When it comes to helping the homeless in California, no good deed goes unpunished

Properly Subversive/Sherman R. Frederick

The lovely town of San Rafael, as with all towns in Marin, finds itself struggling to cope with homeless encampments. These camps, and let’s please be clear-eyed about this, become dens of drugs, violence and antisocial behaviors of every stripe. 

So, the moms and dads of San Rafael want to impose some rules on where and how these encampments may exist. The new rules would limit the space between tents, proximity to playgrounds and electrical boxes. 

Good luck with that. 

Our federal courts have so mucked up the roadmap for what a town can and can’t do to manage  homeless encampments, no one is really where to go next. 

Brave Novato tried. It’s now operating a homeless encampment in a city park under federal supervision. With homelessness, no good deed goes unpunished.

Sausalito got burned when it dedicated one single city park for the down-and-out. In the end, the city lost millions in tourism dollars from traditional Sausalito festivals unable to use the park. It also drained the city’s budget with increasing costs to simply maintain order in the tent city. Finally, the city gave up and closed the homeless camp. The city paid the homeless in the camp fistfulls of cash, sending them all into the wind. Some are probably camping out in San Rafael right now.

Look, Marin is not alone. Homeless In California is a hot mess. And, until the federal courts start giving towns some guidance on what can be done to maintain a safe and civilized society, we’re doomed to live a dystopian existence: Million dollar homes, churches and businesses on one side of the street and meth-infested tent enclaves in the nearest bushes.

That’s the way it is, I am sorry to say.’

For more reading on this topic, may I suggest this Marinscope My Turn piece: https://marinlocalnews.com/my-turn-the-problem-that-just-wont-go-away/

17 HOURS?

Nobody asked, but how can we let the Richmond Bridge stay closed to traffic for 17 hours to accommodate some guy experiencing his mental crisis du jour? 

What would we do if this were a bear, a deer or a coyote with puppies in tow? We’d tranq ‘em, or throw a net around ‘em, and move the beasts to safety. Right?

I’m halfway joking, of course, because in the Bay Area the homeless and the mentally ill here are treated like India’s sacred cows. 

Obviously, this was a troubled soul acting out his inner Tarzan as he swung from the bridge and tried to get hit by cars. All I’m sayin’ is there’s got to be a better way to deal with these kinds of events and still keep bridge closures to the barest of minimums. 

Seventeen hours? 

Not good.

DRUG COSTS

Wait a minute? Aren’t we being told that prescription drug prices are going down thanks to the  attentive leadership in Washington, D.C.? 

Yet, I see Covered California, the state’s health insurance marketplace for middle-income residents, announced last Tuesday, July 25, that it would increase its premiums by nearly 10% in 2024. It’s the highest increase in five years. 

And why? 

The CEO of Covered California told CalMatters  that the hike is caused by a “complicated time for health care,” given higher drug costs, rising inflation and labor shortages.

So which is it? Are drug prices going up, or down?

STUFF TO KNOW 

– Seven homeless human beings died doing drugs while riding BART in the first 90 days of the year. The San Francisco Standard had to pry that information out of BART with a public information request. Why cloak that information? Seems like an important thing for citizens to know.

– The first home game for the San Francisco 49ers will be Sept. 21 against the N.Y. Giants, a Thursday night game. Anything can happen in the NFL, of course, but the 49ers look like the Division favorite to me. 

– The Vallejo Police Department has dwindled to 34 patrol officers for 126,000 residents. The department, Golden Gate Media reports, has disbanded the traffic division and is rotating one detective a week to patrol. It’s tough being in the law enforcement business these days, especially in Vallejo. 

– On Dec. 7, a monument will be unveiled in Benicia, marking the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The centerpiece will be a statue of Harold Bray, a retired police officer in Benicia. Remarkably, he is the sole remaining survivor of one of the greatest disasters in the history of the U.S. Navy – the sinking of Indianapolis. The disaster was featured in the movie “Jaws.” Pretty cool, Benicia. 

ONE MORE THING

– Wherever you go, there you are. Your luggage is another story.

– If there is no self, whose arthritis is this? 

– Why  are you “in” a movie, but “on” TV?

Thanks for reading. Until next time, avoid soreheads, laugh a little and always question authority. Don’t forget that you can read our Marinscope newspapers online at NovatoAdvance-ca.newsmemory.com. 

(Editor’s Note: Remember that you can see the full Marinscope Community Newspaper online at NovatoAdvance-ca.newsmemory.com.)

(“Properly Subversive” is a 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.)