Californians have long been talking about cleaning up San Francisco from the waste laid to the city by its well-compensated bums along with coddled criminals, entitled inebriates, and the happy homeless.
And then last week it happened. The city got cleaned up and scrubbed down. Darn quick.
All it took was the arrival of the President.
Of China.
Xi Jinping touched down just days ago for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, at which our own Somnambulant-in-Chief also teetered around, so the clean-up crews worked overtime to make a good impression.
There’s been a lot of speculation about it all. Couldn’t those who have been creating this filthy and dangerous environment on the streets of San Fran have been dealt with (and not pampered) a long time ago?
Many have remarked: so it’s Xi whom San Francisco Democrats really look up to? Not their own citizens? Everyday San Franciscans don’t matter? Only The Eastern King of Genocidal Totalitarianism?
“Is the president embarrassed,” a reporter asked National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Monday, “that an American city needs to go through a total makeover to be presentable for his out-of-town guests?”
No real answer.
But what did the city do, exactly?
Moved the homeless out of the way, first.
And then the streets were hosed off, the graffiti sanded or painted over.
Arguably, corralling the homeless from sector to sector of the city would be one way to disincentivize squatting, as would arresting and trying street-dwellers for public drug use and excretion — for some things must be kept private, not engaged in helter-skelter.
Things like defecating.
Sexual intercourse.
Shooting up.
Years ago, no one had to explain this to anyone.
Paul Jacob
Common Sense with Paul Jacob
November 17, 2023
