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Sam Mertens's avatar

Bags of concrete mix have been known to fall out the back of pickup trucks along with boxes full of nails … in the rain … which might force faster municipal action. And even if it doesn’t, everybody will quickly learn to drive real careful around that corner.

I’m not suggesting you do anything, I’m just stating a fact. Like the fact that the same big box store you get the concrete and nails from will probably rent you a pickup truck by the hour.

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jrhurren's avatar

😂

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Polaris's avatar

If I had a magic wand, I would make Zach Klein mayor of San Francisco.

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Margaret Williams's avatar

Zach Klein - why don’t you run for mayor? Or any office for that matter. We need you.

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Zach Klein's avatar

Too many photos from the Wake Forest days that I would need to scrub from the Internet.

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Chris Bodenner's avatar

And my hard drive, mwhahaha

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Farwa Zaidi's avatar

Wow, thank you for sharing this. I’m a city planner in Philly and the lack of speed bumps drives me nuts. We lost a young doctor in her 20s last year- she was in the bike lane, wearing a helmet, essentially doing everything right- because a drunk driver was speeding and ran into the bike lane. People in the neighborhood had been asking for a speed bump forever. It’s extremely frustrating to see cities prioritize beauracracy over human lives.

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Orlando's avatar

That's a tragic story but I'm not entirely sure how the speed bump would have saved the doctor's life

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Tychon's avatar

I live in a small suburb in England. The council tax (think state tax) i pay on a small apartment is £2,000. It is meant to be for local services like bin collections. Despite the highest taxes in British history post-war, nobody comes and sweeps the roads or prunes the trees and bushes anymore on my road. So I just did it myself.

This is what a Declining and Falling civilisation looks like. Onerous taxes, ponderous bureaucracy and citizens left to engage in desperate self-help measures where the state has left a void.

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Mrs. Erika Reily's avatar

The circle will be complete when you are fined, or, given what we hear coming out of England lately, arrested by half a dozen officers, for tampering with roadway vegetation.

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Mike's avatar

You sound surprised that the cesspool SF has become can anything productive or timely. This is the same city that had a public pooping problem. Come on. Have some realistic expectations.

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Zach Klein's avatar

I have realistic expectations that bad policies and bad decisions will crumble if you apply enough pressure to them.

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Mike's avatar

That’s adorably naive. Good luck

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Dane H.'s avatar

you seem really cool

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Ryan George's avatar

I appreciate how you don’t just opine about problems. You take action. Thanks for the inspiration and example!

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Steve McGraw's avatar

I can guarantee that although it takes over 2 years for the city to install a life-saving speed bump it will take them less then 2 weeks to cite you for damaging city property (drilling the speed bump into the road). Because that’s just how insane SF has become.

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The Bison Movement's avatar

Seriously frustrating good work

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Greg Jordan-Detamore's avatar

This is amazing and depressing! Thank you so much for writing this.

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Bill Flarsheim's avatar

For comparison, I live in an older neighborhood in Louisville. Our city government is pretty good, but by no means world class. After neighboring streets got speed bumps, our street got more traffic. A neighbor organized a petition for speed bumps. In a little less than a year, we got them on our street. That seems like a reasonable timeframe to me.

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Lauren's avatar

Hey! I’m also in Louisville - south end near Iroquois Park - and my neighbors and I have been trying to get a speed bump on our street for years. We did the petition and got a speed study completed but we were told there wasn’t enough speeding to justify the bumps. But since the study a neighboring street got some traffic calming measures and people are definitely using us more as a cut through. If you have any advice I’d love to hear it!

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John Bolt's avatar

Very important, thank you. The progressive era we need is one of city reform, like in the early 20th century.

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The Bison Movement's avatar

i’ve been advocating this for a very long time

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Nika Scothorne's avatar

@Zach Klein may have prevented property damage, injuries, and lost lives for the cost of a $100 next-day Amazon order. Amazing story. I’ve heard many like it and am so glad for citizens who bypass the bloated and wasteful bureaucracy of city government to improve their neighborhoods.

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Dave's avatar

Why is San Francisco totally unable to deal with homelessness?

The major issue in homelessness is not the lack of housing. It's the refusal of society to say no. No, you can't camp in this city. No, you can't shit in the streets. No, you can't panhandle aggressively. No, you can't shoot up publicly and leave your used needles lying around. The fact that we are not going to allow you to destroy our city by doing these things is not our problem. It's your problem. You can solve your problem by not doing drugs, getting help for your mental problems, getting a job, and sharing rent with others so inclined until you can afford a place of your own, probably in a lower cost community. 

This is not going to happen because the people we have elected allow the homeless to wallow in their victimhood rather than accept personal responsibility for their self destructiveness.

What specific steps should be taken by cities to deal with the problem? Cities should use all existing shelters and further provide simple shelter space with surplus military tents with mess and recreational tents, a medical tent and restroom and shower facilities (the way I lived in the army) on leased or purchased unused commercial or industrial sites on the outskirts of the city. As many who want to and are able to work should be hired to help feed others and to maintain the facilities. Individuals could use surplus military squad tents or their own for sleeping. When those facilities are available the city should send in crews to clean up existing encampments, without arresting anyone who does not physically resist. 

Custodial care should be mandatory for those who are so mentally or drug addicted that they cannot care for themselves. We did a huge disservice to the mentally ill when we closed rather than reform our state mental hospitals. We need them back. This approach actually would cost far less and be far more effective than the current housing first attempts to fix the problem. Most of the homeless lack the capacity to live unassisted in modern society but that is not an excuse to destroy our beautiful cities and drive out our productive citizens. 

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Helikitty's avatar

Preach it, brother

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Ana Raquel's avatar

I loved the moodboard!

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Kunal Sampat's avatar

Would having an in-person meeting with a city official/ council member expedite resolution? Once I had a business permit it, and after much persistence I was able to meet with a council member and get resolution.

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edwardrow's avatar

direct action, tactical urbanism, unfortunately - this is the way

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