In the 1990s, San Francisco removed all of the benches from Civic Center Plaza. In 2001, all remaining seating in nearby United Nations Plaza was removed in the middle of the night. Over the years, public seating has been removed from virtually the entire city. While this anti-homelessness strategy has given way a little with the emergence of the city’s many parklets, it’s still in full effect.
Decades after the full-scale seating removal in Civic Center Plaza, there is still nary a bench. Unfortunately, you cannot say the same for the number of unhoused who congregate there.
Civic Center Plaza, like so many urban plazas everywhere, gives the appearance of public space while simultaneously restricting access to it.
You can read the rest @
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/opinion/designing-inclusive-cities.html
It seems to me that US cities are designed for the benefit of taxpayers. And for some reason, most taxpayers don't want to be around homeless people.
I don't see that changing, unless some catastrophe brings us all together. Then we'll let the homeless in, mainly because most of them will be former taxpayers who will demand the services they believe they paid for.
Face it - our society benefits the few, who don't give a damn about the many. How then could ANYONE ever think this was a "Christian" nation (with the possible exception of Joel Osteen and his ilk, who don't seem to know what Christianity really is)?
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