By Adam Andrzejewski, OpenTheBooks CEO/Founder | Published at Substack
TOPLINE:
It’s the Bay Area brownout.
Last night, in the primetime FOX News “Red State v. Blue State Debate” with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and California Governor Gavin Newsom, our 2019 OpenTheBooks San Francisco poop map was featured.
DeSantis held up a picture of our map in response to questions regarding the homeless crisis in San Francisco. Many commentators say it was one of the top moments of the debate.
As they say, “a picture tells a thousand words.”
We launched this map in 2019 by plotting nearly 120,000 case reports of human feces on city streets during the period 2011 through 2019. And yes, we did use brown pins.
The entire city was covered.
When originally published at Forbes, our map trended on national Twitter and was showcased on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal.
This morning, our auditors updated the numbers in real time. Sadly, we found an additional 125,506 case reports just since 2020. Our data source is the open records portal and 311 call information posted online by the city itself.
Click here to search the updated OpenTheBooks San Fran Poop Map. Just click a pin (ZIP Code) and scroll down to review the case report addresses in the chart beneath the map.
We found, unfortunately, reports of human waste in the public way have spiked to all-time new highs. Despite the national attention, the San Fran situation is degrading further. It’s getting worse, not better.
By any measure, this is a human health catastrophe.
KEY BACKGROUND:
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In 2019, there were 30,996 calls to the city’s 311 non-emergency hotline which dwarfed the 20,668 calls in 2017 or the 5,547 calls during 2011.
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In 2023, with only one month to go, the reports are trending to an all-time high of 35,520.
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Previously, the all-time high was last year with a call report count of 34,609 – up more than six times the 2011 count.
Now, our new interactive map plots roughly 270,000 cases of human poop on the streets of San Francisco since 2011.
ADDITIONAL READING:
DeSantis Holds Up Poop Map In Debate With Newsom | San Francisco Chronicle | December 1, 2023
Mapping San Francisco’s Human Waste Challenge – 132,562 Cases Reported In The Public Way Since 2008 | Forbes by Adam Andrzejewski | April 5, 2019
San Francisco’s “Mr. Clean” Arrested By FBI For Alleged Porta Potty Scandal As Human Waste Reports Spike To New High | Forbes by Adam Andrzejewski | January 31, 2020