[LEMONS] 7.16.2001
There's this bubbling movement underway to "clean up" San Francisco, and it seems to be focusing on the mid Market / Civic Center area. Over the last couple of months, the propaganda for cleansing the city center has been progressively ratcheted up. On Friday, even the Fangzaminer got into the act with a histrionic report on all the sex offenders in the area (and it would have been frightening indeed had it appeared in a real newspaper. You know, one that can spell Wednesday). The campaign in already underway in earnest. Plans have already been hatched to transform the area. In the latest development, it looks like the Yups are coming. Luxury apartments will certainly change the character of the place, and put all sorts of yuppies on the ground who will demand the area be sanitized, which seems to be what the city wants.
I'm not an advocate of pee or poo. But nor do I want to live in Manhattan. The current plan seems to be "let's get the stinky folk away from UN Plaza." Fine. But where do you intend for them to go? I ride my bike through mid-Market every day. Some days I walk through. I've been accosted, I've nearly been urinated on, I've been frightened and I've been in a situation where I felt like I should protect an elderly woman walking near me. I've never been to one of the sex theaters, nor do I have any intention of going. Ever. Even if I wanted to go for a lark, I'm too paranoid about germs to ever step foot inside. I'm all for revitalizing the area. But I don't think that has to mean running all of the poor people and homeless out of there. Unless we can move them en masse into the Marina.
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