San francisco

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco has come to be known around the world as a place for aggressive panhandling, open-air drug use and sprawling tent camps, the dirt and despair all the more remarkable for the city's immense wealth. Some streets are so filthy that officials launched a special "poop patrol." A young tech worker created "Snapcrap" -- an app to report the filth. Morning commuters walk briskly past homeless people huddled against subway walls. In the city's squalid downtown area, the frail and sick shuffle along in wheelchairs or stumble around, sometimes half-clothed. The situation has become so dire that a coalition of activists collected enough signatures to put a measure on the city's Nov. 6 ballot that would tax hundreds of San Francisco's wealthiest companies to help thousands of homeless and mentally ill residents, an effort that failed earlier this year in Seattle. Proposition C would raise $300 million a year, nearly doubling what the city already spends to combat … [Read more...] about Rich San Francisco businesses could face homeless tax