hostile urban environment

Today at the Powell Street BART (light rail) station in downtown San Francisco at 2:00 pm, I saw a man wearing a bright yellow vest reading "clean and safe downtown" pour an oversize Burger King cup of water onto a waist-height ledge by the station entrance. Walking past at 10:00 AM, I had noticed that the ledge was wet while the surrounding area was dry (ruling out rain or a morning hose-down of the sidewalk by a nearby business).

No, this was a periodic, targeted action designed to make the urban environment inhospitable for the homeless or other persons who might wish to sit or vend or beg at the transit entry-point to the city’s busiest shopping area, much of which is indoors and therefore subject to private security. His ‘official’ looking uniform suggested that this was an unofficial municipal policy in a city that is known for outlawing panhandling.

The man poured slowly and with purpose, careful to cover any possible dry space on this would-be seating area on Market Street, which has no nearby purpose-built street furniture for anyone who might wish to sit down. As in many cities, the luxury of sitting comfortably anywhere comes at the price of consumption. “Safety” and “cleanliness” are buzzwords for excluding bodies out of place through spiky pavement under windows, benches divided by arm rests, spinning bus-shelter seats, and this latest tactic.

E. Mattiuzzi