Government Perishes When It Destroys Homes As Homeless Multiply

“Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
~ Abraham Lincoln, 19 November 1863, Gettysburg Pennsylvania

As the Docktown marina closure saga continues, the City of Redwood City acquires more and more homes. Some like the home pictured above because their owner, Thomas Howard a local well known music promoter, so stricken by the process actually had a heart attack and died in the parking lot. Others because after having been held prisoners here for several years during which they were unable to sell are only to happy to have the city pay them for their homes and allow them to move on with their lives. Nothing wrong with selling. Nothing wrong with buying. But subsequently destroying homes when the needy are right in sight?

How is it that after article after article is written about how much we need more housing; council members, local politicians, city staff and small minded litigants wrapping themselves in the mantle of self righteousness condone much less order the destruction of homes that have existed for over fifty years. One wonders how they sleep at night, look themselves in the mirror or crow about how principled they are.

The reality is that of the over seventy homes at Docktown, at least five have already been destroyed. So far however they had been homes that were at some point working boats. Boats that since time immemorial have sometimes served their fishermen owners as permanent homes. This week-end however brought the next level of destruction as Thomas Howard's original Docktown floating home, sold by his estate to the City of Redwood City, was destroyed. What do I mean by original floating home? In California, unlike in the rest of the United States, a floating home is legally defined as a home that floats on water AND is connected to a sewer. Not that a number of the residents haven't aggressively tried to get sewers or that one in particular, namely me; didn't have her sewer actually disconnected by the City. The bottom line is that the first structure at Docktown to be connected to a sewer and therefore legally become a fully approved residential floating home is now gutted, ready to have its second floor removed, after which it will be towed away for crushing at the Redwood City Port facilities.

One by one the structures emptied of their supposedly illegal residents are crushed. While less than a half block away right under the 101 bridge; the homeless can only look on in shock. Is it really possible that homes, that could easily be either used by a different individual or family or be repurposed into a restaurant or gallery will really also be destroyed or at best removed from the county to be repurposed elsewhere?

One hundred and fifty four years to the month after Lincoln's famous Gettysburg address we need to remember that when a government supposedly of the people, by the people, for the people becomes a force of destruction it begins to perish for it is neither of the people, by the people and certainly not for the people.