 conference was held in San Francisco on Nov. 14 and Nov. 15. It drew around 20,000 people and different leaders like){kind=link}
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference was held in San Francisco on Nov. 14 and Nov. 15. It drew around 20,000 people and different leaders like China’s President Xi Jinping, California’s Governor Gavin Newsom and President Joe Biden.
Residents of California have criticized the leaders at the conference because Californians have been calling on leaders to at least attempt to fix the homeless crisis and were angry when they did as a result of big leaders coming to San Francisco.
While questions about the city’s cleanup have come up, the number of houseless individuals in San Francisco and San Joaquin County raises deeper concerns.
San Francisco cleaned up the streets by power washing them, creating more colorful art around neighborhoods, and at night during and before the event they put a colorful laser on Market St.
While speaking at an event California Gov. Gavin Newsom said organizers have been discussing this for months.
“I know folks are saying, ‘Oh they’re just cleaning up this place because all those fancy leaders are coming to town.’ That’s true because it’s true but it’s also true that months and months before APEC we have been working on crime and homelessness,” said Newsom.
Despite the changes, on Monday, Nov. 13 a Czech Republic television crew was robbed at gunpoint with thieves stealing cameras and the crew’s footage.
Homelessness and crime have plagued San Francisco for years, still, people were happy at Xi’s arrival.
Former Delta student Madison Cullinane who graduated from the University of San Francisco and lives in San Francisco wishes for more leaders to visit San Francisco.
“This is the cleanest I’ve seen the city in a while, keep bringing Xi back so I can go shopping and go to restaurants without stepping in other people’s stuff,” Cullinane said. “Tourism is our business here so they should look into power washing the streets and reducing the homeless camps around the area so they can be an example for cities like Stockton showing this problem can be fixed.”
Homelessness remains an issue statewide.
According to the San Joaquin Continuum of Care Report on the Count of the Sheltered and Unsheltered Homeless Stockton out of the 2,319 homeless people in San Joaquin County 1,531 homeless people which is around 66 percent of the homelessness in San Joaquin County.
Tim Crabb used to play baseball at Delta, he recently moved from Stockton and is very angry hearing they cleaned up the city for leaders.
“I wish leaders could come to Stockton. They shouldn’t clean it up when leaders of other countries come here they should clean them up for people like me who actually lived in Stockton and spent money there every day,” Crabb said. “I remember when the NFL decided to have Super Bowl 50 in Santa Clara and they did the same thing, cleaning the streets for the Super Bowl events, and then when it was over the same problems kept occurring.”
Crabb also mentioned the city’s failure to expand the homeless shelter. City leaders put a combined $21 million into renovations to St. Mary. Homeless Shelter. Construction will begin soon and they hope to be finished with renovations by October 2024.
St. Mary’s is expected to increase the shelter’s beds by 326 beds, it will allow people to bring in pets, and they can shelter with their loved ones.