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San Francisco tech worker: 'I don't want to see homeless riff-raff'
Last edited Thu Feb 18, 2016, 01:25 PM - Edit history (1)
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/17/san-francisco-tech-open-letter-i-dont-want-to-see-homeless-riff-raffIn only the latest cultural altercation between San Francisco’s tech workers and the city’s impoverished population, one tech worker has declared the homeless are “riff raff” whose “pain, struggle and despair” shouldn’t have to be endured by “wealthy” people commuting to work.
It’s a familiar story. A male entrepreneur (some might even call him a “tech bro”) – flush with the sense of self-worth and self-satisfaction that comes from living and working in a city and industry that treats him and his friends as the most important and intelligent human beings ever to grace a metropolitan area with their presence – takes a moment to think about homelessness. Not content to wrinkle his nose and move on with his day, he types those thoughts out. He publishes them on the internet.
Justin Keller, an entrepreneur, developer and the founder of startup Commando.io, joined those exalted ranks on 15 February when he published an open letter to San Francisco mayor Ed Lee and police chief Greg Suhr:
I am writing today, to voice my concern and outrage over the increasing homeless and drug problem that the city is faced with. I’ve been living in SF for over three years, and without a doubt it is the worst it has ever been. Every day, on my way to, and from work, I see people sprawled across the sidewalk, tent cities, human feces, and the faces of addiction. The city is becoming a shanty town … Worst of all, it is unsafe....
While Keller is not alone in his frustration that there are nearly 7,000 people living in San Francisco without homes, his letter is distinctive for its total lack of sympathy for the plight of those in difficult circumstances, focusing instead on the discomfort the “wealthy”:
The residents of this amazing city no longer feel safe. I know people are frustrated about gentrification happening in the city, but the reality is, we live in a free market society. The wealthy working people have earned their right to live in the city. They went out, got an education, work hard, and earned it. I shouldn’t have to worry about being accosted. I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, and despair of homeless people to and from my way to work every day. I want my parents when they come visit to have a great experience, and enjoy this special place.
It’s a familiar story. A male entrepreneur (some might even call him a “tech bro”) – flush with the sense of self-worth and self-satisfaction that comes from living and working in a city and industry that treats him and his friends as the most important and intelligent human beings ever to grace a metropolitan area with their presence – takes a moment to think about homelessness. Not content to wrinkle his nose and move on with his day, he types those thoughts out. He publishes them on the internet.
Justin Keller, an entrepreneur, developer and the founder of startup Commando.io, joined those exalted ranks on 15 February when he published an open letter to San Francisco mayor Ed Lee and police chief Greg Suhr:
I am writing today, to voice my concern and outrage over the increasing homeless and drug problem that the city is faced with. I’ve been living in SF for over three years, and without a doubt it is the worst it has ever been. Every day, on my way to, and from work, I see people sprawled across the sidewalk, tent cities, human feces, and the faces of addiction. The city is becoming a shanty town … Worst of all, it is unsafe....
While Keller is not alone in his frustration that there are nearly 7,000 people living in San Francisco without homes, his letter is distinctive for its total lack of sympathy for the plight of those in difficult circumstances, focusing instead on the discomfort the “wealthy”:
The residents of this amazing city no longer feel safe. I know people are frustrated about gentrification happening in the city, but the reality is, we live in a free market society. The wealthy working people have earned their right to live in the city. They went out, got an education, work hard, and earned it. I shouldn’t have to worry about being accosted. I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, and despair of homeless people to and from my way to work every day. I want my parents when they come visit to have a great experience, and enjoy this special place.
Well, then, move to $iliValley, doofus. Oh, right, there are homeless people here, too.
7 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
https://medium.com/%40jimatdeltaco/open-letter-to-a-guy-who-wrote-an-open-letter-to-the-mayor-of-san-francisco-about-homelessness-ccb5438c4784
I read your open letter to Ed Lee and I wanted to take the time to compliment you on a brilliant piece of satire. Obviously, it would take an almost cartoonishly pathetic little man to write a letter to the mayor and police chief of a major metropolis and complain, in all seriousness, about the time his dinner with mommy and daddy got ruined by a scary homeless guy. No one would ever knowingly reveal themselves to be such a clueless and hateful child, so it seems obvious that you’ve created the character of “Justin” to parody the voice and mentality of the stereotypical “tech bro.” Dude, you nailed it!
Let’s start with the appalling grammar. The misplaced comma after the fourth word of your letter immediately signals your intent, and from there you keep hammering away, in ruthless fashion, capturing the sad, semi-literate discourse that presides over so much of the tech industry. I love the way you seem to be saying that tech bros, despite having unlimited funds for gadgets, will never be able to buy a basic understanding of subject/verb agreement.
You build the character of “Justin” in so many hilarious ways. Like when he declares, in the most prissy and hysterical tones, that San Francisco is becoming “a shanty town.” The fact that the EXACT OPPOSITE thing is happening would never occur to “Justin,” who won’t be satisfied until San Francisco completes its transformation from “The City,” a gorgeously complicated place with many different kinds of people, to something that resembles his mommy’s living room in Santa Barbara (such a nice touch, making this his hometown). It’s like you’re saying, “Hey ‘Justin,’ you’re an ADULT MAN who has chosen to live in a major metropolis and yet because of your childish sense of entitlement, you react with surprise and horror when forced to share the street with — gasp! — the ‘faces of addiction’ (classic!). Even though the transformation of San Francisco into a soulless tech bedroom community is basically complete, and the city government has done everything in their power to make things comfortable for people like you, while bleeding the city of its working class and exiling them further and further away into exurban shanty towns, and even though the mysterious workings of history have allowed vast legions of mediocre white dudes to make a cushy living by pushing buttons and using words like ‘functionality’….even though all these things are working in your favor, it is still not enough, because occasionally you are forced to gaze upon a drug addled bum, a loser who has failed to achieve, whereupon, through an astounding combination of narcissism and self-pity, you somehow come to the conclusion that YOU ARE THE VICTIM in all of this, and you are the one who requires help and protection. ‘Justin,’ my man, you’re a beautiful piece of work!” I love the subtle way you imply all of this. It’s masterful....
I love what you’re doing here, slowly developing a sinister form of logic. “Justin” is repulsed by the sight of the homeless. Google has yet to produce a form of eyewear that can eliminate from the field of vision any citizen making less than $100,000, so “Justin” has to endure the unendurable each day on his way to work. Homelessness is not a human crisis, it’s a “Justin” crisis! He’s like, “If only we could find some way to concentrate all the homeless somewhere far away from the city, perhaps in some kind of camp.” Historically, things tend to go sideways when one group of people is repulsed by the vermin-like sight of another group of people, and rather than dealing with whatever minor inconvenience or unpleasantness the existence of the unsightly group might cause, the offended group starts dreaming of total eradication. At this point I was like, “Listen, ‘Justin’ is a selfish guy who lacks awareness and empathy, but it’s not like he’s going to actually profess a secret desire for the homeless in his city to ‘vanish,’ because then he’d stop being a run-of-the-mill douchebag and become a terrifying embodiment of the fascist dream. That’s not going to happen, right?” WRONG!
Let’s start with the appalling grammar. The misplaced comma after the fourth word of your letter immediately signals your intent, and from there you keep hammering away, in ruthless fashion, capturing the sad, semi-literate discourse that presides over so much of the tech industry. I love the way you seem to be saying that tech bros, despite having unlimited funds for gadgets, will never be able to buy a basic understanding of subject/verb agreement.
You build the character of “Justin” in so many hilarious ways. Like when he declares, in the most prissy and hysterical tones, that San Francisco is becoming “a shanty town.” The fact that the EXACT OPPOSITE thing is happening would never occur to “Justin,” who won’t be satisfied until San Francisco completes its transformation from “The City,” a gorgeously complicated place with many different kinds of people, to something that resembles his mommy’s living room in Santa Barbara (such a nice touch, making this his hometown). It’s like you’re saying, “Hey ‘Justin,’ you’re an ADULT MAN who has chosen to live in a major metropolis and yet because of your childish sense of entitlement, you react with surprise and horror when forced to share the street with — gasp! — the ‘faces of addiction’ (classic!). Even though the transformation of San Francisco into a soulless tech bedroom community is basically complete, and the city government has done everything in their power to make things comfortable for people like you, while bleeding the city of its working class and exiling them further and further away into exurban shanty towns, and even though the mysterious workings of history have allowed vast legions of mediocre white dudes to make a cushy living by pushing buttons and using words like ‘functionality’….even though all these things are working in your favor, it is still not enough, because occasionally you are forced to gaze upon a drug addled bum, a loser who has failed to achieve, whereupon, through an astounding combination of narcissism and self-pity, you somehow come to the conclusion that YOU ARE THE VICTIM in all of this, and you are the one who requires help and protection. ‘Justin,’ my man, you’re a beautiful piece of work!” I love the subtle way you imply all of this. It’s masterful....
I love what you’re doing here, slowly developing a sinister form of logic. “Justin” is repulsed by the sight of the homeless. Google has yet to produce a form of eyewear that can eliminate from the field of vision any citizen making less than $100,000, so “Justin” has to endure the unendurable each day on his way to work. Homelessness is not a human crisis, it’s a “Justin” crisis! He’s like, “If only we could find some way to concentrate all the homeless somewhere far away from the city, perhaps in some kind of camp.” Historically, things tend to go sideways when one group of people is repulsed by the vermin-like sight of another group of people, and rather than dealing with whatever minor inconvenience or unpleasantness the existence of the unsightly group might cause, the offended group starts dreaming of total eradication. At this point I was like, “Listen, ‘Justin’ is a selfish guy who lacks awareness and empathy, but it’s not like he’s going to actually profess a secret desire for the homeless in his city to ‘vanish,’ because then he’d stop being a run-of-the-mill douchebag and become a terrifying embodiment of the fascist dream. That’s not going to happen, right?” WRONG!