Week #12 Home less
From the very beginning of my stay in Seattle I am hunting for nice green places inside and outside of the City. During the first week of our stay my first exploration of the greens started with the Kinnear Park as our Airbnb was close by. With enthusiasm I took the first step inside the green area I was happy to see some trees and hear less of the trucks passing by. I was watching people doing thai chi. As going deeper into the park I have started seeing some abandoned bicycles… and some abandoned tents… and then «oooo ***!!» I have realized that as I was walking I was surrounded by homeless people camping in this park! These people are just tenting in the middle of the city! Coming from the Netherlands - where apparently you hardly see any homeless people ever - this was a great shock to me. I was so scared I could not even want to take a picture. I fastened my steps and quickly came out of the park. Unfortunately this was not the last I felt this way.
The more time passes the more attention I am paying to people walking in downtown Seattle with a rug around them or just laying or sleeping in the middle of the street. There is a small park in front of the Smith Tower on Pioneer Square. This area was once the proud center of the city Smith Tower being the tallest building on the west coast. On a warm summer day this little green field looks like Vondelpark in Amsterdam: full of people enjoying the weather. The only difference is that while in Amsterdam the ones with a normal home conquer the park in here you can find only the ones without home sitting and enjoying.
Most of the time I do not dare to take pictures of them. Sometimes I just can not resist. Some mornings I go to yoga class in the Capitol Hill area. On my way I see these little constructions.
These people populate the city streets with their belongings. They establish a small stand where they ask for GoodWill and in exchange they are offering some type of flower construction.
In Hungary we used to have many homeless people. In Hungary these people are happy if they can find a rug or a mattress to sleep on it in the metro stations of the city. Here they do not only have a mattress a tent they also fill a couple of supermarket carts and they park them or walk around with the carts in the city.
In Hungary these people are most of the time look drunk or drunk. Here their eyes look sober, however I often see them talking to themselves. And always they are dirty dirty regardless of the numerous city showers so called Urban Rest Shop where they can go to refresh themselves.
This I saw in Portland where the police came to clear the not so little exhibition of the street (5 minutes walk from the central train station).
No surprise I saw so many tents along the bicycle ways close to the interstate highway - probably there they remain untouched.
Compared to the ones in Portland the ones in San Francisco seemed more like having fun. In fact when winter comes they collect these guys and send them to California. This way San Francisco end up with especially high number of homeless people. Some measurement states that in San Francisco there are as many homeless people as they are in the UK!
This is simply horrible, horrible to see let alone how would it be to experience!
