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Comment by tyri_kai_psomi | Hacker News Reader

I just had a week long experience there and I found it to be surreal. I went in thinking "surely conservative media is exaggerating" and sure enough, I took a stroll from my conference at SVN down Market Street to a bar called Local Edition, and well, it was unfortunately as advertised. Rampant homelessness everywhere. Needles and feces on every other block, quite literally. I took pictures like a dumb tourist that I am and texted my spouse, "well what do you know it really is like this here, it's crazy, how can people put up with this?"

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I empathize, and it's not always great. In response to "how can people put up with this?", I'm not sure what we can do. Meaning, I'm not sure there's an action I could take to improve things.

Also, not saying it isn't bad, and not saying we shouldn't do something (anything) to make things better, but you probably walked down one of the worst stretches (depending on which part of market street you went down).

The problem is pervasive, and speaking in noncommittal terms perpetuates passive acceptance. We can take action through our democratically elected representatives by re-opening mental health institutions and drug rehab centers. And we can enable law enforcement to lock up violent offenders with the assurance that the defendants will be given due process instead of being released without charges.

And 10 blocks away, where I have lived for 10 years, I see none of what you describe. The city is funny like that. Sad fact is, the homeless are incredibly concentrated around areas with lots of tourism and public visibility, because when you're homeless, you want to be around other people because you have _nothing_.

Market street, Potrero, soma, mission....it goes for 50 plus blocks. It ranges from either bad to extremely bad. I've been to a lot of cities and it's the most wild uncontrolled homeless population I've ever seen.

The smash-and-grab situation alone makes L.A.s homeless look like samaritans.

It varies a lot from street to street, block to block. Living on a steep hill helps a lot where it's difficult to push a shopping cart up. The flat Tenderloin is a human health disaster zone but once you get to the rarified air above sutter street the problems disappear. That's only 8 blocks away from mid market. The rest of the city that's on flat ground has significant or seasonal problems.

Perhaps that contributes to why the problem exists in the first place? Out of sight out of mind?

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