Thursday, July 13, 2017

Today's post is brought to you by the homeless.

I try to avoid going to San Fransisco as much as I can. Some of it's the traffic, but most of it is the homeless. While others see beauty, the homeless situation at now at a level I honestly can't believe. I really have no words to describe how crazy it is. People are just so numb to it, or if the say anything they are shamed for doing so. It's really just heartbreaking how they encourage this behavior.

I mean, all of the cities have their fair share of homeless, but San Fransisco homeless are the kind that talk to themselves. Like - all of them. I've been up there before and hung out in one spot for long enough to realize that the homeless just spend all their days walking around the block. They hit you up, and when they come around again - they hit you up again.

I come away very affected every single time I go there. And the messed up thing is you can't do a single thing about it! Not only from a government point of view, but in general these people at a no turning back phase in their lives. Even if there were shelters that would take them, most of them won't go there. A lot of them are seriously mentally ill.

And now a lot of these homeless are living in the most squalid conditions - I can't even believe the city stands for it. I can't emphasis how deeply I mean this.

When I take the train back to my comfortable suburb I always watch the area through Oakland, because it was really starting to look better there for a while. And now...... it's unbelievable. The tent cities are enormous. And strangely this new breed of homeless are hoarders. A sort of swanky rich type of homeless people. The tents they use are party sized tents. I don't know how much they cost, but when I was a kid we could never afford the giant tents these people have. I don't even know how they get them. They carry around so much stuff. On the train ride I saw a homeless person with SIX shopping carts. I've seen them with couches in their encampments. I mean, everything you throw away they are scooping up.

It's really messed up to say, but the recession really upgraded the lives of a lot of these people. Before the recession people didn't have anything. After everyone started losing their houses every single homeless person had a bicycle. Then the tents came, and now it's just like really messed up camping.

Through the Oakland section, sidewalks were completely blocked by this stuff. (as is some places of San Fransisco) Some of the garbage piles were as tall as I am! And the city was out there with dump trucks and hazmat suits. And I see this on the news ALL THE TIME, but seeing it in person just leaves me stunned. I used to be mostly okay walking to places like the Crucible, but now that area is so sketch. And I'm not some sort of pussy - I lived on the boarder of East Palo Alto when they were still killing people there. I lived in a rent controlled building in EPA when I first started out. Now you never hear a single word about EPA because an IKEA moved in. I think maybe one person dies a year there. Yeah, hipsters weren't the first generation of white people to move to poor cities.

I never turn a blind eye to the homeless because it can happen to anyone. No one should ever feel like they can't wind up there. Having said that - it's the most inhuman thing I've ever seen. They are setting fires. In San Jose they are constantly setting fires. And instead of trucking their trash out of their encampments they just throw it down the hill onto the freeways. Sometimes you get both. Fires and trash.

I've been resisting getting pictures because the homeless are sort of aggressive sometimes now. And they like to tuck themselves away so most people who are self involved they won't notice - so, it's hard to get shots and blend in. i.e. not look like an asshole. But I seriously don't understand how they can't notice that crap in San Fransisco or Oakland. Because I see this stuff all the time and today I left the city feeling stunned. Super stunned. 

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