San Francisco’s small business owners are desperate. The “Main Street” Americans simply trying to follow their dreams to success are fed up with being treated by the city’s politicians like rats in a social experiment where criminality and homelessness are treated as virtues. The Post Millennial reports on a new effort by San Francisco businesses to threaten to stop paying taxes until the homeless problem is fixed. Olivia Rondeau reports:
Small business owners of San Francisco are demanding the city solve the growing mental health, crime, and drug problems exacerbated by the high rate of homelessness in the area, threatening to stop paying taxes if the issues continue.
The Castro Merchants Association, named after the city’s Castro District, sent a letter to San Francisco city officials saying group members who own businesses in the area plan to stop paying taxes if the city doesn’t do more to address the problems, reported KTVU.
In the letter, the organization complained of homeless people who “regularly experience psychotic episodes,” vandalize storefronts, and harass business owners, employees, residents and tourists.
“Our community is struggling to recover from lost business revenue, from burglaries and never-ending vandalism/graffiti (often committed by unhoused persons) and we implore you to take action,” stated the letter.
“Every day we wake up and have to help people on the street. We have to clean up feces on the street. We have to clear our people from doorways, so we can open our businesses. It’s not fair,” said Terrance Alan, co-president of the association, and owner of Flore Dispensary and Cafe Flore to KTVU. “At this point it’s a failure of the system to help them.”
The association requested that the city reserve 35 beds in homeless shelters for people in the Castro district, in addition to devising a plan for offering services to people who decline help and keeping monthly records of how many people have been offered services and shelter.
“Sometimes they do get violent,” said Deen Nasher, manager of Castro Smoke Shop. “The city does need to take care of these people, find a place for them to stay and help businesses. When we call, [the police] come 30-40 minutes later.”
Dave Karraker, the other co-president of the association, said that if the association’s demands are not met, they may ask store owners to stop paying taxes and other city fees.
“If the city can’t provide the basic services for them to become a successful business, then what are we paying for?” Karraker told the San Francisco Chronicle. “You can’t have a vibrant, successful business corridor when you have people passed out high on drugs, littering your sidewalk. These people need to get help.”
If there’s one thing that could make progressive city leaders stand up and pay attention to small business owners, it’s the thought of losing out on tax revenues. They want to treat residents like piggy banks, rather than like customers to be served. A reduction in the revenue politicians get to spend on their woke agenda would cripple them.
Action Line: Get out of woke cities, and look for a better America. There is a better way. Look at Miami or my Super States. Click here to sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, and I’ll guide and encourage you to make the best decisions for your family and your business.
