The Sad Tale of a San Francisco Art Gallery Owner

Collier Gwin (right) and his attorney Doug Rappaport
outside a San Francisco courtroom (Chron photo)

Collier Gwin, 72, achieved notoriety in January when he sprayed a homeless woman who was camping in front of his San Francisco art gallery. He was vilified on social media, arrested, and in July was sentenced to 35 hours of community service.

Follow-up reporting revealed that there had been many interactions between the woman, Quorum Davinc, and merchants in the "posh" Jackson Square neighborhood.

Davinc was known to drift through North Beach and the Financial District, eating restaurant handouts, sleeping in doorways and vexing merchants who regarded her both with pity and mounting frustration.

During the two weeks leading up to the hose video, Gwin said, he and his neighbors ramped up their efforts to seek help for Davinc. He said his irritation with the woman built up over time, as he witnessed her toppling garbage cans, acting hostile and scattering possessions on the sidewalk.

Collier Gwin has repeatedly apologized for his action but doesn't accept all the blame. In the WSJ he writes:

For weeks we had done the right thing. We called the police and social services 50 times over 25 days—exactly as instructed by Mayor London Breed. Everyone who showed up told us they couldn’t move the woman, no matter what she was doing to herself and the community.

In my city, shoplifting, drug dealing and drug abuse aren’t treated as crimes, but my act of frustration earned me 35 hours of community service. This is another reminder of how broken San Francisco has become and how inhospitable the current laws are to small business owners and taxpayers.

My frustration was no excuse for what I did, but does anyone realize how dire the situation is in San Francisco? People have attacked me on social media, threatened my life, and flooded my phone with profane calls. I’ve struggled to maintain my business and personal health. Yet, within the confines of our city, I’ve received overwhelming understanding because people are equally frustrated at what our San Francisco has become.

The late, great columnist Herb Caen occasionally referred to San Francisco as the City That Knows How. Lately there have been too many instances of the City that doesn't know how to do even the basic things.