Nolte: Democrat-Run San Francisco Demands Permits for Planters that Keep Homeless Away
Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images; Joey Kotfica via Getty
San Francisco residents must now obtain a permit for planters used to keep the homeless away.
Last summer, Breitbart News reported on residents of that Democrat-run city raising money for a common sense solution to a terrible problem. At a cost of around $700 each, heavy planters, filled with about 1,400 pounds of rocks and soil, were stragecially placed on sidewalks to discourage the homeless from setting up tents and making a permanent home in front of a home or business. People could still walk back and forth, but that extra space able to accommodate tents was now blocked.
Win-win, right?
Not where Democrats are in charge.
Democrats run San Francisco without opposition, so common-sense solutions will never be allowed. Now, residents and business owners are required to obtain a permit before placing a planter.
“Some San Francisco residents are concerned the city is making it more difficult to install planters on sidewalks as homeless advocates push back on their use,” reports the San Francisco Standard.
The report adds that homeless advocates have declared the planters “hostile architecture” and that the Department of Public Works will soon “require planter owners to obtain permits before their installations.”
This permit will require “live plants in the metal troughs and provide at least 72 inches of unobstructed sidewalk space for pedestrians to pass.”
“Live plants” is a way to make things more difficult for home and business owners. One resident explained that the homeless “dig through the planters with some sort of fantasy hope of finding drugs buried,” he said, adding: “My fervent wish is that the city simply stays out of it and not do anything that will impact a successful and creative solution.”
My empathy for the “Larch Street Resident” below depends solely on which party he voted for in the last election and which party he will vote for in the next one:
One resident of Larch Street, who spoke anonymously out of fear of retribution from homeless advocates, said the planters on his Tenderloin street have positively transformed his life.
The resident explained that he was previously unable to sleep due to constant noise from the alley below his building before the planters were installed, causing the late-night activity to move elsewhere.
Larch Street’s planters covered the majority of the sidewalk when The Standard visited. Public Works recently began citing owners for blocking sidewalks with planters, warning that if they’re not moved within 30 days, owners will have to pay for the moving costs.
So Democrats refuse to move drug addicts and lunatics off the sidewalks, but those planters have got to go.
“I find it hard to give the city of San Francisco any credit here,” Hot Air’s John Sexton adds. “They let people put up thousands of these planters, knowing exactly why they were doing it, and now they are buying into the bogus complaints of a small group of activists to threaten people with fines.”
The bottom line is this: Democrats want chaos, crime, homelessness, drug addiction, despair, filth, and degradation. You push the good people out of your city, you keep the bad ones, and then import illegal aliens to make up for the population loss so you don’t lose electoral votes or congressional seats. This approach offers only an upside. Democrats keep their electoral power, and after all the Normal people flee, Democrats ensure a permanent power majority in their cities and states.
Hey, if you have a better explanation as to why Democrats would complicate this simple but effective way for residents to protect their property and way of life, I’m all ears. Just read this first.
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