Like the City Council and County Board of Supervisors, the Sacramento Transportation Authority continued to meet during the coronavirus closures. What did our transportation leadership focus on during two meetings at the height of hysteria in March and April?
You might assume they talked about an emergency plan related to the pandemic. You would be wrong.
A new way to manage the homeless problem is making its way across California. It’s called civil conservatorship for the chronically unsheltered, and it’s gaining traction.
In October, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 40, which enhanced existing laws that allow three counties to obtain conservatorships over mentally ill homeless people who can’t care for themselves. For now, the law is limited to San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego counties. It’s time to expand the scope and reach of civil conservatorships.
Every time I see a homeless encampment, I feel disheartened. They are among the least healthy environments in our city, rife with crime, trash, unsanitary conditions, open drug use, discarded needles and despair.
Tent encampments are testaments to our failure as a community and society to deal with the scourge created by drug addiction, mental infirmity and the economic factors that compel people to live on the streets.
America is binging on outrage because liberals are arrogant elitists recklessly opening our borders and bankrupting the country, while conservatives are hateful bigots bent on destroying the environment and oppressing poor people.
Neither statement is true, but both stereotypes feed the outrage addiction that has become the default narrative of public dialogue.
