Quality of life crimes

Someone described San Fran to me as "unlike any other city in the US" - actually every city you go to someone will describe it like that. They were, however, referring to how liberal San Fran is compared to the rest of the US (yep - plenty of evidence for that!). Something I have noticed is how accessible information is about the work of local government and how much this is discussed in local forums. While the locals do moan that they don't get much info they have several local TV channels dedicated to "The Bay Area". There are regular talk fests on the latest decisions/plans being proposed and emerging community issues. They also have "Town Hall" meetings where local representatives front up to communities on the issues of moment - somewhat more challenging than opening your electorate office door one day a week!
Recently the mayor (Gavin Newsom - who's had his own little public nightmare going on) has come up with a proposal to introduce a "people's court" (not Judge Judy) to deal with crimes against quality of life ie urinating in the street, sleeping in doorways, graffiti etc etc. It's based on the NYC model where, rather than have people (read mostly homeless), thrown into the state justice system where nothing changes, you put them through a community system where they have to complete some form of restitution eg graffiti artists have to clean up graffiti. Concurrent with that offenders get "proactively" offered the services of the social system as well to try and turn their lives around and get the help they need (which doesn't mean all of them want help BTW). It's not really a new idea but it's been interesting to watch the debate. Of course it will only be as good as being able to resource the whole thing. It's ambitious and far from decided but they are even going so far as to say they want the "court" to be located in the communities of real concern so that people start to take ownership from within. I guess it worked in NYC, although it's not clear to me if the homeless actually did (in large numbers) move off the street or just move - I think the latter myself. Unlike NYC there are, however, plenty of activitist groups with the numbers to keep the city honest or at least stage a protest to remind the city when it's being less than honest! Anyway many holes to be blown in this thesis but fascinating none the less and it is always easier to be on the outside looking in.
One campaign I found refreshing is inviting people to politely say "no, not today" when a homeless person asks for money. Reminding people that the homeless are people too. Mostly where I am the homeless are very polite. One guy now just says "hi how are you today" to me, as I have never given him money and I guess we have both reached the point of being "locals" - I did tell you it was like Cuba Street didn't I?
Have had a somewhat dull week - not sure why..........except I do need to start to get out more and meet people. In the absense of a job I've felt a bit held back. I have met someone (other than Leslie) who has a network of single friends who just go out and try to meet new people, she has offered to introduce me to them so I do need to follow up on that (this was a while back)............Yes I know "shutup and get on with it".
I am heading back to Santa Cruz in a few weekends to go to a concert with Michelle so that's another little outing too. This time I will take some photos of the area - it is beautiful and hopefully the weather will be fine.