It is just not this one convention, but many.

Hosting conventions is a lucrative business for San Francisco, bringing in about $2 billion each year. However, the amount of trash, feces, and used drug needles scattered throughout the city’s streets and sidewalks is making it harder to convince companies to return to San Francisco.

“It’s already hitting San Francisco in the pocketbook,” said Joe D’Alessandro, president and CEO of the San Francisco Travel Association, which aims to attract tourism and business to the city. “We don’t want San Francisco to be seen as a dirty, unsafe, unfriendly city, and we need to do what we can to counter that.”

Convention Backs Out, Blames 'Dirty Streets'

For the first time, according to D’Alessandro, a convention has decided to cancel future events in San Francisco, specifically citing the city’s “dirty streets” and “unsafe” atmosphere.

“They just said that the conditions of the streets, in their mind, had gotten to the point where their delegates don’t feel safe coming to San Francisco,” he said. “They see harassment on the street, and it’s not a pleasant environment, so they have reconsidered all future years in San Francisco.”

The organization, which D’Alessandro declined to name, is a Chicago-based medical association boasting roughly 15,000 conference attendees. Over the past three decades, the group has held three to five-day conventions in San Francisco every few years, bringing in $40 million worth of business to the city with each event, according to D’Alessandro.

The medical association had already scheduled conventions in San Francisco for later this year and in 2023; however, after those events, the group has declared it won’t be back.


Joe D'Alessandro, President and CEO of the San Francisco Travel Association, said he regularly fields complaints from visitors and convention planners regarding the city's dirty streets (July 2, 2018).
Photo credit: NBC Bay Area
Cancellation as City Spends Millions to Attract More Conventions

The cancellation comes in the midst of a $500 million project to renovate and expand the city’s Moscone Convention Center, all in hopes of attracting more conventions to San Francisco. The city averages 40 to 60 conventions each year, which can attract upwards of 650,000 attendees. Last year, however, the center hosted only 38 conventions. The decline was believed to be, in large part, due to the ongoing construction, which required the temporary closure of parts of the center. The renovation, which will add 305,000 square feet of additional convention center space, is expected to be completed by December.


“The hospitality and tourism industry in San Francisco is fragile,” said D’Alessandro, who now fields similar critiques from other convention planners weekly. “It doesn’t take a lot for a destination to be determined as not viable any more – not safe, not friendly.”

Homelessness, dirty streets, and smells now account for 29 percent of visitor complaints, according to a recent survey by the San Francisco Travel Association.


An artist rendering of the new Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco following a $500 million renovation and expansion project.
Photo credit: San Francisco Moscone Expansion District


Viral Investigation Exposed San Francisco's 'Diseased Streets'

A recent NBC Bay Area investigation went viral after exposing an alarming amount of trash, drug needles, and feces scattered across San Francisco.

The report centered around a 153-block survey of downtown San Francisco, which revealed trash on every block, 100 needles, and more than 300 piles of feces along the 20-mile stretch of streets and sidewalks.

San Francisco's latest budget proposal, which is expected to be approved by the end of July, adds $12.8 million over the next two years to the city’s street cleaning budget, which has nearly doubled in the past five years from $33.4 million to $65.4 million.


London Breed, who will be sworn in as San Francisco's 45th Mayor on July 11, promises to make significant strides in cleaning up the city within her first three months in office.
Photo credit: NBC Bay Area
Mayor-elect Breed Promises Cleaner Streets Within Three Months

“I want people to see change within the first three months of my administration,” Mayor-elect London Breed said during a March interview with the Investigative Unit.

“I want [people] to see changes in terms of the cleanliness of the streets,” she said. “I would measure that by ... not having feces on our sidewalks and also urine and other things that we see, the needles, and many of the other challenges that exist.”

When pressed whether trash, feces, and needles would be completely cleaned off the city’s streets by her three month mark, Breed responded, “I’m not saying that it will all be eliminated. I am saying that there will be a significant difference where it's noticeable.”

Breed will be sworn in as San Francisco’s 45th mayor on July 11.

LINK: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/new...ustry-487266591.html

Libtards destroy everything they touch. The attempt to clean up the city will fail...wait and see.

About damn time. My parents live in the Bay area and 15+ years ago I went to a stock trading type convention with my Dad downtown and was struck by how bad it was...it seems 10x worse now.

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
Libtards destroy everything they touch. The attempt to clean up the city will fail...wait and see.

It's like your clairvoyant or something...

Cue calls to spend millions if not billions on subsidized or free housing, innovative street cleaning techniques, 'facelift' tax breaks or loans to local buisnesses, additional parks and public bathrooms - but not one moment or dime's worth of effort to actually solve the sources of the shit and dirty needles on the streets.

Then, sooner or later, there will be a very quiet sea change. There will be policing, there will be enforcement, there may even be a few buses going down to San Jose or out to Oakland full and returning with only a few cops apiece.

The dirty little secret is that the governments of liberal cities eventually get very frustrated with these problems, the associated costs, and the associated losses. They then tell themselves "We're good people, 'cause we're liberals, so if we feel like we're forced to do anything we can then we must have been forced to do anything we can, so anything we do must be the right thing to do. Only we better do this in secret."

The upshot? People who not only have no idea how to deal with people who leave shit and dirty needles in the street, but have never even thought about how to do it, sit around and try to dream up ways to do it without any input from the public in general or anyone who might actually know what they're doing. Then they (necessarily, given their inexperience) choose the crudest possible ways to do it. That in turn drives their costs and the risk of failure and/or being sued through the roof.

Then, of course, time passes, the dirtbags start drifting back into the streets, and the cycle begins again.

All because the liberals who get elected can't find the guts to admit that Giuliani-style policing is an absolutely necessary component of any strategy to solve the kinds of problems they're having now.

quote:

...a Chicago-based medical association...their delegates don’t feel safe coming to San Francisco....

Laughed my arse off.

.

Nancy Pelosi's House district.What do you expect?

quote:

“I want [people] to see changes in terms of the cleanliness of the streets,” she said. “I would measure that by ... not having feces on our sidewalks and also urine and other things that we see, the needles, and many of the other challenges that exist.”

Talk about lowered expectations.

quote:

Originally posted by John Steed:

quote:

“I want [people] to see changes in terms of the cleanliness of the streets,” she said. “I would measure that by ... not having feces on our sidewalks and also urine and other things that we see, the needles, and many of the other challenges that exist.”

Talk about lowered expectations.

That's one way to look at it. I prefer to think of it as realistic goal setting. It is very measurable...

Feces, Y or N? Urine; puddles Y or N?, odor Y or N?. Needles: few, some, or lots?

quote:

Originally posted by redleg2/9:

quote:

...a Chicago-based medical association...their delegates don’t feel safe coming to San Francisco....

Laughed my arse off.

.

But they may be located in the non-Lebanon, non-razor-wire, non-Dodge City part of Chicago. Maybe. At least on the 145th floor.

quote:

Originally posted by Doc H.:

quote:

Originally posted by redleg2/9:

quote:

...a Chicago-based medical association...their delegates don’t feel safe coming to San Francisco....

Laughed my arse off.

.

But they may be located in the non-Lebanon, non-razor-wire, non-Dodge City part of Chicago. Maybe. At least on the 145th floor.

AMA by chance? They are located in Chicago.

quote:

". . . .London Breed, who will be sworn in as San Francisco's 45th Mayor on July 11, promises to make significant strides in cleaning up the city within her first three months in office. . . ."

Problem is, the liberal culture creates the 'dirty streets', and the incoming mayor is a strong proponent of said culture.

quote:

Originally posted by John Steed:

quote:

“I want [people] to see changes in terms of the cleanliness of the streets,” she said. “I would measure that by ... not having feces on our sidewalks and also urine and other things that we see, the needles, and many of the other challenges that exist.”

Talk about lowered expectations.

Honest to God. That's the mark of a great city eh? No poo, piss or needles on the sidewalk.

quote:

Originally posted by wcb6092:
Nancy Pelosi's House district.What do you expect?

The Progs in her own district hate her, this has more to do with 50 uninterrupted years of Democrat control and pandering to special interest groups. The Dems wail & whine about the NRA and their political influence; the bicycle, police watchdog and homeless advocate groups in San Francisco are light-years ahead of them when it comes to having politicians by the ball-sack...or, whatever they have. The amount of waste from the Mayors office, on down to each of the committees that the Board of Stupid-visors sit on is simply staggering; it really is very Chicago-like. These people don't deserve this city. It's a pity because it's a really nice place, just infested with ideological, narrow-minded morons.

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
These people don't deserve this city. It's a pity because it's a really nice place, just infested with ideological, narrow-minded morons.

Agree. I grew up a little south of SF, and being able to run up there with friends was one of the best parts of finally getting a driver's license at 16. Back then-- mid-80s-- it was still cool and counter-culture-ish enough to be fun without feeling like you were on an alien planet, and without having to actually be overly cautious outside the Tenderloin.

Last trip? Holy. Crap. What a difference a few years of ABSOLUTELY off-the-rail policies made... scarcely recognizable as the same place.

I miss the place it USED to be.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

San Francisco's latest budget proposal, which is expected to be approved by the end of July, adds $12.8 million over the next two years to the city’s street cleaning budget, which has nearly doubled in the past five years from $33.4 million to $65.4 million.

Typical liberal solution. Hey lets not fix the problem that creates this disaster lets just steal more taxpayer money to throw at the cleanup.

an article out today says they got 16,000 complaints LAST WEEK for poo...

the Streets of San Franshitzgo...

Karl Maulden is rolling over in his grave

quote:

Originally posted by Il Cattivo:
Cue calls to spend millions if not billions on subsidized or free housing, innovative street cleaning techniques, 'facelift' tax breaks or loans to local buisnesses, additional parks and public bathrooms - but not one moment or dime's worth of effort to actually solve the sources of the shit and dirty needles on the streets.

Then, sooner or later, there will be a very quiet sea change. There will be policing, there will be enforcement, there may even be a few buses going down to San Jose or out to Oakland full and returning with only a few cops apiece.

The dirty little secret is that the governments of liberal cities eventually get very frustrated with these problems, the associated costs, and the associated losses. They then tell themselves "We're good people, 'cause we're liberals, so if we feel like we're forced to do anything we can then we must have been forced to do anything we can, so anything we do must be the right thing to do. Only we better do this in secret."

The upshot? People who not only have no idea how to deal with people who leave shit and dirty needles in the street, but have never even thought about how to do it, sit around and try to dream up ways to do it without any input from the public in general or anyone who might actually know what they're doing. Then they (necessarily, given their inexperience) choose the crudest possible ways to do it. That in turn drives their costs and the risk of failure and/or being sued through the roof.

Then, of course, time passes, the dirtbags start drifting back into the streets, and the cycle begins again.

All because the liberals who get elected can't find the guts to admit that Giuliani-style policing is an absolutely necessary component of any strategy to solve the kinds of problems they're having now.

Cheez dude, it's like you've just stated the problem with Seattle City ...

--chris

Not to worry. Sounds like London Breed is gonna be all over it.

quote:

Originally posted by Bassamatic:
Not to worry. Sounds like London Breed is gonna be all over it.

...and while we're at it, WTF kind of name is London Breed?