Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 515 posts

Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’

#21

Post by RodericDay »

Fede_V wrote: post #16
Afforess wrote: post #9

To play devil's advocate, he's right. He shouldn't have to see the pain, struggle, and despair of homeless - the city government should be providing affordable housing and shelters for the homeless. That it hasn't is a failure of the local government, and should be addressed. Much of the reason that affordable housing is out of reach of many in San Francisco is due to government regulation, not market capitalism. Ext…

I completely believe in being the charity principle ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_charity ) when interpreting what someone said, but in this case, I think you are being too generous. He was not complaining about the suffering of those people and the lack of government intervention on their behalf - he was unhappy because poor people made his own personal life marginally worse by subjecting him to unple…

yeah that's wildly charitable:

https://justink.svbtle.com/open-letter-to-mayor-ed-lee-and-g...

> Every day, on my way to, and from work, I see people sprawled across the sidewalk, tent cities, human feces, and the faces of addiction. The city is becoming a shanty town… Worst of all, it is unsafe.

> [...]

> I am telling you, there is going to be a revolution. People on both sides are frustrated, and you can sense the anger. The city needs to tackle this problem head on, it can no longer ignore it and let people do whatever they want in the city. I don’t have a magic solution… It is a very difficult and complex situation, but somehow during Super Bowl, almost all of the homeless and riff raff[1] seem to up and vanish. I’m willing to bet that was not a coincidence. Money and political pressure can make change. So it is time to start making progress, or we as citizens will make a change in leadership and elect new officials who can.

> Democracy is not the last stop in politics. In-fact, the order of progression according to Socrates via Plato in the Republic goes: timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and finally tyranny. Socrates argues that a society will decay and pass through each government in succession, eventually becoming a tyranny.

This guy knows there's sides, and he knows what side he's on.

Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’

#22

Post by StavrosK »

Afforess wrote: post #9

To play devil's advocate, he's right. He shouldn't have to see the pain, struggle, and despair of homeless - the city government should be providing affordable housing and shelters for the homeless. That it hasn't is a failure of the local government, and should be addressed. Much of the reason that affordable housing is out of reach of many in San Francisco is due to government regulation, not market capitalism. Ext…

I visited SF a few times, and I was always horrified to see how such a wealthy city leaves its homeless people to wander around, sleep in the cold and generally live in inhuman conditions. I won't claim I know enough about the city from two visits to propose any solutions, but I know that the fact that there are hundreds or thousands of people living like that is inexcusable. I've never seen this before to such extent.

Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’

#25

Post by lhnz »

Certainly not very compassionate, but is it true that the homeless in San Francisco have a drug problem that is making the area unsafe?

Is nobody trying to treat or house these people?

Shouldn't people take this piece and use it as further evidence that there is a problem that needs to be fixed, rather than merely a culture war they can take part in?

As usual, everybody want's to talk about how much of a 'bro' this guy is, but nobody gives a shit about improving the lives of the homeless.

Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’

#26

Post by FussyZeus »

sp332 wrote: post #20
FussyZeus wrote: post #4

I wonder if this was s stunt to get attention on his company? This seems so cartoonish, I mean you could picture wealthy people thinking this way but to me it almost seems too insensitive. Maybe a publicity stunt that backfired a little. On the other hand maybe he is so sheltered as to think this is an actual problem he's helping solve...

I considered whether it might be satire, but then he apologized for using the term "riff-raff" which implies that the rest of the article is fine by him. Also he's been defending it on Twitter.

It didn't seem clever enough to be satire, I was thinking more like he was trying to just get a lot of attention, and as we all know outrage drives viral-ity much better than admiration.

Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’

#27

Post by StavrosK »

Fede_V wrote: post #16
Afforess wrote: post #9

To play devil's advocate, he's right. He shouldn't have to see the pain, struggle, and despair of homeless - the city government should be providing affordable housing and shelters for the homeless. That it hasn't is a failure of the local government, and should be addressed. Much of the reason that affordable housing is out of reach of many in San Francisco is due to government regulation, not market capitalism. Ext…

I completely believe in being the charity principle ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_charity ) when interpreting what someone said, but in this case, I think you are being too generous. He was not complaining about the suffering of those people and the lack of government intervention on their behalf - he was unhappy because poor people made his own personal life marginally worse by subjecting him to unple…

The GP didn't say the letter meant it that way, he said the letter is right in that there shouldn't be homeless people living in the streets, they should be taken care of by a stronger safety net.

Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’

#28

Post by hibikir »

The sad part about the blog post is that it does identify a big homelessness problem, but does so in a way that is callous and doesn't really help.

I spend a couple of weeks in SF this month, and was shocked at the level of homelessness that we find even in very well off districts. This is not something that is common in the big cities of the world. The city is OK with tents everywhere, but that's not really that good for the people that are now homeless either: Living on a tent on the street will not help their mental health, their self esteem, or their chances of getting out of that hole.

I don't think the problem is really the fault of the tech people moving in, and I sure don't blame the homeless themselves. The problem, once again, falls into the people that want to keep the city the way it was, and to avoid building, when the city faces other pressures that are unavoidable. San Francisco MUST build.

Until people change their mind, we'll see both more gentrification and more homelessness, until the city reaches a point where the combination of prices and homelessness makes the city life into a dystopia: Maximum inequality, brought in by policies trying, but failing, to make the city be inclusive. I sure hope San Francisco voters change their mind before it gets to that.

Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’

#29

Post by shopkins »

FussyZeus wrote: post #4

I wonder if this was s stunt to get attention on his company? This seems so cartoonish, I mean you could picture wealthy people thinking this way but to me it almost seems too insensitive. Maybe a publicity stunt that backfired a little. On the other hand maybe he is so sheltered as to think this is an actual problem he's helping solve...

He seems to be okay with regularly telling everyone about what he thinks is wrong with the world [0]. It says a lot about you when you need to complain to companies about bugs or whatever and also tell your followers how upset you are [1].

[0] https://twitter.com/johnny5sf

[1] https://twitter.com/johnny5sf/status/593965045085700097

Post reply on HN