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Mar 16 • 16 tweets • 8 min read
People understandably think progress is made when homeless encampments are "cleared," but they just move somewhere else

Until we create a statewide psych & addiction care system capable of treating the sick, we will never solve the homeless crisis

latimes.com/world-nation/s…
Without a doubt we need to shut down the open drug scenes ("homeless encampments"), ban illegal public camping, and provide safe & basic shelter

But no amount of shelter is going to address the root causes of addiction & untreated mental illness

Today, we spend billions on fire departments putting out encampment fires & reviving addicts who overdose — only for them to go right back to smoking fentanyl and setting fires

It's a perfect marriage of liberal & conservative nightmares

Please find me a single liberal or conservative who will defend our current approach to open drug scenes as moral or fiscally responsible

Even the most die-hard victimologist "homeless advocates" see that what we're doing is a form of collective insanity
There is a lot of speculation about why San Francisco Mayor @LondonBreed just ended the drug emergency declaration

Was creating a catered, fentanyl & meth smoking lounge for addicts & the mentally ill in UN Plaza her plan all along?

sfchronicle.com/sf/article/May…
I think that's highly unlikely

A more likely scenario is that the combination of San Francisco's radical Left D.A. @chesaboudin , progressives on the Board of Supervisors, & a newly woke @sfchronicle wouldn't allow it

We all saw it coming six weeks ago:

michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/progressives…
Breed thought she had found a compromise — a crackdown for moderates & a supervised drug use site for progressives

But she didn't have consensus within society or the Board when she announced it in December

Progressives were surprised & angry & blamed negative media coverage
In short, the political center did not hold

Having been beaten back by the progressive/radical Left, Breed has gone from attacking them in The New York Times...

nytimes.com/2022/01/13/opi…

... to blaming right-wing media for her failure

The bottom line is that radical Left progressives defeated London Breed's Plan A and she does not appear to have a Plan B. If she did, she wouldn't be blaming right-wing media for hash she has made of UN Plaza, not to mention the rape of 16 year-old girls

And Breed is not alone
We know how to shut down open drug scenes

Gov. @GavinNewsom could work with @LondonBreed & @MayorOfLA to shut down the ones in SF and LA

The reason he won't is because he wants to be president

He is thus hostage to @georgesoros @ACLU @DrugPolicyOrg

Not a single one of these efforts to "clear encampments" by cities can work because they don't deal with the root cause of the problem

And the reason they don't is because the politicians are hostages — to radical interest groups & progressive ideology

latimes.com/world-nation/s…
Everybody loses under the status quo:

— Addicts/mentally ill are deprived medical care they need

— Citizens are denied safe cities

— First responders feel useless

Even the progressive politicians & activists who created the problem know, at some level, they've lost control
I had an insider from within the homeless industrial complex tell me that the people in charge are acutely aware that they don't have a plan for solving the problem

To her credit, Mayor @LondonBreed has asked @GavinNewsom @JoeBiden for help

But they won't respond because they can't without upsetting the same powerful radical progressive interest groups & donors who prevented Breed's crackdown from working in the first place

That's why we need real change — starting with a new governor

/END

Appendix A: Chaos on the streets is creating political chaos
Appendix B: Change is coming, locally, nationally, and statewide. First in June, then in November, and then for the long-term. ❤️✊🏼

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More from @ShellenbergerMD

Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
Mar 16
Some people say it's wrong to require the homeless to sleep in shelters

But these barbaric murders of unsheltered people show how dangerous it is to let people sleep outside

Basic human decency demands universal shelter and a ban on public camping

apnews.com/article/suspec…
As mayor of San Francisco, California Gov. @GavinNewsom led the effort to make "Housing First" both statewide and federal policy

That, combined with tolerance of open drug use, resulted in an explosion of unsheltered homelessness

We are in a homeless humanitarian emergency

California should lead the world to

1. Create a statewide psychiatric and addiction care system, Cal-Psych

2. Establish a "Shelter First, Housing First" policy

3. Enforce laws & divert the sick into rehab/psych care
Read 7 tweets
Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
Mar 15
People think we'll end homelessness by giving away housing, but Calif. proves the opposite

Nobody made homelessness worse than @GavinNewsom — just look at his 20 year record:

He won't fund basic shelter

He throws money at housing developers

He blames others for his failures
There's a role for housing for seriously mentally ill people like my aunt, who had schizophrenia, and lived in a group home

But Newsom has for 20 years worsened homelessness by offering free, unconditional housing to addicts who just need rehab

It gets worse.

In 2018, Newsom green-lit SF's disastrous "supervised drug consumption site" which has turned much of downtown SF into a massive open drug scene controlled by violent drug dealers which recently resulted in the death of a 16 year-old girl

sfchronicle.com/politics/artic…
Read 13 tweets
Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
Mar 14
We have just six weeks until early voting

Six weeks to save our humanity

Let’s go

shellenbergerforgovernor.com/join-now/
Read 4 tweets
Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
Mar 14
Many believe Calif. Gov. @GavinNewsom is unbeatable in November, but they are wrong

Not only are we going to beat him, we are going to create a new, governing majority that is capable of restoring our shared humanity & dignity

Here's how — and why

michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/why-we-will-…
Like a lot of Californians, I have a full and happy life. My wife and I own a home in the Berkeley Hills from which we enjoy watching the fog roll underneath the Golden Gate bridge, and blanket the bay. Our children are healthy and happy.
We enjoy a safe and comfortable living as researchers and writers, seemingly far from the chaos and suffering in California’s downtowns.

But over the last few years, the rising chaos and suffering have increasingly troubled me.
Read 46 tweets
Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
Mar 8
In December, Mayor @LondonBreed of San Fran promised a crackdown on drug dealing

Instead she delivered a supervised drug use site

Since then, the dealing has worsened so much that even street addicts want cops to crackdown

Now, Mayor Breed is calling for state & fed help
Today, Gov. @GavinNewsom will characterize his proposal for dealing with mentally ill homeless as "unprecedented"

In truth, Newsom is proposing to waste more money on a system that HIS MOST SENIOR ADVISOR SAYS CAN'T WORK
Newsom's proposal is doomed

It not only keeps in place but also *increases* funding for California's COUNTY-BASED approach to homelessness

Worst of both worlds

— 58 separate county systems with redundant, wasteful overhead

— Extremely sick people falling through the cracks
Read 12 tweets
Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
Mar 7
People think Germany's a climate leader but it produces 6x more emissions per unit of electricity than France

People say nuclear is too expensive but nuclear-heavy France spends 59% as much for electricity as Germany, which will have spent $580B on renewables by 2025
There is a high up-front cost to building new nuclear plants, and when workers don't have experience building them, they are more expensive.

But costs come down significantly over time as workers gain experience building them

And what's the cost of Russia's invasion of Ukraine?
Nuclear keeps nations safe.

It provides highly reliable zero-pollution power, and has thus saved 2M lives to date.

And nuclear allows nations to stockpile fuel on-site, liberating them having to depend on foreign nations for their survival, as Europe today must on Russia.
Read 16 tweets

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