hugopal

Very much so. SF has a number of issues related to drugs. The place was built on vagrancy, after all. It’s a port town so drugs are cheap and readily available (not to mention proximity to Mexico). The government also takes a strong harm reduction approach to use and abuse so one doesn’t have to worry about the police, really. Migration patterns typically move people west and you can’t get much further west than this. Other places have been known to give people (HIV+, opiate dependent, homeless) one way bus tickets to here. And then there’s the gay thing. SF is known as a welcoming place for gay men….but only if you’re good looking and/or have money. We get a lot of people coming here from middle America trying to escape homophobia only to find they’re not very welcolmed here either. That causes a lot of behavioral issues like substance use.

And then Covid. The mayor rolled out a plan to give hotel rooms to the most vulnerable homeless. We had a four-time increase in tents in a matter of a week with people coming from all over expecting a free hotel room. It was a disaster.

Heroin is also basically non-existant. Fentanyl is in everything and these friggin’ Mexican and Central American dealers have no idea what they’re doing. They’re not exactly Gregor Mendel so the quality and quantity of pills/baggies is all over the place. The fentanyl is also from China, smuggled through Tijuana….it’s not exactly medical grade stuff. Overdoses and deaths have skyrocketed. 75 pounds of fentanyl was busted yesterday. Counterfeit Oxycontin. Enough, in theory, to kill 15 million people.

Oddly, the rise of fentanyl has been good from a blood borne illness perspective. People can achieve the same high smoking it or railing it up. Apparently people don’t like IDU (stigma around trackmarks, safe needle use) so our HCV and HIV rates for IDU are way down.

All in all, yeah it’s a problem. Likely opening a safe injection facility very soon. Not to be a jerk, but I find it a bit hard to sympathize. This isn’t 15/20 years ago when we didn’t know better and Purdue flooded every community with mountains of opiates. You go down the opiate route today, you know how that story is going to end.

As for the tech exodus, that’s been a bit overblown as those companies and workers move around all the time anyway. And if we get less Twitter and Facebook workers around here, nobody will complain. Big tech has really done a number on a place that once had a pretty unique vibe and culture.

      zackster The amount of disc 2 blaring out of local bars also had to be a factor.

      Lol, as soon as Xpander comes in, everyone does the Dino Zoff’s.

        jonattonyeah And then Covid. The mayor rolled out a plan to give hotel rooms to the most vulnerable homeless. We had a four-time increase in tents in a matter of a week with people coming from all over expecting a free hotel room. It was a disaster.

        Yikes.

        jonattonyeah 75 pounds of fentanyl was busted yesterday. Counterfeit Oxycontin. Enough, in theory, to kill 15 million people.

        Also yikes.

        jonattonyeah You go down the opiate route today, you know how that story is going to end.

        Fair point, the risks are evidently huge.

        jonattonyeah And if we get less Twitter and Facebook workers around here, nobody will complain. Big tech has really done a number on a place that once had a pretty unique vibe and culture.

        Local businesses might complain? I was in SF for a week back in 2005, and from my limited view it seemed ace. Pretty much everything I’ve read about it since then though has suggested it’s been getting worse in a multitude of ways, whether it be insane property prices, loss of culture, massive homelessness, growing crime, spiralling taxes, increasing forest fires/climate issues. Has anything actually improved there in recent years?

                  hugopal Has anything actually improved there in recent years?

                  Hmmm. Probably not. Don’t get me wrong, I still like it here but it has major issues that frankly feel intractable. They’re also issues that cannot be fixed locally. Homelessness and housing costs, forest fires and climate change…that needs federal intervention but we don’t have a functional federal government so we piss into the wind locally.

                  As for tech helping local businesses….meh. These aren’t people who go out much, get free food and gyms on their campuses, they drive up housing costs so places cannot find labor. Corrupt politicians dole out tax breaks so not much benefit there. Many of the workers have no interest in staying here long term so there’s no investment on their part in the greater community. I mean, we’re in a better spot than Detroit or Cleveland or whatever rust belt town you want to choose, but we’ll be in a good spot due to climate and having three world class universities. The Bay will always be desirable.

                    Hursty
                    Sounds like a sensible chap, you should spend more time from him and soak up his wisdom!

                        jonattonyeah I guess it’s a novel spin on a typical smoking area.

                        Though in fairness, even if that area didn’t exist no doubt the building’s toilets would all be full of them shooting up anyway.

                            hugopal

                            Yup. We had a 10 minute limit at the clinic. One time we had to open the door and the dude was borderline frothing at the mouth, needle in arm, trying to smash one out. Good times.

                            And they don’t have to use bathrooms. In the Tenderloin you can just go ham with your drugs right there on the street.

                              Mad_Cyril It is amazing to hear the rhetoric, the movement genuinely believe this is a win for them.

                              He’s a teacher MC believe it or not 😂

                                And you thought misinformation was bad here

                                  alistair Legends, how many ethnics have they exterminated in the same time period though?

                                    The people they kidnapped from apartment blocks and murdered before they could pass on the virus aren’t included in those numbers are they?

                                    As suspected after feeling ill for a few days, I tested positive today on a LTF.

                                    Those of you that have had it, did any of you find that it developed in stages? I feel better than I did yesterday but only showed as positive today, which makes me thing there is more to come (or hopefully not).

                                      whatever my Mrs has just tested positive after our son did last Friday, she’s had mild symptoms since sunday night.

                                      Luckily you count the isolation from the onset of symptoms apparently.

                                          Hursty

                                          I didn’t know that. I still thought it was from when you tested positive but obviously not.

                                              whatever I think it’s different for different people and also whether you’ve got the arse-end of delta or not. No-one seems to have similar symptoms

                                                  whatever Yeah it’s something to do with when you are contagious, after 5 days of symptoms you are very unlikely to spread it

                                                    whatever tested positive on Monday after feeling very mild symptoms on Sunday…felt pretty rough Tuesday and Wednesday….headaches, shivers and fatigue but pretty much back to normal today.
                                                    Hopefully you may be over the worst of it..my Mrs felt ill but kept testing negative and then only tested positive when she was starting to feel better.