Rather than just help them (which is cheaper btw) they take services away from everyone in an attempt to make their area shitty enough they'll go somewhere else...

Completely ignoring that they're making it shitty for the people they want to keep too, which makes people want to leave and depressed selling prices, which can easily lead to a panic and flight from an area destroying the community.

Even from a purely selfish capitalistic perspective, it's best to just have a fucking safety net. Beyond all the ethical reasons we should, there's not a single logical reason not to fucking help people.

They keep dealing with the symptoms of the problem but never the root of the problem.

Namely the weak, cowardly, ignorant, parasitic minority of wealthy idiots that want to horde the wealth of the world for their own short insignificant lives.

Well duh. If people start gathering in public and talking to each other with a modicum of comfort, they might get thoughts in their heads

I'm currently on vacation in California at an outdoor mall. I'm squat/sitting on a tiny piece of concrete that's like 8” off the ground and am so mad that I can relate to this picture. Why the fuck can't we just have benches!?!

I'm visiting Naples at the moment with my Italian boyfriend, and I remarked to him that Naples has a lot of places that people can just hang out without spending money, something that the UK has lost. Part of this is due to the climate, but also corporatism hasn't hit Italy as hard as other western countries. It really is a shame.

I wish society would put more into making the world work better for rule followers instead of focusing so much on punishing rule breaking (which often punishes everyone).

Removing public amenities is just the first step. The next step is to erect fencing around public parks and other spots where people like to enjoy themselves. Source: living in Dublin "the city centre is for working and shopping only" Ireland.

You know how in the south, they closed public pools instead of desegregating because they would rather have no pools than let black people swim?

That impulse didn't go away. And it wasn't limited to the south and their hatred of black people.

Reminds me of that story about a sports field that got weird „opening hours“ because some old fuck nearby didn’t like the children being noisy near his house. After some months it got turned into a parking lot because „no one was using the sports field“.

Bro, I hate children too. But you have to draw the line at lung cancer.

Hopefully it's because they're putting in new benches made from the bones of real estate tycoons ❤️💖

They got rid of them at the bus stop near me. There used to be an indoor space for people to wait in, but they closed that down. And this is in Alaska. Having to wait a half an hour for the bus to arrive after taken a shower is a shitty way to wake up.

The boring-dystopia solution: a company that rents out chairs, and records everything that happens around those chairs for training AIs.

Guys. I am pretty sure that is Moynihan train station next to Penn Station. People sitting on the floor are literally leaning against the stairs down to the track. Thats is where people lineup to go on the train when it arrives at the station. Of course you don't put benches there. In this station there is a seating area where all you need to do is show your train ticket. On the other side there's a food hall with lots of public seating. There just isn't seating directly where all the foot traffic is. I take trains in the North East corridor on Amtrak somewhat often. There's seats there. Just not where seating would obstruct movement on and off the train platforms.

It's as if they don't want you to be able to get out of your house and socialise except for some paid time at private properties (cafes, restaurants etc). And no this isn't just a US problem, it's a Europe problem as well.

I've bought a camping stool recently. It folds up and small enough to put in a backpack.

I have twisted discs and find it difficult sometimes to find a seat. Sucks. But man, I can't recommend camping stools enough! I love this thing.

Ya, I would love some public restrooms and urinals.

Just imagine if we used the many resources for removing these or creating benches that can't be laid on and instead focused them on fixing. the. housing. crisis. or any other multitude of problems that get kicked down the road so everyone suffers more together.

to be fair, it's the NIMBY people complaining to the state about those people, and then the ordinances being passed

I've had bad feet since teen years, and I'm in my 40s now, which means sitting down once in a while is no longer just a suggestion. One of my big whinges (practicing whinging in case I ever get old) is that there's just not damn enough public benches. And I live in a city that has public benches and has brought them back. A little bit.

Come to Oslo. Public seating everywhere. I really do miss it when I'm traveling to certain other cities, like Rome

And somehow there's more homeless people and vagrants

It's about as successful as the war on drugs. Or the war on Emus.

It's an USA problem. Still sad of course.