Once or twice per month I visit San Francisco. The
ride, depending on traffic, takes anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour and 15
minutes. The distance from my home is 35 miles.
San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities in
the entire world. San Francisco joins Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong, Sidney, and
Paris as my favorite destinations.
The architecture, natural beauty, and ambiance make
these cities special. Visitors never get enough; they are always eager to
return. This affinity often helps us overlook any undesirable characteristics.
The
Negatives
Beside the ever-increasing traffic, visitors cannot
ignore the many tent cities under bridges, in alleyways or in nearby parks.
Most people occupying these tents are those who can no longer afford to live in
the City. A few are folks struggling with a variety of additions and mental
health issues. A recent survey reports that there has been an increase in
homelessness on the West Coast by 1% as a result of surge in housing costs.
A two bedroom apartment in San Francisco costs $ 3,500
and up per month. If you earn $ 20 per hour, your rent will eat up your entire paycheck, and
when you factor in deductions, it will not be enough. It is fair to say that to be able to live in
San Francisco you will have to earn $ 100,000 or more per year. Rent would eat up about 42% of the paycheck
leaving about $ 58,000 to cover taxes, utilities, food, clothing, transportation,
and health insurance. It is a well-known fact that the cost of living in the
City is sky high.
Section 8 and BMR housing are in short supply. The
little that becomes available is gobbled up in matter of hours.
The City has become the residence of choice for
wealthy people and highly paid young professionals. The middle class has gradually
moved to the suburbs, save those folks lucky to have purchased their residence
prior to the real estate price boom, or fortunate to occupy residences benefitted from
rent control regulations.
Those who cater to the upper crust of earners either
spend many hours commuting to and from the suburbs or choose to sleep in their
cars or in tents. Lack of toilets force people to urinate or defecate in narrow
out-of-sight places. Lack of access to
showers forces some folks to go without for weeks or months. Cold winter nights
expose many to freezing and other hardships. Several with addictions or mental
issues panhandle to supplement any handouts they receive from welfare agencies.
The homeless population has been estimated at 8,000 to
18,000. Included but not always counted are minor children. A recent survey of
the greater Bay Area indicates that 1 out of 5 children go to sleep every night
hungry. This is a disgrace of gargantuan proportions. The City has launched a
program to track homelessness of young adults.
San Francisco is a progressive city. It has been that
way for many decades. Residents are generous and give freely to help the
unfortunate. It has designated itself as a sanctuary city, open to anyone
seeking asylum.
Scratching the bonhomie surface, however, reveals shocking
anomalies. Below the beautiful exterior, many people live a very precarious
life. Hidden from view, many people hurt.
If you listen to elected officials, you get the idea
that all is being done to remedy the situation within budget limitations.
However, I find this claim a laughable excuse when I look at four espoused
priorities that seem to take precedence:
· Climate
change – an important issue for sure,
but not one I would put ahead of helping poor people who are sleeping under bridges,
especially during cold months.
· Legal
Defense Fund for Illegal Aliens – an
issue at odds with our federal immigration laws. Use of limited resources that
could be used to build more public toilets and showers.
· Lawsuits of
the Federal Government – political
stunts to misdirect people’s attention from ordinary living problems. Politicians
are using the legal system to win over what they might have lost at the ballot
box.
· Tuition for
Illegal Aliens – spending limited
resources to fund tuition of illegal aliens is laudable but it should not be at
the expense of poor American citizens.
These initiatives are important to people and
worthwhile preserving. My question is a simple one. Are they more important
than the needs of the homeless? Of hungry children? I would suggest a loud No.
Life in the
Fast Lane
San Francisco is not alone. The same issues can be
found in many large cities … New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Baltimore,
Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and other major cities. Affordable housing is a scarce commodity.
Most large cities are run primarily by progressive
administrations. Every four years politicians promise the sun and the moon, but
deliver a sliver of what they promise. With more promises, they get reelected
over again. If they fail to deliver, politicians will use worn-out excuses to
blame Washington and/or heartless conservatives.
As you scan the landscape, you can find that some
cities do a better job than others, and that we have much to learn from one
another. The problem is the NIH (not
invented here) syndrome that affects most of us. You know … we are different,
we tried that and did not work, we are not as wealthy, and so on.
America is the richest nation in the world. We have
spent trillions of dollars to eradicate poverty since the 1960’s. Yet we have
as many, if not more, poor people than we did way back then. What happened to
all that money? As it cascaded down, many seem to have taken their cut …
states, cities, agencies, non-profits, and unscrupulous politicians. Some
middlemen and women got very rich with the people’s money. Graft, corruption,
sloppy management ate up most of the money. So much for trickle-down well-intentioned government programs!
Doing the same thing over and over expecting a
different result is folly, the distinguished Albert Einstein warned us. Yet
that is exactly what we continue to do with the people’s money.
Lessons from
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico was recently devastated by a hurricane.
Roads were washed away. Power lines destroyed. Houses were blown away by fierce
winds. Many trees were uprooted. The island is far from the mainland. Logistics
became very complicated.
FEMA was not able to feed 3 million Puerto Ricans
marooned in their island after the devastating hurricane. Although “emergency” is in the name, many
policies within FEMA are not adequate for problems of this magnitude.
Federal procurement policies required multiple bids.
Multiple bids take several days. People were hungry, and they needed to be fed NOW. Bureaucratic red tape is not user-friendly,
by definition.
Here comes a Spaniard from Washington, D.C., a well-known
chef to the rescue. Within hours he started to feed people. In a few days, he
was producing 3 million meals per day. The chef’s name is Jose’ Andres. He
organized ChefsForPuertoRico. Jose’ taught us that if and when we unleash
human ingenuity and freedom, there is nothing we cannot do.
Unencumbered by red tape, he single-handedly marshaled
the energy of many to help solve the problem. It was done on a pro-bono basis, on humanitarian grounds.
We all owe Jose’ a word of thanks! He has shown the way to respond to a crisis.
Lessons from
Silicon Valley
The high tech industry is setting the pace to combat
the affordable housing problem. Google is building about 10,000 housing units
next to its Mountain View campus. It is also building a “village” in San Jose’,
close to the transportation hub. Twenty-nine thousand housing units will be built to
house staff additions. Google will employ 25,000 more employees.
Facebook is also leading the charge. The company is
building about 10,000 units adjacent to its Menlo Park campus. It has also made
generous contributions to local initiatives addressing the housing shortage.
Stanford University is doing its part. They are
building additional affordable housing for faculty and students. The university
has led the charge in housing for decades, realizing that without affordable
housing its success in attracting first class faculty and middle class students
would have suffered.
Silicon Valley is known for its creativity. You can
see it in action the way larger employers are mitigating the traffic congestion,
for example. Highway 101 is crisscrossed several times per day by large,
luxurious busses shuttling employees back and forth from the City. Employees
rather than being stuck in crawling traffic can sit back comfortably and start
their work routine. Companies benefit from greater productivity. A win-win
exchange!
Time to
Outsource
There are other Jose’ Andres in Silicon Valley. Let’s give
them the latitude to harness all available resources to solve the homeless
problem in our cities sooner rather than later. Surely they can do much better than our inept
politicians and bureaucrats.
John Lennon’s song rings true … I might be a dreamer, but I am not the only one.
What do you think?
