3 ms·
There are parts of SF that have another "dignity" problem unfortunately. I know too many who refuse to walk in many areas there due to feeling unsafe and the s
by novok 2y ago
There are parts of SF that have another "dignity" problem unfortunately. I know too many who refuse to walk in many areas there due to feeling unsafe and the smell issues. I know another one who refuses public transit now due to similar issues. They tend to be small women and it's super sad and it really limits a lot of their transport options in life.
- j-wags 2y agoI agree this is the current situation, but I think the concentration of homelessness in urban areas is largely a consequence of policies that favor suburbia: - Requiring a car for daily life drives up cost of living, pricing the bottom tier of earners into the streets - Restricting housing unit supply by mandating single family zoning makes whole regions unaffordable - Blocking effective public transit into the suburbs effectively geofences homelessness into urban centers - Concentrating the overwhelming majority of homeless services downtown is a policy choice, not a natural outcome I think a lot of people look at urban areas in the US and think "that looks awful, my area should make the opposite of those policy choices", and it leads us to subconsciously hold some weird beliefs. Tall buildings and public transit don't make people homeless. They do the opposite. But something about the American lifestyle (my own upbringing included) plants these negative associations with urban centers, and it wasn't until I saw other cities around the world that I realized it didn't make any sense at all.
- eweise 2y agoYes, that's a different problem than the article is referring to.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]