My landlady saw a crackhead in our yard but since SF is filled with zorched looking lurkers she didn't think much of it and just told him to leave. I came home from work, and noticed my apartment was a real mess and my TV was missing. Went to the closet and noticed everything was dumped out and an old laptop was missing. I actually found the laptop in a garbage can next to the house. The thieves did a few weird things like steal my pillows and dump out items from the fridge. I went down to the cop shop and they said there was a string of burglaries where the thieves were using dudes from the park to act as lookouts and then take the blame later. My landlady and I actually went down to the park and found the crackhead guy riding around on a kid's BMX bike. He said he didn't do it but that he did know where my TV was.
Her case was a bit different. During the stay, she developed a relationship with the guest, exchanging e-mail messages while her home was carefully vandalized and her valuables stolen. I can see it could be a very traumatic experience.
I once was robbed at gunpoint and it took me weeks to get back to nomal. I am still very careful when I have my notebook in my backpack.
Metal doors are not really useful if all the houses are made of wood. Seriously.
I don't get it either, there was this fairytale about the big bad wolf, but I guess they must all think "hey at least it's better than straw", or something.
It's a really strange experience. You don't notice until you see the first solid stone house after two weeks of flimsy wooden cottages, it's a feeling, solid. "Stands like a house" is a saying in Dutch, meaning "solid as a rock", except in the USA it wouldn't make much sense :)
CA has building codes that address the probability of large earthquakes.
For a single story house, wood (if I understand) is a safer choice than other heavy materials which would crush you. In SF, there are different building codes as the buildings tend to be more vertical.
i'd say, i'd feel unsafe there even if such a story didn't happen to me... or, while there are houses of thin wood, maybe you are allowed to wear/keep a gun?
It's only your right until the next referendum to ban guns in SF, then you're in legal limbo until the state supreme court strikes it down. Rinse, wash, repeat every few years.
As for carrying in SF, only people named Feinstein are permitted to do that.
That sort of thing is not going to work much longer. Now that the 2nd has been incorporated against the states via McDonald, bans like that are outright illegal. I expect the first time a public servant is held personally liable for damages via a 1983 civil rights lawsuit we'll see an end to it pretty quickly.
There are a handful of cases which ought to end the question on carry in the next year, as well. Either Williams or Masciandaro may do so this year providing SCOTUS grants cert.
