[QUOTE=Bambi Hassenpfeffer]
The deal is that NY’s underground stations almost all have entrances that look like this. The aboveground stations look like this. Functional, urban, and not at all neon.
In fact, that one set of entrances in Times Square is utterly unlike any of the others, but it does fit in with the neighborhood. I’m assuming that gigi liked the old Times Square, which didn’t look quite like that.
[/QUOTE]
Yep, even the subways in Times Square have gone all Cartoon Town.
[QUOTE=Jackknifed Juggernaut]
I haven’t noticed a reduction of homeless people in NY in the last decade. The one improvement is that the squeegee guys are gone.
[/QUOTE]
They are all in the Bronx off the exits on the I87 and I95. They are persistant and occasionally scary, especially when they knock on your window after you told them no and are trapped between two cars at a red light.
[QUOTE=Crafter_Man]
The number of homeless in any particular area is a function of supply and demand. Demand = the number of homeless. Supply = the value and availability of social services. Supply is a function of how accommodating a city is to homeless people; the more accommodating the city is, the higher the supply (by definition), and thus the easier it is to get service.
[/QUOTE]
It happened in Canada to some extent. Many provinces gave their homeless and welfare recipients one-way bus tickets to Vancouver. I was under the impression that San Francisco also recieved a large influx this way too.
[QUOTE=LouisB]
Idle curiosity, mostly. I’ve noticed that ideas and attitudes similar to the one you aired earlier in this thread are relatively common among native Texans, although not universally to be sure. I believe it must be something in the water that causes such attitudes.
[/QUOTE]
First, I was mostly facetious about the wilderness part, but not so much about the relocating them to somewhere else part.
It just strikes me as an extraordinarily poor use of resources to spend $200k per year on homeless people, and see no improvement in their situation.
It would be cheaper to imprison them (avg cost per year: $30k) than the way it’s currently going!
It just seems to me that at $200k/year, we’re just pissing that much money away, and it’s a seriously non-trivial amount. Just think of what a city could do with another $10 million a year (50 homeless worth).
[QUOTE=spingears]
This may be a “radical” solution.
Set them to work doing jobs other refuse.
Keeping the city clean.
Tending plants in parks and park ways.
Doing the jobs that others refuse to do because of being on the dole.
In other words: No tickee, no washee!
[/QUOTE]
If simply getting a job were a solution, then very few people would be homeless, spingears. There are many reasons for a person to become homeless, but two of the most common are untreated mental illness (which makes finding, and keeping a job, nearly impossible), and unable to financially afford a home. (I’ve never lived in NYC, but I would imagine finding a decent place to live on a 40 or 50 hour per week minimum wage salary is near impossible. Factor in transportation, daycare if needed, and other living expenses, and well…the buck isn’t going far.)
As far as those jobs that “other refuse”–I was to NYC recently, and saw many of those jobs you list being done–by city employees!
[QUOTE=miamouse]
They are all in the Bronx off the exits on the I87 and I95. They are persistant and occasionally scary, especially when they knock on your window after you told them no and are trapped between two cars at a red light.
[/QUOTE]
Actually, there is a reason that most of them disappeared from Manhattan. It turns out that the NYC police actually began to investigate them and discovered that many of them had rap sheets for much more serious crimes. So when they weren’t squeegeeing, they were robbing old ladies and beating people up for money. As soon as they saw their peers being hauled off to prison, the others left too.
Anyone else see that Subway picture and think, “If they can spend the money for fancy shiny signs like that, maybe they should be spending more on the homeless.”
Although as I’ve learned in this thread, more money isn’t necessarily the solution.
[QUOTE=samclem]
…the offenderati can continue to post drivel.
[/QUOTE]
Validation!
