Gump’s is a high-end San Francisco store with a history stretching back to the Civil War. Last weekend the store’s owner denounced the city’s present misgovernance in a scathing full-page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle. The letter denounced “a litany of destructive San Francisco strategies, including allowing the homeless to occupy our sidewalks, to openly distribute and use illegal drugs, to harass the public and to defile the city’s streets.”

Here is the full text:

GUMP’S

SAN FRANCISCO

An Open Letter to Governor Newsom, Mayor Breed and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors:

Gump’s has been a San Francisco icon for more than 165 years. Today, as we prepare for our 166th holiday season at 250 Post Street, we fear this may be our last because of the profound erosion of this city’s current conditions.

San Francisco now suffers from a “tyranny of the minority” — behavior and actions of the few that jeopardize the livelihood of the many.

The ramifications of COVID policies advising people to abandon their offices are only beginning to be understood. Equally devastating have been a litany of destructive San Francisco strategies, including allowing the homeless to occupy our sidewalks, to openly distribute and use illegal drugs, to harass the public and to defile the city’s streets. Such abject disregard for civilized conduct makes San Francisco unlivable for its residents, unsafe for our employees, and unwelcoming to visitors from around the world.

San Franciscans deserve better than the current condition of our city. Gump’s implores the Governor, the Mayor, and the City Supervisors to take immediate actions, including cleaning the city streets, removing homeless encampments, enforcement of city and state ordinances, and returning San Francisco to its rightful place as one of America’s shining beacons of urban society.

As San Franciscans, we will continue to support the compassionate efforts of helping those in need. But we believe failed public policies must be abandoned and a renewed focus must be brought to restore the city we all love.

John Chachas
Chairman
Gump’s
250 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94108

Erica Sandberg has this article in the City Journal.

Did you feel that? It wasn’t an earthquake; it was the sound of hundreds of thousands of San Franciscans standing up and clapping.

San Francisco has entered the post-fear era. Where once it was taboo to discuss the so-called homeless situation without first carefully qualifying one’s speech with assurances of compassion, today people bluntly call it what it is. San Francisco has a serious drug, crime, and “let people do whatever they want” problem. Chachas’s letter resonated with the rapidly growing number of city advocates who are no longer willing to sit back and hope for circumstances to improve.

Next year, the city will hold a municipal election. Mayor London Breed will likely find it a struggle to remain in office, and as many as half of the Board of Supervisors may be replaced. Supervisor Dean Preston, a wealthy democratic socialist, is particularly vulnerable, with a Dump Dean movement gaining momentum. Viable challengers cut from an entirely different cloth politically are emerging.

San Franciscans are getting louder and making demands: restore law and order, support retailers, bring back workers, make the city appealing to families, tourists, and innovators. It’s not complicated or costly. Change the policies that have created the mess.

Meantime, Gump’s is currently selling a lovely pewter letter opener for $88. Sharp, and not bad to have at the ready. For slicing through envelopes, of course.