When put side by side with the comment about meth at playgrounds (note: definitely illegal, though again, police in SF are generally fairly unresponsive), it is

When put side by side with the comment about meth at playgrounds (note: definitely illegal, though again, police in SF are generally fairly unresponsive), it is clear that your reach of a pedantic defense is not how the author intends readers to interpret this passage. The implication is that SF is a dystopian nightmare where some woke enforcement squad is coming to arrest you for putting your banana peels in the garbage while applauding the drug addicts threatening your children. The whole thing is a hyperbolic rhetorical flourish intended to provoke a knee-jerk fear/anger response among an audience previously primed by right-wing media but entirely personally unfamiliar with San Franciso, not a careful discussion of the benefits and harms or even the ideological underpinnings of various local ordinances. Leading with "culture war" nonsense likely to provoke pointless arguments like this one is why this article is a poor fit for HN which people would be better served by skipping.