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I agree with Marc that many of the things he'd like to do will take money. Solving homelessness in San Francisco, for instance, will cost a lot. But that doesn't mean all we need to do is spend some money. We've tried that - we're already up to a conservatively estimated $300 million a year. But plenty of people, hardly all on the right - including Gavin Newsom, who admits he was behind some of these failed attempts, for instance - opposed Benioff's initiative on the grounds that if we keep spending money they way we've been spending it, another 300 million will just make things worse off. And while San Francisco may be a wealthy city, there's only so many times we can go to the well. As an example, every year there's a story in the Chron about how low and middle income San Franciscans sit at their computers with a list of affordable city run summer programs for kids, looking at the international clock, desperate to hit "submit" as if it's tickets to a Stones reunion tour - and the aftermath and scramble for where to put their kid this summer if they don't get them, which is about half the time. 300 mil would go a long way to helping with the middle and low income families that San Francisco is, frankly, bleeding away. If I thought 300 mil more would solve homelessness, I'd happily spend it - hell, I'd triple it. I grew up here and I still love this city, but things are bad. The main difference between me and the people who bash SF here on HN is that to me, it's extremely painful, I don't get the gleeful thrill of pointing out how shitty SF's policies have made things, it hurts. I'd be willing to dig pretty deep into my limited financial assets if I could see it get better. But unfortunately, I really do think that 300 million more of the same will produce, well more of the same, which is things getting worse and worse. |
Thats not even getting into what you allude to, in that "solving it" creates more homelessness