Plastic Water Bottle Huggers Go Crazy in The People's Republic of San Francisco

AP reports:

San Francisco, the city that regulated Happy Meal toys and banned plastic grocery bags, has a new target in its.... crosshairs: plastic water bottles.

City officials are considering an ordinance that would require owners of new and renovated buildings with water fountains to install special bottle-filling taps. The law's designed to encourage thirsty people to refill containers instead of reaching for another bottle of Evian or Aquafina.

"This is the appropriate next step to make it easier for San Franciscans to get out of the bad habit of using environmentally wasteful plastic water bottles and into the good habit of using reusable water containers," said Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, who introduced the legislation in June....

Adding a bottled-water spigot to existing water fountains would cost at least around $750, according to manufacturers.

These people are nuts, I think it is the fog. In SF's tenderloin district, things look like this for blocks and blocks:. Does Chiu think these people are drinking Evian water? Does he really think refilling water bottles is the biggest problem in SF?

Yet, the city council wants to harass the few businessmen who try and operate in the city of 10,000 regulations. More from AP:

 San Francisco Building Owners and Managers Association representative Ken Cleaveland said. "It's just one more new law that San Francisco is implementing on top of hundreds of other laws to make, rather force, compliance in sustainable practices."

The natural beauty of the city should result in it being one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Yet, city council crazed lefties , with their insane regulations, make it near impossible for builders to operate in the city.

Here's a part of a report from an SF columnist C.F. Nevius:

It is not your imagination. It really is more difficult to get anything done in San Francisco. Nothing is too small for a lawsuit - soccer fields in Golden Gate Park, shadows cast by skyscrapers, or bike lanes on city streets.

And don't get us started on trying to build something. Whatever it is, somebody doesn't like it. And if they object, the city provides plenty of tools to hold it back.

"It's delay, delay, delay," said publicist P.J. Johnston. "They challenge it every step of the way."...

"I haven't done a scientific study," he said. "But I would say that there are more projects being reviewed by the planning department here than any other city, including New York."

It is the great irony that San Francisco, which prides itself on being open, free-thinking and innovative, is so restrictive. It's as if the city of progressive values has defined itself with a single word - no...

"I don't know if we are more litigious than other cities, but we certainly do over-complicate things," said Hastings Law Professor Rory Little. "It's a systemic problem."

Look no further than North Beach. The poor Pagoda Theater has been boarded up for years, the new North Beach Library has racked up huge bills in legal challenges, and the Waterfront Watch attorneys collected $75,000 from the city to settle a suit that would have delayed preparations for the America's Cup.

The Telegraph Hill Dwellers, who fought development of the Pagoda for years, now says (correctly) that a development plan has been approved. But Joel Campos, who bought the theater in 2004, spent a fortune going through years of delays and stalls. Now he says although he has no hard feelings, he did learn a difficult lesson.

"I was so naive," he said. "I thought it was going to be easy and everyone would love the project. I'd done developments (in other places) but it was nothing in comparison to [the]North Beach [section of SF]."

There is very little construction going on in SF, yet city council members heap more regulations on the little that is going on. It's as if as they walk through the fog on their way to city council meetings and think to themselves, "What can I propose today to make SF even less hospitable to builders? How can I keep the Tenderloin dangerous, piss smelling and the buildings dilapidated?"

The Tenderloin is very valuable land. If the regulations would be taken off, the area would rival the German economic miracle  ten-fold. Builders would build, even if they were required to build an equal amount of housing for those now sleeping on the street. The land is that valuable. And yet instead of allowing freedom, the lefties impose more regulations and the street pissing and sleeping goes on.  Amazing.