January 04, 2006
That Strange City by the BayI've never been there: to San Francisco, I mean. Although I've lived about 20 of my 41 years in California, I never got north of Ventura (California is a big place). I do, however, have lots of friends and family who have been there and the universal statement is that it is just one heck of a great place to visit. One of these days, I shall visit - but given this sort of thing, I shan't ever live there:
Here's an interesting statistic, compiled by the SFPD and reported in The Chronicle last month: Of the 94 homicides recorded in the city through Dec. 12, no arrests had been made for 74 of those murders. Only eight cases have resulted in prosecutions.
That is noted by Debra Saunders over at Real Clear Politics in a piece about San Francisco's ban on gun ownership, passed with 58% of the vote. Saunders notes that the ban will probably fail in court as unconstitutional, and wonders if the city funds used to push it might have been better used going after the 74 murders still unsolved from 2005. This is leftist thinking in a nutshell: useless laws passed in a void, while murderers wander the streets nearly unchecked.
Really, people - how do they stand it? How can anyone tolerate a city government which allows the town to be over-run with homeless, suffer from extortionate real estate prices, have overly high taxes and doesn't even have sufficient police to track down murderers? You'd think that after a while, even leftists would get into a "throw the bums out" mood. But I guess that leftists are impervious to facts - as long as the city officials keeping talking the leftwing talk, San Francisco can continue to go to heck in a handbasket and no one will notice, or care.
Posted by Mark Noonan on January 4, 2006 02:23 AM
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Comments
Its worse than that. Total up all the blue big cities and you find there are 5-6 murders for every soldier we loose in Iraq. Democrats lied and people died.
Posted by: RA at January 4, 2006 02:49 PM
"how do they stand it?"
You asked, and I, a San Franciscan, will answer:
"How can anyone tolerate a city government which allows the town to be over-run with homeless..."
Actually, the number of homeless is down, and the number of people receiving General Assistance is way down, with Gavin Newsom's Care Not Cash program. Mayor Newsom was elected as the conservative candidate, with the support of Republicans.
"suffer from extortionate real estate prices"
That's because it's a great place to live, but there's a very limited supply of housing and land. Prices on the Westside of LA, in Newport and Laguna are just as crazy.
"have overly high taxes"
For most, taxes are almost as high anywhere in CA. Propety tax is the same everywhere, thanks to Prop 13. Sales tax is slightly higher than elsewhere. Some business taxes are higher.
"murderers wander the streets nearly unchecked." Crime rate in SF is lower than in most cities--including many big cities in red states. The police can never get anyone to testify in gang killings, but these are usually gang-on-gang. Most neighborhoods in SF feel very safe at any hour. I see a lot more police around than I did when I lived in other cities.
The handgun ban was a symbolic vote that most understood would be overturned in the courts.
Posted by: Dan at January 6, 2006 02:12 AM
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