Homeless tourist disaster

The current CEO of the San Francisco Tourist Bureau is Joe D'Alessandro.  After a year and a half on the job he made an interesting statement: "tourism is the city's major industry, with visitors spending $7.76 billion in 2006." Followed by "The No. 1 complaint that we get from visitors is over the condition of the streets," he said. "Nine times out of 10 they say, 'How could this jewel of a city have gotten to this point?' "

This less-than-competent bureaucrat (he couldn't have gotten the job except by his lack of competence and his loyalty to the 1970s Democratic political hacks who run this city) can't bring himself to use the terms homeless or indigents...he has to refer to the 'condition of the streets.'

Hey Joe, couldn't you point out that a 13% increase in tourism, a mere acquisition of 3% of the millions of tourists who go to the homeless-free Disney World, would mean a billion dollars and 10,000 jobs.

Hey Joe, couldn't you cite one of my statistics: each San Francisco homeless person keeps 50 people from working and living in the Bay Area, or each visible homeless beggar in San Francisco keeps 125 people from working and living in the Bay Area.

You can change that statement into any form you wish from the same data: A 13% increase in tourism would support 22,000 more people living and working in the Bay Area.  A 13% increase in tourism would be 10,000 jobs in San Francisco.  Eliminate visible homeless beggars and create 50,000 new jobs in San Francisco from tourism.

The cost of homeless beggars in a tourist city is very high.  Talk about it.