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by acchow 864 days ago
Ah, the "fake downtowns" are cropping up everywhere. The sururbanites want walkable spaces, but they want it to be on private land wherein the homeless are banned.
2 comments

It would be a lot cheaper to just ban the homeless from public spaces. You’d also get overwhelming support from the public — alas, it will never happen.
Alas? Is this satire?
I see this above-it-all take all the time: but do you prefer to live in a community inundated with homeless people? I currently live in a great downtown in a second-tier city, but the homeless pose one of the greatest risks to both property and peace of mind (getting yelled at). I don't mind too much, and since getting to know many of them things are fine, but I still mind when I'm accosted by a crazy person on my way to the car in the morning.

Am I weird? I want these people to get help, and don't blame them for their situation. But I would prefer they got that help and I didn't get yelled at or panhandled or worry about leaving my backpack in the car.

I'd say if you are inundated with homeless people your whole society, walkable or not, is a huge failure and I'd expect unrest any moment - with fatal consequences. So I'd focus on that, instead of looking aside and building barbed wire fences to protect your ideal cities.