Sherman R. Frederick/Properly Subversive
People in power never quite get it – the ends just don’t justify the means.
Nothing will illustrate that principle better, I fear, than the Homekey homeless program that’s getting crammed down the throats of Greenbrae residents. This location – 1251 South Eliseo Drive – wasn’t picked because it best fit the need. It was picked because the money was “free” and the building was available.
Look, I get the frustration homeless advocates feel when faced with NIMBY-ism. But what happens when the concerns are not mindless NIMBY-ism, but honest and legit? The answer, then, is not to stick with a bad location, but work harder at finding the right location. In Greenbrae’s case, residents were right to point out that a chunk of this facility is reserved for the homeless with severe mental problems. Repeat: Severe mental problems. Red flags should have gone up. And when residents pointed out that those folks will live there unsupervised, well, it should’ve been a deal breaker.
Putting a facility like this on a Kentfield School District designated “Safe Route,” near a park where children of all ages gather and near Bacich Elementary School, Marin Catholic High School, Hall Middle School, Kent Middle School, and any number of preschools is ill advised in the extreme.
You can argue the greater good till the cows come home. It won’t make the site more appropriate. Believe me when I tell you this – the first time a Homekey resident misbehaves in Hal Brown park or messes with the kids going to nearby schools, all hell will break loose.
This selection “process” sacrificed safety for expediency. It won’t end well.
THANK YOU, MVFF45
By all accounts the 45th Mill Valley Film Festival came off in its usual spectacular fashion. Congrats to the good folks who work their tails off year-round to bring us this fabulous event. There were 32,000 attendees this year.
Thank you.
PANDEMIC IS OVER?
President Joe Biden says the COVID-19 pandemic is over. Not everyone in the Bay Area agrees.
The president said:
“We still have a problem with COVID, we’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over. If you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape.”
The San Jose Mercury News subsequently reported these two totally different responses.
- “Wish this was true,” Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, responded on Twitter. “What’s over is the president’s and our government’s will to get ahead of it, with magical thinking on the new bivalent boosters.”
- “President Biden is right,” Stanford Medical School professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya tweeted. “The pandemic emergency is over. Research for better treatments should continue, but the lockdowns, restrictions, and fear-mongering need to stop.”
To muddy the waters even more, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre lied about the whole deal three days later falsely claiming “The president said, and he was very clear in his 60 Minutes interview, that COVID remains a problem and we’re fighting it.”
No. He was not clear. He said the pandemic is over and the proof of it is that no one was wearing a mask at an auto show. If Biden were a doctor in California, he would have lost his license for that.
But the more important point is that if the press secretary wants to walk back that Biden-speak statement, fine. But, don’t lie about what he said. That compounds the issue and serves no one’s interest.
Bob Weir
AS TIME GOES BY
Marin County legend Bob Weir – you know, the Grateful Dead guy – turned 75 in October. Here he is 55 years ago at the Hollywood Bowl. Lordy, how time flies.
ONE MORE THING
– My wife makes us put $5 in a “Find Jar” every time we make her find something in the house we can’t locate. After 13 months of saving, we’re going to Petaluma to buy a new Ford Explorer.
– There’s a gang going through Corte Madera systematically shoplifting clothes in size order. Police believe they are still at large.
– I quit my job at the cloning factory. I don’t know what to do with myselves.
And, that’ll do for the first 10 months of 2022. It’s November already, can you believe it? Thanks for reading and until next week avoid soreheads, laugh a little and always question authority.
(“Properly Subversive” is commentary written by Sherman R. Frederick for Marinscope Community Newspapers, the “mother ship” of the Novato Advance, San Rafael News-Pointer, Mill Valley Herald, Ross Valley Reporter, Twin City Times and the Sausalito Marin Scope. Mr. Frederick is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)
What a sick joke. The liberal government and their plans to “help” the homeless are actively destroying what little purity is left in this state’s citizenry. Drugs, crime, and other horrible things will follow. Gavin “Mao” Newsom doesn’t care, he’s too busy supporting the degenerates who can’t hold a job and the doctors who cut up little kids and sterilize them in the name of “trans rights” (more like “wrongs,” am I right?) Every day, I come to terms with the Democrat hellhole our state has become. What happened to the good ol’ days when you didn’t have to worry about “political correctness,” when we were known for our gold, and had no degenerates or immigrants polluting out streets? I long for a day when that may be again. Thank you, good sir, for bringing all of these injustices to my attention. We must protect our children from the state!