ENTERPRISE, Ore. — This small ranching town, surrounded by towering tree-topped mountains and a valley of rolling grass fields, sits tucked into the northeast corner of the state — both out of the way and right in the middle of a contentious debate.

At a meeting late last month, 25 people packed into a stuffy conference room in the Wallowa County Courthouse — 35 miles west of the Idaho state line and 260 miles east of Portland — to hear county commissioners debate a single agenda item: leaving Oregon.

The Greater Idaho movement, which wants to secede from the Beaver State and become a part of its neighbor to the east, had sputtered along for years, gaining little traction. But then, the coronavirus hit in the spring of 2020.

The global pandemic was “a blessing” for the movement, according to Mike McCarter, who took up the movement’s mantle in 2019. Quarantines and remote learning inflamed residents’ anger with the state government for shutting down schools and businesses. This tension invigorated the effort to join Idaho, a state whose government reacted wholly differently to COVID-19 than Oregon did.

“Our movement brings things to light, and it brings hope,” McCarter said. “I don’t want to see the guns picked up. I don’t want to see the battles. Why can’t we sit down and talk?”

Secession is a long shot that would require approval by Congress; so far, there have been ballot measures, and there has been a lot of talk. But the fact that the movement has gotten even this far illustrates the growing tear in the American fabric.

Greater Idaho has seen a success that other secessionist movements, regionally and in states such as California and Illinois, never reached. If supporters here achieve their goal, it could mean a paradigm shift nationally, proponents say, inspiring more states to split along cultural and political lines.

County by county, Eastern Oregonians have voted on similar measures over the past three years, securing much of the large rural region for the secessionist movement. In June, Wallowa County became the 12th to pass a ballot initiative in support of joining Idaho. The measure, to begin biannual discussions, won by just seven votes of the 3,497 that were cast.

In the stone courthouse last month, in a town square that honors the first settlers who came in the 1880s and the Nez Perce peoples who predated them, supporters argued that Democratic lawmakers, who control the capitol in Salem and were elected largely by Western Oregonians, have ignored the other side of the state and are hurting its way of life.

“I just feel unrepresented, completely,” said Rob DeSpain, standing tall in the back of the room, his white goatee pronounced under a black cap. “We just don’t have a voice. It’s very frustrating.”

Shaking his head at a series of pro-secession speakers who brought up transgender youth, urban decay and the struggle to protect cattle from wolves, another man, David Hayslip, finally raised his hand. There would be cuts in the minimum wage, he pointed out to his neighbors, and a new state sales tax and a potential decline in home values if they joined Idaho.

“If you want to go over there, U-Haul has really good deals,” Hayslip said after exhaling in frustration, looking up from the floor. “Don’t like it here? Hit the road. This is democracy, folks. You don’t like the results? You keep fighting in the democratic system.”

Other residents opposed to secession said they feared what would happen if they lost access to abortion rights, health care coverage, infrastructure funding, mail-in voting and marijuana. Some of them said that while they weren’t born in Oregon, they have lived in the state more years than not. They’re Oregonians and want to remain Oregonians.

The room was split, much like the county. But as in other small towns in America, people knew one another, greeting old friends and neighbors before tension filled the room.

Oregon is divided geographically, politically, economically and culturally. Beyond the Cascades, the population drops off with the elevation, as the terrain turns from the moist mountains of the coast and the fertile farmland and progressive population hubs of the Willamette Valley to the high desert, golden grasslands and craggy mountain ranges of the immense east.

Stateline traveled more than 1,000 miles of Eastern Oregon, where supporters of the movement to join Idaho said they feel unheard by the decisionmakers in Salem. Would-be secessionists freely recognize that their communities represent less than a tenth of the state’s population, but they also asked: Don’t we matter?

“You have two very different cultures that shouldn’t be sharing a state government,” said Matt McCaw, the spokesperson for the Greater Idaho movement and a resident of Powell Butte, an unincorporated town near the geographic center of Oregon.

Their grievances are many: They dislike rules that restrict tree-cutting, protect coyotes and promote electric vehicles. They oppose transgender rights, classroom discussions of gender and race, and limits on guns. They detest the taxes and regulations they believe have devastated the region’s economy. And they hate what became of Portland, a city many of them look back on with nostalgia.

For many Eastern Oregonians, there’s a sense of desperation, as if all options have been exhausted and all that remains is joining Idaho.

“I have people come at me and say, ‘Well, what can we do to change it?’” said McCarter, a deeply religious man and an Air Force veteran. “It’s gone too far over the top to change. It really has. It is a battle for our freedom and our self-sufficiency.”

Whether they can succeed is another story.

While they work to secure more wins at the ballot box — including in Crook County next May, and later Gilliam and Umatilla counties — supporters of the movement are beginning a broader effort to lobby the Idaho and Oregon legislatures to start an interstate dialogue to shift their border — a dialogue for which Oregon Democrats do not have an appetite.

A growing movement out of a divided state

Sitting on the front deck of his single-story green home in La Pine, a wooded city of 2,500 people who live past the lava fields south of tourism haven Bend, McCarter has two flags flying off his house: the American flag and the Idaho flag.

When the 76-year-old is not assisting with pastoral duties at his 30-person church, he fills his retired life with fixing old ham radios, getting back into long-distance running, teaching gun safety and leading the Greater Idaho movement.

Though McCarter lives in Deschutes County — which voted for President Joe Biden in 2020 with 53% support and has not voted to join Idaho — Oregon’s new border could follow the Deschutes River, he said, snaking to the west of his home and putting him within the new Idaho boundary.

Greater Idaho could encompass roughly 15 eastern counties, representing 65% of Oregon’s landmass and one congressional district. Each county handily voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020 with two-thirds or more of the vote. While the movement tried ballot initiatives in Douglas and Josephine counties, which are west of the Cascade Range, those failed in 2022.

A splintering of Oregon would mean new tax structures, a transfer of public debts, the loss of state parks and natural resources, and a fundamental shift in social program benefits. The details could take years to work out, but that’s a problem down the line, supporters say. Now, they just want the two states to start talking about a transition.

Supporters for the movement vote mostly Republican, but some are socially conservative while others are more economically libertarian. Some are not even registered to a political party.

“I have very deep roots in the state, or what used to be this state,” said Sandie Gilson, a fifth-generation Oregonian with ancestors who mined gold and operated sawmills. “I don’t recognize it.”

Over chicken Caesar salad at a Main Street eatery in John Day, a town in a high-desert canyon, Gilson described how she’s crisscrossed Grant County, even planning to speak at an upcoming Democratic Party meeting, to talk about the deterioration of Portland, how taxes and regulations stifle housing, and the unrealistic shift away from gas-powered cars for rural communities.

The policies of Salem don’t consider the commonsense requirements of life in the state’s east, she said.

Oregon hasn’t had a Republican governor since 1987; Democrats have held a trifecta for more than a decade, controlling the governor’s office as well as the state House and Senate.

This is one of the latest iterations of a debate over minority political representation that is as old as this nation’s founding, Gilson said. The U.S. Constitution was written to encourage consensus, she said; the Revolutionary War was fought because people were being taxed but not listened to. “Isn’t that our message?” she asked.

Stephen Piggott doesn’t see it that way.

“I totally understand their concerns,” said Piggott, the momentum program director for Western States Strategies, a Portland-based nonpartisan social welfare organization that campaigned against the ballot measure in Wallowa County. “But for Greater Idaho, there’s no other solution except to say, ‘We can’t find any common ground, so screw it, we’re going to just go up and leave.’”

And while it may not be espousing racist viewpoints, the movement is supported by white nationalists and militia leaders such as Ammon Bundy, Piggott said, harking back to Oregon’s racist founding, when Black people were banned from settling the land. Among the 15 counties that could be part of Greater Idaho, all but three have white populations above 75%, according to census numbers.

Greater Idaho proponents vehemently reject charges of racism or hatred, saying they can’t control the people who agree with their cause. And they say they are not seeking violence, but a peaceful political solution.

“I have people come to me and say, ‘But isn’t this movement kind of racist?’ Well, I had nothing to do with that,” McCarter said, the air around his home still thick with wildfire smoke. “In rural Oregon, if it’s predominantly white, so be it. And we make a point that we don’t get into that angle at all. That’s not what it’s about.”

Retired chimney sweep Grant Darrow said that letting a few counties join Idaho could be a “pressure relief valve” to avoid violence from people long frustrated with Oregon’s policies.

“People are fighting mad,” said Darrow, who sported a handlebar mustache and an “Awake Not Woke” T-shirt in his home in Cove, Oregon, a town nestled in an agricultural valley. “If you’re not moving in a direction that everybody thinks positive, it’s going to blow up.”

But to slice up states to reflect residents’ politics is not how the American political system works, regardless of an urban-rural divide that exists across the country, said Judy Stiegler, a former Oregon Democratic state representative who now is a political science instructor at Oregon State University-Cascades, located in Bend.

“We should be having conversations with each other,” Stiegler said. “The Greater Idaho movement is taking advantage of people’s frustrations. And I believe they’re not being honest about the real objective, which is power.”

The reality of the secession happening is “slim to none,” she said. She expects neither state Democrats nor Congress to endorse the move.

Can it pass the Idaho and Oregon legislatures?

When Idaho Republican state Rep. Barbara Ehardt first heard about Oregon’s movement to join her state, it just resonated with her. Why wouldn’t Idaho be interested in more land, more resources such as timber, minerals and water, and more like-minded people? she asked.

“You can only push people so far, demanding that they acquiesce to some of your non-constitutional whims before people push back,” Ehardt said.

In February, the Idaho House passed her bill to open a formal interstate dialogue with Oregon to secure those counties that want to secede. Although it didn’t move forward in the Senate, Ehardt is “hopeful and optimistic” she can get her bill passed in both the legislative bodies next year. For this to succeed, “it will involve the hand of the Lord.”

When the Oregon state legislature reconvenes next year, Republican state Sen. Dennis Linthicum plans on reintroducing legislation to let those 15 eastern counties secede and join Idaho. His bill died in committee earlier this year.

“I thought we were talking about tolerance and welcoming all ideas and welcoming other thoughts and perspectives, and it turns out none of that is true,” said Linthicum, who voted for the Klamath County ballot measure. “It’s a storyline. And that’s why Eastern Oregonians are fed up with it.”

While she “1,000% agrees” with the reasons why people are so frustrated with the policies coming out of Salem, freshman Republican state Rep. Emily McIntire worries about Eastern Oregonians who have superior health care, child care, food stamps and other state services than Idaho offers, including Oregon’s $14.20 minimum hourly wage compared with Idaho’s $7.25, the federal minimum wage.

“Everybody that’s working at a Walmart in a county in Eastern Oregon, that Walmart can go, ‘We’re going to drop you guys all down to eight bucks an hour,’” she said. “It’s not just like we flip the switch, you’re part of Idaho and everything stays as it is.”

In Enterprise, the meeting wrapped up after more than an hour of discussion involving those in the room and another 30 people who joined by Zoom. The county commissioners finally chimed in.

Though they are officially neutral on the question, all three said they understood the concerns expressed by both sides. Commissioner John Hillock said he’s submitted pieces of legislation, grant proposals for sewer and water projects and new funding requests for the county fairgrounds to lawmakers in Salem and been ignored. He gets it.

As does Commissioner Susan Roberts, who asked attendees to come up with ideas before they meet next in February on how to constructively move forward and get “our friends on the west side of the state” to have a dialogue.

“They don’t get us. On the other hand, I don’t get most of them. Most of the time, I can’t figure it out,” she said with a chuckle. “But that is the back-and-forth that we need.”

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit news organization focused on state policy.

©2023 States Newsroom. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Comedian Steve Hofstetter isn’t an area native – he grew up in Queens, N.Y. – but his career as a stand-up performer brought him to Western Pennsylvania often enough that he opted to move here two-and-a-half years ago. He bought a former Stanton Heights church and turned it into the Steel City Arts Foundation, a member-based organization predominantly for standup comedians, some of whom live there. (The space also contains a podcast studio, green screen studio and a chapel that may someday, with the proper zoning, become a performance space.)

Hofstetter’s latest project to come out of Steel City AF: “Handyman from Hell,” a movie that debuts at 8 p.m. Thursday on cable’s Lifetime Movie Network and streaming Oct. 20 at www.mylifetime.com/lmn.

It’s the story of Maggie Anderson (Liliana Tandon) who’s recently separated from her husband David (Pittsburgher David Santiago) when she hires hunky contractor Nate (Joey Ariemma) to give her home (and life?) a makeover. Viewers learn sooner than Maggie that Nate is a psychopath. His power tools become deadly weapons. Hofstetter co-stars as Maggie’s brother.

“Handyman” filmed under the title “Overhaul” but when Hofstetter and his fellow producers sold it to LMN just two weeks ago the network had a different idea for the title.

“Lifetime’s gonna Lifetime,” Hofstetter said, laughing (“Handyman” is considered an indie – it’s not produced by a struck company — which is how Hofstetter can promote it during the ongoing actors’ strike). “At first I bristled a little bit, mainly because the title is campy and camp is fun but the movie isn’t super-campy. I was worried some people would expect it to be something it’s not. But the more I’ve talked to people about it, the more everybody seems to love [the title]. … So good on Lifetime for tapping into that.”

Directed by Cody Hartman (“Unsinkable”), “Handyman” filmed over 11 days in December 2022 using several crew and supporting cast members from Pittsburgh. That included Hofstetter in his first major supporting role.

“This was the first time I really got to stretch as an actor,” said Hofstetter, who is also a producer on the film, which is trying to qualify for Pennsylvania film tax credits. “I learned so much from the rest of the cast.”

In addition to filming in Pittsburgh, “Handyman” is set in Pittsburgh with some nods to local TV station call letters (KDXI-TV subs for WPXI-TV) and lower-third graphics (“News Now Pittsburgh” has the same yellow background and moving dot graphic in the lower left corner as KDKA-TV displays).

Hofstetter said producers retained theatrical and video-on-demand rights to “Handyman.” He hopes to set up a local theatrical showing in the future. On Thursday at 7:30 p.m. there will be an online watch party where viewers can pay ($10-$40) to see and hear behind-the-scenes scoop from the film’s cast and creators at www.handymanfromhell.com. A portion of the proceeds go to cast and crew as they continue to support the SAG-AFTRA strike.

In addition to the Steel City AF building in Stanton Heights, which is where “Handyman” was mostly filmed, Hofstetter more recently purchased another former church, this time in Ross. Sunken Bus Studios, formerly the Melwood Party Center, is now home to Red Caiman Studios, an events hall and a future co-working space.

Hofstetter’s penchant for buying old churches made its way into the “Handyman” script where it’s mentioned that Maggie lives in a former church even though her place looks nothing like a church interior and the exterior is never shown. Hofstetter said knowing they were aiming to sell “Handyman” to Lifetime, they focused instead on Maggie’s kitchen.

“[‘Handyman’ screenwriter] Jay [Black] has been writing movies for a while, a lot in the Lifetime genre,” Hofstetter said. “Apparently he has learned from Lifetime one of the big things that their demos love to see in a movie is a gorgeous kitchen. Because of that we went from doing the church renovation [which was the original concept for the film’s story] to concentrating on the kitchen.”

Yes, “Handyman” was created with an intent to sell the film to Lifetime.

“I had a teacher in eighth grade who said, ‘Every piece of writing has a purpose and an audience,’ and I very much believe that,” Hofstetter said. “For us, the audience was designed to be Lifetime though we didn’t want to make it formulaic so there are a couple of departures, especially that comic break, which is very different from the average thriller.”

In addition to up-and-comers, “Handyman” features cameo appearances by some bold-face names, too.

Former “Full House”/“Fuller House” star Jodie Sweetin came to town to film her part while a trio of comedians – Michael Ian Black (“The State”), Frank Caliendo (“Mad TV) and Vic Dibitetto (Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2”) – performed via Zoom, playing contractors Maggie interviews via computer before she settles on Nate.

“Jay wrote a part for a hipster contractor and philosopher contractor. We had Michael for 15 minutes and he said he liked the philosopher contractor better,” said Hofstetter, who hosted the syndicated stand-up comedy show “Laughs” in 2014-15. “The only direction I gave him was the premise of the character talking and not saying much and going into ‘what even is a kitchen?’ He took that and ran with it in such an incredible way.”

And yes, there are ideas afoot for a sequel if “Handyman” proves financially successful.

Returning

The creator of “Suits” is developing a new series set in that show’s universe after its summer success in reruns on Netflix.

Peacock finally renewed Kaley Cuoco’s “Based on a True Story” for a second season.

Channel surfing

All 172 episodes of “L.A. Law,” remastered from the original film source now with a 16:9 aspect ratio, will stream Nov. 3 on Hulu. … Upcoming “Daily Show” guest hosts will include Deus Nice (week of Oct. 23), Charlamagne tha God (Oct. 30), Sarah Silverman (Nov. 6), Leslie Jones (Nov. 13) and Michelle Wolf (Nov. 27). … Talks to end the actors’ strike broke down Oct. 11 as the AMPTP declared the differences between producers and SAG-AFTRA were “too great.”

You can reach TV writer Rob Owen at rowen@triblive.com or 412-380-8559. Follow @RobOwenTV on Threads, Twitter, Bluesky and Facebook. Ask TV questions by email or phone. Please include your first name and location.

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Leaders from the worlds of politics and tech took center stage at APEC Wednesday in San Francisco’s Moscone Center, speaking about the need to tie the sectors together in the name of jobs, security, international relations and climate. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom was among those big names, delivering a talk centered on warnings about climate change. 

“California, in the last few decades, has been burning up, heating up,” he said. “Our children are choking up.”

He also used that warning as a challenge to the world: be like California and turn climate concerns into business opportunities. 

“And what we’ve been able to achieve in California is not only leading nation-leading environmental policy, but the application of that policy has allowed us to dominate as one of the most robust economies in the United States of America,” he said. 

Another big name addressing the conference was former Secretary of State Condolezza Rice. She touched on the world’s hottest technology: artificial intelligence. 

“Everybody’s learned to spell A.I., but they don’t really know what to do about it,” she said. 

Rice also touched on why the world should look at technology through a lens of security. 

“They have enormous benefit written all over them,” she said. “They also have a lot of cautionary tales about how powerful technologies can be misused.”

As political leaders and CEOs spokes at APEC in San Francisco Wednesday, one theme became apparent: despite political tensions, their economic growth still depends on each other. NBC Bay Area’s Jessica Aguirre with Scott Budman about what that looks like.

One Silicon Valley CEO described the event as the world coming to his doorstep. 

“As the founder of a cybersecurity and A.I. company, it’s incredibly motivating,” said SecurityPal CEO Pukar Hamal. “It’s almost overwhelming as well, because there’s so many people to talk to, so many leaders to connect with.”

Thursday will once again blend this group of politicians and tech leaders, with President Joe Biden, Elon Musk, and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff scheduled to address the group

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had six RBIs and the Toronto Blue Jays ended a five-game losing streak Tuesday night with a 20-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, scoring their last 10 runs against position players.

Guerrero gave Toronto a first-round lead with an RBI single over Taj Bradley (3-1), hit a runs-scoring single in the fifth that opened a 10-0 lead, and hit a 423-foot in the ninth Grand Slam against Luke Raley.

All 12 Toronto batters in the game had hits, and the Blue Jays finished the game with 27 hits — the most since they hit 29 in a 28-5 win over Boston on July 22.

Tampa Bay started with 170 with the second fewest runs allowed in the majors, losing the most runs since the 8-20 loss in Boston on Aug. 11, 2021.

George Springer had four hits and Bo Bichette, Whit Merrifield, Guerrero and Danny Jansen had three each. Springer hit his seventh home run, a solo drive on the third.

José Berríos (4-4) allowed one run, five hits and two walks while catching five strikeouts

YANKEES 6, ORIOLES 5, 10 INNINGS

NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge hit a home run to equalize in the ninth inning and rookie Anthony Volpe hit a sacrifice flight in the tenth inning against Bryan Baker (3-2) for the winning run as the New Yorkers streaked past Baltimore.

Harrison Bader hit a home run to start New York’s comeback from an early 4-0 deficit, and Judge freed Gerrit Cole for his first loss in 11 starts this season.

After a 6-1 away game at home, the Yankees (30-20) won their fifth straight win in the opener between AL East rivals.

Cedric Mullins and Gunnar Henderson scored against Cole for Baltimore, who suffered a three-game win in Toronto.

Michael King (1-1) secured the win in two innings without a hit, scoring three.

DODGERS 8, BRAVES 1

ATLANTA (AP) — Bobby Miller allowed a five-inning run on his big league debut and Los Angeles beat Atlanta.

JD Martinez and Jason Heyward hit home runs for the Dodgers, who also got three RBIs from Will Smith.

Spencer Strider (4-2) fanned out 11 hitters to take his MLB-leading strikeout total to 97 – his fourth start this season with double-digit Ks and 10th in his young career. He allowed four runs, two of them earned, in six innings.

Miller (1-0) allowed four hits, walked one and knocked out five while consistently hitting 100 mph with his fastball.

RANGERS 6, PIRATES 1

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Texas’ Nathan Eovaldi threw a full game for the second time in five starts after throwing just two throws in the first 226 of his major league career.

Eovaldi (6-2) allowed six hits, hit out five and walked one, his fifth straight start in at least seven innings.

Josh Jung hit his 11th home run in his first full season with the majors and gave Rangers a five-run lead by run eight.

Texas won four out of five. Pittsburgh has tied its last eight games after losing 11 of 12 and has not won a series since winning two of three games in Washington on April 29-30.

Rich Hill (4-4) gave up five runs with seven hits in 5 1/3 innings with a season-high nine strikeouts.

PADRES 7, NATIONAL 4

WASHINGTON (AP) — Juan Soto hit his ninth home run and had three hits to start a three-game stint with his former team as San Diego beat Washington.

Jake Cronenworth followed up Soto’s solo shot with a two-run homer two batters later in the seventh inning as the Padres scored four times against Nationals relief player Erasmo Ramirez (2-2).

San Diego’s Yu Darvish (3-3) allowed back-to-back home runs against CJ Abrams and Lane Thomas in the fifth inning, but no further damage in a six-inning attempt.

Josh Hader hit a scoreless ninth on his 12th save from 14 chances.

DIAMONDBACKS 4, PHILLIES 3

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Corbin Carroll hit a single in the starting shot for his third hit in the eighth inning and Arizona beat Philadelphia for its ninth win in 11 games.

At 29-20, Arizona went nine games over .500 for the first time since September 11, 2018, when they were 77-68.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. extended his hitting streak to 16 games — the longest active streak in the majors — with a leadoff double in game eight against Seranthony Dominguez (1-2). After advancing to third position on a pass from JT Realmuto, Gurriel found Carroll’s single to the left through a tucked-in infield.

Reliever Jose Ruiz (2-0) secured the win and Miguel Castro made his fifth save with a clean ninth goal.

GIANT 4, TWINS 3

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Michael Conforto doubled up to start a rally in the sixth inning and got the go-ahead for the two-run home run in the seventh inning as San Francisco edged past Minnesota.

The Giants have won seven of eight games. Alex Cobb (4-1) finished seven innings for the third time in four starts this month, working on a double home run from Byron Buxton in the first inning and a solo shot from Michael Taylor in the fifth inning.

After Jorge López (1-2) scored the seventh, Thairo Estrada took the lead with a brace and hit Conforto’s tenth home run of the season.

Camilo Doval threw a ninth non-hit with his 13th save in 14 attempts.

ANGELS 4, RED SOX 0

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Mike Trout hit a two-run home run and Griffin Canning allowed two hits in seven innings as Los Angeles beat Boston.

Mickey Moniak hit a home run for the second game in a row and Matt Thaiss also went deep for the Angels, who have won three straight games and four of five.

Canning (3-2) had five strikeouts and three walkouts.

Brayan Bello (3-2) fended off solo homers from Moniak and Thaiss in his seven innings. Trout hit a home run in the eighth over Joely Rodriguez.

ROCKIES 5, MARLINS 4

DENVER (AP) — Charlie Blackmon doubled in a fifth inning with four runs, Jurickson Profar extended his streak on base to 31 games and Colorado spoiled 20-year-old Eury Pérez’s away debut for Miami.

Elías Díaz had three goals for Colorado. The Rockies won the first two of the four games.

Pérez (1-1) allowed four runs — three earned — on four hits in 4 1/3 innings.

Garrett Cooper’s two-run homer with two outs in the sixth inning chased starter Austin Gomber (4-4). Soler’s RBI double in the ninth set made it a one-run play, but Pierce Johnson closed it out with his tenth save.

MARINERS 3, ATHLETICS 2

SEATTLE (AP) — JP Crawford and Ty France hit back-to-back homers in a three-run fifth inning, and Seattle gave Oakland its sixth straight loss and 14th in 16 games.

The A’s fell to 10-40, matching the 1932 Boston Red Sox and 1897 St. Louis Browns, for the fourth-worst 50-game start in big league history.

Marco Gonzales (4-1), who allowed five hits with four strikeouts in six innings. Trevor Gott, Justin Topa and Paul Sewald each batted an inning without a hit. Sewald stayed perfect with 10 save chances.

Luis Medina (0-3) suffered defeat.

CUBS 7, METS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Christopher Morel, Matt Mervis and Seiya Suzuki hit a home run and Chicago chilled New York.

Mervis had three RBIs and Drew Smyly (5-1) had four hits in the sixth inning.

Morel extended his home run streak to five games with a solo shot against Stephen Nogosek in the seventh. He was the first player on such a winning streak for the Cubs since Sammy Sosa in June 1998.

Tylor Megill (5-3) allowed six runs, four earned, in 3 2/3 innings for the Mets, ending their five-game winning streak. Pete Alonso hit his best 18th home run in the big league for New York.

BREWER 6, ASTROS 0

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Joey Wiemer and Owen Miller hit a home run, Colin Rea combined for a five-hitter with four relievers and Milwaukee halted Houston’s eight-game winning streak.

Rea (1-3) allowed four hits in 5 1/3 innings. Houston was hidden for the second time.

JP France (1-1) gave up two runs (one earned) and five hits in 5 2/3 innings.

WHITE SOX 4, GUARDIANS 2

CLEVELAND (AP) — Romy González’s two-run double against rookie starter Logan Allen (1-2) broke a 2-2 tie in the seventh inning, sending Chicago past Cleveland.

Yasmani Grandal hit a home run for the White Sox, who started 7-21 but have won six of eight games.

The Chicago Rally helped Dylan Cease (3-3) win for the first time since April 10 – a span of eight starts. The right-hander went six innings, Keynan Middleton and Joe Kelly each had an inning, and Kendall Graveman worked the ninth inning for his fourth save.

Cardinals 8, Reds 5

CINCINNATI (AP) — Paul Goldschmidt hit a home run in his first two at-bats and St. Louis’ Adam Wainwright defeated Cincinnati for the first time since 2019.

The Cardinals have won 12 of 16 since the start of the 10-24 season.

Goldschmidt hit solo homers in the first and third innings ahead of Graham Ashcraft (2-3).

Wainwright (2-0) allowed five runs in 5 2/3 innings.

ROYALS 4, TIGERS 1

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) — Maikel Garcia had three hits, an RBI and a run and Kansas City beat Detroit and slipped four games.

Mike Mayers allowed a six-hit run in 4 2/3 innings in his first start for the Royals. He managed an eight, the best of his career, and achieved one. Jose Cuas (3-0) was the winner and Aroldis Chapman made his second save for a goalless ninth.

Eduardo Rodriguez (4-4) allowed four runs — two earned — on eight hits in five innings.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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Protests calling for urgent action to address the climate crisis have surged across the United States. On Thursday, two protesters smeared red and black paint on a display case of artworks at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, urging President Biden to declare a climate emergency. This follows demonstrations earlier this week outside the offices of banking giants Citibank in New York and Wells Fargo in San Francisco. A new study titled Banking on Climate Chaos finds that the world’s largest private banks have lent $5.5 trillion to fossil-fuel projects since the Paris Climate Agreement was passed.

On Tuesday, climate activists interrupted a talk by John Podesta, who heads the White House Office of Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation. They called on the Biden administration to reverse its permit for ConocoPhillips’ Willow project in northern Alaska and to act quickly to end fossil fuel use.

protester: “We have never needed fossil fuels. You have to stop supporting it. You will be complicit in the destruction of Mother Earth and everyone’s future.”

John Podesta: “I appreciate their passion. And we are trying to create a creative transition that goes to zero by 2050.”

protester: “Too late!”

John Podesta: “You have a point of view” —

protester: “That’s too late!”

Unknown: “30 years” –

protester: “That’s too late!”

The protest was organized by Climate Defiance, a new organization that has vowed to disrupt the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, DC this weekend.

The post Local weather Protesters Descend on Podesta Discuss to Demand Biden Admin Halt Fossil Gas Tasks appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — On a chilly December morning, Victoria Solomon told how San Francisco police roused her hours earlier and threatened to take her to jail if she didn’t leave the house within 10 minutes.

They tried to force her out of a public area without offering her an emergency bed, as required by law, Solomon said. At least this time the city workers didn’t throw their things away, she said. This would have forced her to get a new tent, bedding and clothes – not to mention new ID and social security cards and a cell phone.

“You can be as tough as you want, it won’t magically create a house for her. And they don’t have vanishing powers,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco.

In September, the organization and seven people who were homeless or at risk of homelessness again sued San Francisco for violating the city’s guidelines on providing emergency shelters. They also said city workers had thrown out personal items, including medicines, wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs, laptops and cell phones, in violation of city policy.

Solomon is among an estimated 7,800 homeless people in San Francisco, a city that has come to symbolize California’s amazing failure to address the homelessness crisis. Homeowners, businesses and local leaders in San Francisco are frustrated by visible signs of homelessness — including public roads blocked by sprawling tents and trash.

Solomon is also frustrated. “Who says I’m not part of the community just because I’m homeless?” she said.

Two of the raids she witnessed this year were in the Castro neighborhood, where she noted civil rights activists once championed the rights of marginalized groups. Now residents and nearby businesses are calling the police about her.

The 34-year-old has been homeless for around a decade. Solomon said she is bipolar and struggles with drug addiction, as well as grieving the deaths of her son and mother a year apart.

The story goes on

She travels light—a trolley case, a tent, dog food, and two dogs—and is afraid to leave her belongings unattended. Law enforcement have threatened to send her to jail on a warrant from another county – which they say was for petty drug possession.

Amid rising rents and a nationwide shortage of affordable housing, more than 100,000 people live on California’s streets. Hawaii, Oregon and Arizona are among other western states where more homeless people live outside in cars and tents than inside in shelters, despite spending billions to curb homelessness, including San Francisco’s $672 million annual budget Dollar.

Increasingly, homeless advocates are fighting back in court — as in the lawsuit filed in San Francisco, where the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom is $3,000.

City attorneys deny that workers are illegally coercing people to move or throw out personal belongings, and say there are strict guidelines in place that balance individuals’ rights with the need to clean public spaces.

During a virtual hearing last week, Judge Donna M. Ryu questioned the city’s tactics given the overwhelming amount of data and eyewitness accounts provided by the coalition. Last week, she temporarily banned San Francisco from vacating homeless camps.

Across the country, frustration at the crisis has united Democrat and Republican leaders in adopting tough tactics against homelessness, much to the dismay of homeless advocates and even Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration, which has warned against hasty camp closures.

That year, Tennessee made outdoor camping on public lands a criminal offense, and in Portland, Oregon, the city council voted to create at least three large campgrounds and ban all other tent camps.

In September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation providing medical care to homeless people with untreated psychosis, even against their will — and he’s literally rolled up his shirtsleeves to join the camp purge. Under the program, people struggling with alcohol and opioid addiction do not qualify for treatment unless they have a diagnosed psychiatric disorder.

The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management, which houses the Healthy Streets Operations Center that coordinates the camp clean-up, said in a statement that outreach workers speak to unhoused residents beforehand to explain the process and offer services, including shelter.

From June 2020 to September 2022, San Francisco conducted 1,200 formal camp cleanups, according to the Emergency Management Department, and outreach workers encountered more than 10,000 people.

There are also informal calls for homeless people to move, like the one encountered by Solomon, so it is not possible to know the full extent of enforcement action being taken or threatened against the homeless.

Business owners are fed up, not necessarily with people who don’t have a place to stay, but with the city ignoring them, said Ryen Motzek, president of the Mission Merchants Association. “It’s a general issue of cleanliness and safety, that’s the #1 problem the city faces,” he said.

But Toro Castaño, one of the seven plaintiffs, said people like him who are homeless and without affordable housing are being forced to move from place to place. “We’re going to literally walk across the street — the other way,” he said. “We move maybe 14 times in a week. Just corner to corner to corner.”

In a court statement, he said he was given two hours to leave his tent in August 2020, but the incident commander declared everything a fire hazard, so city workers threw all his belongings into a dump truck. He lost his late mother’s wedding kimono, a MacBook Pro laptop, a battery-powered heater and a $1,400 bicycle.

The outreach team offered him a bed in congregation accommodation, but he turned it down for fear of contracting the coronavirus. Today he’s in a hotel room paid for by the city.

Advocates say many homeless people prefer to stay outdoors rather than in shelters, where they risk catching coronavirus and face abuse or threats of violence. Homeless people who have pets, work night shifts, need mental health services, or suffer from addictions have a hard time finding shelter to accommodate them.

Shivering in a crowded tent, Dylan Miner tried to rest upright. “You can get your stuff back, but it takes a lot of work,” he said. In a recent search, city workers dumped his mattress and the wooden pallets that keep him off the sidewalk – which was still wet from the torrential rain.

Miner, 34, builds and repairs bikes and resells items he either buys or finds.

The city put him in a downtown hotel for 10 months during the pandemic, but he was unable to find new housing when the program was shut down. He is not part of the lawsuit but has expressed support for it.

Nobody is satisfied with the reaction to the status quo, said Friedenbach. She hopes the lawsuit will make a “serious change” in how the city treats homeless people.

“This really comes with a bigger struggle for dignity,” she said. “And a bigger fight for the recognition of the humanity of people who are too poor to afford rent.”

—-

AP video journalist Terry Chea contributed to this report.

The post Homelessness in San Francisco: discuss of frustration, survival appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

If you’ve been wondering what it was like growing up in Pleasanton in the 1950s, Donna McMillion has an answer for you – her new book.
The purely volunteer work includes interviews with 38 people, most of them in their 70s, who grew up in those happy years. She conducted all the interviews and then Lauren de Vore and Dan Sapone wrote them in the first person to keep the same format throughout Cruising Down Memory Lane, Stories of Pleasanton in the 1950s.
Donna, who lived on Mohr Avenue when she was surrounded by tomato and cucumber fields (I know I picked them there when I was a teenager), likes to describe riding her horse down Santa Rita Road to Amador Valley High, to go swimming. Later, banker and city councilman Bob Philcox (also in his book) led efforts to ban horses on Main Street and remove the railings to tie them up. The people she interviewed grew up during those years, while my bride and I came here with our families in 1959 and 1958. We went to school with many of these people but have no memories of the 1950s. Similarly, when we saw a musical celebrating the Summer of Love in 1967 – we had no idea what was going on in San Francisco when we lived in the peaceful suburbs of Pleasanton – it was the same for the civil rights movement in the mid-1960s , from which we learned visiting the museum in Memphis where Rev. Martin Luther King was assassinated.

Jim Georgis (right) and hunting friends

For those who know a little about Pleasanton history, the book is full of familiar names: Jorgensen, Takens, Gerton, Trimmingham, Krause, Lund, Georgis Shanks, and the Orloff and Hansen diary families. This is a sample.
Pleasanton Police Commissioner Walt McCloud recounted: “…One time we were down on the south end of town and a guy ran by the street (now Sunol Boulevard) and me and the sheriff’s car pulled up. and the guy had landed in the ditch halfway. And we talked to him and he gets up and runs up the bank and jumps into the sewage pond. So we stand there and everyone gets excited and yells, “He’s going to drown!” So we tell our sheriff’s deputy, “That’s going to be your job, you know that pond is in the county.” So he throws off his duty belt and runs up the embankment and jumps almost waist-deep into the sewage pond and saves the guy. What a hero! “
“And then he puts this foul-smelling person in his car and takes him to Santa Rita. And he’s so proud that he saved that guy and told the Santa Rita boys that he saved that guy from drowning in the sewage pond. And then one of the Santa Rita watch commanders tells him he’s a stupid so-and-so because that pond is within the city limits!”
The Pleasanton Senior Center now stands on this site.

The Takens children (Bob, Bruce and Winnie), whose father founded and owned Meadowlark Diary, wrote: “…there were many life lessons too. Dad said something like, “There are two guys standing against a wall over there, and there’s a broom between them. Which one will you hire? You hire the guy who sees the broom and picks it up and starts sweeping. You don’t want the other one because you have to tell them what to do.” And he’d say, “Let that rotten sweat out, get that rotten sweat out of you,” or “If you’re cold, you should better get to work and work the chill out of you.”

The city preserved the adobe diary on Foothill Road, where the original diary operated as a drive-thru facility. The cows grazed in the field that is now the Laguna Oaks subdivision. The family brought the cattle to the Tracy area and opened the ever-popular Neal Street drive-thru with its famous soft serve.

Chief Walt McCloud’s squad car
As I look through the names, I think of the Edgren dealership that is now the strip center that houses Vic’s, or longtime high school principal Neal Sweeney, or the Georgis family and my classmate Jacki Fiorio Del Duco, whose father owned the Market and butcher ran business (he looked after much of the cattle sold at the county fair) which is now Valley Plumbing Supply on Neal Street.

There’s Ray and Angie Calija, and the Jorgensens (Andy, retired artistic director of Pleasanton and Tom) and Hal Shanks, son of Dr. Harold Shanks who was our GP with a practice that is now an art studio.

For those who want to learn more about the families that helped create the Pleasanton we see today, check it out.

The book is available for pre-order at the Towne Center, and an opening reception is scheduled for May 7 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Veteran’s Hall. Once the printing costs are covered, proceeds from the book go to Amador Valley High’s journalism program.

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The post Trying ahead to studying extra about Pleasanton within the Fifties | Tim Speak | Tim Hunt appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Tristan Wirfs was a real tackle for the first three years of his career with the Buccaneers.

But there’s a chance that might change as he enters fourth year.

With Tampa Bay firing Donovan Smith, the club now has a vacancy at left tackle. Could Wirfs fill it? The Buccaneers will think about it, according to general manager Jason Licht.

“We’ve talked about it since we designed Tristan,” Licht said Thursday via PewterReport.com. “So right now I think it’s just talk. We have low season. We have plenty of time to see how that plays out.”

The 13th overall pick of the 2020 draft, Wirfs hadn’t missed an offensive snap until he sprained his ankle in November.

Wirfs was a 2021 first-team All-Pro and a 2022 second-team All-Pro.

Jason Licht: Moving Tristan Wirfs to Left Tackle “just talk” originally appeared on Pro Football Talk

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — On a chilly December morning, Victoria Solomon told how San Francisco police roused her hours earlier and threatened to take her to jail if she didn’t leave the house within 10 minutes.

They tried to force her out of a public area without offering her an emergency bed, as required by law, Solomon said. At least this time the city workers didn’t throw their things away, she said. This would have forced her to get a new tent, bedding and clothes – not to mention new ID and social security cards and a cell phone.

“You can be as tough as you want, it won’t magically create a house for her. And they don’t have vanishing powers,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco.

In September, the organization and seven people who were homeless or at risk of homelessness again sued San Francisco for violating the city’s guidelines on providing emergency shelters. They also said city workers had thrown out personal items, including medicines, wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs, laptops and cell phones, in violation of city policy.

Solomon is among an estimated 7,800 homeless people in San Francisco, a city that has come to symbolize California’s amazing failure to address the homelessness crisis. Homeowners, businesses and local leaders in San Francisco are frustrated by visible signs of homelessness — including public roads blocked by sprawling tents and trash.

Solomon is also frustrated. “Who says I’m not part of the community just because I’m homeless?” She said.

Two of the raids she witnessed this year were in the Castro neighborhood, where she noted civil rights activists once championed the rights of marginalized groups. Now residents and nearby businesses are calling the police about her.

The 34-year-old has been homeless for around a decade. Solomon said she is bipolar and struggles with drug addiction, as well as grieving the deaths of her son and mother a year apart.

She travels light—a trolley case, a tent, dog food, and two dogs—and is afraid to leave her belongings unattended. Law enforcement have threatened to send her to jail on a warrant from another county – which they say was for petty drug possession.

Amid rising rents and a nationwide shortage of affordable housing, more than 100,000 people live on California’s streets. Hawaii, Oregon and Arizona are among other western states where more homeless people live outside in cars and tents than inside in shelters, despite spending billions to curb homelessness, including San Francisco’s $672 million annual budget Dollar.

Increasingly, homeless advocates are fighting back in court — as in the lawsuit filed in San Francisco, where the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom is $3,000.

City attorneys deny that workers are illegally coercing people to move or throw out personal belongings, and say there are strict guidelines in place that balance individuals’ rights with the need to clean public spaces.

During a virtual hearing last week, Judge Donna M. Ryu questioned the city’s tactics given the overwhelming amount of data and eyewitness accounts provided by the coalition. Last week, she temporarily banned San Francisco from vacating homeless camps.

Across the country, frustration at the crisis has united Democrat and Republican leaders in adopting tough tactics against homelessness, much to the dismay of homeless advocates and even Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration, which has warned against hasty camp closures.

That year, Tennessee made outdoor camping on public lands a criminal offense, and in Portland, Oregon, the city council voted to create at least three large campgrounds and ban all other tent camps.

In September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation providing medical care to homeless people with untreated psychosis, even against their will — and he’s literally rolled up his shirtsleeves to join the camp purge. Under the program, people struggling with alcohol and opioid addiction do not qualify for treatment unless they have a diagnosed psychiatric disorder.

The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management, which houses the Healthy Streets Operations Center that coordinates the camp clean-up, said in a statement that outreach workers speak to unhoused residents beforehand to explain the process and offer services, including shelter.

From June 2020 to September 2022, San Francisco conducted 1,200 formal camp cleanups, according to the Emergency Management Department, and outreach workers encountered more than 10,000 people.

There are also informal calls for homeless people to move, like the one encountered by Solomon, so it is not possible to know the full extent of enforcement action being taken or threatened against the homeless.

Business owners are fed up, not necessarily with people who don’t have a place to stay, but with the city ignoring them, said Ryen Motzek, president of the Mission Merchants Association. “It’s a general issue of cleanliness and safety, that’s the #1 problem the city faces,” he said.

But Toro Castaño, one of the seven plaintiffs, said people like him who are homeless and without affordable housing are being forced to move from place to place. “We’re going to literally walk across the street — the other way,” he said. “In a week we move maybe 14 times. Just from corner to corner to corner.”

In a court statement, he said he was given two hours to leave his tent in August 2020, but the incident commander declared everything a fire hazard, so city workers threw all his belongings into a dump truck. He lost his late mother’s wedding kimono, a MacBook Pro laptop, a battery-powered heater and a $1,400 bicycle.

The outreach team offered him a bed in congregation accommodation, but he turned it down for fear of contracting the coronavirus. Today he’s in a hotel room paid for by the city.

Advocates say many homeless people prefer to stay outdoors rather than in shelters, where they risk catching coronavirus and face abuse or threats of violence. Homeless people who have pets, work night shifts, need mental health services, or suffer from addictions have a hard time finding shelter to accommodate them.

Shivering in a crowded tent, Dylan Miner tried to rest upright. “You can get your stuff back, but it takes a lot of work,” he said. During a recent search, city workers said they threw away his mattress and the wooden pallets that keep him off the sidewalk – which was still wet from torrential rain.

Miner, 34, builds and repairs bikes and resells items he either buys or finds.

The city put him in a downtown hotel for 10 months during the pandemic, but he was unable to find new housing when the program was shut down. He is not part of the lawsuit but has expressed support for it.

Nobody is satisfied with the reaction to the status quo, said Friedenbach. She hopes the lawsuit will make a “serious change” in how the city treats homeless people.

“This really comes with a bigger struggle for dignity,” she said. “And a bigger fight for the recognition of the humanity of people who are too poor to afford rent.”

AP video journalist Terry Chea contributed to this report.

The post Homelessness in San Francisco: discuss of frustration, survival | Native Information appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — On a frosty December morning, Victoria Solomon recounted how San Francisco police had rousted her awake hours earlier, and threatened to take her to jail if she didn’t clear out within 10 minutes.

They tried to force her out of a public area without offering a shelter bed as required by law, Solomon said. At least this time city workers didn’t trash their belongings, she said. This would have forced her to find a new tent, bedding and clothes — not to mention new identification and Social Security cards, as well as a cell phone.

“You can be as tough as you want on people, that’s not going to magically create a house for them. And they don’t have disappearing powers,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco.

In September, the organization and seven individuals who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless again south San Francisco for violating the city’s own policies regarding providing shelter beds. They also said that city workers have thrown out peoples’ personal belongings such as medication, wheelchairs, prosthetics, laptops and cellphones, against city policy.

Solomon is among an estimated 7,800 people without a home in San Francisco, a city that has come to be seen as an emblem of California’s staggering inability to counter the homeless crisis. Homeowners, businesses and local leaders in San Francisco are frustrated with visible signs of homelessness — which includes public streets blocked by sprawling tents and trash.

Solomon is frustrated too. “Who says I’m not part of the community just because I’m homeless?” she said.

Two of the sweeps she experienced this year happened in the Castro neighborhood, where she noted that civil rights activists once stood up for marginalized peoples’ rights. Now, residents and nearby businesses call the police on her.

The 34-year-old has been homeless for about a decade. Solomon said she is bipolar and struggles with drug addiction, as well as grief from the deaths of her son and mother a year apart.

She travels lightly — a rolling suitcase, tent, dog food and two dogs — and is afraid to leave her belongings unattended. Law enforcement has threatened to take her to jail on an arrest warrant from another county — which she said was for minor drug possession.

Amid rising rents and a national shortage of affordable housing, more than 100,000 people are living on California’s streets. Hawaii, Oregon, and Arizona are among other western states where more homeless people live outside in cars and tents than indoors in shelters, despite billions spent to curb homelessness, including San Francisco’s $672 million annual budget.

Increasingly, advocates for people without housing are fighting back in court — as in the lawsuit filed in San Francisco, where the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom is $3,000.

Attorneys for the city deny that workers illegally force people to move or throw out personal items, saying there are strict policies that balance individual rights with the need to clean public spaces.

During a virtual hearing last week, Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu questioned the city’s tactics, given the overwhelming amount of data and eyewitness accounts provided by the coalition. Last week, she temporarily banned San Francisco from clearing homeless encampments.

Across the country, frustration over the crisis has unified Democratic and Republican leaders in embracing tough-on-homelessness tactics, much to the dismay of homeless advocates and even Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration, which has warned against hastily executed encampment closures.

This year Tennessee made outdoor camping on public land a felony and in Portland, Oregon, the city council voted to create at least three large campsites and to ban all other tent encampments.

In September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a plan to provide medical care to homeless people with untreated psychosis, even against their will — and he has literally rolled up his shirt sleeves to join encampment cleanups. Under the program, people struggling with alcohol and opioid addiction won’t qualify for treatment unless they have a diagnosed psychiatric disorder.

The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management, which houses the Healthy Streets Operations Center that coordinates encampment cleanups, said in a statement that outreach workers talk to unhoused residents beforehand to explain the process and offer services, including shelter.

From June 2020 to September 2022, San Francisco carried out 1,200 formal encampment cleanups and outreach workers encountered more than 10,000 people, according to the emergency management department.

There are also informal requests for homeless people to move, like the one Solomon encountered, so it’s not possible to know the full scale of enforcement actions taken, or threatened to be taken, against people who are homeless.

Business owners are fed up, not necessarily with people who are unhoused but the city that ignores them, said Ryen Motzek, president of the Mission Merchants Association. “It’s a general issue of cleanliness and safety, that’s the No. 1 problem the city faces,” he said.

But Toro Castaño, one of the seven individual plaintiffs, said that without affordable housing, people who are unhoused like him are forced to move from place to place. “We’ll literally move across the street — in the other direction,” he said. “In a week we might move 14 times. Just from corner to corner to corner.”

In a court declaration, he said that in August 2020, he was given two hours to leave his tent, but the incident commander declared everything a fire hazard so city workers tossed all of his belongings into a dump truck. He lost his deceased mother’s wedding kimono, MacBook Pro laptop, a battery-powered heater and a bike worth $1,400.

The outreach team offered him a bed in a congregant shelter, but he declined it for fear of catching the coronavirus. Today, he’s in a hotel room paid for by the city.

Advocates say that many people who are homeless would rather stay outdoors than in shelters, where they risk contracting coronavirus, as well as encountering abuse or threats of violence. Homeless people who have pets, work night shifts, need mental health services, or have substance use disorders have a difficult time finding a shelter that will take them.

Shivering inside a crowded tent, Dylan Miner tried to rest upright. “You can gain your stuff back, but it takes a lot of work,” he said. During a recent sweep, he said city workers discarded his mattress and the wood pallets that keep him off the sidewalk — which was still wet from torrental rain.

Miner, 34, does carpentry, fixes bikes, and resells items he either buys or finds.

The city placed him in a downtown hotel for 10 months during the pandemic, but when the program shut down he was unable to find new housing. He is not part of the lawsuit, but expressed support for it.

Nobody is happy with the status quo response, Friedenbach said. She hopes the lawsuit will catalyze a “serious transformation” in how the city treats people who are unhoused.

“This is really connected to a bigger struggle for dignity,” she said. “And a bigger struggle for just a recognition of the humanity of folks who are too poor to afford rents.”

AP video journalist Terry Chea contributed to this report.

The post Homelessness in San Francisco: speak of frustration, survival | Native Information appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.