Hello everybody,
Yesterday I wrote the following thread on Twitter. It is copied & pasted below (and cuts off about halfway through so you will need to click into Substack if you want to view the entire thing). An audio recording is attached for those of you who prefer to listen.
Please feel free to share any thoughts or reactions in the comments section below.
~ Michelle
Here is what still confuses me about San Francisco.
We have the most liberal, left-wing government and population in the country.
We have a $13B budget.
And we will have 8,000 people sleeping in the cold and rain this week.
Can someone please explain this to me?
Many of you will be reading this from the warm enclaves of your homes, families and vacations.
I apologize in advance for the pain that this thread may bring.
But I think it is important that we bear witness to the humanitarian crisis festering in the streets of San Francisco.
San Francisco - from what I can tell - has strategies in place that not only do not help those in need - but actively hurt them further.
We decriminalize drug dealing.
We give addicts cash, hotel rooms and free reign.
We make it difficult to enter shelter or treatment.
Our city is run by Progressives.
What do Progressives stand for, exactly?
I thought it was about helping those in need. Standing up for the little guy. Making the world a better place.
San Francisco, to me, seems like one of the least compassionate cities in the world.
Most cities on the East Coast have a Right to Shelter Law.
New York City spends billions sheltering 65,000 people a year.
San Francisco has ~2,000 shelter beds. Our strategy is "housing first". So we don't build shelters.
In our quest to provide everybody with their "housing as a human right" our leaders hem and haw over housing policy while thousands of people wither and die in the streets.
This is what government failure looks like.
Recently I've been taking drives through San Francisco. It has never been this bad.
Yesterday I saw thousands of people without shelter. Hundreds of tents. Piles of garbage strewn everywhere. Dozens of people clearly in distress, wandering around, mad.
Why is this happening...?
California's economy is the largest in the nation. GDP of $3.37 trillion. If we were a country, we would be the #5 richest in the world.
We have 161,000 homeless people living in this state.
What is Gavin Newsom doing all day, exactly?
There is this saying, "tell me how you spend your time and money, and I'll tell you what you care about."
How are our leaders spending their time and money?
This is Mayor Breed's Instagram page.
What is she focused on?
Last year I read Nancy Pelosi's book, "Know Your Power."
She writes about her first speech to congress, where she said, "I came to fight against AIDS."
She had promised to mention it in her first speech. It was her priority.
What is Mayor Breed's priority?
What is Gavin Newsom's priority?
What are the priorities of our Progressive-dominated Board of Supervisors?
It is completely unclear to me, and I follow SF news & politics as much as anybody I know.
Shouldn't our leaders be in Washington DC lobbying for FEMA to come in and help?
Where is the outrage? Where is the urgency?
Do we not care about the thousands of people who are on the brink of death from drugs, cold, and lack of healthcare?
What do Progressives care about?
People accuse me of being a shill for the right-wing.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
I'm a lifelong liberal who is horrified -- *horrified* -- at the values & ineptitude I see on display in my hometown.
How could I not speak out?
Local journalists have attacked me for my advocacy.
They say I'm "anti-SF", spreading lies, and just seeking engagement.
You better damn well believe I aim to engage!
What, exactly, are you trying to do, @hooleil @gilduran76, @sfexaminer, @sfchronicle?
If anybody is a shill for anybody, it's these newspapers for our corrupt and incompetent local government.
I reached out to @sfexaminer, sharing that dogs are indeed getting sick from drugs, that I'm not "anti-SF", nor am I a conservative.
This was their response.
No matter that dogs are getting sick left and right.
No matter that other newspapers are covering it.
What really matters is that San Francisco maintains its reputation.
G-d forbid that conservatives use our failures to defend their beliefs.
Source: nyti.ms/3juL4fQ
Is this what Thomas Sowell meant when he wrote Vision of the Anointed?
Is this how battle is waged in the modern era?
Have your food writer pen a nasty hit piece against your local critic of the government and slap your paper's SEO against it?
I refuse to acquiesce.
I will not stop writing until San Francisco's rulers start to take the humanitarian crisis in our streets seriously.
Soleil Ho may feel comfortable stepping around bodies on her way to prix fixe, 4- and 20-course dinners.
I do not.
I do not feel comfortable because I believe it's morally wrong.
I believe that it is morally wrong to turn a blind eye towards what is happening in this city.
I believe it is morally wrong to support our politicians & their policies - and use your paper's platform to do so.
Last week I watched a movie, The Post, and this scene brought me to tears.
A Post employee shares the verdict of the trial. She quotes Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black,
"The press was to serve the governed, not the governors."
Who does the San Francisco press serve?
The governed...? Or our governors?
Who, exactly, at SF Examiner or SF Chronicle is waking up every day and writing their tail off about the problems & suffering unraveling before our eyes?
Anyone? Anyone?
Here Is What Still Confuses Me About San Francisco