3w ago

Benches have been removed for your inconvenience

Stolen from here: https://social.marxist.network/@yogthos/113583918563324620

A Boring Dystopia @lemmy.world

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Let homeless people have benches and public restroom access, it's the absolute bare minimum we can do.
- Can we though? Are you thinking of the shareholders at all?!? Someone's going to have a tough time having only 4 holiday homes to choose from... 😬
  
  JUST 4? ARE YOU INSANE?
  First of all two of those are under a cold front right now, and one of them is having maintenance done in the West courtyard (noisy from 3pm-3:30pm if you are within 6 bedrooms of it, which I assure you, we won't be) and the fourth one we were just at 2 years ago so it's a little much to vacation there again that soon.
  Please think before you speak.
  
  My apologies and condolences for any tribulations my thoughtfulness may have bestowed upon you. In my haste to protect my interests and that of my colleagues, i spoke before fully considering the gravity of my statements 🫠
  
  My people will contact your people for an appropriate settlement.
  
  Generally the only thing I think about shareholders is feeding them into a grinder feet first.
  
  As a shareholder I can tell you the ones you could have reason for sending to the guillotine are mostly companies
  Only the very worst of the super wealthy investors and the companies are pressing for maximum income now which is what wrecks and/or enshittifies businesses
  
  It's the NYC Subway. It's not a company, it's government mass transit. They had big problems with homeless people harassing people and the cops weren't doing much. Ridership was dropping. So they did the only thing they could do.
  It sucks, but what do you expect from the subway? A solution to homeless people? It's for getting people to where they want to go, not for being a shelter.
  
  Keep the benches, and pressure the system to help house and treat the underlying issues of homelessness.
  
  New York City already provides shelter space for anyone who asks. It's the city's obligation according to the state constitution. (This is one reason why so many migrants came to NYC.) The homeless people in the subway system generally don't want to go to a shelter.
  As for treating the underlying issues: many of these people are either schizophrenics or drug addicts. There's no straightforward treatment for either condition.
  
  Guess that solves it, then. Good chat.
  
  If the solution was as easy as you think it is, someone would have already done it.
  
  It doesn't make profits, that's why people haven't done it. They'll bend over backwards to help if it's insanely profitable. Short term profits, to be exact
  
  There are solutions, for example arms between seating positions to make laying down impossible; sharp fins between seating positions to make laying down uncomfortable
  These are common worldwide
  
  Taking Benches away is LITERALLY the ONLY Option! How can you Expect Police Officers to do anything when there's FARE JUMPERS that need to be SHOT!
- Im thinking what happens if the people that are not homeless sue the city for a lack of areas to sit down? Regular people. Tired people. People just waiting. Disabled people. Elderly. Pregnant. Etc
  
  Then that lawsuit will be paid with tax money, and the new benches will be of hostile design with extra spikes below them just to make sure the homeless won't come. Also they might "feel pressured" to employ a "security" guard that regularly kicks out the homeless in increasingly cruel fashion. For safety reasons, of course.
  Doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, only that the current decision makers won't stop to be ass hats. They need their asses kicked.
  
  Security guards because the cops are busy shooting at people that try to ride without a ticket.
  
  That may be how that altercation started, but it's pretty dishonest to say that's why they shot at him.
  
  Tired people don't sue. They are too tired.
  
  We add more benches.
- The fact that anyone disagreed with you is a sign of how problematic this country is.
  
  "this country"
  Which?
  
  The one that contains the NYC metro.
- The problem is this only works in areas where the homeless aren't a majority of drug addicts. In North America this is infeasable they will piss and leave syringes everywhere. This just creates avoidable work for the people cleaning out this stuff.
  
  If only we would think of things to help house the homeless, instead of seeing them as a nuisance.
  
  Then you don't want to remove benches. You want, at very least, some kind of shelter system, Supervised Injection Sites, and an adequate social security and healthcare system to support those that are ready to quit their addiction.
  Removing the benches from public transport stations just spreads out the problem.
  
  Oh no! You mean the city will have to employ more janitors?!? The horror!!
  
  It's so fucking annoying when people say shit like this as if other countries (even some cities in the US) haven't had this figured out for years at this point. Do like the minimum amount of research.

211 comments