And unfortunately, in west coast cities, it’s not even that isolated. If there is a camp near-ish your neighborhood for some time, there will be a lot of instances. And as you go into the city, the more dense “downtown” parts are areas where people might not live all the time, but a lot of different people do experience them frequently, and a lot of homeless people may be there too. So thousands of people might get a subconscious feeling of being unsafe, just from a small number of people who might not even be acting in unsafe ways.
That’s why people see it as a crisis: a lot of people in west coast cities feel increasingly unsafe. That’s partly founded (because violent crimes are increasing), and partly unfounded (just someone’s impression of a different person they aren’t comfortable around). So there is a huge emotional response.
For example - the greater LA metro area has roughly 19 million people (as of 2019 believe it's higher now)
19 million people is the equivalent of the populations of the 13 lowest population states. Including for example, South Dakota.
The last time I looked into this, roughly a year ago (and at 2019 numbers) the entire state of South Dakota has the same amount of crime as Los Angeles. However, the entire state of South Dakota is roughly 1/20th the population of Los Angeles.
We also have decades of data showing that people who grew up in or have lived large metropolises are at roughly 20%-25% greater disposition to severe mental illness such as schizophrenia. Simply for living in that environment.
So, that being said - I think somewhere like Los Angeles is doing pretty damn good for itself. It's an undeniably slightly crazy place to be living or growing up in, and their general crime levels are only at the level of a place with 1/20th of it's population, that is much less dense. In my eyes, it seems like a place with less population density would be less prone to crime.
Most people don't take any amount of time to become aware of information like this though... thus we get nowhere in solving issues.
It's certainly not just west coast cities where this is happening.
>So thousands of people might get a subconscious feeling of being unsafe, just from a small number of people who might not even be acting in unsafe ways.
In large part, it is a small number of people who make the masses feel unsafe. The issue recently has been the unwillingness or inability of authorities on every level of government to deal effectively with the small number of people causing the problems. Here in New York a series of actions have worked to make these problems far worse. Among other things, "bail reform" was passed, which eliminates holds on all but the most violent of criminals. This means that instead of removing the relatively small number of people on the street engaging in violent, anti-social and predatory behavior, they are able to roam free and remain a menace. You can't have a functional society if violent and/or mentally ill people are free to roam the streets and assault random passersby. You can't have a safe society when people caught possessing and using illegal firearms are simply released back onto the street. You can't have a decent society when street gangs are battling on the corners to control the open-air drug markets that have sprung up all over the city. And instead of dealing with, or even acknowledging these problems, officials in Albany and city hall spew rhetoric about mass incarceration and white supremacy.
The most basic and important job for any government is so maintain a basic, minimum level of public safety. Without that, nothing else they do much matters.
Look, I agree that this is a problem - but I think it is laughable to suggest our current government doesn't provide this basic, minimum level.
i think it's more a person with one of a specific subset of mental illnesses that can ruin the whole ride.
not sure what the solution to that is.
I've ridden with homeless in the same car as me plenty of times and only occasionally will they be disruptive.
I'm far more irked with showtime than with the occasional sleeping down-on-his-luck guy.
I dunno man.
I've ridden Boston and DC light rail systems pretty extensively (and NYC to a small extent) and never had an obviously homeless person ruin my ride. Heck, I can't even think of a specific instance where one did anything of note.
My coworkers on the West coast however...
“Excuse me everyone. I’m sorry to bother you. My name is Mark and I’m homeless. I’m between jobs right now and I have two kids. If anyone could spare a few cents or even a dollar, then I would really appreciate it. God bless you.”
Happened multiple times a day on my commute.
Try someone shouting in your face about how they're going to kill you and your family and that is closer to the experiences I've had with BART and homelessness.
C'mon.
I grew up in DC and a classmate of mine murdered somebody on the Metro, so it is certainly not all smiles and roses.
I agree it is much worse on the West coast.