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Originally Posted by JManc
The homelessness in SF was off the charts and very prominent and in your face where as LA, they were more out of site..at least in large numbers.
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They are mostly out of sight in SF now. You may have been here at the very worst moment. With all the hotels shut down to tourists, the city has rented lots of rooms and filled the ones in the lower quality hotels with the homeless. Very few tents on the street now except in the worst parts of the Tenderloin where the druggies too far gone to even have a tent of make use of even minimal services are still sprawled on the sidewalks in some blocks.
The thing about SF, aside from the fact it's way too liberal and tolerant of anti-social behavior (which has always been a characteristic of the place that many who live here love and keep voting to continue) is that it's small. Yes, when there's a problem it's hard not to notice it. In LA. someone who doesn't go downtown might never know there was a homless problem. But in fact LA has more of them than we do and does much less for them.
One more thing. Since some of those hotels closed due to COVID may well shut more or less permanently, the Governor has come up with some money to buy some of them and turn them into "full service" shelters (that means they don't just give people a room but provide mental health and regular health care services etc on-site). San Francisco is buying 2. Added to the shelters and other programs it already has, it could probably house most of its homeless population if they didn't keep coming because we treat them so well.
On a slightly different subject, I went out to lunch yesterday in Hayes Valley and noticed almost every one of the many restaurants in the foodie Mecca now has a "parklet" for outdoor dining and they are getting ever fancier with not only roofs and gas heaters but nice tables and furniture. For anyone not knowing, these are built in the curb lanes, taking up parking in front of the restaurants for outdoor service. Now they are everywhere. And I'm told they are staying after COVID. Very pleasant dining and I look forward to having them around for years. A COVID silver lining.