What to do if you see antisocial benchs that are supposed to don't let people lay down to rest in order to increase gentrification?
Repair them!
@vfrmedia This may become less effective as more of those subcontractors go bankrupt. OTOH, it means that there'll be less official vandalism to repair in the first place.
@Reinderdijkhuis also directly employed council workers tend to be unionised and some will even push back against work tasks they consider to be unethical, although on many sites (unless they have clued up security staff and/or sufficient resources to watch CCTV) they do not generally challenge someone who "looks like they *should* be there" and has brought their own tools/equipment...
@paulfree14 Wtf is that?
They are putting that to make people sleep in the floor?
WAAAAT?
@ekaitz_zarraga @paulfree14 yes, it has been happening in many parts of England.
but it doesn't just happen "by magic", many construction industry workers don't like putting these things up (they themselves are not well treated by employers and have precarious job security).
They get put there because other people *complained* about the presence of homeless folk in public spaces (or outside work buildings) and these same people whine about housing and healthcare being provided for them.
@vfrmedia @paulfree14 OMG...
It's like... "Oh there are homeless people around...Remove them!"
Like they were trash or something... That's really disgusting.
@ekaitz_zarraga @paulfree14 this level of pushback against the homeless seems to be a relatively new thing in England.
I'm not sure if its imported from USA or whether its as common in other North European countries as well (it doesn't seem like it though), I wouldn't even be surprised if its more common in England compared to whole UK..
@vfrmedia @paulfree14 rich motherfuckers... that's the thing.
@ekaitz_zarraga @paulfree14 if their riches ultimately depend on the space being popular with humans (such as retail mall/square with shops) they won't remain as rich for much longer, making areas hostile like that also puts off groups who *do* have money to spend and instead they increasingly buy online (already my town is full with empty shop units).
...yes. Also this:
(the most absurd picture I saw was when they added spickes into a tree so that birds couldn't sit down on it anymore.)
@paulfree14 I know places where they put that on the window to maintain them cleaner... In some *really specific* cases I can understand... but it's really absurd.
@paulfree14 @ekaitz_zarraga the first picture isn't even just hostile to homleless people but to perfectly normal teenagers/youths and even seniors who might be tired from walking around and want to sit down somewhere.
@vfrmedia @paulfree14 Yeah, and can be really dangerous if you fall there or something...
@smonff @paulfree14 This is amazing!
@cypnk @smonff @paulfree14 http://the-wabsite.com/works/paris-a-place-to-stay/ this one is even more interesting
@paulfree14 @taziden thanks for the article! One thing though, let's try not to link to Google AMP links: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/19/open_source_insider_google_amp_bad_bad_bad/
@paulfree14
Thanks for sharing this!
@paulfree14 in *many* places, if you put on orange warning vest (or over your street clothes), or hi visibility jacket you can often do these things during broad daylight in plain sight, as 90% of passers by think you are just from the maintenance department, also there is so much subcontracting and outsourcing in building/maintenance work that councils/building owners rarely employ their own workers directly 😉