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| Photo: © Stan Banos |
They say a picture's worth a thousand words, you know, the usual bromide. And for quite some time now I've tried to describe to people what it's like walking many a street of today's San Francisco. The deterioration, depravity, hopelessness- people not only without a home or resources, but without a working mind even capable of bettering those circumstances. People whose profound mental illness forever bars them from any semblance of normality on their own. And if you live anywhere near the downtown area, you need not search it out, it’s all around you, right next to you, in front and behind you- not just in the streets and sidewalks, but in your bus, subway car, local convenience store...
Sometimes, people think you're exaggerating for effect, or they just dismiss it as a generic, nationwide problem, and you want to say- no, this is a bit different, on another level, this is truly out of hand... and in one of the richest cities in the land! This is not the first time I've seen someone babbling to themselves, laughing aloud, encased in their own shit. It's horrible to witness, beyond imagining having to live it- and yet, it is a horror that is allowed to continue and metastasize... right beneath the tech built, luxury condos that helped create it.
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