Re:America’s Havana: Thousands Say “Ciao” to San Francisco
by starik36 on Tuesday May 12, 2020 @07:44PM
(#23161515)
> Right now, it makes sense not to prosecute petty crime
Right now, ok, maybe an argument could be made for it. But petty crime wasn't being prosecuted before CV either. CVS Pharmacy downtown was keeping many products in the back (as opposed to the shelves) because police don't do anything about thieves that were stealing stuff in broad daylight. You literally had to ask the cashier to go and look for some items.
The housing issue is one that the Mayor has some control over. But not a lot. There are too many landowning moneyed interests to get anything done with zoning. Even the non-moneyed interests work against themselves by supporting policies that actually hurt the poor.
Right now, it makes sense not to prosecute petty crime. Those folks really have nowhere to go, so they could be arrested, then released back to the streets, and now they can't get a job because they have a record.
SF needs to make major strides in up-zoning the entire city. That alone would solve a lot of the problems. Then they can start worrying about petty crime with all that extra tax money they would have.
SF isn't even the biggest city in the Bay Area (San Jose is) so if anyone is going to push on PG&E it should be a multi-county effort, not just rest on SF.