

The mean streets of San Francisco - cromulent
http://atomicwang.org/motherfucker/Index/Entries/2010/5/23_The_mean_streets_of_San_Francisco.html

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starkfist
It's easy to get jaded in SF because there are so many panhandlers. There's
also different classes of panhandlers... There's gutter punks, scam artists,
drug addicts, mentally ill, and dudes who are just down and out. There was a
guy by my house who I felt bad for because he was mentally retarded... until I
ran into him at the pizza place and realized it was all an act. There are guys
who would ask for weirdly specific amounts of money, like $8.75 or 13 dollars.
There are guys who have nicer shoes than me. The gutter punks are aggressive
and generally assholes. There was a 20-something girl with a shaved head who
offered to give me a blow job for $5... at 7 in the morning.

Anyway, I get what the OP is saying but none of these people besides the
gutter punks would be into smokes. It's sort of stupid to buy smokes for
homeless people if you don't smoke. Even beyond the homeless, SF is lurker
central. Smoking in SF means that everyone on the street will ask you for a
cigarette, from homeless people, to drunk yuppies whose wife won't let them
buy cigs, to teenage girls up for the weekend from Stockton.

In summary... having cigarettes will actually ensure that you have about 5x as
many encounters with people on the street than you normally would.

Really the only way to deal with the panhandlers (and everyone else in SF) is
to learn how to say "no." If you want to feel better about yourself volunteer
at a shelter or soup kitchen.

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maxklein
The disconnect between the world we are living in and the streets is huge.
That's why I hesitate to pass judgment on other people - I don't know how they
have been shaped by their society, and perhaps if I went through the same
process they went through, I would also have their viewpoints.

It's like people who listen to rap passing judgment on country music or vice
versa. These represent different lifestyles and approaches to life. None is
wrong - brought up in one circumstance, you would sing the one and in another
the other.

~~~
bia
Yes, one shouldn't pass judgement on homeless people, but the music analogy
doesn't hold.

I presume that, whether you listen to country or rap, there is _some_ degree
of choice in your actions. So many homeless people end up on the streets
because of mental illness or domestic violence -- things that are absolutely
out of their control.

So instead, at least for me, it is difficult to see and accept homelessness as
an alternative lifestyle. It requires a different level of empathy.

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MattGrommes
I had to re-read the part where he skips from

"You might describe my attitude, in the words of the philosopher McCartney, as
“live and let die.”"

to

"Three weeks after my 18th birthday, I was taken by gunpoint to a Greyhound
station in Orlando with a ticket to California and a twenty dollar bill."

I thought I missed a paragraph there or something.

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transmit101
> Ignoring the homeless, or begging off, carries its own problems.

Don't do either, then. If you don't want to give money, just give a polite and
firm "no". I can't believe that anybody takes such a response personally.

To be honest, it's no wonder this guy is harassed by the homeless if he is
handing out $100 to them inside a week.

~~~
ique
I do think saying "no" has some negative implications as well, even if the
person doesn't take it personally. Like the article says the person would
probably just think you (and the rest of society) is a prick.

As I read the article, I didn't really interpret it as he was actually giving
out $100 a week, but rather saying that if you gave a dollar to everyone that
asked, you could spend a lot of money.

We're also talking a specific week here, not at any given moment. I've never
been to WWDC or SF during a big conference but if I was a homeless person
looking for a place with a lot of people who is sure to have money, I'd look
at the WWDC crowd.

~~~
jim-greer
You can say 'Sorry, no' or just 'good luck'.

If you have any genuine sympathy that will probably come across to them.

~~~
alaithea
In Portland, OR, which has a similar homeless problem to SF's, I learned to
always include "sorry" when I turned them down, as when I did so, they almost
never were rude to me in response. When I didn't say "sorry," I could never be
sure what to expect.

------
jcromartie

        Give beer to those who are perishing, 
          wine to those who are in anguish;
        let them drink and forget their poverty 
          and remember their misery no more.
    

-Proverbs

~~~
mattmaroon
That's good advice in small doses, but when someone is perpetually in anguish
you'd be much better off helping them solve that than giving them unlimited
wine.

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ntulip
I was homeless at the age of 14 and this is quite true. I like the fact that
you've mentioned the cigarette as currency. In many cases I've been able to
trade a cigarette for food and clothing. At the same time, like money, that
cigarette brought troubles at times.

Thanks for the good writeup.

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jaekwon
I'm not rich but I've begun to give the homeless in SF quite a bit of my
money. I used to just give them "spare change" and cigarettes, but you should
see their face light up when you hand them a $5 bill + loose change. Try it
with an open mind, you might find that it's the best $5 you'll ever spend that
day.

I used to think that I'd only make the problem worse by giving them money, but
my perspective has changed. At the current rate of our economic collapse, it
won't be long before we join their ranks.

    
    
      How does it feel
      How does it feel
      To be without a home
      Like a complete unknown
      Like a rolling stone?

~~~
jorgeortiz85
Your eyes would light up too if you were a crack addict and someone handed you
two hits.

~~~
jaekwon
People are addicted to money. That includes you and me.

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piramida
I would not say the streets of San Francisco are mean. Out of many major
cities I've been to, it looks like the nicest city for a homeless person to
be. I don't know exactly what city does to help besides regular feedings on
the Market str, but they all seem clean, weather is nice, people are tolerant,
and many techy tourists spare cash. If there is such a thing as homeless
heaven, I'd say SF is it's headquarters.

~~~
tumult
You must be posting from some alternate universe. 'Clean' is not a word I
would use to describe the streets of SF.

~~~
starkfist
SF is dirty where all the startups are: SOMA/Mission. The tenderloin is also
grimy. The rest of SF is as clean as any dense city. The neighborhoods west of
Divisidero are no dirtier than say, Cambridge, MA.

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starkfist
I'd be interested in learning what brand of cigarettes are available in SF for
$5. Certainly not the American Spirits displayed at the top of the article.

------
83457
Anyone hand out food or something else instead? I am not a big can of
cigarettes but I bought a big box of Clif Bars the other day and thought that,
or something similar/smaller/cheaper, would be a good handout. I'm always
weary of handing out money because it just seems very likely that it will be
used for alcohol, drugs, etc.

~~~
alaithea
A few times, my husband and I got panhandled coming back from a nice
restaurant, and happened to have a doggie bag with us. Offering that _never_
went over well and either got outright rejected or grudgingly accepted and
quite likely not eaten.

As the article says, homeless people have ample food, due to the missions, et
al. A friend of mine who had a brief homeless stint confirmed this, saying
that it was easy to get three square meals a day while living on the streets.
(It just takes standing in line for hours, which makes pursuing other things,
which might help one get off the street, difficult.)

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chrislloyd
Sounds like a case of inner city pressure to me:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wqfcwgT0Ds>

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mortenjorck
This is just crazy enough, and written with just enough of a sense of world-
weary authenticity, that I think I may just be convinced to try it.

~~~
jaekwon
been there, done that. not crazy.

OTOH, I disagree with the author that cigarettes are less of a problem for the
homeless.

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bh42
Ha, ply people with drugs, awesome! (I am not even sure, exactly how I feel
about this.)

