DPW in dogged pursuit of violations
Dear Public Works Inspector No. 078:
I write to congratulate you on a job well done in shutting down a menace on San Francisco’s streets.
It is not everyone who would have acted as decisively as you did in clearing a sidewalk in Cole Valley of a small bookcase propped against a building that the neighborhood used as a community library.
The wooden bookcase was perhaps 3 feet tall, 3 feet wide and a foot or so deep. It operated on a give-a-book, take-a-book principle.
Apparently, you got a complaint from some public-spirited resident who is not a bibliophile. And you gave the nearest merchant — a pet shop — three days to remove this offending hazard.
This must have stood out in a city where more minor problems range from homelessness, drugs, sky-high rents and housing prices, punishing inflation, potholes that magically resist repair, the safety of pedestrians, street closures in the park and proposals for high-rises in districts that now have decades-old single-family homes.
It took keen judgment on the part of Public Works to step in firmly and shut down this threat to community safety.
Did you single out book readers because they are thought to be gentle folks who don’t make a row with their supervisors or bureaucrats? Was it in line with the government bureaucracy that believes it should exercise maximum control in what used to be a city known for peace and love?
Or was it to distract from less important circumstances like the closing of drugstores because they can’t continue with theft that robs them blind and with the thieves receiving no punishment? Or the number — a number too high to count — of cars broken into?
Or portions of the city that cannot be walked in during the night — and sometimes during the day.
So, I repeat: You are entitled to praise from citizens of this purportedly progressive city for your determination to end this threat.
This law enforcement assault began on Aug. 29, when Diana at 311 — the city’s central service line — got an anonymous call. The complainant reported: “Blocked Street Sidewalk-Display Merchandise. Right of way is blocked. Uphold Police Code: Article 1. Section 63.” (Whimsy compels me to use italics. Diana actually wrote it with a straight face.)
She then quoted the code: “It shall be unlawful … for any person … to place … any article or substance which shall obstruct the passage of (the) sidewalk.”
The anonymous complainant apparently also provided photos. All of these records and photos are available under the Public Records Act.
Inspector No. 078 raced to the scene. At 2:50 the next afternoon, the inspector got rid of those pesky books with Citation 14670, taped firmly to the wall near the offending books. That sort of splendid result is why San Francisco apparently paid this Inspector $79,693.81 last year.
The notice warned: “Obstruction of sidewalk. … Remove bookcase. … ” Ten minutes later the inspector had someone at the pet store acknowledge notice of the offense.
There was a silver-colored metal bowl of water outside the pet store for dogs. Apparently, the inspector exercised discretion and let that obstruction go. Or perhaps there was a bull mastiff there quenching his thirst at the time.
Come to think of it, Inspector No. 078 might have known the law well. Section 64 of the Police Code exempts, with qualifications, “watering troughs.” Yep, you need permission from — whom? — the director of Public Works, but you can put them right on the sidewalk “for the accommodation of the public.”
I do have one niggling question, dear inspector.
I may have this wrong, but doesn’t the Police Code (in Section 22, for example) also say that the sidewalk law does not apply where its application would result in an interference with … any exercise of freedom of speech?
Some of the books in the banned bookcase were in French. That’s because some of the residents of Cole Valley speak French. Gosh, could jingoism have caused the complaint? Or a misreading of French for Arabic?
This reminds me of my time living in a small French town. Everything was under the thumb of the préfet, or prefect, the local representative of the national government. If the préfet had ordered a bookcase removed from our cobblestoned main street, would my neighbors have submitted or would they have found it their civic duty to take to the barricades or, as we might say, the mattresses?
But the bookcase may actually have been lucky. Because it has no wheels, it escaped the fate that a San Francisco hot dog vendor’s cart suffered just Monday at the hands of another DPW employee. Inspector No. 078 did not give hot pursuit and topple the bookcase. The inspector’s colleague Monday chased after a vendor and threw his cart to the ground, spilling hot dogs, buns and condiments, seen on a social media video.
Public Works apparently has its priorities: books first, hot dogs next. So let’s give Public Works its due. Those who govern us are right in tune with the times.
I’m not talking about corruption or even hot dogs. I mean books. The American Library Association reported there was a record-breaking number of attempts to ban books last year.
In all fairness, why should Cole Valley be immune?