California Governor Gavin Newsom has come under fire after after admitting that San Francisco was cleaned up ahead of the arrival of “fancy leaders” for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ summit.
San Francisco is hosting the summit, which opened Saturday and runs through Friday. The main event is a planned meeting between President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit.
In the days leading up to the event, homeless encampments in the city’s downtown were cleared, sidewalks were polished, graffiti was scrubbed away and murals and decorative crosswalks were added to busy areas.
At a press conference on Thursday, Newsom acknowledged that the cleanup efforts were timed to coincide with the arrival of “fancy” leaders to San Francisco, which has been struggling to shed its image as a city in decline.
“I know folks say, ‘Oh, they’re just cleaning up this place because all those fancy leaders are coming into town.’ That’s true because it’s true,” Newsom said.
“But it’s also true, for months and months and months prior to 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 as well that we all have to do more and do better.”
Newsom, a former San Francisco mayor, added that Californians will be “seeing a lot more of this all around town and all around the Bay Area.”
He later told reporters that “obviously, any time you put on an event, by definition… you know, you have people over to your house, you’re going to clean up the house.”
The governor’s remarks prompted a wave of criticism on social media. His office was contacted for comment via email overnight, and this article will be updated with any response received.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the city did not have the funds to open up special shelters for APEC. Emily Cohen, a spokesperson for the city’s homeless department, told the newspaper that the city was starting its winter shelter program in time for the event, opening a 30-spot shelter near where the summit is being held.
The city is beginning to expand capacity at other shelters that are already operating, but Cohen could not say how many of those beds would be available during APEC.
Source: Newsweek
