One San Francisco business owner sounded off against Mayor London Breed for downplaying crime and homelessness after the city led a temporary effort to clean up the streets ahead of the highly-anticipated APEC summit last week.
Lifelong San Francisco resident Tom Wong said during “FOX & Friends First” that, in less than one day, the city was back to its original form – ridden with crime, drugs and homelessness.
“It’s horrible. I just drove through the Tenderloin, and it is just a lot of drug heads, drug dealers, and they’re all out, they’re all out in the neighborhood,” Wong told co-host Todd Piro Tuesday. “It’s less than 24 hours, and it’s back to the same thing.”
“It is crime-ridden… drugs everywhere. There’s needles everywhere. There’s poop everywhere again,” he continued.
Gov. Gavin Newsom admitted the city was cleaned up because of the notable meeting between China’s Xi and President Biden last week.
“I know folks are saying, ‘Oh they’re just cleaning up this place because all those fancy leaders are coming to town.’ That’s true, because it’s true,” Newsom said during an unveiling of a new program to plant trees in urban neighborhoods as part of his Clean California initiative launched in 2021.
He added, “It’s also true for months and months and months before APEC, we’ve been having different conversations, and we’ve raised the bar of expectation between the city, the county, and the state and our federal partners.”
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Despite the efforts to rid San Francisco of drugs and crime ahead of the U.S.-China summit, Wong argued the city reverted to its previous state shortly after the visit.
However, Breed doubled down on claims over the weekend that the city’s crime levels have improved in recent years – a suggestion critics claim is undeniably false as businesses and residents flee.
“When you look at the data of what is happening with our crime numbers over the past five years, they are showing a decline, especially with car break-ins, burglaries, and other challenges that people are talking about,” Breed said during ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.
“And in comparison to other U.S. cities, San Francisco is really at the bottom,” she continued. “So I get that people feel that there are problems and there are concerns. They see the viral videos, and they think, ‘Oh, what’s going on in San Francisco?'”
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According to the San Francisco Police Department, robbery has surged 12.5%, car theft is up 7.5% and homicides are up 2.1% compared to data from last year.
“She has to own up to her failure,” Wong said. “The Democratic policies really don’t work. 80% of San Franciscans really don’t like what’s going on, and they really want a change, and she’s not listening. I don’t know what she’s getting her stats from, but she’s lying to the people. It’s not true. We are suffering here. We’re continuing to suffer.”
Wong reiterated the need for Breed and other officials to “own up to their failed policies” that have plagued the once-beautiful city.
“It’s just a shell game,” Wong said. “Hide the homeless. The dignitaries are here, and when the cameras are on, hide it, pan all to the left, so you don’t see all the deplorable state that the city’s in, and when they’re gone… it’s still here.”
“They just need to own up to their failed policies, and we want something that will fix our homelessness, our crime issue, our drug issues,” he stressed.
FOX News’ Alexander Hall contributed to this report.
