[dougmwne]

I am currently in Warsaw. I have lived in SF. The quality of life is astoundingly different. There nearly zero visible homelessness people. There are low levels of crime and none visible. There are hardly any murders or gun crime. Not much property crime. There are quite a lot of police, but no brutality that I have heard of. I feel safe walking around at night. People have health care, higher education, and employees have strong legal protections with sane working hours. Taxes are reasonable. There's a good tech job market.

As I was leaving SF, I watched a homeless man with no teeth pick a morsel of food out of the gutter and eat it.

I am not sure if it's a case of boiling the frog, but trust me when I say that SF has an absolutely shameful inability to solve it's problems and that a city that was no more than a crater 70 years ago absolutely shines in comparison. I would not believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

[youmustbeblind]

Love Warsaw but suspect your in $1000/mo+ Airbnb, alcohol abuse amongst the homeless in Warsaw is massive, and thus aggressive begging, everything else you say is correct, but your in a 2km bubble and Warsaw is a big city, even a walk to googles free coworking space will be enlightening for you (it will put you marginally outside the comfort zone briefly if you walk the quickest path over the bridge, then loop back in to an arty farty outlet shopping complex zone), even in your comfort zone I've seen some pretty horrific situations with people collapsed outside with head split open (self inflicted alcohol abuse, but I guess less scary than stringes everywhere)

[dougmwne]

I am a block away from it in Praga. There are a handful of drunks, but I understand this is the worst area of the city, but I was interested in getting to know the other side of the Vistula. I haven't seen any rough sleeping or open air drug use near me. Very little public drinking over here (unlike all the students on the other side of the river). Praga has nothing on the Tenderloin.

Elsewhere in the city, I saw pushy begging exactly once when entering the Old Town. There were about 6 rough sleepers under one of the Vistula bridges with neatly folded sleeping bags and they are being guarded by a police van.

If there's a homeless tent city of heroin addicts around here, do tell.

[isbvhodnvemrwvn]

For the most part the homeless live inside abandoned buildings or under the bridges since the weather in Warsaw is drastically different than in the SF. If you are a drunkard, you are very likely to die in the winter due to exposure.

Example 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1TyHe7b0SY

Example 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWUmdTvtSJo

An example of people living under the bridges:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Homx6vJ3R0

Some charities distribute sleeping bags and mattresses at the end of the summer so that people don't freeze - no shelters allow drunk people.

If you sleep in parks or elsewhere, the police are going to remove you from there to a drunk tank.

[youmustbeblind]

Fair play, might of changed with covid, the many times I went I always thought they should do more for them, same in Katowice, Lodz, etc.. perhaps care has stepped up a bit, always felt safe but that's probably due to male and size. You couldn't move for pushy beggars in 2019

[dougmwne]

I really think there must have been a recent push to clean things up then based on what you and some friends here have said. I think the Mayor wants to run for President again and one of the richest persons in Poland is making a huge investment in Port Praski a few blocks from here, so they might want a guaranteed ROI, drunks be damned.

[youmustbeblind]

Damn it, my message went missing, glad as long as they get real help and isn't just a push them out city center deal

[Krasnol]

It should be mentioned that Warsaw is not at all representative for the country or even the local region. It's a status which the city had for many decades.

[dougmwne]

Then again, neither is SF for California or the USA.

[IncRnd]

In the same way, it should be mentioned that SF is not at all representative for the country or even the local region. I have never been in another city anywhere that has the problems which people relate about SF.