Drop Dead Fred
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San Francisco is trying to trick international visitors into thinking that it's a normal city.
www.sfchronicle.com
‘They just said we had to go’: S.F. clears homeless hot spots ahead of APEC
November 8, 2023
San Francisco officials have been working to clear some of the city’s hot spots for homeless tent camps ahead of world leaders, dignitaries, corporate executives and international journalists descending on the city for this month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
A high-ranking official in the city’s Public Works department listed seven intersections in the Tenderloin and South of Market to target in an email to other city officials on Sept. 25.
“With APEC coming, I am concerned about historical encampments that are close to priority areas,” wrote Christopher McDaniels, superintendent of Street Environmental Services, in an email obtained by the Chronicle through a public records request.
All seven intersections are in the two neighborhoods that have long been at the epicenter of San Francisco’s unrelenting crises of homelessness and public drug markets.
Half an hour later, McDaniels’ boss, Deputy Director of Operations DiJaida Durden, chimed in, noting that an encampment on Van Ness Avenue had “popped up in the last two weeks” and was getting larger.
“Are any of these locations on schedule?” Durden asked. APEC “is coming and we need to stay on top of the growing encampments; do we have a plan?”
Now, with the high-stakes APEC summit set to begin Saturday, the intersections flagged by McDaniels are largely free of tents.
The clear sidewalks are an apparent reflection of the city’s push to be more aggressive about clearing encampments as the leaders of 21 countries and regions begin to descend on the city, along with thousands of other foreign officials and a crush of foreign reporters, representing San Francisco’s biggest moment in the international spotlight since the founding of the United Nations in 1945.
On Wednesday, areas around the intersections of Van Ness Avenue and California Street, Hyde and Eddy streets, Taylor and Ellis streets and more were empty of encampments or even panhandlers. Some had steel fence-like barriers, meant to prevent tents from occupying the sidewalk.
‘They just said we had to go’: S.F. clears homeless hot spots ahead of APEC
San Francisco steps up efforts to clear priority homeless hot spots ahead of APEC with thousands set to arrive next week.
www.sfchronicle.com
‘They just said we had to go’: S.F. clears homeless hot spots ahead of APEC
November 8, 2023
San Francisco officials have been working to clear some of the city’s hot spots for homeless tent camps ahead of world leaders, dignitaries, corporate executives and international journalists descending on the city for this month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
A high-ranking official in the city’s Public Works department listed seven intersections in the Tenderloin and South of Market to target in an email to other city officials on Sept. 25.
“With APEC coming, I am concerned about historical encampments that are close to priority areas,” wrote Christopher McDaniels, superintendent of Street Environmental Services, in an email obtained by the Chronicle through a public records request.
All seven intersections are in the two neighborhoods that have long been at the epicenter of San Francisco’s unrelenting crises of homelessness and public drug markets.
Half an hour later, McDaniels’ boss, Deputy Director of Operations DiJaida Durden, chimed in, noting that an encampment on Van Ness Avenue had “popped up in the last two weeks” and was getting larger.
“Are any of these locations on schedule?” Durden asked. APEC “is coming and we need to stay on top of the growing encampments; do we have a plan?”
Now, with the high-stakes APEC summit set to begin Saturday, the intersections flagged by McDaniels are largely free of tents.
The clear sidewalks are an apparent reflection of the city’s push to be more aggressive about clearing encampments as the leaders of 21 countries and regions begin to descend on the city, along with thousands of other foreign officials and a crush of foreign reporters, representing San Francisco’s biggest moment in the international spotlight since the founding of the United Nations in 1945.
On Wednesday, areas around the intersections of Van Ness Avenue and California Street, Hyde and Eddy streets, Taylor and Ellis streets and more were empty of encampments or even panhandlers. Some had steel fence-like barriers, meant to prevent tents from occupying the sidewalk.
