More Than You Can Give

With all the "big" problems calling for our attention, the story of the sidewalk boulders has commandeered local attention. Chronicle Reporter Heather Knight walked Clinton Park Alley:

Boulders removed, bitterness remains (Chron photo)

The much-discussed boulders of Clinton Park symbolize the anger and frustration simmering over our incredibly wealthy city’s total inability to provide basic services to its swelling homeless population or to enforce laws when street behavior turns dark and violent...

Neighbors reported feeling unsafe as they tried to get past the tents. They described a drug-dealing ring preying on homeless drug addicts. The tent dwellers would sometimes display meth-induced psychosis, cook over open flames, brandish weapons, and scream and party late into the night, neighbors said. They called 911 and 311 hundreds of times, to little avail.

Once word of the boulders got out, activists swarmed the street nightly, pushing the rocks into the road. Some people posted threatening messages regarding the neighbors on social media and, according to some neighbors, even issued death threats.

The city’s Public Works returned daily, placing the boulders back on the sidewalk. This game of move-the-boulders perfectly encapsulated City Hall’s track record on the issue: working hard to get very little accomplished.

The controversy became too much for the neighbors, who asked Public Works to remove the boulders. As of noon Monday, they were gone...

The neighbors I spoke to seemed kind and thoughtful. One man, wearing a stethoscope around his neck, said he has worked with drug-addicted people in the Tenderloin and South of Market for 20 years. Another man said he volunteers regularly feeding homeless people at the nearby St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church.

They don’t understand why not wanting a drug den outside your home makes you anti-homeless. And they don’t understand why super-rich San Francisco can’t provide more shelter beds, supportive housing units, drug treatment, mental health care and mandated treatment for those too ill to know they need it.

The vast majority of San Franciscans--and Bay Area residents--are liberal, loving, and giving people (your humble blogger is one out of three). But the takers always want more than you can give.