Angelika/Mike Schilli |
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Michael Unfortunately, the city of San Francisco's administration has been unable to prevent illegal campers from occupying the sidewalks of the city for years with their tents. Sidewalk camping, of course, is illegal, but timid city supervisors are hesitant to take action to address the issue.
Industrious residents however came up with the idea some time ago, to install massive flower planters on the sidewalks in front of their homes, which is indeed also illegal, but the city council notoriously shies away from any form of conflict and therefore refrained from taking any action against this countermovement either.
The system seems to be working. The massive aluminum planters, which are over eight feet long and three feet wide and cost over 200 Dollars each (I call them "flower coffins") take up so much space on the sidewalk that there's essentially none left for illegal camping. It appears that the floral citizens wait until the city gets around cleaning up a portion of the sidewalk, forcing campers to move their stuff to the next block. Then the vigilantes move in under cover of night with their planters, to swiftly barricade the temporarily open space.
By now these planters are spreading like mushrooms from the ground, the manufacturer must set records. When driving through our neighboring district of The Mission, which is almost overgrown with tents, one can already see hundreds of these planters sitting on the sidewalks. Sometimes they even stand in closed areas, presumably as material for the next night and fog operation.
That must be tasted on the tongue: While the city, as an example, mercilessly punishes illegal parking by issueing expensive tickets, it fails to prevent illegal campers from blocking the sidewalks for pedestrians. Even wheelchair users now have to move into the street to avoid the occumpants, the strewn around trash and unleashed fighting dogs. The fact that no one has yet filed a lawsuit for non-compliance with California's very strict accessibility regulations surprises me honestly. Or maybe not. And the solution is that taxpaying citizens buy flower pots at their own expense to restore human conditions. You really can't make this up.
And, unsurprisingly, so-called homeless advocates immediately protested against the planters as being Homeless-hostile architecture and accused the vigilantes as heartless right wing goons. Oh well. What more concerning actually is that these campers seem to be handling their warming fires rather carelessly, and have set several trees and buildings on fire. Fortunately, San Francisco maintains a well trained fire department (SFFD).
However, SFFD arrived too late at the scene of a fire in an unfinished building located on Octavia Street: the entire wooden structure burned down and only metal poles of the scaffolding remained.
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