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People are pooping more than ever on the streets of San Francisco

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Re: People are pooping more than ever on the streets of San Francisco

#71

Post by NTDF9 »

kaycebasques wrote: post #38

I have a general theory related to this this article. Disenfranchised people do not take care of the society around them. Rightfully so. If my society doesn't seem to give a shit about me, why should I give a shit about it? If this theory holds true, then graffiti, vandalism, pooping on the streets, and so on, are all symptoms of disenfranchisement. Conversely, go to a neighborhood of homeowners, and look at how well…

I can't believe this isn't obvious to most people. Equitable (not the same as equal) distribution of resources allows people to invest in their society, community, neighborhood, state, country and the world.

If I were disenfranchised, I sure as hell wouldn't care about society, norms and whatever is of value to the haves.

Re: People are pooping more than ever on the streets of San Francisco

#72

Post by mikeyouse »

jquery wrote: post #50
exelius wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or provide safe injection sites so junkies have somewhere to go. Our society’s attitude is “if you don’t pay taxes, you don’t deserve help.” That’s so morally wrong I can’t even explain it without going red in the face, but that’s the situation we’re in.

San Francisco alone is spending $50k per homeless person in San Francisco, on top of state and federal benefits. Are you going red in the face because we aren't spending $100k? If $100k doesn't solve the problem should we spend $200k? How much?

That's a stupid stat that's obviously wrong and offensive to everyone who works on these issues in SF, I can't imagine why people keep parroting it.

If you spend $100k and lift 9/10 people out of homelessness, that terrible math shows you spent $100k per homeless person.

Re: People are pooping more than ever on the streets of San Francisco

#73

Post by imgabe »

smadge wrote: post #47

Pooping is pretty high up on the hierarchy of needs. Higher than social norms. People are going to poop, sleep, eat, etc wether or not a dignified way to perform these functions is available. Solution: provide a dignified way to perform life necessities.

Here's what I don't understand. I live in DC. There's plenty of homeless people. I see them every day. But there's very little pooping in the street. Likewise in NYC. Homeless people? Sure. Poop in the street? Not so much.

Neither place, in my experience, has an abundance of public bathrooms. There's almost none that are truly public, like a building specifically with a bathroom for the public to use. Most fast food places and coffee shops will have a lock on the door with a code so you have to buy something.

So why is it just San Francisco that has so many people pooping in the streets?

Re: People are pooping more than ever on the streets of San Francisco

#74

Post by rdtsc »

ineedasername wrote: post #54
mc32 wrote: post #35

That chart tells the tale. It's quite astounding how it's climbed from ~5,500 incidents in 2011 to ~28,000 in 2018. Keep in mind this is _reported_ incidents. It's like it's been normalized. No joke. In a residential (western) neighborhood (i.e. not SOMA) within a month I saw evidence of human feces twice [it's not like I'm out and about all day long]. Once on a set of steps, the other someone squatting behind some b…

The strange thing is that the number of homeless has not increased that dramatically in the same period of time. There's something going on here besides the number of homeless people that need to poop

Could it be that there was just no way to report it or that people didn't know to report it.

I've walked by many by such "incidents" in the past without knowing that reporting was an option.

Re: People are pooping more than ever on the streets of San Francisco

#75

Post by kaycebasques »

Para2016 wrote: post #57
kaycebasques wrote: post #38

I have a general theory related to this this article. Disenfranchised people do not take care of the society around them. Rightfully so. If my society doesn't seem to give a shit about me, why should I give a shit about it? If this theory holds true, then graffiti, vandalism, pooping on the streets, and so on, are all symptoms of disenfranchisement. Conversely, go to a neighborhood of homeowners, and look at how well…

So you want to give the homeowners houses to the homeless people and your "disenfranchised" problem will be solved. Great theory, you should definitely pursue it.

Look closer at my comment and keep the sarcasm to yourself. I’m talking about ownership, not forced wealth redistribution. Ownership can take many forms, from owning a house, to owning a project at work, to building a garden, and so on. I don’t know how to more equitably distribute ownership for various aspects of society, but I have a feeling that it’s part of the puzzle.

Re: People are pooping more than ever on the streets of San Francisco

#76

Post by hoorayimhelping »

mc32 wrote: post #35

That chart tells the tale. It's quite astounding how it's climbed from ~5,500 incidents in 2011 to ~28,000 in 2018. Keep in mind this is _reported_ incidents. It's like it's been normalized. No joke. In a residential (western) neighborhood (i.e. not SOMA) within a month I saw evidence of human feces twice [it's not like I'm out and about all day long]. Once on a set of steps, the other someone squatting behind some b…

Is it easier to report now? Would not be surprised if somewhere between 2011 and 2018, an app was released that lets you quickly report human shit on the sidewalk.

Re: People are pooping more than ever on the streets of San Francisco

#77

Post by jswizzy »

burtonator wrote: post #8

I have a modest proposal to end this problem. There are too many homeless in San Francisco. Additionally, California has too few wolves. I propose that we release wolves into the streets of San Francisco once per month. Only the strong will be able to evade the wolves and the weak and sick will be eaten. This will lower the homeless population will simultaneously helping the wolf population rebound to record numbers.

We could always start another non profit to help the homeless and pay all our employees 80-400k. I mean it's not like homelessness is a lucrative industry in San Francisco or anything.

Re: People are pooping more than ever on the streets of San Francisco

#78

Post by baddox »

smadge wrote: post #47

Pooping is pretty high up on the hierarchy of needs. Higher than social norms. People are going to poop, sleep, eat, etc wether or not a dignified way to perform these functions is available. Solution: provide a dignified way to perform life necessities.

Having uncontained human poop in public places is also a huge public health issue, for the poopers and everyone else. I'd say that's more important than many social norms as well.

Re: People are pooping more than ever on the streets of San Francisco

#80

Post by chrisdhoover »

imgabe wrote: post #73
smadge wrote: post #47

Pooping is pretty high up on the hierarchy of needs. Higher than social norms. People are going to poop, sleep, eat, etc wether or not a dignified way to perform these functions is available. Solution: provide a dignified way to perform life necessities.

Here's what I don't understand. I live in DC. There's plenty of homeless people. I see them every day. But there's very little pooping in the street. Likewise in NYC. Homeless people? Sure. Poop in the street? Not so much. Neither place, in my experience, has an abundance of public bathrooms. There's almost none that are truly public, like a building specifically with a bathroom for the public to use. Most fast food…

One theory is that the abundance of corner store plastic bags served street people as disposable poop receptacles. With the bag ban the street poop increased.
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