SF Residents Buy Boulders, Place Them on Sidewalk to Thwart Homeless Tents
Mike Moffitt, San Francisco Gate, September 25, 2019
About two dozen boulders now sit along a half-block stretch of sidewalk on Clinton Park, a residential side street near Market and Dolores streets in San Francisco.
Residents of a San Francisco side street are so fed up with tents pitched on the sidewalk by homeless people that they have trucked in boulders to discourage camping.
About two dozen of the massive rocks, each weighing hundreds of pounds, create barriers on a half-block stretch of Clinton Park, a side street off Market and Dolores streets. The boulders don’t block the sidewalk, but do limit the space available for tents.
Neighbor David Smith-Tan told KTVU that his family received a letter from the neighborhood about a month ago addressing the sidewalk problem.
“A bunch of my neighbors, we all chipped in a few hundred dollars and I guess this is what they came up with,” he said.
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The city does not plan to remove the boulders because they don’t block the sidewalk, San Francisco Public Works Department spokeswoman Rachel Gordon said Tuesday. She added that the department is looking into sanctioning the installation.
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