<![CDATA[The recent history of San Francisco's failures as a city can be told in the number of grocery stores that have closed for reasons beyond their control in the past few years. In 2022 I wrote about a grocery store that was closed because of a rat infestation. This rather disgusting problem wasn't the result of any failure on the store's part. It was caused by "the birdseed lady" a local resident who had taken to dumping pounds of birdseed on the sidewalk and streets in the area, allegedly to feed the pigeons. ]]>