SF libraries as sanctuaries for the homeless — Hollywood movie captures realities
San Francisco Chronicle,
by
Kevin Fagan
Original Article
Posted By: PageTurner,
3/10/2019 7:31:21 PM
Francisco Martinez likes to read. The Bible, usually. And he likes to ditch his tent a few hours a day for somewhere inside, where it’s warm and out of the rain, the people are nice and he can snatch a nap in a chair. There’s one place that fills the bill for a homeless guy like Martinez, who at 78 moves more like someone who’s 88. The library. “I’ve got nowhere else but here,” he said the other day as he settled into a window chair in San Francisco’s Main Library with a
Reply 1 - Posted by:
earlybird 3/10/2019 7:38:36 PM (No. 678)
Public libraries are…. public.
I did get a homeless man removed from the front lawn of the especially lovely branch near our home - a library I had begun to visit when in elementary school. Several grocery carts full of “stuff”, a folding cot, a couple of bikes, bottles (one appeared to be full of booze; the other, maybe urine? He used the bathroom, which had an outside entrance, to do laundry, handing it on the shrubbery along the front of the library just as his mother had probably done… (but not at a library). Many kids use this library. Because of his “stuff” he couldn’t/wouldn’t go to the local rescue mission. But I managed to get him out.
Also reported a man exposing himself in the children’s area one Saturday AM when very few of us were in the library. Turned out he was notorious, and had been run out of a number of libraries.
In Santa Barbara, the brand new library, with its big sunny windows and comfy chairs, became a haven for the homeless men.
Ditto Glendale, CA.
Public facilities.
52 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
earlybird 3/10/2019 7:40:32 PM (No. 662)
P.S. The man exposing himself was not homeless. Nice-looking guy. Just a serious problem.
The homeless are quiet and behave well. Mostly sleep. But a pretty unkempt lot.
29 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Bur Oak 3/10/2019 7:41:33 PM (No. 666)
SF needs to disguise homeless shelters as libraries.
61 people like this.
I seem to remember here when my local library here was declared a sanctuary...for children after school and not the homeless. I´m sure that that is changed since I only go there once a year now to get my tax forms.
39 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
DVC 3/10/2019 8:05:38 PM (No. 674)
It must smell wonderful in there.
44 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
earlybird 3/10/2019 9:10:13 PM (No. 668)
Excuse additional reply, but I did notice that they tend to gravitate to libraries that are not too busy, or during times when a library is not busy. When full of kids, no homeless men.
They do read (as the man in the article). Newspapers, magazines, books…
I can honestly say I have never noticed odor. Many use the bathrooms to clean up.
32 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
zzzghy 3/10/2019 9:25:33 PM (No. 665)
Same with Palm Springs. Our beautiful park and library facility is pretty much overrun.
I´m usually a live and let live guy but I´m not live and let steal or live and let shoot up and crap on the sidewalk.
This bum thing is out of control.
48 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Vesicant 3/10/2019 9:30:01 PM (No. 667)
>I’ve got nowhere else but here
Maybe he could sign up to be an officer and a gentleman.
27 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
udanja99 3/10/2019 10:38:28 PM (No. 673)
Why not just go to Starbucks? They open earlier and close later than libraries and they have comfy chairs and bathroooms.
43 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
zephyrgirl 3/10/2019 11:19:32 PM (No. 658)
What goes unsaid is how many libraries have to stock Narcan to revive the bums who OD in the bathrooms. The Denver Public Library was one of the first to stock it and used it the first day they had it in stock.
41 people like this.
San Fran***tco.
28 people like this.
I recommend summary jail sentences for media hacks who continue to rely on the Cold Open.
´Jose was cold that morning etc etc´
Francisco Martinez, on the other hand, should be billed for his use of the library and jailed for vagrancy thereafter.
51 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
hotcorner 3/11/2019 12:58:22 AM (No. 660)
We live near the new San Diego Library and it is not only full of the homeless daily who sleep on the floors but tents are plentiful outside on the streets. They spent millions for this library and good people are discouraged from using it. It stinks outside and it is obvious there are drug transactions going on. It is a public disgrace resultant from Democratic Socialist policies. The politicians don´t care.
41 people like this.
Estavez is Martin Sheen´s son. Is it more about making money for his film or caring about the homeless?
A senior citizen in this country should not have to live like this. We can help all of those crossing the border, but not our own?
Here, the worst is the relentless panhandling. A church group takes them in one day a week to see a nurse, make sure their clothes are washed, give them new clothes, a shower, feed them and some back into school or jobs. The other days they live in the woods and panhandle. Only saw one that smelled bad. I am going to assume they all collect food assistance and more than you think.
29 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
MissMann 3/11/2019 3:20:30 AM (No. 677)
Our local libraries are where the bums come to watch internet porn--at full volume. Do you think the lefty librarians would kick them out (or even ask them to be more discreet)? You don´t know how nuts California is, if you think so.
I´ve loved going to the library since I was a kid. No way I would take a kid to a library now, much less let them go alone.
Libraries: very, very expensive homeless day care centers.
44 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
ROLFNader 3/11/2019 7:14:31 AM (No. 671)
Bingo! # 15. Most of the people in this country have a library in their pocket or briefcase, nowadays. I like to read and explore as much , if not more than ,the next guy- but it smells much better when you don´t have to rely on a gubmint subsidized, overpriced,cathedral. William Randolph Hearst didn´t envision that his gifts have become state sponsored flophouses for the most part.
29 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
former lurker 3/11/2019 9:13:35 AM (No. 663)
It was Andrew Carnegie who donated the money for local libraries.
19 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Rather Read 3/11/2019 9:16:24 AM (No. 664)
I live in a medium sized town in Kentucky. A few years ago, the library put in a cafe - an area with comfortable chairs and couches. It was supposed to be for people to relax, drink some coffee and talk. It´s now full of homeless people. Most of them are quiet and behave well, but the police have to be called when one or more is drunk or on drugs.
33 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Congar 3/11/2019 10:46:53 AM (No. 670)
San Francisco has become “Liberal Values on Display.” Those who were alive to know what the Bay Area was like in the early 1960’s must hang their heads in shame now, but it is evidence of what happens to a once beautiful area when abused for decades by liberal, destructive ides.
32 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
babsathome 3/11/2019 11:40:45 AM (No. 669)
Seattle is right there with SF. Tough to find a chair even. The weather is agreeable on Left Coast in winter- and then they stay on.
12 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
fairplay 3/11/2019 2:13:35 PM (No. 676)
All this talk of libraries and drugs reminds me of lyrics in a locally written San Francisco hit song from the sixties, ´FEED YOUR HEAD!!´
10 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
suejeanne 3/11/2019 3:41:52 PM (No. 675)
#1 when I was growing up in South Pasadena, they had a nice beautiful library - a Carnegie library - it was so incredibly quiet and well-managed -
in the early 1980´s, they remodeled it and added more space - it was a big project - I would say it turned out nicely insofar as those sorts of things go but I missed the old front entrance -
anyway, I noticed when I went to the "new" version that it was SO noisy in there and this is something I have noticed in other libraries in the years since then -
I went to a library in San Francisco in the 1970´s when visiting there, it was nice and neat and quiet -
Rancho Mirage built a beautiful new library which also has an auditorium where they have special events - I went there one evening in 2009 when Stephen Cannell spoke, that was wonderful -
but I have noticed that in the library area too, not so quiet -
The LA County Law Library was a beautiful library and I went there a few times when I was taking a paralegal course . . . but then when I went back again and spent a lot of time there researching for a paralegal course (1988-1989) it had acquired homeless residents who would (each) take over a big table and they pretty much took over the powder room, too. I asked one of the librarians about the situation and she said that it IS a "public library". Okay, I get the picture.
#7 In the "Desert Sun" the other day they had an article about possible plans for the public library and the "need" for expansion, not one word about the homeless situation.
14 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
watashiyo 3/11/2019 6:38:18 PM (No. 661)
Been to Bellevue Library in Seattle. Very nice and comfortable. Freezing outside, and saw few homeless inside the library sleeping. Next year, there will be more.
13 people like this.
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A sanctuary for bums, and the rest of us, not so much. Only a very small number of these drug addicts who´ve taken over can be ´helped.´ The rest just keep us out.