I see the boulders more as civil disobedience with a message to the city of SF to fucking do something about the homeless issue. I have great sympathy for the homeless population, especially in the ridiculously unaffordable Bay Area. But it’s gotten so bad in SF. Stepping over human feces on a daily basis is unacceptable. Large semi-permanent encampments on sidewalks is unacceptable. Open air drug markets are unacceptable. None of this is hyperbole, as those who frequent SF know. I’m no NIMBY, but I also empathize with not wanting people setting up tents right outside my door.
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You don’t solve “the problem” by attacking the homeless themselves, though.
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Support public restrooms that are accessible to everyone in San Fran.
Support housing for the homeless.
Support legalization and initiatives that treat drug use like a public health issue instead of a crime.
This action is only making the problem worse. It’s not fixing the problem at all. There are far better ways to fix the problem of homelessness than criminalizing poverty.
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But…but…all that may mean higher taxes on San Francisco homeowners. The horror!
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Stop; you’re being too sensible, too compassionate, and too humane.
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Totally agree, but I don’t think the residents who put these rocks there were attempting to “fix homelessness,” just perhaps lessen its impact on their street since the city can’t seem to do that. And for the chronically homeless, especially the ones crapping on the street, it’s more of a mental health issue than a poverty issue.
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No, they were simply hoping to make their neighbors someone else’s problem.
They have more power than the homeless they are attempting to displace. They could very much put more pressure on the city to provide actual services to their fellow citizens.
It’s still a poverty issue if you can’t afford to get proper care for your mental health. These are not mutually exclusive.
If people of means want a nice city to live in, they need to do more than pass the buck and make the lives of people already suffering more miserable. All they are doing is chasing the problem to another block, probably a less wealthy one who have far less power in their community.
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I think this is an alley without much vehicle traffic
might be why the neighbors seem to think it’s private property
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I mean, they’re basically a starter kit for a permanent encampment. Stretch a tarp between two of them and you’re set.
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If it was a message to the City, they’d have placed them in front of the Mayor’s office.
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The difference being that the city offered shelter and that any legal resident has a minimum claim for 404 € per month. Plus rent including heating. Plus health insurance.
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Start to make public housing complexes possibly not looking like some 1960s East Germany condos (correction: make them like were made in East Berlin https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/Friedrichsgracht_Berlin.jpg/1280px-Friedrichsgracht_Berlin.jpg :- ) ) making possible to people do not go in the spiral
I think that if the problem is the drug dealers, a strong police intervention is useful, especially because behind the drug dealers in the street there are organized crime with a lot of money and drug dealers are used mainly to control the areas.
Criminalizing poverty makes poor people criminals, meaning that for an homeless becomes easy to get in contact with other criminals and start o make crimes because all the other doors are closed.
Enter the problem with Roma people and people making shantytowns in the outskirt of the city, people will steal copper cables and burn them, then the fire propagates…
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You don’t see any homeless drug dealers around here, do you?
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Please someone think of the techbros
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It seems like the simpler solution is to give the homeless the $35k and access to affordable accommodations. But I guess all the people who have jobs related to homeless people would be out of a job, so the homeless are job creators… gah the system is so fkd up.
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the problem with public housing in the US was that they were not properly supported financially, and they were segregated from the start. East Berlin has nothing to do with this.
The more legitimate options people have, the more likely they are to make legal choices. System racism and poverty play a major role in this problem. We’ve seen what a hardline on criminlization does - fills up private prisons. We have more people in jail than any other nation on earth. We should be ashamed of this fact. Decriminalize drugs, regulate it, and give people a good education and economic opportunities.
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ah a medieval solution to the paleolithic attack on a modern societal issue.
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I live in the Bay area; they can all go fuck themselves sideways with one of those boulders.
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