Marin is about to learn once again that in federal court the homeless are always more equal than permanent residents

Properly Subversive/Sherman R. Frederick

You don’t need the powers of Nostradamus to know what’s likely to happen to San Rafael over its attempt to regulate homeless encampments. 

Homeless advocates asked for, and received, a temporary restraining order from a federal judge last week. There will be a hearing in September. When the dust settles my warning in a column from a couple weeks ago will come to pass: When it comes to homelessness in California, no good deed goes unpunished. 

So, what monstrous thing is San Rafael trying to do to  the homeless? They want to prevent large encampments from springing up. Large encampments, the city contends, are a magnet for crime, drugs and anti-social misbehavior of every kind. They have the police stats to prove it. Large encampments are bad for public safety, says San Rafael.

So the city says the homeless can’t camp within 200 feet of each other.

But homeless advocates say this kind of social distancing is unreasonable as the homeless are actually safer in a “community” of tenters. They claimed the TRO ruling in their favor last week was a big victory.

The city, meanwhile, told the court that their new rules were “reasonable,” adding the spacing of the homeless “does not criminalize homelessness.”

I’m not going to argue the merits of either side. I’ll only say that the federal courts have thus far screwed up any kind of readable roadmap for cities to follow as they seek to balance public safety for the homeless and permanent residents alike. 

Thus far, the courts have pretty much ruled that the homeless are more equal to permanent resident communities. 

So, stand by for some mucked-up baby-splitting that will totally disregard the rights of permanent residents who simply would like to live in safety in their own homes without a meth-infused vagabond living in the alley. They’d like not to have a crazy person tenting in front of a school and yelling profanities at parents and school children, which is happening right now in Mill Valley. 

Is that too much to ask? I’m sorry to say it probably is. Just ask Sausalito. Or, Novato. They learned this lesson the hard way. 

HARD TO BE POOR

In a forum in Sacramento on the transition to electric cars, the phrase “it’s expensive to be poor” came up more than once. To transition to electric vehicles by 2035, more aggressive incentives must be offered to the poor because, well, electric cars are not only very expensive to buy, they are expensive to operate. 

CalMatters reports: “Though private chargers can have high upfront costs, it can cost three to five times more to plug into public chargers. In another example of the “it’s expensive to be poor” phenomenon, EVs with longer ranges are pricier, yet many lower-income people typically have longer commutes.”

How in 12 years will we overcome that?

KIDS HARD, TOO

In the last 24 months, the cost of back-to-school supplies jumped 24%, according to a headline in last week’s Independent Journal. (The term “Bidenomics” not mentioned anywhere in the story.)

MYSTERY BUYER

There’s something strange going on in Solano County. In the last five years a mystery company called Flannery Associates has bought up at premium prices most of the land around Travis Air Force Base. No one knows who is behind it because Flannery Associates is incorporated in Delaware where the real owners can be kept secret. 

The area’s congressman, John Garamendi, is asking questions. I hope he gets some answers. 

ONE MORE THING

– Even wearing socks and shoes, a bear still has bear feet.

– The guy with the worst grades should get to give a graduation speech too. That way we get to hear both sides. 

– School dress code update: Students may not wear a band’s shirt unless they can name three songs sung by the band.

Congratulations for getting to the end of yet another  “Properly Subversive” column. Thanks for putting up with the goofy jokes. Until next time, avoid soreheads, laugh a little and always question authority. 

(“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.)