This week San Francisco experienced a miracle, yes, a miracle. If you don’t believe in miracles, then start believing, because ‘supernatural’ things happen in this city.
Well, it turns out that for several years our beautiful city, where romantically in love visitors, who frequently remember it through the immortalized song of the great Tony Bennett, “I left my heart in San Francisco“, and eager to return to their beloved city, now they were leaving with their hearts broken to see how all the charm described in Tony Bennett’s song had faded, like a beautiful rose that withers.
The dirty streets full of filthy people who sleep on the sidewalks, high on fentanyl, alcohol or any substance that numbs their brains, where the filthy smell is felt meters away, and it is scary to walk through them.
Where the misfortune of a city in decline cries out to politicians to save it from its misfortune to return it to its greatness that it once had, and which was the pride of the entire nation for its historical and monumental beauty.
Where suddenly the thief is not punished, but compensated with the loot he stole from the robbed stores and allowed to occupy places on the sidewalks to sell his loot without fear of being punished by the permissible laws that protect them.
The destruction of life in San Francisco as it was before is the daily pain of those who were born, lived and came here to stay and participate in the growth and aggrandizement of the Golden Gate city. Where entrepreneurial immigrants were able to develop companies and their American dreams, but suddenly everything withered like flowers.
Businesses closed due to store robberies, due to mentally ill people who walk like zombies next to those affected by fentanyl, destroying harmony.
Politicians who adhere to the political parties in power get elected with abundant promises and slogans and then climb to other higher positions within the invisible command hierarchy. However, nothing changes. The homeless are still on the streets, drugs continue to ravage the most vulnerable. Youth are lulled to sleep by cannabis, while politicians’ promises remain just promises.
However, today a miracle happened. After so much time making excuses such as the lack of police, the lack of monetary resources, the lack of beds for the homeless, the inability to control drug use on the streets, and the lack of cleanliness, today everything changed.
On the afternoon of Nov. 14, 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in San Francisco on a special plane for a China-US summit, and a summit meeting with 30 APEC Economic Leaders at the invitation of the US president Joe Biden. Some 20,000 foreign dignitaries are also expected.
APEC, short for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, serves as an arena to foster trade, investment and economic development among nations surrounding the Pacific Ocean. The group is made up of 21 “economies,” including China, Russia, Japan, the United States and Australia, which account for nearly 40 percent of the world’s population and nearly half of global trade.
But before their arrival, the entire Democratic machine in power in the state of California made sure they could cleanse the city of all the rot that local citizens have had to endure due to the lack of will of these politicians who were elected to protect the city.
They made sure, however, that during the historic visit of the Chinese gentleman and the other guests, they would not suffer a bad impression and they (the politicians) would not be embarrassed by the state of neglect in which they themselves have allowed San Francisco to remain.
So now, suddenly, the city streets of SF are clean and shining for safety.
Reads a New York Post headline: “Sources Said Drug Addicts, Homeless People Plaguing Downtown San Francisco Miraculously Disappear Ahead of Biden-Xi Jinping Summit,” and vave been pushed to other parts of the city in preparation for the event, which began on Thursday, Nov. 16.
Says one article: “Amid the star-studded spectacle, tech leaders were quick to highlight the remarkable cleanup San Francisco achieved just before the event.
“It seems crazy that the zombie apocalypse can be cleaned up for an important visitor, but not for those who live there and pay for everything!” Elon Musk tweeted on Monday.
“San Francisco can instantly be the cleanest, safest, most beautiful, most incredible city in the world. It happened for Dreamforce and it is happening again for APEC,” Marc Benioff posted.
It’s not exactly groundbreaking for a bustling city to put itself in order before an event as important as this. Take Paris, which is undertaking a $1.5 billion project to clean up the Seine in anticipation of the 2024 Olympics, a river that Parisians have been banned from swimming in for a century because it was that disgusting.
But the question arises: how long will San Francisco residents enjoy this miraculous cleanliness and security?
I wonder if this miracle in San Francisco will be like the story of Cinderella, whose charm in her meeting with the Prince disappears when the bells ring at 12 at night, and she returns to her original form with the ragged dress and the pumpkin float.
