San Francisco's exasperated mayor said the time for compassion is over as she announced plans to tackle the city's homelessness crisis that has residents fearful for their safety.

Mayor London Breed announced that the city will take a “very aggressive” approach to removing the encampments from the streets that have blighted the City by the Bay for the past four years.

In certain parts of the city, including the troubled Tenderloin district, there is now so much misery and neglect that local businesses can no longer find staff and residents are forced to flee.

The increase in the number of homeless people, which currently stands at around 8,300, has brought with it a host of other related problems: the sidewalks are full of illegal drug dealers, fentanyl users, and violent and intimidating behavior is common near the tent camps.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the time for compassion is over when it comes to dealing with the city's homeless crisis, which has led to streets being littered with feces. Homeless people are considered part of the city's struggle with fentanyl problems in San Francisco.

“We have had to evolve from a compassionate city to a responsible city, and I have led the effort to ensure that we approach this issue differently than we have in the past,” Breed said Thursday in a shift in course on the issue.

“We will be very aggressive and forceful in moving the camps, which may even result in criminal consequences,” she said. The “clean-ups” are expected to begin in less than two weeks, once staff have been trained according to the new legal guidelines.

Her comments come just three weeks after the Supreme Court gave cities the authority to evict homeless people from encampments.

“Building more housing won't solve the problem,” Breed said. “Thank God for the Supreme Court decision.”

In December 2022, a federal judge banned the city of San Francisco from clearing homeless tents, even though clearing encampments was not prohibited.

The judge ruled that city officials could no longer evict homeless people from public campsites unless they were offered adequate indoor accommodation.

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The city will take a more “aggressive” approach to removing tents and homeless encampments from the streets. San Francisco plans to clear several known homeless encampments starting in August.

Officers were also prohibited from issuing summonses or arresting people who refused to leave their seats.

But the Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling gives the city more power to help with the clearing. Authorities plan to offer shelter and support to those affected.

The case was the most significant to be heard on this issue before the Supreme Court in decades, and came at a time when cities across the country are wrestling with the politically complicated question of how to deal with rising numbers of homeless people and community frustration over related health and safety issues.

“We will continue to lead the way with our services, but we cannot continue to allow people to do whatever they want on the streets of San Francisco, especially when we have a place for them to go,” Breed said.

Conditions have become so bad that residents are afraid to leave their homes and local businesses can no longer hire staff. The area in front of the Federal Building in San Francisco was considered the largest open-air drug market in the entire city.

In San Francisco, homeowners, businesses and local politicians are frustrated by the visible signs of homelessness, which include public streets blocked by tents and trash.

The crime-ridden downtown has seen many stores and restaurants close since the city's drastic decline, although Breed has tried to inflate the statistics, claiming crime rates have dropped in 2023.

In October 2023, it was reported that seven Starbucks stores plan to close as the city continues to struggle with crime, drug use, and homelessness.

In late August 2023, a video was released showing the recently closed Nordstrom flagship store in San Francisco, which was nearly empty after nearly three decades in business.

Homeless people gather downtown, pushing their belongings into shopping carts or sitting on duffel bags, waiting for city services such as shelter, food or clothing, or treatment for mental health and substance abuse problems.

Homeless people gather downtown, pushing their belongings into shopping carts or sitting on duffel bags. Pictured is a homeless person on the sidewalk. City workers clean the streets and remove tents and belongings belonging to homeless people.

Breed says she hopes to exonerate them all, but did not provide specific details on how she plans to achieve that goal. She will likely need the assistance of the police to do so.

The city calculates its homeless numbers every three months, and at the end of the last count in April 2024, a 41 percent decrease was seen compared to July 2023.

In April, 360 tents and structures were counted – a decrease from 610 last summer and 385 in the February count.

This is the lowest value the city has recorded since data collection began in 2018.

Breed said this decline is due to a number of factors, not least police enforcement of laws against camping, even though homeless people have adequate access to emergency shelters.

The city calculates the city's homeless numbers every three months and at the end of the last count in April, a 41 percent decrease was found compared to July 2023. Homeless are considered the city's struggle with fentanyl problems in San Francisco earlier this year. Sidewalks are cleaned in San Francisco's homelessness-plagued Tenderloin neighborhood

A September 2022 ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said cities (generally) violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment when they punish homeless people for sleeping on public property or using blankets and pillows to protect themselves from the elements.

But earlier this month, a 9th Circuit panel ordered the injunction blocking the camps' evacuation to be lifted.

City employees must continue to bag and label property collected from homeless people.

This November, Breed faces a tough re-election battle as she faces three serious challengers who accuse her administration of failing to address the problems of homelessness, encampments and the open drug market.

With rising rents and a nationwide shortage of affordable housing, more than 100,000 people in California live on the streets.

Police are allowed to enforce laws against camping if homeless people have reasonable access to shelters. A San Francisco Police Department vehicle drives through a homeless camp being cleared in San Francisco. San Francisco is suffering from rising crime, an emptying downtown area, and residents moving to safer, cheaper areas.

Hawaii, Oregon and Arizona are among other Western states where more homeless people live outside in cars and tents than in shelters, despite billions being spent to reduce homelessness – including San Francisco's annual budget of $672 million.

The average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is $3,000.

Advocates say many homeless people would rather stay outdoors than in shelters, where they face the risk of abuse or threats of violence.

Homeless people who have pets, work night shifts, need mental health care, or suffer from substance abuse have a difficult time finding shelter.

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A weak cold front moving across Northern California delivered mostly drizzle across the drought-stricken region Monday night into Tuesday morning but some isolated locations, especially to the far north, saw significant rain.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, one location along the Sonoma Coast had recorded a half-inch by 5 pm Monday with other locations around the North Bay reporting a hundredth to a couple tenths of an inch, the National Weather Service reported. The amounts were small, but amid a drought, any rain was welcomed.

“Rain right now in #SanFrancisco,” wrote a Twitter user. “I’ve never been so happy in my life to walk in the #rain”

Sidewalks and roadways across San Francisco were wet during the Monday evening commute.

“Aggressive drizzle in San Francisco,” wrote ABC 7 meteorologist Drew Tuma on Twitter.

Here’s a look at some rainfall totals for the SF Bay Area:

Bodega Bay 0.21 inch
Mill Valley 0.18 inch
Inverness 0.13 inches
Mount Diablo 0.13 inch
Calistoga 0.10 inch
Guerneville 0.10 inch
Glen Ellen 0.07 inch
Pacifica 0.07 inches
San Francisco 0.04 inches

Sonoma coastal locations report up to 0.52″ so far! Much lighter amounts are expected elsewhere. pic.twitter.com/ATA59aAZFd

— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) September 27, 2021

The farthest reaches of the state at the California-Oregon border saw the most significant rainfall and Crescent City broke a same-day record, measuring 1.65 inches, John Garner a forecaster with the weather service’s Eureka office said. The gauge at the Arcata Airport recorded .34 inch.

Near Redding, where the Fawn Fire has destroyed 40 homes, a few hundredths of an inch were recorded, Katrina Hand, a forecaster with the weather service’s Sacramento office said.

Even some snow likely dusted the highest elevations.

“Great sight for September!” NBC Bay Area meteorologist Jeff Ranieri tweeted. “#Snow over Mt. Shasta highest peaks and rain for the fire zones.”

Hand noted that temperatures atop Mount Shasta suggested snow was possible.

Wet, drizzly weather could continue into Tuesday.

The cold front that dropped down from the Pacific Northwest is carrying in a mass of cold air and and by late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, temperatures in inland valleys could dip into the low 40s with coastal areas likely to stay in the 50s.

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San Francisco is America’s creative city. We think differently, push the envelope and always ask ourselves, “How can we do better?” Independent companies like Levi Strauss and Salesforce have been redefining industries for more than a century, while non-profit organizations like the Sierra Club and Kiva have initiated social movements and have changed our national discourse.

However, one vital sector – public education – has never tapped into and benefited from this rich legacy. Now is the time to change that.

San Francisco public schools are in crisis. They have lost thousands of students in the past few years and face a looming budget deficit of $ 125 million. Among the 15 most populous American cities, San Francisco was the only one to fail to return middle or high school students to some level of in-person tuition in the 2020-21 school year.

We could improve our schools with some modest changes. The three removed school board members could be replaced with more responsible and effective members appointed by the mayor. A change in the statutes to appoint rather than elect the school board would also likely result in members becoming more focused on running good schools than on political behavior.

But now that so many are dissatisfied, it is time to think bigger. Now is the time to ask, “How can we make our schools not just a little better, but a lot better?” We are proposing a new path for our school system based on what some educationalists call the “portfolio model”.

Today, the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education performs two functions: it determines which schools are made available to families, and it operates those schools. This results in a fundamental conflict of interest. Since the board of directors “owns” the system through its hiring and budget control, it has an incentive to defend or hide poor performance.

It’s hard to create and run great schools. Success requires effective and consistent leadership, excellent teaching, coherent curricula, and trust between teachers, parents, and administrators. SFUSD, as it is currently conceived, is not designed to be successful in that sense. Rather, the school board members focus on pleasing the stakeholders they have elected, including teacher unions and political activists. Children and families suffer from inadequate support from educators and from large inequalities.

In the portfolio model, the function of determining which schools can operate in the municipality is separated from the function of running schools. A newly elected body called the Civic Education Council (CEC) is responsible for the first function, while the second function is entrusted to the schools themselves or to non-profit organizations that want to run schools.

In this model, each school functions like a charter school with full control over the program, curriculum, staff and budget. The CEC is responsible for determining which nonprofits can operate which schools based on an ongoing study of community needs and school performance. The CEC may consider parent and student satisfaction levels, as well as data such as test scores and graduation rates. In addition, the CEC would operate an open school voting system and provide other services requested by schools.

For example, in New Orleans, where the portfolio model takes precedence, nonprofits operate 76 schools. Some operators are affiliated with national organizations such as the Knowledge is Power program, but most are domestic. Two thirds of the schools are part of a network. All are led by boards of directors, which are mostly local residents and must represent the city’s population.

Here in San Francisco, almost all schools under the CEC would initially be part of SFUSD, but new operators would join the fight over time. Teachers and administrators at SFUSD schools could partner with local citizen and business leaders to create nonprofits and apply for schools. Reputable charter schools, such as the New School of San Francisco, could propose adding new schools and thereby becoming a local network. Innovative private schools like Alta Vista School could apply to run a public school.

The transition would take over perhaps a decade as the district schools gradually become independent non-profit organizations or school networks. San Francisco, filled with innovators, would likely see dozen of compelling proposals from various operators.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the needs of different students, families and communities. The portfolio model organically creates a menu of successful school concepts that reacts to practice and not to the dictates of an individual district office.

Of course, not all of these new schools would be effective. In the event of poor school performance, the CEC would step in to find a new, better operator for this school. The CEC could also advocate issues that are important to all school operators, such as increasing funding.

San Francisco public schools can offer opportunities and the envy of cities around the world. We already have what it takes to make this possible: the creative, entrepreneurial spirit of the San Franciscans. We have already used this to create art, start businesses and develop innovative technologies. Now let’s use it for the benefit of our children.

Bill Jackson and Jay Donde are founding members of the San Francisco Briones Society, a forum for center-right conservatives, independents, and moderates.

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Shortly after the San Francisco 49ers decided to move from No. 12 to No. 3 in the NFL Draft, a report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter said the team was still committed to Jimmy Garoppolo as the team’s starter. Obviously, everyone was still thinking the team would pick a quarterback, with former Alabama star Mac Jones being the most frequently mentioned name.

Although the 49ers said Garoppolo was still part of their future plans, there has been a lot of speculation that the team could potentially get him into a deal. Garoppolo’s former team, the New England Patriots, were quite successful.

That is still the case. In Peter King’s “Football Morning in America” ​​column on Monday, where he talks about possible surprises, he says he would not be surprised if the team made Garoppolo more available than before.

“I won’t be surprised if the Niners make Jimmy Garoppolo more available than before. In other words, instead of trying to make a first choice for him, you might consider taking a two for him, ”King wrote. “I wonder if the Patriots would hand out the 46th election on the draft or their second-round player in 2022 for their old friend.”

NFL Network’s Mike Giardi reported earlier this month that San Francisco said the 49ers are looking for a return to the first round for any team looking to acquire Garoppolo. Mike Florio from ProFootballTalk came in and said this was probably too much.

“That is obviously too much,” wrote Florio. “If it becomes known that they want a top-notch, it likely means they will need less about the negotiation process.

“The separate challenge arises from Garoppolo’s compensation,” wrote Florio. “He’s going to make $ 25 million in 2021. Would anyone really pay him that much this year because he missed 23 games in three seasons?”

At the same time, Florio noticed that the 49ers have an incentive to move Garoppolo.

Whatever the case, it’s hard to imagine the 49ers holding Garoppolo at $ 25 million for 2021 unless the guy they pick in 3rd place is utterly incapable and incapable of being right on the gates of the starting job to ascend. ” Said Garoppolo. “However, if they can get substantial compensation for the balance of his contract before the warehouse opens, that is a risk they would likely take.”

Less than a week after the deal, General Manager John Lynch spoke about Garoppolo’s future in San Francisco.

“We went into the possession and said, ‘Hey, things are looking good. We want to take this step, but we don’t want to say goodbye to Jimmy either. I think Jimmy we’ve shown we can do it.” a super bowl with him. We can play at a high level and we don’t think those two things should be mutually exclusive, “he said. “The opportunity to act and possibly find a man who can be a big part of our future and to keep Jimmy, who we are very keen on and for whom some positive things happen this off-season, is kind of a plan, too that we came to.

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“We’re very excited. It was a stated goal that we need to strengthen the quarterback position this year and I think we gave ourselves the opportunity to make that happen.”

Kevin Flaherty of 247Sports contributed to this story.

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