Police Blotter – September 18, 2015

23 Comments

1. On Wednesday the 16th, 2 police cars raced to Grocery Outlet. They were there a LONG time and confronted by a knot of possible teenagers or young adults shouting “F the police. ” Very disturbing.

2. Has the Richmond become slovenly? Can anyone explain the epidemic over the last years of people leaving their crap out on the sidewalk? I think some are lazy and careless, or fleeing the city, but others half-think ‘maybe someone will want this.’ Nobody wants it, and nobody wants to see it, and somebody else has to deal with calling 311 for you. Please promote the message that leaving stuff on the street is not ‘ok.’ I think once something like this sets in, people who move to the neighborhood think it is normal and do it themselves. It looks like crap, and is illegal. Please take care of your neighborhood and keep it clean!

3. Sans wisecracks ?

4. Scott , agree with you on leaving junk on the street. Im seeing it more and more. Its up to us as neighbors to shame people from doing it. I recently asked my neighbor to pick up his trash. He said it was good stuff and he was gving it away to whoever wanted. Well, theres a thing for that , its called goodwill and they have regular pickups. theres definitely some laziness.
   Also, the amount of homeless people in inner richmond has really ticked up over last few months. Anyone have thoughts as to why?

5. @Motor, Glad you agree. My guess is the homeless are being pushed out of other parts of the city. We need to be vigilant and not allow them to gain traction in the neighborhood. Please report anything they do unlawfully.

6. I think some people genuinely think their trash is going to be treasure.
   I often see crap just left on the sidewalk, and I’m within a few blocks of the Goodwill. People should know they can take their usable stuff to donate, or if they are eligible for Recycle My Junk to come, you can book that super easily online or on the phone.
   I also keep seeing ads for 1-800-got-junk, so people could call them and see what their prices are.
   Lastly, there are still some buildings/units that don’t have trash service – I see people throwing their own trash into public trash cans every day. The same few people. There has to be a way to make sure everyone has reliable trash pickup.

7. Sometimes I think that with the influx of people from elsewhere, they have picked up this habit from other cities? In NYC, it’s very common for people to put things out on the corner because they get snatched up and reclaimed. I’m not saying that’s the RIGHT thing to do (I hate it as well), just that some people living here may think that’s totally normal and how things get done.

   On my block, there is a habitual offender who doesn’t even bother taking it to the corner. They just dump it outside their own building. I can choose to stare at it, or report it to 311, as I always do. Thankfully 311 is VERY responsive. But I sometimes wish Recology would fine the building owner when there are repeated incidents of trash left out in front of their property. If you hit the landlords in their pocket, they would quickly squash this behavior among their tenants.

   Ultimately it’s about education and while landlords may know about free bulk item pickup, I doubt that gets passed onto their tenants. So the education included in bills etc. doesn’t reach the people who should be getting it.

8. I am very glad to know that there are others in the neighborhood who share my dislike of this trend, and who are responsible enough to clean up after their thoughtless neighbors. I actually had a friend who said that he does this, and didn’t see what the big deal was (it was a mattress). I had a hard time explaining it to him, if he didn’t understand what was wrong with it. Kind of funny thinking about it – you wouldn’t just leave a mattress in your roommate’s room to take care of, so why would you think you should just leave it on the street? I think some just never really think about and see others doing it, so they think it’s ok.

   With regard to the trash being left in city cans and beside them (which is the worst) – this is just constant. If people are noticing specific persons who are doing it, maybe we can get a police detail on certain bus stops. I think probably most people would stop doing it, if warned once. I personally have never really seen it done, but am constantly reporting the effects.

9. What used to be called Garbage Amnesty Day on my block was abandoned many years ago due to mosquito fleets picking over everything and fighting, resulting in police calls. The bulk pickup is not as simple as everything has to be itemized before scheduling a pick up and there are a lot of things Recology will not take which require separate recycling and toxic disposal. Only one pick-up a year is included in the steadily increasing Recology collection bill. Anything else comes at a price.

   A lot of the dumping at the public garbage cans comes from two sources: illegal in-law units lacking proper collection either due to ignorance of local laws or not wishing to pay for the service on either the tenant or landlord’s part and from small businesses that are cutting corners or are also unaware of local law requiring collection by Recology (who are supposed to have the exclusive on cardboard, glass and metals within city limits but this is ignored, perhaps at the requirement of the Police Commission).

   311 will comb through dumped materials to find anything that can link the dumping to a specific individual or business and will pursue them. With all the subleasing that goes on, I believe it is difficult to inform many renters of local laws.

10. I’m also concerned about the growing homeless population in our ‘hood. The older asian homeless lady who now “lives” at the 44 stop on CA between 6th & 7th has been in place for a few weeks. I’ve called the non-emergency police number, the homeless services number….they all say they can offer her help but if she refuses they can’t do anything. I can’t park my car on the street w/out a permit; yet someone can LIVE at the bus stop with no penalties? With one, I’m expecting 2 + more soon…. with winter coming, can’t someone get this woman into housing? Who else should I call? Eric Mar’s office – can y’all do anything?

11. Scott, I apologize, I also have repeat offenders near where I live.

    Sometimes I even have to move their stuff away from the building or it will attract more garbage or other “slovenly” (let’s go with your original word as the descriptor) tenants to bond which leads to even more annoying trespasses. What’s worse is that other people in the neighborhood don’t seem to care that this person does this, so it would be awkward and lead to shunning to speak out. Burning Man was the most recent excuse to dump a bunch of filthy garbage.

    It’s just easier to move them away from the building or into a far away garbage (one that’s been put out already for pick-up, but isn’t too full). I do tell the landlord, who may or may not admonish him, but this other tenant rarely listens anyway since it’s not getting him evicted or anything. I am afraid to wait for 311.org to respond, although I agree they are responsive in my experience as well, one can’t expect them to show up within minutes or at midnight.

    The other nasty thing going on in the neighborhood is inconsiderate neighbors, loud at strange times, and public intoxication becoming normal. I can pity the homeless, they literally have no place to go, but watching people who have homes (and are definitely not college kids) do things like sunbathe on the sidewalk, block walkways, make-out, and blast stereo music is nuts and unnecessary; there are many appropriate public venues to relax.

12. Susan – I’ve called about that woman, as well (the one who just sits on her suitcases/bags and occasionally talks to herself?) and while they say they did a welfare check, they can’t force her to go anywhere. But with her, at least, I just think she’d be so much happier (not to mention safer!) indoors. Breaks my heart every day. If we’re thinking of the same woman, she’s been living along Clement for a year/just about a year at this point.

13. 4THGENRICHMOND – that’s a good point, there is are people living illegeally in my building too. People who were moved in as like a girlfriend or co-tenant and are NOT on the lease, and the real tenant did NOT have permission from the landlord to move them in (did it secretly), but she’ll tell everyone she lives there and begins receiving mail there and everything. If they decide to change things in the apartment or cannot fit all there stuff? Guess where it ended up? Yes, on the street.

    These people brag they are not on the lease and this encourages more tenants to do whatever they please as well.

14. K. Lu

    Everything you described is _exactly_ the sort of thing that leads to homeless people also thinking the neighborhood is their pit stop; they see it too; it is all connected, we cannot pick and chose what bothers us or excuse one class of people then cluck our tongues at another.

15. Charlie & K. Lu, Unfortunately the Board of Supervisors decided for us and changed occupancy of all rent controlled units to whatever fire and zoning codes allow regardless of what is stipulated in leases and they have made eviction of nuisance tenants close to impossible. To all the landlords out there, of which I am not one, enjoy having indoor smokers of all flammable substances you cannot remove and the cancellation of your property insurance.

16. @Susan: About reporting the homeless woman “living” at the bus stop…..As we all know, homeless people are a growing fact of life out here, particularly now that their downtown hangouts are being displaced by all the high rises built for new transplants. An obviously homeless, severely mentally ill man suddenly appeared on our block, walking up and down the street yelling and growling. As he was becoming increasingly agitated and aggressive over the past three days, I decided to call the Richmond Police Station that evening. After I expressed my concern that the man appeared to be getting more agitated and aggressive and clearly needed help, this cop on the phone (whose salary I pay) said, “Why don’t you call the mayor’s office?” I replied, “That’s your answer?” He said, “I’m just being a little sarcastic.” Maybe he was bored or hates his job. I hung up and called the number with the hideous fax machine ring and reported the incident. Two officers arrived about 30 minutes later. They thought my description matched the guy who smashed a car window with a pipe or something on another street the day before. They thanked me for calling in and said they’d be in the area that evening and would keep an eye out. They were courteous, attentive, and didn’t act as though I were an idiot for reporting such a mundane situation. So maybe if you’re lucky, Susan, you’ll get a cop who will take your call seriously and not act like you are wasting his time. Good luck.

17. @Renee: If you actually call the Richmond Station directly, there is definitely one guy there who is very rude and unhelpful, almost hostile. There’s another officer I’ve encountered there who makes jokes like this, and I think it is more just his sense of humor, and he is probably bored and trying to make the job more interesting. Can’t blame him.

    The lesson (in my opinion)? Call dispatch 415-553-0123 – they are friendly and professional, most of the time, and responsive.

18. 4THGENRICHMOND

    I totally agree

19. Renee & Scott: SFPD are expected to fund Homeless Outreach Officers entirely out of their own budget, not the Health Department’s budget. The Helath Department receives the largest funding wedge (too big for a slice) of the >$9 Billion annual City Budget (a budget exceeding both the City of San Jose and all of Santa Clara County). Over the past three decades, every City Department providing basic services (SFUSD is a separate animal who will be adding 3% to property tax bills all by themselves) has been made to cut costs so that the Health Department can have more. As Homelessness is a Public Health problem, the matter should be entirely under the purview of the Health Department.

20. SCOTT is right about that and I’ve been told that the people who man the Richmond station are often volunteers and not officers proper.

21. @Rachel — getting old stuff picked up is not that easy. First: Goodwill does not necessarily come and pick up. I got together with several neighbors to try to organize a joint pick-up of obsolete stuff. (Several of us are disabled and/or don’t drive so pick-up was necessary.) Goodwill refused to pick up anything except furniture, and even for furniture they wanted us to send them pictures of the furniture, so they could decide if it was worth their while to come get it. If they didn’t think the furniture was worth their time, hard cheese. We then tried Salvation Army which agreed to come pick up. We put our junk out as they instructed — and they cancelled at 8:15 on the morning they were supposed to appear. We finally set up Recology’s once-a-year-per-address free pick-up.

22. Anniecat – I mostly meant carrying stuff to Goodwill when you live w/in a few blocks was easy. Yeah, I know they don’t normally pick up. It would be nice if different blocks could arrange a block pickup. Pipe dreams, I know.

23. Goodwill and Salvation Army are not the only charities in town. St. Vincent de Paul might be less choosy than them. I recall they had a thrift store in West Portal (haven’t been over there lately).

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