Tim Redmond and the left
There's a lot to argue with in Tim Redmond's ultra-left version of recent city history, but this statement can't go without a response:
"Gavin Newsom, who wants to be the next governor of California, got his start in local politics attacking homeless people."
That is simply untrue. I'd call Remond a liar, but he's no doubt sincere and thinks he's giving it a straight shot.
His slur is a reference to Newsom's Care Not Cash policy that, like every other Bay Area jurisdiction had already done, stopped the city policy of giving homeless people monthly cash payments that in effect helped them remain homeless.
Funny thing happened when Care Not Cash went into effect: More than 1,000 of the homeless disappeared from the welfare rolls. Turned out they just wanted cash, not care.
Before Mayor Newsom and Care Not Cash---and Homeward Bound, Project Homeless Connect, supportive housing, etc.---what was the Bay Guardian/Redmond left's approach to dealing with the homelessness? Supporting Food Not Bombs and the pie-throwers in the Biotic Baking Brigade..
The abject failure of the city's left on homelessness was an intellectual failure, not a political inititative that failed, since they saw the homeless as just another category of victims under our wicked capitalist system.
The implication of the city left's lack of serious policy proposals: the people of San Francisco should just learn to live with the growing squalor on city streets and in our parks.
Labels: Gavin Newsom, History, Homelessness, Right and Left, The SF Bay Guardian, Tim Redmond
posted by Rob Anderson @ 1:17 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Agreed. The city needs to devise metrics to figure out what the benifits have been having spend $150+M each year for the last several years....and millions more in the decades past.
The reality is that homelessness is here to stay. Every city in the country is struggling with the problem. All we can do is cope with it with humane, pragmatic policies. My favorite program is Homeward Bound, which has bused out of town more than 9,000 homeless people in the last ten years. It's a myth that the people we see living on the streets are just city residents down on their luck. San Francisco is a destination for both high-end tourists and those who are already or nearly destitute, mostly due to mental health problems and/or drugs.
The mayor is taking at least one logical step: putting all the homeless programs under one city agency.
It would also be helpful if, say, the Grand Jury or the Controller did a study on all the city's homeless programs to determine their effectiveness.
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