SAN FRANCISCO! (Part 1)
On my last trip to San Francisco, I stopped at the Civic Center and walked around downtown taking pictures. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon.
Here are a few of the pictures:
I’ll be posting more pictures from this trip and telling stories in future Blogs, so be sure to FOLLOW us! And please LIKE our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/joshwilltravel
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIMON BOLIVAR!
Simon Bolivar Statue at United Nations Plaza at the Civic Center in San Francisco
As I was walking around Grosvernor Square, I came upon United Nations Plaza and the statue-monument of Simon Bolivar. Now you’re probably wondering who he was…
WHO WAS SIMON BOLIVAR?
Simon Jose Antonio de la Santisima Trinidad Bolivar y Palacios Ponte y Blanco aka Simon Bolivar 24 July 1783 – 17 December 1830
He liberated Venezuela, Colombia (including Panama at the time), Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia (a country named after him) from the Spanish Empire and helped lay the foundation for democracy in Latin America. He was President and Dictator of the Gran Colombia Republic from 1819-1830.
NOTE: There is a statue just like this one in Bolivar Plaza in Caracas, Venezuela. There are other statues, monuments, plazas, squares and streets in honor of him all over the world.
WHAT SAN FRANCISCO DOESN’T WANT YOU TO SEE:
There’s a HUGE homeless population in the city of San Francisco! Go back to the first picture and you’ll see people sleeping on the lawn and hanging out on the plaza. Everywhere you go in the city there are homeless! Many of them are in need of serious mental health services!
The picture of the homeless at the statue (above) is actually a picture of an open-air drug market! While I was walking around taking pictures, I witnessed deals going down here and at other locations at the UN Plaza. Although not unexpected, I was surprised by the obvious nature of their unlawful enterprise and the lack of police presence and attention. While I did see a pair of cops walking down by the fountain, you can see in the picture that the dealers operate without concern for keeping it undercover….
San Francisco is a beautiful and historic city, but the terrible traffic, the huge homeless population and the current urban blight really takes the shine off the city by the bay.
As a final note, I didn’t know it was Simon Bolivar’s birthday when I started this blog, so that’s either a happy coincidence or something else….
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