locals. Tourist areas in most cities are also where most crime and homelessness live.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    > I lived in SF for a decade and saw poop on the street maybe once a year. I lived in San Francisco for less than one year and saw people in the act of defecating in public more often than that. This was strictly a matter of walking between my apartment and my job.
  - sgtnoodle 5y ago
    To an extent sure, but on the other hand I have been a tourist in many cities and the only one I've regularly encountered human waste in is SF.
thaumasiotes 5y ago
> Yeah, homelessness and public defecation are a problem, but do these have to be brought up in ANY discussion regarding SF? Yes, unless public defecation has suddenly become some kind of understandable foible that might happen anywhere.

by ginko 5y ago

refurb 5y ago

SF is a unique city in a beautiful location with a ton of organization problems. And yes, people love to exaggerate the problems, but I live outside the Tenderloin and still see poop on the street (though rarely) so these aren't limited to certain areas. As a tax payer, I've noted that San Francisco has actually been removing trash cans, that worked perfectly well, because people just dump trash beside them for the city to pick up. No trash can, no dumping? No, they dump anyways. So the solution isn't to use the old design which seemed to work "ok". Or even talk to other cities to see if they have better options SF could just buy. It was to completely redesign a trash can. Insane. I'm waiting for SF to hire an outside firm to resign the tires on their city vehicles. So yes, you can solve multiple problems at once, but there are also only so many hours in the day and so many tax dollars to work with and spending any time/money on new trash cans is less time solving actual quality of life problems.

sgtnoodle 5y ago

It seems at least tangentially relevant to the discussion more so than most, doesn't it? Memories of human waste in the streets is the first thing I thought about after reading this article. I usually see at least one pile when I go into SF and walk around. I've also seen people actively relieving themselves and worse, and I've only wandered around SF maybe a dozen times. Designing custom trash cans to optimize for esthetics in this context seems analogous to polishing a turd. It sounds like the bigger issue, ignoring potential corruption, is that they expect telemetry and sliding mechanisms in what notionally should just be some bent sheet metal, and assumed the stuff on the market was overpriced.

ryan_lane 5y ago
I lived in SF for a decade and saw poop on the street maybe once a year. I saw a needle maybe twice total. You're a tourist and you go to tourist places and most of those areas suck. They also tend to have more homeless people than average because tourists give more money to them than locals. Tourist areas in most cities are also where most crime and homelessness live.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  > I lived in SF for a decade and saw poop on the street maybe once a year. I lived in San Francisco for less than one year and saw people in the act of defecating in public more often than that. This was strictly a matter of walking between my apartment and my job.
- sgtnoodle 5y ago
  To an extent sure, but on the other hand I have been a tourist in many cities and the only one I've regularly encountered human waste in is SF.

thaumasiotes 5y ago

> Yeah, homelessness and public defecation are a problem, but do these have to be brought up in ANY discussion regarding SF? Yes, unless public defecation has suddenly become some kind of understandable foible that might happen anywhere.