I swear no city is nuttier than San Francisco. You can feel totally free to drop your drawers in the middle of the city streets ... and engage in any sort of sexual activity (while even the police watch!!) but if you DARE to mix up those recycling goods? WATCH IT!!
Garbage collectors would inspect San Francisco residents' trash to make sure pizza crusts aren't mixed in with chip bags or wine bottles under a proposal by Mayor Gavin Newsom.And if residents or businesses don't separate the coffee grounds from the newspapers, they would face fines of up to $1,000 and eventually could have their garbage service stopped.
The plan to require proper sorting of refuse would be the nation's first mandatory recycling and composting law. It would direct garbage collectors to inspect the trash to make sure it is put into the right blue, black or green bin, according to a draft of the legislation prepared by the city's Department of the Environment.
"If we're truly going to be the city we promote ourselves to be, a world-class, 21st century city that advances its values and principles, we're going to have to try new things," Newsom said Thursday. "People are used to doing things a certain way. And when you change that, they say it can't be done. Well, we've proved them wrong."
I wonder if Newsom thinks that 2008 Up Your Alley Fair (first link in first paragraph) "advances [San Fran's] values and principles"? Are those folks at the fair are "used to doing things a certain way"? What can you do to change that, Mr. Mayor?
(Cross-posted at Rhymes with Right where I'm guest hosting along with a couple other Watcher's Council folks.)
I don't see the relevance of the comparison. This is a closed event, strictly limited to those 18 and older and aware of its "adult" nature. From your headline, one might think the nudity was a day-to-day statutory norm in SF. Why must these folks change "the way they're used to doing things?"
Is this really a "public" event? Who is it that they're harming? Is it better or worse than, say, the open container laws that city cops ignore in major cities all over the country for NFL games, St. Patrick's Day parades, etc., resulting in fights, minors exposed to crazy drunks, etc?
And how does this tiny street fair compare to a useful environmental regulation? Ah, but there's the rub, eh? I guess if you think all efforts to make the air and water cleaner, reduce overflowing landfills, etc are a joke -- while guys and gals dressed in leather will destroy the Earth -- then posts like this make all the sense in the world.
Posted by: Regis at August 5, 2008 06:31 PMOf course you don't see it, Regis. Dogmatic leftists rarely do.
Public sex (oral and otherwise) as well urinating and ejaculating on other people on public streets (how "closed" of an event can public streets be ... what extent?) -- NOT mere nudity (did you actually go and look at the unedited photos?) -- won't be fined in SF, but if I fail to separate the coffee grounds from newspapers I get fined up to $1,000?
Indeed -- why change? IOW, one can actually be attempting to recycle, but if he doesn't properly do it, he's fined. Meanwhile, one can spooge all over a crowd on a public street and the cops will stand and watch.
Do cops stand and watch in, say, New Orleans if they see a guy pissing on passersby from a window? Are there open container laws in N.O., especially during Mardi Gras? Are you seriously comparing mere drinking w/not just public nudity, but actual out-in-the-open sex acts?? (BTW, alcohol was served out in the open at this "fair"; IMO, that's not a problem in itself; however, police don't stand and ignore any fights that result from drinking; should they stand and ignore lewd sex acts that result from same?
Posted by: Hube at August 5, 2008 07:05 PMBTW, I don't mean to sound as if I condone what N.O. does down there, or if I defend it. I most certainly do not. The city certainly has a negative reputation as, I believe, SF does due to its ridiculously permissive mores.
Posted by: Hube at August 5, 2008 07:32 PM