Bum Fights

The Mayor’s Office is really turning SOMA and GNS around. If homeless programs like the downtown outreach plan continue, we’ll cease to exist. How’s the name Gav4Gov.com?

Mayor Gavin Newsom’s plan consists of three separate teams of police officers and social service staff working in a 15-block area, from Third Street to Fifth Street and Market to Harrison streets, according to a Sept. 28 memo from Mayor Gavin Newsom’s deputy chief of staff, Julian Potter, to Newsom’s chief of staff, Phil Ginsburg.

The memo states:

“Any person committing a crime (littering, encampment, trespassing, urinating, defecating, dumping, blocking sidewalk, intoxication, etc.) will be asked to cease the behavior and enter into services. If the individual resists services, the officer will issue a citation. If the arrest is related to a misdemeanor, warrant, intoxication, or a second citation for the same period, the individual will be taken into custody for processing.”

Newsom’s spokesman, Nathan Ballard, adds:

“This is exactly what we’ve been doing in Golden Gate Park and it’s been
working.”

Predictably, Chris Daly has to stand up for the downtrodden constituency of addicts, alcoholics and prostitutes. He wants to waste our time and money with a hearing on the effort before a Board of Supervisors committee.

“San Franciscans have time and time again rejected that approach. We’ll see what happens this time.”

The targeted area includes the Moscone Center, home to The City’s convention industry. San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau spokeswoman Angela Jackson said homelessness “is a problem in San Francisco and I’m glad to hear that they will be addressing the Moscone area.”

Examiner: Daly Blast Newsom’s Homeless Plan by Joshua Sabatini