In this issue

'THE MAYOR KEEPS telling homeless people to hide, and now they're getting kicked out of their hiding places."

That's how Mara Raider of the Coalition on Homelessness describes the July 27 sweep of a homeless camp on an unused corner of city land near Seventh and Berry Streets. Her comments are right on point.

The Berry Street camp was, by most accounts, relatively peaceful and crime-free. Compared to life on a street corner, it wasn't that bad, or so my friend Jasin, who lived there, told me.

The city wasn't using the property. The homeless people who lived there weren't causing any trouble. There was – and is – no place else for most of them to go. So why did the cops show up early in the morning, roust everyone there, and destroy the encampment? As Julian Foley reports on page 15, the director of the Mayor's Office on Homelessness had complained that the camp was a nuisance to businesses and people parking for games at Pac Bell Park.

In other words, more than 100 people had to be uprooted, a community with some shred of dignity in a tough city had to be destroyed – so that people who wanted to park nearby on their way to a baseball game wouldn't feel inconvenienced by the presence of homeless people.

Even by Mayor Willie Brown's standards, that's pretty cold and cruel.

I've never understood why homeless people shouldn't be allowed to camp on unused or underused public property. It's not a long-term solution to the problem (frankly, only a tax system that shifts enough money from the very wealthy to cover the costs of affordable housing and decent welfare payments is going to "solve" homelessness, a problem that has its roots in the Reagan-era tax cuts and defunding of cities). But the mayor doesn't want homeless people in the parks, and he doesn't want them in the neighborhoods, and he doesn't want them bothering tourists, and there's not a whole lot of room left in the city for people who are pushed out of just about every place they might try to sleep.

What alternative is Brown offering? I hope we end up with a strong ballot measure this fall challenging Sup. Gavin Newsom's bogus Care Not Cash initiative. This nonsense has to end.