Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/09/30/sf-residents-dump-anti-homel.html
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It wasn’t until this sentence that I realised they were on the sidewalk (dunno what I was thinking before that!), and that really brought the horrible incivility of it home to me.
In addition to the homeless - what the hell are people pushing children in buggies/prams etc. supposed to do when their path is blocked by boulders? Veer off the curb into traffic? Wow.
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aren’t the sidewalks public space? how can the neighbors just place huge obstacles in the way like that with no repercussions from the city?
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Rugged boulders for rugged individualists. So much more authentic and artisanal than industrial hostile architecture.
That’s the nanny’s problem. They don’t pay her $7/hour under the table to leisurely push a stroller down an unobstructed sidewalk, after all.
I suppose if one is wealthy enough one starts operating under the assumption that one can afford to cut off one’s own nose to spite one’s face.
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Pushing the boulders into the street is the logical approach, and the logical next step. Never mind that it’s something that should be done, if you have any social conscience. It’s the thing people are going to do because the damn things are in the way. And they’re bored. And hell, why not? I lost count of the times the local Bear sculpture was knocked over, before the council concreted the thing into the ground. And it is not a light sculpture! Of course, the City Council could put the boulders back on the pavement - sorry, sidewalk - here. That would, naturally, be cheaper than taking them away. That, again will result in them being pushed back into the road. I await the next step with fascination. And popcorn.
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Those look more like anti wheelchair and baby carriage bolders to me…But intent matters.
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One could ask the same about those scooters that litter so many public spaces.
But on the topic of this post, it’s sad that the neighbors’ civic engagement took such an ugly turn. The public bench project approach would’ve been so much more uplifting, and probably achieved better results in terms of safety, if that was their real concern.
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Perhaps she could offer them to a budding Rodin. Or have a sculpture demonstration in the street.
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I was just going to say… if the city won’t remove them, just wait until someone sues them over ADA non-compliance and costs them not only the removal costs, but the lawsuit costs and the penalty fees!
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this doesn’t want to onebox
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As I was reading I just kept thinking “push them in the street then there city will pay attention.” I’m glad some enterprising individual actually did it.
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America the strange.
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Here sometimes you find bollards like this on sidewalks, but they are used to stop SUV to park on the sidewalks. Like in this photo, the driver was DUI and didn’t realized the presence.
I’ve seen rocks used sometimes near river banks because there are a lot of them but never on sidewalks like this: the side walk are supposed to be used by persons moving by feet: to block homeless you have to block all the people.
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These Clinton Park residents: “Look at all the people here without homes—what a terrible problem! Clearly the best solution is to make their lives even more miserable!”
Assholes!
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They don’t take up the space of whole sidewalk, however they still seem like a liability
Honestly the homeless should just push the rocks in front of the people’s doors.
Edit: Also it does seem like they have been rolled onto the street previously and the city put them back
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I expect the process to be repeated again and again, a Sisyphean illustration of the long-standing haplessness of San Francisco’s municipal government when it comes to grappling with squalour on behalf of its wealthy but miserly patrons.
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The truly pointless thing is that it takes less effort and costs no money to push them onto the street but it takes a city crew with a little crane to put them back 
on a moral stand point i certainly hope they push these dumbass rocks every night.
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wow - if somebody tripped and fell on those it could be a million dollar law suit
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Gravity is our friend.
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