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> Mind you I live in Montreal, Canada. Things may be different in the US. In particular the bay area. It's difficult to compare these places, when I lived in T

by vecinu 6y ago

> Mind you I live in Montreal, Canada. Things may be different in the US. In particular the bay area. It's difficult to compare these places, when I lived in Toronto the homeless situation was nothing like what I saw in downtown SF, even around Bloor & Yonge at night. You'll find the situation is much more grim in the US in major cities and exactly like the OP describes. It affected me slowly over the years, I'm still recovering.

graeme 6y ago
True I remember visiting Pittsburgh and staying in this gentrifying neighbourhood across the street. It was an odd mix of upscale bars, luxury cars and run down shops and homeless people everywhere. I had to go into a hospital to have my eye looked at and was shocked at the appearance of those there. I’d never seen such bad teeth in Canada or disheveled people in the waiting room. Of all races I might add. And it was definitely unsettling, I had a man follow me from the bridge back towards my neighbourhood at night. But, I also note that Pittsburgh has relatively few such walkable neighbourhoods (though it is much better than the Us average!). If it was more like NYC or Montreal the homeless population would be more diffuse. I’ve been to NYC a bunch and it always feels much safer. Not only were there fewer homeless per street corner, but there are always large amounts of normal people walking around, so you feel safe with numbers. (To be clear, other than the one person following me, I felt safe in Pittsburgh. The ones in the neighbourhood I was in were not aggressive. But it was different than Canada or NYC in that they were much of the foot traffic)
- dcolkitt 6y ago
  NYC has spent decades bribing its homeless residents to relocate to other states[1]. Not every city has a giant tax base of hedge fund managers and Goldman Sachs executives that gives them the luxury of simply paying to have their homeless problem sent away. [1]https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2019/12/03/new-york-is-shipping-its-homeless-squalid-housing-out-state-newark-lawsuit-claims/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2019/12/03/new-york-...
  - graeme 6y ago
    Can’t read due to paywall, but it says nyc is just shipping homeless to newark. That’s still nyc metro. Also nyc doesn’t have low per capita homeless numbers. It does however shelter them better than, say, SF.
908B64B197 6y ago
> You'll find the situation is much more grim in the US in major cities No need to cross international borders. Vancouver BC is on par with downtown SF for this.
lcc 6y ago
Toronto has gotten noticeably worse in the last few years, unfortunately. Still not as bad as SF but on its way.

by vecinu 6y ago

graeme 6y ago

True I remember visiting Pittsburgh and staying in this gentrifying neighbourhood across the street. It was an odd mix of upscale bars, luxury cars and run down shops and homeless people everywhere. I had to go into a hospital to have my eye looked at and was shocked at the appearance of those there. I’d never seen such bad teeth in Canada or disheveled people in the waiting room. Of all races I might add. And it was definitely unsettling, I had a man follow me from the bridge back towards my neighbourhood at night. But, I also note that Pittsburgh has relatively few such walkable neighbourhoods (though it is much better than the Us average!). If it was more like NYC or Montreal the homeless population would be more diffuse. I’ve been to NYC a bunch and it always feels much safer. Not only were there fewer homeless per street corner, but there are always large amounts of normal people walking around, so you feel safe with numbers. (To be clear, other than the one person following me, I felt safe in Pittsburgh. The ones in the neighbourhood I was in were not aggressive. But it was different than Canada or NYC in that they were much of the foot traffic)

dcolkitt 6y ago
NYC has spent decades bribing its homeless residents to relocate to other states[1]. Not every city has a giant tax base of hedge fund managers and Goldman Sachs executives that gives them the luxury of simply paying to have their homeless problem sent away. [1]https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2019/12/03/new-york-is-shipping-its-homeless-squalid-housing-out-state-newark-lawsuit-claims/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2019/12/03/new-york-...
- graeme 6y ago
  Can’t read due to paywall, but it says nyc is just shipping homeless to newark. That’s still nyc metro. Also nyc doesn’t have low per capita homeless numbers. It does however shelter them better than, say, SF.

908B64B197 6y ago

> You'll find the situation is much more grim in the US in major cities No need to cross international borders. Vancouver BC is on par with downtown SF for this.

lcc 6y ago

Toronto has gotten noticeably worse in the last few years, unfortunately. Still not as bad as SF but on its way.