An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin • Hacker News Board

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#131

Post by bryne » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 7:05 AM UTC

neoveller wrote: post #83

nahname wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Westwood in LA was pretty similar. I would guess the climate and the excess change is the primary draw. As a visitor to the US, I find the homeless there very emotionally saddening. I had a morning routine in LA where the same guy would greet me and everyone around. I just started buying him breakfast each day and he was always very appreciative. Saw a lot of people grabbing food out of garbage cans. Another guy with…

Has Westwood gotten worse since I graduated UCLA in 2010? By my memory, there were only several decipherably-homeless individuals wandering about. In most cases, they would talk at me, mumbling, and didn't actually talk TO me in a real attempt to get anything. I would even say downtown Palo Alto is worse than Westwood. The rest of LA is pretty bad, but Westwood was a far cry away from any of it.

Westwood is absolutely nothing like downtown SF in this regard - its homeless population consists of about a half dozen friendly transients and a bird lady. I have no idea where this poster lived in SFO but he clearly has never been to the Tenderloin.

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#132

Post by nahname » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 7:12 AM UTC

neoveller wrote: post #95

nahname wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't spend much time in the rest of LA, but I was in westwood for 8 months in 2011. There was less than the tenderloin, but most of the streets with shops had a homeless on every corner. I would walk by 5-10 on my way to grab lunch or dinner.

But did they harass you at all? Downtown Palo Alto has one on every street corner too, and they don't bother anyone. But Tenderloin... after walking through Westwood and PA for several years now, I still just plain don't feel safe in the Tenderloin at all.

Tenderloin at market street or inside the tenderloin? Market street attracts the most people.

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#133

Post by jbaudanza » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 7:17 AM UTC

norswap wrote: post #126

I like how it is just an observation, plain and simple, and not a pretext to announce some world-changing theory of poverty/homelessness.

Thank you!

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#134

Post by glurgh » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 7:26 AM UTC

dsrguru wrote: post #26

akaru wrote: post #3

I've been homeless. No one in SF is hungry. In a span of a few blocks a person could eat for free 5 or 6 times a day. Money is used for drugs or McDonald's. My advice: don't give anyone money or food. If you want to help, give your time.

As someone who hasn't spent much time in SF but plans to move there very soon and doesn't want to live off of ramen, I genuinely want to know: where does one get those free meals? Edit: namank and iamwill beat me to it.

http://www.freeprintshop.org/download/eats_english.pdf

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#135

Post by msutherl » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 7:30 AM UTC

djmdjm wrote: post #30

What's remarkable about this is how the poster finds these casual encounters with homelessness "unremarkable". No other western city that I have visited has the massive, in-your-face homelessness as SF. I don't know enough about the causes of this phenomenon in SF to suggest what can be done about it; I'm sure they are complex, multi-factorial and politically fraught, but the level of homelessness in SF and (almost)…

It seems nobody has mentioned the climate. San Francisco is temperate and mostly warm – you can be outside all year.

I spent a lot of time in Montreal. There are homeless people, but they tend to be more organized. You don't want to weather a Montreal winter unprepared. I've always wondered how many of them die in the cold every year.

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#136

Post by frozenport » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 7:36 AM UTC

bcantrill wrote: post #90

djmdjm wrote: post #30

What's remarkable about this is how the poster finds these casual encounters with homelessness "unremarkable". No other western city that I have visited has the massive, in-your-face homelessness as SF. I don't know enough about the causes of this phenomenon in SF to suggest what can be done about it; I'm sure they are complex, multi-factorial and politically fraught, but the level of homelessness in SF and (almost)…

If you want a glimpse into San Francisco's hardcore homeless, read this excellent Chronicle series from 2003: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/SHAME-OF-THE-CITY-HOMELES... This problem is in no way unique to San Francisco; our engineering team has offices in San Francisco, Seattle (Pioneer Square) and Vancouver (Gastown) -- and we can collectively report that there are large, hardcore homeless populations in all th…

Is it a West Coast thing?

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#137

Post by frozenport » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 7:38 AM UTC

cpeterso wrote: post #97

djmdjm wrote: post #30

What's remarkable about this is how the poster finds these casual encounters with homelessness "unremarkable". No other western city that I have visited has the massive, in-your-face homelessness as SF. I don't know enough about the causes of this phenomenon in SF to suggest what can be done about it; I'm sure they are complex, multi-factorial and politically fraught, but the level of homelessness in SF and (almost)…

I think SF is stuck with a perfect storm of "landed gentry" conservatives that don't want to pay for homeless services, sympathetic liberals whose spare change enables drug addicts, civil rights activists that fight city hall to protect people's "right to be homeless", and the so-called "homeless industrial complex." A few years ago, the local PBS station had a TV show about SF's homeless problem. People migrated to…

Sounds interesting, would you happen to have a link?

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#138

Post by xentronium » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 7:43 AM UTC

If a homeless wanted to do some simple work (e.g. cleaning) in exchange for food and shelter would he be able to do so?

Aren't there modern-day monks? Wouldn't people rather spend their life doing honest work with church than beg on the streets?

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#139

Post by sebastianmarr » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 7:48 AM UTC

hristov wrote: post #93

djmdjm wrote: post #30

What's remarkable about this is how the poster finds these casual encounters with homelessness "unremarkable". No other western city that I have visited has the massive, in-your-face homelessness as SF. I don't know enough about the causes of this phenomenon in SF to suggest what can be done about it; I'm sure they are complex, multi-factorial and politically fraught, but the level of homelessness in SF and (almost)…

The main cause is pretty simple. The police in San Francisco just do not bother them in certain neighborhoods. In most other cities police routinely pick up the homeless and dump them some place far. So the absence of homeless is usually not a sign of better humanity, it is usually a sign of cruelty. This is especially the case in the US. There are other countries where they have better treatment for poverty and ment…

most homeless are mentally ill to some extent

I'd love to see some numbers on that.

Re: An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin

#140

Post by dgmistry » Thu, Feb 28, 2013, 7:58 AM UTC

I'm working on a project with United Way in NYC that's addressing the data issues around food banks and shelters. We could use some additional tech help.

It started after Sandy hit. All of the major charitable organizations would send resources to the areas impacted the hardest. This resulted in over servicing these areas and left about 30% of affected areas without any services at all. Also, people would be directed to food banks and shelters that were full, out of stock, closed for the day, or shut down. While other shelters and food banks remained underutilized. No one had the necessary information to direct these people to the right places.

A hackathon yielded some interesting solutions for disaster recovery - one of which was a text message system (data services were unavailable for a while - coincidentally, many homeless people have phones, but not smart phones) to coordinate volunteers and service providers. We've begun to coordinate with many of the largest service providers, non-profits, local government agencies and corporate sponsors on this.

There are so many needs of the homeless population that can be addressed by technology. We have no money to contribute, we're a struggling, over-worked, early stage startup, but we've found that even just a few hours a month makes a difference. Entrepreneurs and techs talk poorly of lawyers, but how many hours of pro-bono work do we perform each year? It's not all sexy work, but sometimes just cleaning some data one evening can impact thousands of people.

If anyone would like to volunteer for this effort, or initiate a similar effort in their community, please reach out to me: community (at) 42stats.com