If my memory serves me properly, the photographed spikes are on the actual baths, yes?
If so, I think they’re more a “Don’t clamber on the soft sandstone of our main tourist attraction” measure, as the city is actually pretty good at providing non hostile benches.
That’s not to say that the situation there is all 100% OK, though. Homelessness was a fairly big problem there when I knew the city.
