San Francisco air pollution fine for anyone who lights a fire in their home or outdoors

For San Francisco Bay Area residents hoping to stay warm and cozy in front of their fireplaces this cold-rainy Christmas, authorities have reminded them that burning wood is prohibited.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued a Spare the Air Alert from December 22 through Christmas Day, prohibiting the burning of wood, manufactured logs, or any other solid fuel both indoors and outdoors.

The mandate, which provides for a $100 fine for those who violate the rule and up to a $500 fine for repeat offenders, hopes to reduce the risk of cancer-related respiratory illnesses from fine particulate pollution from smoke. of firewood

But questions remain, why authorities have turned their attention to festive fun while rampant drug use continues to plague the streets with thousands roaming the city openly smoking crack and methamphetamine.

Sharon Landers, interim executive director of the Air District, said the mandate was for the health of city residents.

“Unfortunately, weather conditions are causing a significant buildup of smoke pollution throughout the region that is expected to result in poor air quality over the Christmas holidays,” said Sharon Landers, interim executive director of the Air District.

“It is vital that we refrain from burning wood to reduce air pollution so that all Bay Area residents can enjoy a healthier and happier holiday weekend.”

These conditions are not new, earlier this week an ugly brownish haze blanketed the Bay Area, creating “yucky looking” conditions, SFGATE reported.

As of December 22, the level of air pollution in San Francisco was moderate, but in Oakland it reached unhealthy levels.

Air district spokeswoman Tina Landis said fireplaces and wood-burning stoves in residences are the main culprits.

“In winter, burning wood is actually the main source of pollution, which is a bit of a shock, but there are 1.7 million fireplaces in the Bay Area,” he told the outlet.

The chilly temperatures at night, combined with everyone home for the holidays, have more people gathering around the fire.

“People tend to burn more,” he said, adding that low, light winds and pollution from the Central Valley also contribute to the problem.

Landis said the air pollution is so bad it’s obscuring his view from San Francisco’s Mission District. I can barely see the center. It’s so confusing,’ he said.

But while the city has banned the use of wood fires this Christmas, authorities appear to have alluded to a tougher crackdown on drug use.

A former addict said that in San Francisco that ‘overt drug use has become normal’ in the city

The city planned to establish 12 new drug consumption sites or ‘wellness centers’, but those plans have stalled due to legal and logistical problems.

Supervised drug consumption sites remain illegal under federal law, and the health department said the Justice Department “has yet to articulate a way forward.”

San Francisco is governed by a leadership enamored of its progressive and humanitarian self-image that the idea of ​​enforcing laws, even those that save people’s lives, such as controlling the sale and use of drugs, has come to be seen as reactionary and dull.

“Open drug use has normalized to the point where there are blocks where the entire sidewalk is lined with people who are passed out or high,” said Kevin Lee, a recovering San Francisco resident. New York Post in October.

‘There is not enough emphasis on creating access to treatment.’

The city planned to establish 12 new drug consumption sites or ‘wellness centers’ where people can use drugs under the supervision of trained personnel.

Plans to open these centers by June next year have now stalled according to the San Francisco Chronicle for legal and logistical issues.

The health department said in a statement earlier this month that the opening of 12 centers is no longer precise, and that the timeline and certainty of opening any one site is unclear.

“The city does not plan to open 12 new drug consumption sites,” the statement read.

“Proposals evolve and are reviewed based on a number of factors, including legal barriers at the state and national level.”

The overdose prevention plan released by the department in September said the city would establish at least two wellness centers in one to two years, and more within three to four years.

The health department previously said that some centers would likely allow drug use and provide overdose prevention services and does not deny that is the expectation.

But the department cited “multiple legal barriers at the local, state and national levels” and did not commit to a timeline in its statement for opening any centers.

Air district spokeswoman Tina Landis said residential fireplaces and wood-burning stoves are the biggest culprits in the city’s air pollution.

The health department said some centers are likely to allow drug use and provide overdose prevention services and does not deny that this will continue to be the expectation, if established.

Supervised drug consumption sites remain illegal under federal law, and the health department said the Justice Department “has yet to articulate a way forward” for how it will treat supervised consumption sites.

Its failed predecessor, which was supposed to put addicts in touch with rehab facilities but was revealed by DailyMail.com to be operating as a secret site for illegal drug use, has since closed.

The Tenderloin Center was opened by San Francisco Mayor London Breed earlier this year to address the city’s ongoing drug crisis and cost an estimated $22 million to operate.

The site was often referred to as a “safe place” for addicts to “get high without getting robbed,” according to one person who used the center.

In the first four months of the center’s opening, it was said to have referred only 18 people out of the more than 23,000 it received at the site.

Overall, less than one percent of visits ended in a ‘full link’ to behavioral health programs.

City leaders, including Breed, now say the site was a “temporary solution” offered as a way to prevent the more than 640 overdose deaths that occurred in San Francisco in 2021.

Despite their efforts, 2022 has been almost as deadly, as more than 500 people have died of drug overdoses across the California city. In 2021, there were 641.

Officials also hoped the site would offer a place to deal with the homelessness crisis the city has faced in recent months and years.

Some estimates indicate that hundreds of people visited the Tenderloin Center while it was open, and more than 350 overdoses were reversed at the location.

Mayor Breed had originally allocated just $10 million for the project, but it quickly increased to more than double that estimate.

In total, about 400 people received assistance each day, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

However, a large portion of those who took advantage of the site used it specifically for shelter or food.

Earlier this year, Gina McDonald of Mothers Against Drug Deaths (MADD) wrote an opinion piece for DailyMail.com describing the site as ‘dystopian’.

“The bonding center was never intended to be a place where people could come to do drugs, but that’s exactly what happened,” said the mother whose own daughter had become addicted to heroin at one point.

In October, Breed marked a U-turn in his approach to the city’s rampant drug use by backtracking on some of his “soft touch” ways.

The site introduced by the mayor and city officials was pitched as a way to give those struggling with addiction a place to safely engage in drug-related activities without fear of death.

However, some have said that it quickly became places where people can use drugs ‘without anyone going to jail’.