Caitlin Foster fell in love with San Francisco’s people and beauty and moved to the city a dozen years ago. But after repeatedly clearing used needles, other drug paraphernalia, and human feces outside of the bar she manages, and having many encounters with armed people in crisis, her affection for the city has been tainted.

“It was a goal to live here, but now I’m here thinking, ‘Where should I move now?’ I’m over it, ‘”said Foster, who runs the Noir Lounge in the hip Hayes Valley neighborhood.

A series of headline-grabbing crime stories – crowds breaking windows and snatching luxury purses in downtown Union Square, and daytime shootings in touristy Haight-Ashbury – only added to the feeling of vulnerability. Residents wake up to the news of attacks on Asian-American seniors, broken-in restaurants and boarded-up shop fronts in the city’s once-vibrant downtown area.

The San Franciscans pride themselves on their liberal political leanings and generously approve tax measures for schools and the homeless. They accept that garbage roads, tent camps and petty crime are the price one has to pay to live in an urban wonderland.

But the frustration of Foster, who moved from Seattle in search of more sunshine, is growing among residents who are now seeing a city in decline. There are signs that the city, famous for its tolerance, is losing patience.

The pandemic has emptied parts of San Francisco, highlighting some of its drawbacks: human and dog droppings smeared on sidewalks, break-ins into homes and vehicles, overcrowded bins, and a laissez-faire approach by officials to brazen drug trafficking. Parents were desperate as public schools remained closed for most of last year as nearby counties welcomed the children back into the classroom.

Meanwhile, residents and visitors scurry past scenes of lawlessness and misery. Just steps from the Opera House and Symphony Hall, drug dealers carry translucent bags with crystal-like stones or stand outside the main branch of the public library while haggling on heroin and methamphetamine.

“There is a widespread feeling in San Francisco that things are on the wrong track,” said Patrick Wolff, 53, a retired professional chess player from the Boston area who has lived in the city since 2005.

As a sign of civic frustration, the San Franciscans will vote in June on whether to remove District Attorney Chesa Boudin, a former public defender who was elected in 2019 and whose critics say he is too lenient about crime. Its supporters say there is no spike in crime and that corporate wage theft is a more pressing issue than cases like that of a San Francisco woman who was eventually arrested after stealing more than $ 40,000 in goods from a target in 120 visits had. She was released by a judge and arrested again on suspicion of shoplifting after she failed to come to collect her court-ordered ankle monitor.

“Where is the progress? If you say you’re progressive, let’s get the homeless off the streets and get them mental health care, ”said Brian Cassanego, a native of San Francisco who owns the lounge where Foster works. He moved to Wine Country five months ago because he was tired of seeing dealers selling drugs with impunity and worrying that his wife would be out alone at night.

The day before he moved, Cassanego went out to take his dogs for a walk and saw a man who “looked like a zombie” with pants up to his knees and bleeding from a syringe stuck in his hip. Nearby, a woman screamed in shock.

“I went upstairs and said to my wife, ‘We’re going now! This town is ready! ‘”He said.

Theft reports – shoplifting from a person or a company – increased by almost 17% to more than 28,000 compared to the same period last year. Inquiries about cleaning dirty streets and sidewalks are most calls to 311, the city’s service number.

Overall, however, crime has been falling for years. More than 45,000 incidents have been reported so far this year, compared to the previous year when most people were locked in closed rooms, but fewer than the roughly 60,000 complaints in previous years.

San Francisco’s well-publicized problems have served as fodder for the conservative media. Former President Donald Trump recently stepped in again, releasing a statement saying the National Guard should be sent to San Francisco to prevent robberies.

Elected officials say they are grappling with deep societal problems that are common in every major US city.

A high percentage of an estimated 8,000 homeless people in San Francisco are struggling with chronic addiction or severe mental illness, usually both. Some people are romping on the streets, naked and in need of medical help. Last year, 712 people died from drug overdoses, compared to 257 people who died from COVID-19.

LeAnn Corpus, an administrative assistant who enjoys figure skating, eschews the downtown ice rinks and won’t bring her 8-year-old son there after dark because of open drug use. Still, the city’s urban problems have crept into its Portola neighborhood far from downtown.

A homeless man used a bicycle and a sheet to pitch a makeshift tent in front of her house and relieved himself on the sidewalk. She called the police, who came two hours later and cleared him out, but a homeless man camped in the back yard of her aunt’s house for six months after trying to get the authorities to remove him.

“This town just doesn’t feel like it anymore,” said Corpus, a third generation local.

San Francisco residents, who are generally uncomfortable with government surveillance, have installed security cameras and bolts to prevent break-ins and have begun to suspect outsiders.

Last night, on an otherwise warm evening, Joya Pramanik’s husband saw someone wearing a ski mask on their quiet street. She worried that the masked man was up to no good – and it pains her to say that because what she loves about San Francisco is the light hug of all kinds of characters.

Pramanik, a project manager who moved to the US from India as a teenager, hailed Trump’s failed re-election proposal but said she realized too late that democratic activists had kidnapped her city.

“If I say I want to enforce the law, I am racist,” she said. “I say, ‘No, I’m not a racist. There’s a reason I live in San Francisco. ‘”

Last year Wolff, the retired chess player, helped start a new political organization that aims to elect local officials who focus on solving urgent problems. Families for San Francisco will vote Democrats, but it will be organized outside of the city’s powerful Democratic Party’s establishment, he said.

Wolff hopes to change a bourgeois way of thinking that no longer expects much from basic services.

In hip Hayes Valley, for example, business owners who are fed up with trash lying around and the city is doing nothing to address the problem have come together to lease closed trash cans from a private company, said Jennifer Laska, president of the neighborhood association. After the lease expired, the association managed to get the city to buy and install new public garbage cans designed to keep rubbish in and thieves out.

That was four months ago.

“We’re still struggling to actually buy the trash cans,” Laska said.

In the Marina, an affluent neighborhood with breathtaking views of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge, dozens of residents recently hired private security after an increase in car break-ins.

Lloyd Silverstein, a native of San Francisco and president of the Hayes Valley Merchants Association, said companies are considering hiring security guards and installing high-resolution security cameras. He rejects the idea that a single city official is to blame for the situation and is optimistic that the city will recover.

“We’ve been through great earthquakes and depression and a lot more, but we have a pretty good attitude about recovering. We have some problems but we will solve them, ”he said. “It can only take a while.”

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Why ‘the world is full of very happy septic tank cleaners and wretched investment bankers’.

mike Rowe was on his way to the airport after filming an episode of Dirty Jobs when he saw a crew of roofers at a church on an “impossibly” hot day in Pasadena.

In a split second, he decided to skip his flight home and see what kind of people tarred a tall building in the California sun. It was definitely a “dirty job” – one that Rowe thought viewers would want to know more about.

And that’s how the “Hot Tar Roofer” episode of the show came about. Twelve hours later a new episode was ready and a bunch of roofers got their families informed that they would be on TV. So it was with many episodes of the show that put Rowe on the map and showed people and said they don’t need a masters degree and corner office to make a living.

I grew up with a tar cauldron in my garden, the grass was covered with tar droplets, and my father’s construction boots were on the doorstep and were speckled with tar, mud, paint and everything else a roofer would come into contact with.

My father’s roofing business was “dirty work” – and although it was his, he did the dirty work himself. There were hammers to jump over in the yard next to the swing, nails rolled around on the garage floor, piles of sheet metal leaned against the outside of our house and the infamous pieces of fiberglass that I slipped down and only later realized what a very itchy mistake that was.

Interviewing Rowe, who has made a name for himself beyond Dirty Jobs, was a real privilege because he preached a message that would bring my family and me a wonderful life of opportunity.

It’s bipartisan and practical – and it’s this: sometimes the thing you’re passionate about isn’t the thing you’re good at. You could be good at plumbing – and it is possible to thrive, find passion, and make a living from it if you allow yourself to be open to it.

Rowe exhorts those who encourage high school graduates to “live their dreams” when that encouragement comes from someone who does not know about the person they are talking to.

“I think if you want to give someone the best advice you can. . . You need to know who this person is, what drives them, what their strengths and weaknesses are, ”Rowe said in an interview with National review.

He recently replied to a joke from Bernie Sanders:

At the end of the day, it’s a lot cheaper to make your way to college than it is to get people on their way to jail.

– Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) December 13, 2015

Rowe is famous for saying traditional college isn’t the answer for everyone, and so is he was incredulous that Sanders “would imply that going to jail is the most likely alternative to going to college”.

But that’s politics, he says.

“That’s my problem with Bernie – anyone who talks great about college – you can’t say something that is common to everyone and yet they try,” Rowe said. “If you try to get elected. . . Your message has to be fundamentally consistent – and so politics makes the problem worse. “

And what about “free college” – the concept that Sanders and other progressives love so much? The idea doesn’t go well with Rowe, who says, “I’ve never been able to agree on the idea that the more important the matter, the freer it should be.”

When Sanders and others discussed the importance of education, Rowe said they wrongly “choose some form of education as the best path for most people”.

“Our elected officials have chosen college as the golden ticket, wish fulfillment, human right – and therefore the thing that should be made free and available to all,” explains Rowe. “If you say that education should be free, then you have it all along the line – talk to me about opportunities for vocational schools, apprenticeships, scholarships and training programs.”

He is often so misinterpreted that he does not believe in education, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Rowe says he believes that without education there is “absolutely no hope of success,” but education is not unique to a traditional college system.

Rowe says he believes that without education there is “absolutely no hope of success,” but education is not unique to a traditional college system.

And Rowe has the evidence to prove he’s right. Through his Mike Rowe Foundation, he was able to provide people with the necessary training for skilled trades – and he receives letters every day in which he thanks for his message and encouragement.

“A guy came by yesterday [on his Facebook wall] and said, ‘I’m 30 and I’ve been unhappy for most of my professional career. . . . Then I saw an episode of Dirty Jobs where you cleaned chimneys, so I went to the National Chimney Sweep Cleaning Institute and got certified. Now I have two employees, a van and my own business, ‘”says Rowe.

Living your career dreams is not a bad thing if you have the talent to nurture them, but career choice isn’t necessarily what makes someone happy and fulfilled. Therefore, according to Rowe, “the world is full of very happy septic tank cleaners and wretched investment bankers.”

“There is nothing magical about job satisfaction. . . . It has so much less to do with the job and everything to do with the person, ”he said.

Hence, he does not recommend that unhappy investment bankers quit their jobs and become chimney sweeps. However, someone leaving high school or college – or locked in a dead-end job – shouldn’t view a skilled occupation as something subordinate to their intelligence or status. Many of these industries are hiring like crazy, and getting the education you need isn’t difficult.

Although Rowe has been criticized for not advocating traditional college as the be-all and end-all, it’s clear his message is swinging across the aisle.

“Every time I go to DC to talk about the skill gap. . . I’ll get calls from both aides and senators and they’ll all say the same thing, ‘Boy, your message is so to the point with us – you really are our people!’ – and I say, ‘Do you know who I just talked to?’ “Said Rowe.

This is probably why Rowe has over 3.3 million fans on his Facebook page, with whom he has substantial conversations every day. This is where he closes the circle of his message – and finds the encouragement to continue helping people achieve their true dream of employment by doing something that actually needs to be done.

These days, Rowe continues his work with the Mike Rowe Works Foundation and his CNN show Somebody’s Gotta Do It, about famous people from history. You may also want to read his message for the 2016 Prague U class.

It’s clear he won’t be fading from the spotlight anytime soon. As long as his advice resonates with the Americans, he seems happy to fill an inspiration gap that has been lacking a messenger for too long.

The post Mike Rowe: Soiled Jobs Can Be Good Jobs appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

(Photo: Bruce Ryan (Sherwood Florist); Aaron Harris (The Perennial Gardener): Kelly (Eufloria); Steven Lemaster (Bokay))

See our ultimate crowdsourcing card from punny company in America.

A person’s home is their lock – and as anyone who has ever owned one knows, even metaphorical locks need plenty of very real maintenance. Fortunately, there are armies of dedicated plumbers, housekeepers, and florists ready to provide the best of service all over America. The kind that gets into the ribs with a smile and a linguistic nudge.

Each of these hospitable pun-loving subgenres have their own distinctive movements. Florists are pretty much all show-offs (“Flower herb“? For real?). Those who specialize in sewage, dirt, and other facts of life tend to choose one of two pun-pathways – they either indulge in their chosen materials (see: Chimney sweep with ash wiping; The Butt Hut Comfort Stations) or increase it (A royal flush; Wide beauty). And several service companies got names straight from bad pornography (College hunks haul junk, everyone?)

(Photo: Michael Keys)

Here’s what you should know about this new breed of house pest:

– A foray into the home service industry is surprisingly full of sex (Talk dirty to me; Hung-Rite garage door) and violence (Natural cleansers; Close quickly). It’s safer to do your own dirty work – say bye UN piece cleaner, a laundromat in New York, NY.

-Of the 4 Sherwood Florists, only 1 is actually in a town called Sherwood (in Wisconsin).

– Florists are real cinephiles – our list alludes to Forrest Gump, Laurel and Hardy, The Lone Ranger and It’s a Wonderful Life.

– For the same reason, the Windy City suppliers of portable toilets are Hibernophile – Chicago has both Pot O’Gold and much less subtle LepreCAN.

Editor favorites:

Florists

Flowery and hardy (Oklahoma City, OK)
Fancy plants (Savannah, GA)
The lonely arranger (Ingleside, TX)
The petal pusher (Decatur, AL)

Cleaning, Housekeeping & Laundromats

Chimney sweep with ash wiping (Vernon Hills IL & St. Louis, MO)
Mr. Smarty colors (Austin, TX)
Tree musketeers (San Antonio, Texas)
Sweet pea sewers & septic tank (Missoula, MT)

Portable bathroom

Call before (Broad Canal, NY)
LepreCAN (Chicago, Illinois)
The throne depot (Woburn, MA)

And here is the list of the other categories:

Cafes

Bar / pubs

Other (including retail stores, vape shops, and many thread stores)

Doctors and Dentists

Food truck

Animal care

Restaurants

Hair / nail salons

(Photo: Olivia)

And here is the full list.

Florists:

Portable toilets:

Cleaning services:

The post America’s Crappy Plumbers, Bloomin’ Terrible Florists, and Soiled Cleansing Firms appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.