A town which once prided itself as being the “most hippie” in Washington has taken drastic action to outlaw drugs, after state-wide decriminalization led to spiking crime and child overdose deaths.
The proudly liberal city of 92,000 has been pushed to its limit, with the fire department responding to 223 overdoses — 2.5 calls per day — between January and April 12, according to Cascadia Daily.
If you search “San Francisco crime spike” on the internet, you will find countless stories—going back years—about how the city’s problems are no big deal or are due to forces beyond the control of its policymakers.
The problem isn’t crime, it’s crime rhetoric, they say.
But rhetoric didn’t cause a cascade of businesses to close and flee the city.
I recently wrote about how San Francisco’s policies—born of the left-wing ideology that drives the city’s leadership class—are leading directly to its woes. The City by the Bay is on a road to perdition of its own making.
This is Toronto’s future.
Hundreds of locals in one of San Francisco’s wealthiest counties have been forced to pack up their lives into RVs and trailers after being pushed out of the housing market.
Shocking photos show the ever-growing line of trucks and other vehicles along 101 Highway – which now stretches over two miles in one of the largest encampments in the country.
Cities in Marin County, where on average homes cost $1.4million, are pushing for the line along the highway to end after the number of residents living in their cars ballooned during the pandemic.
“We’ve spent more than 35 years serving customers in downtown San Francisco, building relationships with them and investing in the local community,” Nordstrom told impacted employees.
“But as many of you know, the dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past several years, impacting customer foot traffic to our stores and our ability to operate successfully.”
SAN FRANCISCO — Last year, with pandemic lockdowns in the rearview mirror, Whole Foods Market made a bet on a gritty San Francisco neighborhood. The high-end supermarket chain opened a giant flagship store in a part of the city that is home to both tech companies like Twitter and open-air drug dealing.
But the store was soon confronted head-on with many of the problems plaguing the area. People threatened employees with guns, knives and sticks. They flung food, screamed, fought and tried to defecate on the floor, according to records of 568 emergency calls over 13 months, many depicting scenes of mayhem.
Arguably the most beautiful big city in America looks more and more like a ghost town as San Francisco learns yet another painful real estate lesson.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that a “fire sale” on the 22-story 350 California office tower could see the $300 million building sell for as little as $60 million.
Not a good sign.
A homeowner who allegedly allowed his Portland property to be turned into a squat rife with drug use, gun fights and explosions has been revealed as a multimillionaire marijuana entrepreneur.
Aaron Mitchell brought the property in the Hazelwood district in 2020.
Jacob and Beth Adams, who live nearby, bought their neighboring home in 2017, and said they enjoyed living in the quiet district.
Drug-related deaths surged by 41% in San Francisco in the first quarter of this year – with one person dying of an accidental overdose every 10 hours, as the fentanyl crisis continues to ravage the US west coast.
San Francisco saw 200 people die of overdoses in the past three months compared to 142 in the same months a year ago, according to reports by the city’s medical examiner.
Those living on the streets were particularly hard hit – with twice as many unhoused people dying of overdoses between January and March compared to a year earlier.
A day in the life of the Left.
It was another weekend of violence and disorder in Chicago. “At least 32 shot, 8 fatally, in weekend violence across city,” read one headline on the WLS-TV news website. Another headline said, “15 arrested in connection with Loop chaos after 2 teens shot.” That story went on to report that a “large disturbance” — more accurately, a small riot — took place in the city’s downtown area. Videos of the incident showed crowds of young people jumping on cars and buses. Later, at least one person pulled out a gun.
A Target store in San Francisco has locked its entire product range behind security glass as crime in the city spirals out of control.
A video posted on TikTok on April 20 shows all of the items in the store locked away from customers.
According to geotagged imagery, some products at the store on Folsom Street were behind glass since at least October of last year, WNCT reported.
An abandoned Portland tavern burned to the ground this week in a blaze sparked by squatters who had been harassing the crime-riddled community for more than a year.
Firefighters tried in vain Wednesday to beat back flames that consumed the former Farmer’s Barn Tavern in north Portland, which neighbor Dusty McCord said was “clearly a time bomb waiting to go off.”
He said squatters have been menacing the neighborhood since they besieged the bar that closed in 2018, threatening residents with guns, sometimes physically attacking them — and frequently cutting down trees to make campfires.
Chicago’s interim police chief is to retire after only month in the job – stepping down after a series of headline-grabbing crimes, on the same day as the ultra-progressive new mayor takes office but insisting that his decision was made months ago.
Eric Carter, the interim superintendent, will retire on May 15 after 30 years on the force.
He took over when David Brown resigned after the February 28 mayoral election. Brown turns 63 in September, which is the mandatory CPD retirement age.
Policing Chicago in 2023:
Potentially fatal attack, immediately followed by street "performance." pic.twitter.com/M0YPm3nPzH
— Stew Peters (@realstewpeters) April 22, 2023
As much trash as I’ve talked about this city, this state, it’s the closest thing to home I’ve had
Like so many wannabe actors before me, I came to this gritty city with big dreams of “making it” in Tinseltown. I thought I wanted to be an actress until I got here and realized that driving around begging casting directors for approval wasn’t for me. Nonetheless, I stayed in Los Angeles — and over the last sixteen years, this big, messy, giant suburban sprawl has become a part of me.
My husband and I have agonized over the decision of whether to stay or go. Making a cost-benefit analysis — like whether to stay near family in perfect weather or go where we can provide a better quality of life for our daughter in a place with unbearable heat — has felt like trying to solve an impossible math equation. You can’t put a price on either of those things — but as Thomas Sowell said, “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.”
From crime to climate protesters, the predictable result of not upholding the law is more lawlessness
It is always interesting to see how far things can run if the authorities let them. If you tour around American cities these days – especially Democrat-run cities – you can see the results everywhere.
Legalise or effectively legalise drugs – as in New York and other places – and you will soon see and smell them everywhere. In the middle of the day, you will witness people lighting or shooting up. All other judgments aside, it can be said with a fair degree of certainty that the person before you is not going to contribute to the economy that day. Nor perhaps for the remainder of their life.
Oakland has always been a gritty city—the tough-luck twin to wealthy San Francisco. Under newly elected Alameda County District Attorney Pam Price, Oakland could be headed for a fate much darker than gritty. Price has been following the de-prosecution and decarceration playbook of radical district attorneys across the United States. If she stays on that course, Oakland is in for a “hella tough time,” to use the language of the Bay Area.
