The Greenberg Brief: APEC Summit Won’t Bring Real Change to San Francisco – ‘Clean for Xi, but not for thee’

Every San Francisco resident and business owner is skeptical.

Is the cleanup of the streets for the twenty-one nations’ heads of state summit this week politically-driven? Of course! APEC is here. Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit comes to San Francisco this week. Will the leaders be impressed?

Will Guv Newsom and Mayor London Breed get major pats on their backs for finally bringing in the high-powered spray guns to suds up the sidewalks, scrub down the BART trains and make the APEC security zone shine? Yes of course!

But, will it last? Realists say NO. I say no as well. Welcome to the Potemkin Village, San Francisco version.  Because, before this APEC summit was even on the horizon, city officials essentially refused to lift a finger.

It’s not due to political will, it’s not that city hall officials and the presidential candidate-in-waiting Newsom would really like to see his home city all sparkly, to be brought back into first-tier status, to brag of the rescue of the city from doom-loop’s brink. It’s the fact that this is a one-time cleanup and it’s not sustainable. This will not last, not under the current regime in our city hall, not under the Socialists, Progressives, and the Democrats’ super-majority in power.

We have a message for City Hall: You can’t fool us, though you’ve obviously tried.

San Francisco does not have the resources to keep hosing down and tidying up. We don’t have the law enforcement manpower, thanks to the defund the police mentality of mayor London Breed and the cohort of similar-minded Board of Supervisors. After George Floyd, we saw a concerted effort to remove SFPD cops minimal department staffing levels together with $120 million Breed pulled from police budget in 2020/2021; we aren’t getting that back anytime soon. And recently Breed ironically claimed the press is being unfair to her and the city.

We do not have federal and state crackdowns on crime and drug dealing available to us on an ongoing, sustained basis. That takes time, resources, manpower and money. If it is all focused on this APEC even (which by the way isn’t even for the public to attend, it’s only for heads of state and their delegations, by invite-only), so once the summit leaves, we should expect a return to drugs, tents and homelessness, dealers and squalor.

Mayor Breed has recently sounded the alarm to City Hall that we are facing a massive revenue shortfall, and a ten percent cut from all departments will be required. With a $14.6 Billion operating budget, grossly irresponsible for our size and population, the shortfall is obscene.

City Hall officials and our governor seem to not give a rats tuchas about the inhabitants of the city nor the money we fork over to help it operate; this confession is the ultimate slap in the face. “Clean for Xi, but not for thee.”

In a press conference a few days ago, Guv Newsom clearly stated two things: firstly, the clearing and cleaning up of San Francisco was indeed for the heads of state and delegations coming for APEC, and; secondly, he said this wasn’t a quick, last minute cleanup, rather, it was coordinated for several months leading up to this week, planned to be in place for this APEC summit. So, there you have it, the ultimate goal was APEC. And perhaps to look good for his run for president. Hoping to bring San Francisco back up to first-world status, it was not a cleanup for the residents, the businesses nor tourist; Government is showing respect for APEC summit visitors while disrespecting the taxpayers, as they have for years.