We only care about having to see the homeless guy. Let’s not spend money on fixing the problem, let’s keep him away from the easily frightened tourists.
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In a city where there are many pigeon spikes and you don’t have any; build a nest for hawks and/or owls and move them in yourself if needed.
Problem solved.
You’re Welcome.
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If there are no structures to rest on, people just lie on the ground; not sure how that’s better for anybody. I had jury duty today and had ample opportunity to observe this on my travels through downtown.
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Lying on the ground here in Texas means you get bitten by fire ants sooner rather than later.
Depending on whether your body is reactive, those little bugs leave nice blisters on the skin at the bite sites, which itch a lot too.
I run a pool and even though I have an organic program that is mostly effective in fire ant control, I still beg people not to sit or lie on the grass. Fire ants are everywhere here, even in winter.
Maybe it’s a good idea to have a hammock in one’s pocket, with a coupla carabiner clips, if there are no structures to rest on in places with fire ant problems.
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Laziness?
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Blondish guy, skinny, about 40-something? Cigarette? Had a beard, last time I looked. Ruddy complexion because he’s been in the sun a lot?
Usually hangs near the Shell gas station on South Lamar near Manchaca?
Harmless.
I see him all the time (for over a decade) when I gas up before I go home from work. He stands on the other side of my car, leans against the glass windows of gas station building.
He does talk to phantoms, and he’s sometimes pretty animated. I can see where maybe you can get alarmed. AFAICT, he’s harmless. Just noisy.
Texas has its own share of blame in the way it doesn’t care for the mentally ill, and though in recent years it has upped its budget for tackling this challenge, the waiting list here is long:
(has some nice images of Austin’s mental health institutions)
Our U.S. federal budget zeroed out mental health care starting with the Reagan administration:
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Well, not to my kids. But my only experience in urban living has been in Japan, which is different. I am only making the assumption that people who do live in and own property in areas with a large homeless population are not primarily motivated by the desire to just make the homeless miserable. I have always assumed that it was about a perception of safety, and sanitation. But what I am curious about is the ownership of those benches and such. I understand that they are public spaces, but it looks like the construction and maintenance would be on the property owner, otherwise they would likely need to adhere to some sort of standard design. Could you not vote to make those places more accessible, if you chose? I am just curious, as I really do not know the legalities of those issues.
I think that was probably the guy. he was not far from the Half Price Books, heading south. I thought that I might be witnessing a fight, until I noticed that there was nobody else there. So apparently a harmless eccentric. Fair enough. I used to live in South Austin, but that was a very long time ago.
Yeah, South Lamar is basically that guy’s “beat” and he’ll wander down near Half-Price.
If you’re in Half Price while the very tall transvestite is there shopping in the art and design section, be sure to appreciate her shoes. I have no idea how she manages to locate such dressy shoes in such a large size, but am told it’s pretty hard and she must go through a lot of trouble tracking those down.
I know people on this bbs love Torchy’s Tacos (there’s one on South Lamar and also a trailer on South First), but I find Chango’s Taqueria has much better quality ingredients, and their salsas are the real deal. In case you’re north of the river. (It’s on Guad.)
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It is hard to balance basic compassion with worry about the safety of your children.
My first child was born in Austin not that long ago, and my husband is an attorney who helps the type of man you saw beat BS charges (or was, when we lived in Austin). I have no trouble balancing those two things.
Homeless people, and mentally ill people are preyed on disproportionately. It might be that it’s baked into the crust of my life, but it’s hard to look at homeless folks with anything but compassion. Texas is not a fun place to be outside in the summer, let alone 24/7.
I was back in Austin a bit ago, and it was strange. All the homeless people had been forced out of the neighborhood where we lived (which wasn’t a great neighborhood, at the time). But driving around the underpasses … the same people, the same spots. I’ve been happy to see the efforts, like Mobile Fish and Loaves. But among people, I heard more active disgust for the homeless people I did see than I had heard in the past. Even with private and public initiatives, I really worry that the public opinion won’t sustain those efforts.
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We did Torchy’s for lunch. I am also partial to Chuy’s, but that is a different category. When I was a grad student, I lived in one of the RV parks between Chuy’s present location and the river. I rode my bike to school every day, and the squirrels would come right inside my trailer and climb up on the table for peanut butter. It was a super place to live. Shady and quiet. Being there now sort of requires the archaeologist in me to come to the surface, just to identify things that were there back then.
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I was not trying to imply that the perceived danger is a reflection of reality. People do vote on their perceptions. The only real safety issue that I have encountered is playgrounds with discarded syringes all over the place. very different from Japan, where the kids were pretty much on their own fairly young, and safe. I am opposed to syringes in playgrounds, although I don’t understand the roots of the problem enough to propose a solution.
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Homeless people are far more likely to be victims than aggressors- being homeless doesn’t automatically make you more prone to violence than any other person. Most of the “crimes” they commit are things like loitering, digging through dumpsters for food, or panhandling (where it’s illegal, anyway). If anything, making life harder and more uncomfortable for them by outlawing panhandling, underfunding homeless shelters and taking away places to sit or lie down increases the likelihood that they’ll turn to violent crime. Sanitation is probably an actual issue, but shifting them to another part of town by making all the benches uncomfortable doesn’t solve the problem, it just moves it. Why not provide more places for them to use the bathroom and get cleaned up instead? I doubt most of them want to be dirty.
Helping the homeless by providing them with housing, access to computers and phones, and job resources actually costs about the same (or sometime less) than giving them no aid at all, with the added benefit of getting them off the streets, off of drugs, more sane and healthy, and eventually into a stable, normal life. Unfortunately, I live in America. I don’t know how things are in Japan, but here the sadistic pleasure of watching another person’s suffering is absolutely priceless and people refuse to give it up no matter how much it would benefit society and themselves. The thought of anyone getting anything for free fills them with white-hot murderous rage, and they’d rather see the USA burn to ashes around them than see one homeless person helped back into a stable job, even if it costs them nothing personally.
As for who actually owns the benches and makes the decision to ruin them, I haven’t looked into it, but I’m curious. I don’t know if they’re required to make them fit a certain standard- my guess is that they probably are if it’s a city government-run area like a park, but if it’s a private business they can put up whatever benches they feel like. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the law actually prohibits human-friendly benches entirely in some areas. People really do hate the homeless that much.
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Most of these goals seem noble, but the overall effect is somewhat demoralizing, and follows a potentially dangerous logic with respect to designing for public spaces. When design solutions address the symptoms of a problem rather than the cause of the problem, that problem is simply pushed down the street.
This seems dangerously simplistic. Lots of problems can’t be solved, they can only be managed. I don’t see how it’s helpful to put the burden of solving all homelessness on the shoulders of a bench designer.
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Incidentally, that guy could’ve been me.
On a bad day, I’m visibly “crazy” from a hundred metres away. Twitchy, muttery, occasionally weepy or screamy, and the more self-conscious I am about trying to suppress it, the worse it gets.
Tourette’s is not fun.
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A major part of the problem: in many places, getting caught by the cops while carrying syringes will get you charged with “possession of drug paraphernalia”.
Another part of the problem: anti-junkie defensive architecture (inaccessible toilets, UV lighting, etc) that forces IVDUs into public drug consumption.
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Seriously, if you want to cut down on harm, increase public safety and generally be a better person than those who wage the war on drugs, all it takes is a few bucks and a few minutes to put these in publicly accessible bathrooms:
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Or me. It can be very difficult for me to go out in public without someone there to get me the fuck out when it gets too much. So, screaming, crying, yep. BTDT. The only person I’m any harm to is myself, hence the need for a safety net or handler. Mostly people can be great. Quiet, calm and tea/cold water are all helpful when this happens.
Compassion and empathy aren’t as scarce as they seem to be, but they can be “dirty words” in some circles. It behooves* us to offer empathy and compassion. Most people aren’t all that far away from being homeless and everyone is much closer to having an public argument with an invisible opponent than they might think.
In the same way that oppressive attitudes engender further oppression, I firmly believe that bullying architecture also encourages bullying and “othering” of people. And that’s fucked up. If it’s not possible to prevent this, be aware of how your environment is manipulating attitudes and do the opposite, because the fuckers in control hate that. Once you start to see and treat the mentally ill and/or homeless as real human beings, you’ve won.
And we all like a win.
*Behooves. Such a great word. Makes me think of ponies. 
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