I used to think San Francisco was a compassionate city. But I’ve come to understand that what looks like bureaucratic dysfunction is often deliberate: a system engineered to displace.
Over the past year, I’ve watched my RV community be targeted, harassed, and evicted. Not by accident—but by design.
It began on Bernal Heights Boulevard, where our small group — about 12 RVs with individuals, families, and pets — lived in relative peace. We shared meals and watched each other’s things while folks went to work. Then came a wave of 311 complaints: reports of sewage, parking issues, even allegations of harassment we believe were fabricated. Police soon followed. One officer warned us we’d be arrested “if we so much as winked at a teenager.”
Then came the public shaming. One morning, I woke to see my photo and my dog Audrey’s on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle. The headline: “S.F. revives old parking ban to clear the RV sprawl in Bernal Heights.” In the article, a neighbor described our RVs as “an eyesore.” Another said we “monopolized” the road. Seeing us framed like that, reduced to blight, was surreal, painful and galvanizing…