NOTE: Counting down to the end on WordPress. Please see this post and future posts at my new home: 357 Magnum over on Blogspot. And you should update any links. (Posts are in both places right now, but that is a small, but not meaningless bit of work, so it will go on for a VERY short time.)
New data released on Tuesday shows apartment rental trends across the US
San Francisco saw the biggest drop, with studio rents down 31% from last year
Detroit, New York, and Seattle were also among the cities dropping fastest
Meanwhile, parts of Florida, Oklahoma, Arizona and Texas saw rents rise
Of course it all has to do with the pandemic. The epidemic of homelessness, and the feces covering the streets are not an issue at all. At least not to the media.
Meanwhile, rents are rising nearly as quickly, on a percentage basis, in parts of Oklahoma, Florida, Texas and Arizona, indicating a migration trend toward areas with lower density and lower taxes.
Now they don’t say what the ramp up was, but generally speaking, a 31% crash in rents is probably going to cause some landlords to default on loans. Which won’t be great for Real Estate values.
Protestors Riotors in Portland have destroyed a statue of George Washington.
Back in the 1990s, when activists began declaring the Confederate flag to be “controversial,” I recall leaders of the Sons of Confederate Veterans warning that this malicious spirit would not stop with dishonoring our Southern ancestors. Rather, these “activists” were inspired by demonic forces of racial hatred toward all white people, so that once they were through trashing the memory of the Confederacy, next they would turn to destroying the memory of the Founding Fathers and momunuments to other famous figures of American history. Does this sound familiar?
The French declared a year 1 as part of the French Revolution. Cambodia declared a year 0. “History begins with us.” I don’t remember who said that, maybe one of the Bolsheviks. Anyway click thru.
He [Grant] was a “slave owner” in that he was gifted a slave, hated the idea, and freed him within a year. Then won the Civil War, prosecuted the KKK, and appointed African Americans to prominent roles in government.
So of course we have to tear down a statue of Grant.
Or as one Twitter post put it, “People going after Grant probably just want to break things.”
Note: The Links keep disappearing. I keep trying to replace them, but it isn’t clear why they are disappearing. Well, early on, it was probably because the servers were dying, but now?
So a black guy is writing “Black Lives Matter” on his own property. In chalk. The Karen, in this case Lisa Alexander, felt compelled to confront him – he recorded video – and then when he didn’t bow to her authority, she wanted to speak to the manger. That is, she called the cops.
[James] Juanillo clapped back, “If I did live here, and this was my property, this would be absolutely fine?” Juanillo can be heard asking them. “And you don’t know if I live here or if this is my property.”
He added that Alexander “lies and says she knows that I don’t live in my own house, because she knows the person who lives here”. Juanillo tells the couple that they should call the police if they think he’s breaking the law.
So of course, being a world-class Karen, she calls the cops. Who recognize that Alexander is in his own home, because they know him. He’s lived in the home for 18 years, after all.
Now she has pulled the 21st Century version of going into hiding, in that she deleted all of her social media accounts. Not that it hasn’t negatively impacted her business already.
I expect the fallout will continue for this Karen for some time.
“I want to apologise directly to Mr. Juanillo”, the statement read.
“I did not realize at the time that my actions were racist and have learned a painful lesson”, it continued.
Really??! You “didn’t realize” you were being an asshole? You thought it was your duty and your right to tell the whole world how to live their lives? Well, I suppose that is true of most assholes, idiots, bigots, and Karens.
And good luck with the apology. It hasn’t worked for anyone else, but whatever…
Part of this, I’m sure, is because she could not CONCEIVE of the remotest possibility that a black man could own property in San Francisco. Racism? There’s no racism in San Francisco. They are enlightened. Just ask them, and they will tell you that!
He was right there, not trying to get her to tone it down. So like Central Park Karen, the pain is going to take some time to go away.
So here’s a clue for all the Karens who might want to speak to the manager over this kind of thing… Mind your own fucking business. If she had done that, none of this would have happened. But now she is going to pay a steep price. (I’m assuming they have a mortgage payment due shortly…)
While SFERS states that no Social Security Numbers or bank account information was contained in the breach, there was enough personal information exposed that could be used by threat actors in attacks.
According to the notification, the types of information that was exposed is different depending on whether a member is retired or if they had registered on the web site.
The leaked information for all members includes a member’s name, address, date of birth, and beneficiary information.
All because a vendor set up a test environment that included real data, but without real security.
They are offering the obligatory 1 year of credit monitoring, which is a sham, because the risk will last more than 1 year.
After 13-year-old Sienna Carter vanished in downtown San Francisco a week ago, a frantic search ensued. The girl was found, a suspect was arrested but now has been set free to prey on other children. Why? In recent years, progressives funded by billionaire George Soros have pursued an agenda of targeting elections for state attorneys general and local district attorneys, while simultaneously promoting so-called “bail reform” initiatives.
For years San Francisco has been clocking the average response time to serious crimes at 5.5 minutes, when in fact it takes a median time of 7 minutes from when the 911 call is made for police to arrive on the scene, according to revised calculations just released in a joint Police Department and city controller’s report.
So since they are making it to “serious crimes” in 7 minutes they set a stretch goal of being there in 8 minutes. (Way to beat those metrics!)
This article is not clear at all, but that minute and a half are usually time for the call to be answered, relevant data to be collected. (Place, nature of help needed) and for a cop to be dispatched. Travel time of the cop to the scene will depend on traffic, etc.
Continual improvement? Not so much. Resting on your laurels? Maybe, though if you are penalized for not meeting goals, they should be goals you have a chance to meet, and the circumstances should be completely in you control. (Traffic is not something that is in an officer’s control.)
This incident, in which no one was hurt BTW, took place in an expensive apartment building in San Francisco, a REALLY expensive city. That goes to the point about zip codes. Here is a nice place, with a 24hr concierge service, and you end up in the middle of a violent encounter. And it points out that those expensive flashlights that everyone has in their EDC these days, really can pay off.
I’ve only been an on-again-off-again fan of Active Self Protection. I’m not really sure why. (It isn’t like I don’t have enough other demands on my time or anything!), but a lot of the videos are first-rate, and there is always a lesson to be learned. Actually some of the videos are classic.
If Bill Barr were sending FBI agents to raid journalists’ homes in search of leakers, we’d be told that the Fourth Reich had descended on America. (Updated because there are statutory protections in California.)
But this is the Liberal Fantasy Land of San Francisco.
A “Facebook cybersecurity executive” was targeted.
“The male caller stated that he had just shot his wife in their home, he had the kids tied up, there were pipe bombs everywhere, and if police responded that he would harm the police if they came to help,” said Janine De La Vega, Public Affairs Manager Palo Alto Police Department.
Not a prank, as the death last year proves.
Neighbors?
Neighbors were surprised to learn of the incident.
“Horrible, definitely. I’ve been living here for six years it’s always been really, really quiet. So I’m surprised to hear that for sure,” said Manuela Zavattaro, neighbor.
Swatting is a crime. And if you can read this, then you live in The Real World™ where crime can and all to often, does happen.
Two men, who may have followed him back from the bank, beat him up, breaking his fingers during the robbery.
But while he called 911 shortly before 12:30 p.m., police did not respond to the scene until around 4:30 p.m.
Apparently the call was not logged correctly, and it seems language may have been part of the problem.
Calling 911 is a fine thing to do, but you are expecting an over-worked (and in some locations underpaid) .gov functionary to get things into the system correctly.
(The WTF?! is inspired by the shear amount of money – which looks to be wasted.)
Between $245 million and $271 million in recent years, with next year’s budget set at about $280 million. That is JUST for homelessness, not for the whole of the city.
The article says the math comes out to $37,300 for each of the city’s homeless residents.
City supervisor hopeful Nick Josefowitz, however, said he believes San Francisco shouldn’t “invest a single public dollar without knowing if it is doing any good.”
“Despite decades of well-intentioned bills, spending efforts, or guiding plans, the same tragic scene continues day after day and year after year,” he wrote in an April article on Medium. “Indeed, in recent years the situation has become so much worse. Yet too often City Hall is still making decisions on homelessness based on folk wisdom rather than hard evidence.”
Because we scream “Do Something!” (The Left loves government action more than the Right, but it isn’t a Leftist monopoly.) And then we are surprised that the government is doing the wrong thing, or doing stupid things, or just throwing the money away.
A similar complaint the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial board made years earlier – that the city isn’t doing enough to track their efforts.
“That a city can spend $241 million a year on programs and still confront such human misery suggests those dollars are not being spent with anything close to optimal effectiveness,” the board wrote in 2016. “Eight city departments and 76 private and nonprofit organizations draw from those funds in 400 contracts, yet the degree of accountability is highly suspect.”
You would think for $37,000 per person, you would be able to do something reasonable. But then again it is the government. (Hat tip to Chicks on the Right.)
“If you do get stuck with these disposed needles you can get HIV, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B, and a variety of other viral diseases,” said Dr. Lee Riley, an infectious disease expert at University of California, Berkeley. He warned that once fecal matter dries, it can become airborne, releasing potentially dangerous viruses, such as the rotavirus. “If you happen to inhale that, it can also go into your intestine,” he said. The results can prove fatal, especially in children.
…
“The contamination is … much greater than communities in Brazil or Kenya or India,” he said. He notes that in those countries, slum dwellings are often long-term homes for families and so there is an attempt to make the surroundings more livable. Homeless communities in San Francisco, however, are often kicked out from one part of town and forced to relocate to another. The result is extreme contamination, according to Riley.
The city budget (2016-2017) included about $60 million for “street environmental services.” Translation: cleaning up the crap.
Lots of photos, and a video (I didn’t watch) at the link above. H/T DailyWire.
So the Haight, in San Francisco, has long been a safe neighborhood. (It wasn’t always, but that is ancient history). In the past few weeks there have been 2 shootings (1 fatal) and 4 drug overdoses in the “doorway of an elite private high school”. This prompted a town-hall style meeting at the local police precinct.
“People are terrified to leave their homes,” one woman, who lives on Masonic Avenue, told the crowd. “When I walk on Haight Street and there is a group of 14 kids — many are transient with pitbulls and I can’t get through the street, I feel frightened and intimidated.”
Another person called for more beat cops – one on every corner – to keep the peace.
This constitutes “hate” in the eyes of the Social Justice Warrior writing the peace.
She laments that society is not bending over backwards for the addicts. “Safe injection sites” that could provide counseling and help for ODs are not open. (Another person said that people who reject counseling should be arrested. Hate in the eyes of the SJWs.)
Being intimidated by roving gangs of youths *used Joe Pesci’s accent from My Cousin Vinny* is hate, because worrying about your personal safety is just pure hate. Or something.
It isn’t enough to be calling names, and looking down your SJW noses at ordinary folks who want to live in safe communities. The hubris is amazing.
The meeting was a complete failure. And it’s a shame, because the solutions to the actual problems — chronic homelessness, mental health, and substance abuse — are obvious.
Where exactly – in any of the major cities completely controlled by the Left for the past 50 years – have any of these 3 problems been solved, by any solution, obvious or not?
San Francisco’s 911 call center has been in the news because it isn’t meeting the “industry standards.” Lots of reasons, but burn-out and staff turnover are high on that list of reasons.
When 40% of the calls to 911 are NOT for emergencies, that just makes a bad situation worse. According to one woman who got fed up and quit…
“Staffing is an issue, but public stupidity is another issue. It makes me crazy.”
Is someone’s life in danger? Is your house burning down? Call 911. Did someone leave an old tire on the sidewalk? Not so much. At least TRY to figure out what is an emergency and what isn’t.
As an illustration, the graph above details the increasing number of calls made to the SF 911 center about homeless people that are NOT related to an emergency. You may think homeless people are annoying, but that doesn’t justify a call to 911. (Click on that image for a larger view.)
Hong said dispatchers have their “regulars.” A man named Charles calls every single day to report a homeless man sleeping outside his building.
I’m sure that is annoying. I’m equally sure that it’s not an emergency.
Calling 911 has its benefits and its problems. But when the public is stupid (and apparently getting more so) the problems get worse. A guy sleeping in front of your building, or a woman’s violent stalker trying to break down her door. Which do you think should get time from 911?
It seems so many tech companies are moving to San Francisco that the straights are crowding the gays out of the bars. And the gays don’t like it.
They complain about losing old-time gay bars. The entertainers have to deal with more straight audiences. (Or perhaps those venues would also go out of business…) But there is a reason for that.
Part of the reason that so many gay bars have closed or turned straight, [local bar manager Joe Mattheisen] said, is that LGBT people have become increasingly comfortable spending time at mainstream bars.
“The gays fought for equal rights – and they got it,” he said. “So the gays no longer needed gay bars. They just go to their neighborhood bar.”
And of course there are just some folks who wish those nasty straight folks would stay in their own neighborhood.
[Amy Sueyoshi, 45, associate dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University,] followed up with an email: “I do like to go to places in and around the Castro for Happy Hour or a snack and I’ve noticed more straight people making out at these places where I go deliberately to NOT feel like I am oppressed by heterosexuality. Really, straight people do you HAVE to make out in the Castro as well? Good Lord.”
Can’t those damn straight people just keep to their own places?
As several people have noted, if this level of “Oh, those icky others are invading OUR space” was directed AT gays, and not BY gays, the reaction would be close to nuclear. [hat tip to Gay Patriot.]
Other companies have left the business-unfriendly-environment of the Left Coast for more hospitable locations. Google should consider the same.
With a Bay Area tech backlash in full force, Reuters is reporting that Google appears to have resorted to private security guards to protect its employee shuttles from angry protesters and other evildoers.”In recent days, men with earpieces have closely monitored passengers boarding Google commuter buses at the site of at least one bus stop in San Francsico’s Mission District,”
If the tech-base left the SF Bay Area, then the price of homes would go down. (Like a bubble popping.) And the protestors would get exactly what they want. A cheaper Bay Area.
The broader gripe is that rich, entitled young techies are driving up rents, displacing working-class residents, and undermining the city’s public infrastructure through rampant privatization.
Rents would go down. Restaurants and shops would close. And San Fran could become a bastion of leftist/socialist life. Like Detroit. (Another city where the businesses were hounded out of existence.)
Who wants to live in a city full of feces? Though the media are continuing to blame the pandemic. San Francisco apartment rents plunge as much as 31%, the biggest drop in the US, while parts of Oklahoma, Arizona and Texas see soaring demand.
357 Magnum Archive 