Some of our posters claim they have decriminalized everything
No crime San Francisco trip!
- Thread starter Jarod
- Start date
Some of our posters claim they have decriminalized everything
For the past 40 years, I have periodically walked around downtown Oakland, downtown Los Angeles, downtown San Francisco, downtown Sacramento, downtown Santa Barbara, downtown San Diego and even though I've seen homeless and mentally ill, I've never seen a murder, a mugging, or a car jacking.
Crime obviously exists, but I can't say I was ever given the impression of a crime-infested dystopian hellscape.
Crime obviously exists, but I can't say I was ever given the impression of a crime-infested dystopian hellscape.
cawacko
Well-known member
Cal costs 3X for an out of state than it does for in state. For about a decade, until a couple of years ago, they increased their percentage of out of state students to close to 25%. They were obviously doing it for the money and people were getting pissed. Currently they've dropped that out of state number back significantly.
Now that the state is facing economic headwinds with budget deficits it will be interesting to see if they go to allowing more out of state students.
Now that the state is facing economic headwinds with budget deficits it will be interesting to see if they go to allowing more out of state students.
cawacko
Well-known member
California (and places like San Francisco) have become just proxy's for the political wars in our country. People on the right think nothing good happens here and those on the left think all here is above reproach.
One doesn't have to live in a City to have an understanding of what goes on there but to truly understand it, you have to either live there or spend a whole lot of time there. And clearly there are people across the political spectrum commenting on the SF that don't live here. So they speak from an ideological perspective of how they want the City to be perceived.
ThatOwlWoman
Leftist Vermin
None of my business. None of yours, either.
ThatOwlWoman
Leftist Vermin
Oh yeah, excellent! He wasn't interested in those though. He had first looked at pharmacology but all the biological science stuff told him "nope." lol He got a job lined up even before graduating; he works at the Entergy nuclear plant in Baton Rouge where his father worked. Dad (my oldest son) is now a robotics engineer with Amazon.
Bob Lee Cash APP founder did...but he is dead now
NiftyNiblick
1960s Chick Magnet
I love San Francisco, although I was an actual crime victim there.
I had an expensive, custom-fitted hardwood cane--not one of those ugly adjustable orthopedic-looking ones,
that I carried mostly as a fashion accessory but also because it made a nice walking stick on all of those hills.
It was stolen right from my under nose at a sidewalk café.
Fortunately, I did not see the thief and thus avoided arrest for shattering his jaw.
For all he knew, I could have been handicapped and really needed that cane.
That's how it works, usually; the first-aggrieved is the one who gets arrested, right?
Still, it was a fucking hundred dollar cane that I had to replace.
That small crime aside, it's a great city, and shit like that could happen anywhere.
I had an expensive, custom-fitted hardwood cane--not one of those ugly adjustable orthopedic-looking ones,
that I carried mostly as a fashion accessory but also because it made a nice walking stick on all of those hills.
It was stolen right from my under nose at a sidewalk café.
Fortunately, I did not see the thief and thus avoided arrest for shattering his jaw.
For all he knew, I could have been handicapped and really needed that cane.
That's how it works, usually; the first-aggrieved is the one who gets arrested, right?
Still, it was a fucking hundred dollar cane that I had to replace.
That small crime aside, it's a great city, and shit like that could happen anywhere.
WOW!!!! A murder happened in San Francisco! This is Earth shattering news!!! You are a criminal science genius!
San Francisco isn't even ranked in the top 15 most dangerous cities.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurab...s-in-the-us-crime-in-america/?sh=b071524b25d3
The top five states with the highest murder rates are Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Alabama, Arkansas
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/murder-rate-by-state
I dont know, the laws of averages would say it happens sometimes.
I agree, but he is very independent.
anonymoose
Classical Liberal
When I lived in Metlakatla, Alaska I'd fly in to Ketchikan on the weekends and stay there. Once I brought my bike over to use as transportation and forgot that I left it in front of a coffee shop unlocked until I got back to Metlakatla.
Flew over the next weekend to find that it was still in front of that same shop untouched.
Shit like that doesn't happen anywhere.
He would have some outside help with tuition, but I agree it will be expensive.
ExpressLane
Verified User
Tell them to park their car near a homeless encampment with a laptop on the seat and then take a nice long stroll. Did you hear About the former Chief of the SFFD would has a skull fracture and a stab wound. He was trying to encourage homeless people not to camp on his mother's sidewall and was attacked. He is hospitalized in critical condition.
cawacko
Well-known member
San Francisco is very unique with how progressive it is but also the Libertarian streak it has. Want to see a Farmers Market for drug dealers where the City does little to stop it? Come to SF. Want to see large numbers of mentally ill people living on the streets? Come to SF.
Here's a recent article from the SF Chronicle. It highlights one couple but this is far from unique. It's a lesbian couple who left SF for Florida, hated the politics of Florida so they moved back and now after getting robbed are leaving SF again. And read the first line in the column. Sums up the attitude here well.
Why a catalytic converter theft was the final straw pushing one S.F. couple out of the city
I’ve heard the refrain a lot lately: I love San Francisco, but it doesn’t seem to love me back.
That’s the sentiment of Alison Gerken and her wife, Amanda Arguile, who rejoiced when they got jobs in the veterinary field, bringing them back to San Francisco from Florida and its miserable anti-LGBTQ politics last fall after a three-year break. They missed the freedom, the weather, the beauty, the quirky small businesses and the easy road trips to the redwoods, Napa, Tahoe and Yosemite. They missed their home.
Then reality struck in the form of a swiped catalytic converter, a theft that ended up revealing a surprising amount about their new, old city. The saga that followed the crime reminded them of what’s not working in San Francisco — and convinced them to leave for good.
The story began Nov. 7, a month after Gerken, a veterinarian with the San Francisco SPCA, finally paid off her gray 2013 Toyota Prius, celebrating with champagne. But the fizzy feelings evaporated that morning when she went to move the car, parked on Rhode Island and 22nd Streets near her Potrero Hill home, for street cleaning.
She noticed a piece of metal with wires coming out of it on the ground next to her car and when she turned on the vehicle, she said, “it sounded like a jet engine.”
Turns out thieves had swiped her catalytic converter, causing other damage in the process. It’s an increasingly common crime in San Francisco and around the country. Hybrid cars like Toyota Priuses are disproportionately targeted because catalytic converters on those vehicles have a higher quantity of precious metals and fetch more money on the black market.
She was reluctant to drive the car on the neighborhood’s steep hills and ran inside to call the police non-emergency number to report the theft and file a police report online. By the time she got back to her car, it had a street sweeping ticket — one she felt sure would be dismissed if she explained what happened. It wasn’t.
She provided the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency with the police report number, but didn’t receive the actual police report until 11 days later. That’s apparently where she went wrong, SFMTA spokespeople told me. She needed to provide the actual police report, not just the number, though she said no official ever told her that.
“If evidence is what the city needs to help us out in this situation, then they should have sent an officer to verify that my catalytic converter was stolen,” Gerken said, noting she heard nothing from police after filing her report.
Officer Robert Rueca, a police spokesperson, said all catalytic converter thefts are investigated.
“It is an open investigation,” he told me of Gerken’s case. “We are unable to provide further details at this time.”
Gerken had the right to further contest the parking ticket at a hearing, but figured the outcome wouldn’t change and her time was more valuable than the $87 fine. So she paid it.
Meanwhile, she learned from the local Toyota dealership that, because so many Prius owners were seeking catalytic converter replacements, the waiting list was months long. I called San Francisco Toyota on Tuesday morning to ask how long it would take to get a catalytic converter for a 2013 Prius, and the parts department worker who answered the phone let out a long whistle. “Five or six months,” he said.
Gerken added her name to the waiting list in November and never heard anything back. She tried finding catalytic converters for sale on-line, but couldn’t find any local mechanics who would install second-hand parts.
Politicians are trying to address the rise in catalytic converter thefts. Gov. Gavin Newsom last fall signed legislation making it illegal to buy catalytic converters from anyone other than licensed car dismantlers or dealers. That seems like a good idea, but it also meant Gerken had no choice but to wait on the long Toyota list.
Mechanics did tell her it was safe to move her car so she tried moving it weekly for street cleaning, though the engine got louder and louder and she had almost no power to maneuver the hills.
She hated moving the car, and her wife, Arguile, often did it for her.
“It sounded like I was driving in NASCAR,” Arguile said with a laugh. “I’d have the gas pedal all the way down and be going four miles an hour.”
It finally died altogether parked on a steep hill perpendicular to the curb.
Gerken said she tried calling numerous people in the SFMTA, asking what to do, and they told her to pay for a garage in which to store the car until the replacement came in. She looked around for an affordable garage, but found none. Garages for rent in Potrero Hill were going for several hundred dollars a month, and she couldn’t afford that on top of the $3,900 rent she and her wife are already paying for their small two-bedroom apartment.
She realized she had to get the car out of San Francisco while she waited for a new converter, and her in-laws in Nevada offered to store it for her. But finding a truck that would tow the Prius to Nevada for a reasonable price proved impossible. Besides, she figured, she could wait all that time, pay for a new catalytic converter and other repairs, drive it back to San Francisco and then have the converter swiped again.
Finally, she gave up. A few weeks ago, she had Cash for Cars haul it away in exchange for $2,400, far less than its value before the theft.
Stephen Chun, a spokesperson for the SFMTA, said, the agency has “empathy for the hardships Ms. Gerken has experienced. This is an unfortunate situation, and we understand the frustration associated with the theft of catalytic converters in San Francisco.”
“Inoperable vehicles, however, cannot be stored long-term on city streets, and owners should seek out off-street storage,” he continued.
That makes sense, of course, and streets need to be cleared for cleaning. But it runs into the harsh reality of actually paying for pricey garage parking. Like with so many issues in San Francisco, there are no good answers.
Gerken received six parking tickets and has paid four of them so far. She said she’ll take the others to hearings. Chun said that if Gerken provides the SFMTA with the police report, rather than just the number, “We would be happy to continue looking into this.” Gerken has the report and said she’ll provide it to the SFMTA.
Gerken used to love California, having moved from her native Maryland to attend vet school at UC Davis and then getting an internship in San Francisco. She met her wife, a vet tech, through work, and they married in 2019 at City Hall.
They relocated to Florida for Gerken’s three-year residency program and reveled in being able to buy a $242,000 house near the beach. But they didn’t love the bland strip malls, the humidity, the politics or that they couldn’t be honest about their same-sex marriage at work, constantly referring to each other as “my spouse” and never switching to she/her pronouns.
“We couldn’t wait to leave Florida,” Gerken said. “But coming back, it was this abrupt holy s—. This is bad. We kind of forgot what it was like.”
San Francisco is just as expensive as ever, they said, but the streets are far less lively. Some of their favorite small businesses have closed and are boarded up with plywood. More of their middle-income friends have been priced out, and they have co-workers commuting from as far as Santa Rosa and Oakley.
The streets seem dirtier, they said, and open-air drug dealing seems more prevalent with cops just passing by. They see bodies sprawled on the street and wonder if they should stop to make sure the person is OK. Usually, Gerken said, she keeps walking, but feels awful about it.
“I feel badly for the people and then I feel rage toward the city. Like how is this possible?” she explained. “Then I feel badly for feeling rage. Here I am making it about myself and my tax money going to what, I don’t know. Then I feel selfish. Then I feel guilty. It’s a whole spectrum of emotions. Every day.”
Nowhere is perfect, of course, but the couple sees that homeownership won’t happen here. Raising children or retiring seems out of financial reach too. And so the catalytic converter theft, while a frustrating blip in the big picture, crystallized a sad fact: They can’t make their once head-over-heels relationship with San Francisco work anymore.
They talked the other night about where they’ll go next. Sacramento, maybe. Or Tacoma, Washington. This time, their departure will be for good.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/baya...catalytic-converter-theft-exodus-17838594.php
In Jupiter, Florida, the most conservative town in Palm Beach County, an 18-year-old kid was walking through a neighborhood while on drugs, he walked into someone’s garage, grabbed a hammer, beat a woman to death, then beat her husband and took two huge bites out of the guys face.
TOP
Retired Teacher
When was this? ETA: never mind that was in 2016...
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Great news. Now you can show some balls, back up your convictions, and get your ass out of Florida and take up residencein SF where apparently there is no problem whatsoever.