Bums in San Francisco
I just returned home from a week in San Francisco, my first time there. I always thought my hometown of Baltimore had a lot of bums walking around, but there’s literally 100x the amount in Frisco. It’s supposed to be the most left-wing big city in the states, so shouldn’t there be the fewest bums thanks to the increased social benefits? Or maybe all the nation’s homeless just flock to San Francisco? Dunno.
Fortunately all the bums seemed relatively friendly, non-intrusive, and often had quite creative ways to earn your spare change - they all don’t just stand with arms out like the recent influx of beggers in Helsinki. The ones that shout random things are the funniest, I had one guy yell to me, “Welcome to Hell. I’ve been here 45 years.” and another ask me, “Got any dinner money for a secret agent?”
Here’s an interesting story - I’m “dining” at the In-and-Out Burger, facing the window to the street. A homeless-looking guy is making and selling animal balloons along the sidewalk. He obviously has a slight cold and every few minutes needed to blow his nose. When he was done, he’d walk 10 meters or so over the trashcan and dispose of his tissue - I watched him do this several times. Upon leaving the burger joint, a wealthy-looking elderly man was walking towards me with (what appeared to be) his young Hispanic nurse assisting him. He too had a cold and I watched as he took his two used snotrags and tossed them into the street without missing a beat. Amazing, a homeless guy has the respect to dispose of his trash while the rich old white man litters - Who’s the fucking “bum” here?!
I’m on San Francisco’s famous crooked Lombard Street wearing my “Stewart/Colbert ‘08″ t-shirt
It reminds me of the way Finns toss their trash everywhere.
Comment by Anonymous — Sun, Oct 28th, 2007 @ 11:49 pm
I hate how people leave their empty bottles on TOP of the trashcans for the bums. Those bottles stay on top those canisters for 15 minutes top before they fall onto the ground and become litter. Just throw the bottle away, the bums will fish them out.
Comment by Phil — Sun, Oct 28th, 2007 @ 11:52 pm
Bums are even more creative in Finland. They just write their stories down for KELA.
Comment by Anonymous — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 12:36 am
your new glasses look cute! oh my heck.
Comment by celia — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 1:41 am
and don’t you think that those bottle are better annoying you for a few extra minutes so bums can make a few cents off of them and recycle them properly, rather than them instead winding up in your gf’s breastmilk?
Comment by celia — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 1:45 am
Anon: what the fuck? Have you ever been abroad, like, say, Russia?
Comment by sepisp — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 2:46 am
The entire I-5 corridor is bum central as the weather is mild and people are generally easygoing with them. The Northeast is nowhere near as hospitable in either weather or population.
Comment by hfb — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 5:29 am
Phil, you look a LOT like young Ruben Stiller.
Comment by Fat Bastard — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 8:38 am
I don’t know Phil, the last time I was in SF, I saw a bum near my hotel attack his jacket. He literally was throwing it on the ground and yelling things at it like, “you stupid, lazy, m*thaf*kin jacket! no good, good for nothing, zippered biyatch!!!”
But the other bums were mostly cool. What was scary is that some were as well dressed as I was — wearing like you in that photo, t-shirt, jeans, etc. It got me thinking that asking for change might be some feel-good Haight-Ashbury custom, and that these guys weren’t bums at all, but lived in Russian Hill and were web designers …
Comment by giustino — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 10:03 am
I think that I read an article at some point, where they asked what did all those people spending days at cafeteria did for living.
One person just said that he needed 500 dollars per month, 125 dollars per week or 25 dollar per every (week)day.
And that’s a sum which is very easy to get with only few pleas at the streetside.
Comment by Juho Salo — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 10:26 am
I don’t know if it’s an urban legend, but when I was in San Francisco I was told that cities in other parts of the country sometimes deal with their homelessness problems by giving the most obnoxious cases a Greyhound ticket to the Bay Area.
Comment by Kimmo W. — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 10:31 am
Phil, you look a LOT like young Ruben Stiller.
Heh, well not sure if that’s a compliment or not.
Yeah I got new trendy thick black glasses, and I’m balding like Ruben. I hope in 20 years I look a bit different than he 
Comment by Phil — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 11:09 am
@ kimmo, i can confirm that this is true. my father is a psychiatrist, and when we lived in sf (1984-1987), he had a patient who had been sent there by his previous doctor. the doctor had given him the ticket and taken him to the station, apparently. it sounds really freaking crazy, but SF does take care of the homeless better than any other city in the country, so in a way it’s meant to be helpful.
- jere
Comment by halffinn — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 11:56 am
“A record 17.9 million U.S. homes stood empty in the third quarter as lenders took possession of a growing number of properties in foreclosure….Of these (17.9 million) vacant housing units, 13.3 million were for year-round use and 4.6 million were seasonal. Approximately 3.9 million of the year-round vacant units were for rent, 2.1 million were for sale only, and the remaining 7.4 million units were vacant for a variety of other reasons.”
“WASHINGTON - There were 744,000 homeless people in the United States in 2005, according to the first national estimate in a decade.”
(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16564208/)
So for every homeless person there is mere 17 empty (year-round use) houses at the moment. Finland did have a huge housing bubble in the late 80’s but this US bubble is just….well, priceless.
Comment by tim73 — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 1:15 pm
Tim, even Finnish homeless are not given a free home.
Comment by Dave the Revelator — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 1:48 pm
On that note, most Finns cannot afford an omikotitalo, they live in apartments. Small ones.
And on another note, did you hear about Finland’s policy on Hummer H2 vehicles. Apparently they qualify as trucks and the “auto tax” is not levied on them. The Toyota Prius hybrid gets fined a diesel tax while the Hummer gets a break.
Gimme a break.
Comment by Dave the Revelator — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 1:51 pm
Most of the foreclosures, too, were homes bought by people who couldn’t or shouldn’t have been able to afford a home but the banks gave them insane loans like the ‘interest only’ ones. From what I’ve read, there are a number of people stretched pretty thinly in Finland, too, since a tiny little house on a postage stamp of a lawn (they’re building 6 row houses on a lot half the size of my in-laws next door after the owner of the house sold it last year. SIX. At 500k or better. Each.) in Espoo will run you 500k euro and up and fixed rate mortgages aren’t the norm yet.
Comment by hfb — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 3:08 pm
those sunglasses make you look gay
Comment by unlce sam — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 4:31 pm
“And on another note, did you hear about Finland’s policy on Hummer H2 vehicles. Apparently they qualify as trucks and the “auto tax†is not levied on them.”
You must be joking ?
All this noise from Matti Vanhanen about reducing Finland green house footprint and now this ?
Comment by unlce sam — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 4:34 pm
“The Toyota Prius hybrid gets fined a diesel tax while the Hummer gets a break.”
The civil servant behind this decision must be the stupidest person in the burocracy. Prius has a gasoline engine (right?). Now diesel tax is supposed to be a compensation for using a vehicle with low-tax fuel on public roads as maintenance of those roads is supposed to be paid by the fuel tax. Although Prius has batteries and electric motors, every joule of energy in that battery is produced by fully taxed fuel in the tank.
This is probably just one court case away from being overturned.
Comment by Antti rn — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 6:49 pm
#15 Dave, in Tim’s Finland no doubt the homeless would be given a free house. Probably take one off the rich just to “redistribute” the wealth.
As for Tim, all I can say is that with this bubble and imminent financial ruin The States are facing, thank God you pointed out the wonderful welfare that is available to the poor. All of those poor people facing ruin can get low pad jobs with WalMart AND collect benefits from the State so don’t be too concerned.
Comment by Punter — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 7:13 pm
phil i wanna fuck you
Comment by horny — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 9:17 pm
Regarding the wealthy man littering, I’m not surprised. He’s obviously very important, and if we knew who he was, we wouldn’t question him (sarcasm). He probably drives a a massive SUV with a Bush\Cheney bumper sticker on it still.
Comment by Philip — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 9:19 pm
#23. Better than the Finnish version of the same man in his 1984 Lada with his fur hat and Vanhanen stickers (Or Sasi stickers)
Comment by Punter — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 9:54 pm
#7 Have you been on I-5? It runs through the Central Valley, which is redneck central. Hell, Rush Limbaugh’s windbag ass got his start in Sacramento.
Comment by dhen — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 10:46 pm
Here in Northern Minnesota you get fined heavily for even flicking a cigarette out the window of a moving car. Last weekend I was driving to Duluth while being trailed by a highway cop. Being very absent minded, I flicked a cigarette out of my window. The little ball of fire that was the cigarette hit the highway cop’s windshield and exploded, rather dramatically into a pretty impressive puff of sparks. He pulled me over, made be find and pick up the cigarette butt which took nearly half an hour, and then wrote me a ticket for $362.00. The cop got back into his car, drove past me and threw a subway pop cup out the window. Asshole. What does this have to do with bums in San Francisco? Nothing, really…I just needed to vent.
Comment by Bjorn — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 10:55 pm
Dave:
“And on another note, did you hear about Finland’s policy on Hummer H2 vehicles. Apparently they qualify as trucks and the “auto tax†is not levied on them.”
In addition to that, they’re VAT deductible for businesses. Priceless!
Comment by Freeridin' Franklin — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 11:05 pm
The funniest sign I saw in my old hometown, Boulder, CO, was one saying: “disabled porn star needs help”.
Comment by sam — Tue, Oct 30th, 2007 @ 8:07 am
#26- Bjorn, have you noticed the recent situation in California with fires? Now perhaps maybe, just maybe, part of the reason for the police attitude towards your cigarette had something to do with that? I know if you did the same in Australia during fire season, especially with large fires burning elsewhere, you would be happy to take the fine given in The States.
Comment by Punter — Tue, Oct 30th, 2007 @ 11:29 am
#8 When Ruben Stiller was young, he had hair.
Comment by Kimmo W. — Tue, Oct 30th, 2007 @ 4:10 pm
Remember a few years ago living next to SF in Marin County. When we hit the streets of Frisco and spoke with many bums, we found most were either quite mobile passing through, or they connected with other bums as sort of a “family” with nick names and the like.
Comment by Heidi A. Sivonen — Wed, Oct 31st, 2007 @ 10:44 pm
National Public Radio has been covering the homeless problem (or rather the new intolerance of the other residents) during the last couple of weeks.
Comment by interglossa — Thu, Nov 1st, 2007 @ 2:49 am
The large number of homeless in San Francisco can be traced back to the 1980s and Ronald Reagan, who first decreased funding for mental health services in California as Governor, and who then as President rescinded the Mental Health Systems Act put in place by Carter. With the decrease in funding and support (and the reasonable backlash to forced institutionalism that was also taking place) many state mental hospitals closed and public services for the mentally ill greatly diminished. Eventually in their place private institutions grew, but obviously that left a huge part of the mentally ill population underserved and they continue to be underserved.
Comment by brie — Wed, Nov 7th, 2007 @ 6:55 pm