The San Francisco Files

The San Francisco Files
By Terry A. Hurlbut
San Francisco has turned into one of the worst city failures in the history of civilization. We now have that definitive word from two of San Francisco’s most prominent residents on Twitter. One of them is Mike Shellenberger, famous as a colleague of Matt Taibbi in handling The Twitter Files. The other is Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter.
San Francisco woes
The event that started all the mourning for San Francisco, was the closure of Whole Foods Market’s San Francisco flagship store. That store had been opened for only a year – but closed two days ago (April 10). Officially the company said,
We are closing our Trinity location only for the time being. If we feel we can ensure the safety of our team members in the store, we will evaluate a reopening of our Trinity location.
Last October the store curtailed its hours, citing high rates of shoplifting and “hostile visitors.” A month later they started restricting the bathrooms to paying customers only. Security guards had found syringes and drug pipes in one or both bathrooms. But two store “team members” gave the real reason: wholesale shoplifting. And now the store has closed – temporarily, everyone hopes, but maybe for good.
Supervisor Matt Dorsey thinks he knows why: the San Francisco Police Department is understaffed. He has already filed to amend the city charter to bring the police up to full staff.
I write to request your office’s assistance in drafting a Charter Amendment, entitled “The San Francisco Police Department Full Staffing Act,” which if enacted by voters would re-establish minimum police staffing levels, and mandate certain budgetary provisions over a five-year period to achieve a fully staffed municipal police force in the City and County of San Francisco.
Several threads
Mike Shellenberger, author of San Fransicko among other works, dropped the first thread on Easter Sunday.
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645077045146439687
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645079793002745858
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645080889540608001
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645083866535956480
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645084951141044224
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645087766534057985
In fact Shellenberger quoted the anchor tweet of this thread he dropped last year, about the plight of homeless people in San Francisco.
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1491418120086454278
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1491420283445846020
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1491423453853159426
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1491425295995654157
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1491428584527134721
Evidently little or nothing has changed. In fact this thread also quotes a thread he dropped two days earlier, about drug addiction:
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1490706774093012999
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1490706945950433282
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1490707081816543233
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1490707300633366530
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1490707346066083843
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1490708272545873921
Monday at 3:10 p.m. PDT, Supervisor Dorsey dropped this thread about his proposed San Francisco Police Department Full Staffing Act:
https://twitter.com/mattdorsey/status/1645547717714915328
https://twitter.com/mattdorsey/status/1645547719598178305
https://twitter.com/mattdorsey/status/1645547723138138112
https://twitter.com/mattdorsey/status/1645547726128693248
About an hour and a half later, Mike Shellenberger dropped another thread, this time about willful underreporting of crime:
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645588995970310145
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645590675793256449
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645605508093739008
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645620038261690368
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645624271081979904
The last tweet ends with a quote of this thread from the San Francisco Police Officers’ Association:
https://twitter.com/SanFranciscoPOA/status/1643790853876625408
https://twitter.com/SanFranciscoPOA/status/1643790858188369921
Elon Musk himself weighed in – twice, about six hours apart.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1645589870100840449
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1645682382958399490
Several users pointed out a specific problem with Whole Foods’ Trinity location: it’s near an open-air drug market. One user proposed legalizing it – then another user pointed to hard-and-fast data from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, showing that wouldn’t work:
https://twitter.com/thevindictives2/status/1645796444157415427
https://twitter.com/thevindictives2/status/1645808521320239104
Analysis
Elon Musk is correct. Other witnesses have reported the same thing he did: that downtown San Francisco looks like a scene out of a depressing movie. Anyone who remembers when San Francisco was clean, fifty years ago and longer, doubtless feels that depression more acutely. Even the horrific scenes of the aftermath of the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, as depicted in the 1936 motion picture San Francisco, cannot match what we see today.
And who do the editors of the San Francisco Chronicle think they are? They act like the old Soviet Wire Service – except that the Mayor London Breed hasn’t taken the Soviet-style step of closing the city and censoring all reporting of conditions within it. Which makes those editors look, frankly, stupid. Then again, San Francisco gave us William Randolph Hearst – that Citizen Hearst who lied the country into the Spanish-American War. Evidently, standards of journalism haven’t improved – or they’ve disimproved to that level.
The entire country should hang its collective head in larger shame – that any American city should come to this pass. But elections do indeed have consequences, and people get what they vote for.
Link to:
The article:
https://cnav.news/2023/04/12/editorial/talk/san-francisco-files/

Supervisor Dorsey’s charter amendment proposal:
https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A900c4207-12c7-475a-ae4e-59d04226b92d&viewer%21megaVerb=group-discover

Easter Sunday thread:
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645077045146439687
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645079793002745858
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645080889540608001
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645083866535956480
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645084951141044224
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645087766534057985

Homelessness thread:
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1491418120086454278
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1491420283445846020
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1491423453853159426
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1491425295995654157
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1491428584527134721

Drug addiction thread:
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1490706774093012999
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1490706945950433282
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1490707081816543233
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1490707300633366530
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1490707346066083843
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1490708272545873921

Supervisor Dorsey’s thread:
https://twitter.com/mattdorsey/status/1645547717714915328
https://twitter.com/mattdorsey/status/1645547719598178305
https://twitter.com/mattdorsey/status/1645547723138138112
https://twitter.com/mattdorsey/status/1645547726128693248

Crime underreporting thread:
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645588995970310145
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645590675793256449
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645605508093739008
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645620038261690368
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1645624271081979904

SFPOA thread:
https://twitter.com/SanFranciscoPOA/status/1643790853876625408
https://twitter.com/SanFranciscoPOA/status/1643790858188369921

Elon Musk’s comments:
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1645589870100840449
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1645682382958399490

Why drug legalization wouldn’t work:
https://twitter.com/thevindictives2/status/1645796444157415427
https://twitter.com/thevindictives2/status/1645808521320239104

Declarations of Truth Twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/DecTruth

Conservative News and Views:
https://cnav.news/

The CNAV Store:
https://cnav.store/

Our Silver Lines
https://oursilverlines.com/