Yesterday, at 10am, I drove up Grant Ave. and down Stockton St. (San Francisco) and didn’t see one homeless person or tent. Those two streets are Chinatown. Stockton St. had more people than any other part of the City.
Why are there no homeless when they cover sidewalks in most of the retail blocks in the rest of the City?
My tool for analysis of this issue is Social Sorting. I describe Social Sorting as my original idea #8 which you can find here.
The geography of an individual’s location or job is defined by three elements: the flag, the screen and the overflow.
The flag is what draws a homeless person to any location. The flag for a homeless person is
- a place that is safe,
- where people give money to beggars and
- where other homeless congregate.
The screen for a homeless person is a place
- where food is available,
- where protection from the elements is available and
- where hostility is minimal.
The overflow is where the homeless person will be threatened and/or chased away.
Chinatown is mostly populated by Cantonese Chinese. The area was settled in 1824 by Cantonese and they have owned businesses in that location ever since.
Most Chinese do not give money or food to beggars or the homeless. Chinatown does not offer a flag to attract homeless unlike the rest of San Francisco which gives them money, food and safety.
The screen in Chinatown is that Chinese openly dislike and have disdain for people who won’t work. In China an adult healthy person who won’t work is allowed to starve to death. In the rest of San Francisco the homeless are treated as decent people who are ‘unfortunate,’ probably mentally ill or addicted to drugs.
The overflow in Chinatown is the broom and a bucket of water. A homeless person who tries to settle in Chinatown will be driven off with a broom and bucket of water. In the rest of the City, the police might be called and they will tell the homeless person to ‘move along’ and will be ignored.
That is why there are no homeless people in Chinatown.
(photo of Shanghai.)