When you moved here, did you notice right away that poverty is more apparent here?
Dec 6th 2014, 1:00 am
#256
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jun 2008
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Posts: 10,678
Re: When you moved here, did you notice right away that poverty is more apparent here
If you were to drive through the SF south bay, you'd think there wasn't any poverty. Even the roughest neighborhood in east San Jose has well kept houses and lawns with the only indication that you may be in a rough neighborhood is the graffiti tagging of fences and overpasses. However there is one hidden area that few people ever saw in San Jose that tolerated the homeless and yesterday the city shut it down. Watch the videos in the following links.
Veiled by the yellow willows and brush along a forgotten creek bed in San Jose, hundreds of people jerry-built a treehouse and constructed underground bunkers and ramshackle lean-tos to form one of the nation's largest homeless encampments.
The 68-acre shantytown is just minutes away from downtown and the high-tech giants that made Silicon Valley one of the world's most opulent locations. For years, the city turned a blind eye to "the Jungle." But the camp along the muddy bank of Coyote Creek has become more crowded in recent years and is awash in rotting trash, rats and human waste — so bad that the endangered steelhead trout have essentially disappeared.
After years of halfhearted cleanups, city officials on Thursday plan to begin shutting down the Jungle for good.
Since deciding to close the Jungle, San Jose has spent $4 million over 18 months to relocate the camp's inhabitants and connect them to services.
Silicon Valley homeless no longer welcome in 'the Jungle' - LA Times
Two close friends who both have health problems, Eva Martinez, 63, and Grace Hilliard, 59, tearfully discussed offers they had received for temporary shelter. They especially were upset because it appeared they were going to be separated. "This is very devastating," said Hilliard who has lived on and off at the Jungle for 16 years. Martinez could barely speak. "This is my home," she said quietly. "Now I'll have to lay down on the street, somewhere outside. I couldn't bring out all of my stuff. The rest will end up in the Dumpsters, I guess. It's terrible. It's terrible for all of us."
The Jungle's population had been growing in the past year, with estimates of between 200 and 300 people living there in unsanitary conditions. But Ray Bramson, the city's homeless response manager, said there were only about 50 to 60 stragglers left by Thursday. Bramson said the city is doing everything it can to ease the crisis: 144 people had been placed in housing, and another 55 have housing subsidy vouchers and are looking for homes through this pilot program. An additional 70 to 80 temporary shelter beds also had been arranged. The city's Bramson said that while everybody had to be out of the Jungle on Thursday, workers will be cleaning up the site through Dec. 19 at a cost of between $400,000 and $500,000, which is being shared by the city and the Santa Clara Valley Water District. When completed, park rangers and San Jose police working overtime will patrol the site to prevent re-encampment, which is exactly what has happened after past cleanups.
Meanwhile, outreach workers fanned out as they encouraged the homeless campers to accept their offers of temporary shelter.
The Jungle: San Jose shuts notorious homeless encampment - San Jose Mercury News
Veiled by the yellow willows and brush along a forgotten creek bed in San Jose, hundreds of people jerry-built a treehouse and constructed underground bunkers and ramshackle lean-tos to form one of the nation's largest homeless encampments.
The 68-acre shantytown is just minutes away from downtown and the high-tech giants that made Silicon Valley one of the world's most opulent locations. For years, the city turned a blind eye to "the Jungle." But the camp along the muddy bank of Coyote Creek has become more crowded in recent years and is awash in rotting trash, rats and human waste — so bad that the endangered steelhead trout have essentially disappeared.
After years of halfhearted cleanups, city officials on Thursday plan to begin shutting down the Jungle for good.
Since deciding to close the Jungle, San Jose has spent $4 million over 18 months to relocate the camp's inhabitants and connect them to services.
Silicon Valley homeless no longer welcome in 'the Jungle' - LA Times
Two close friends who both have health problems, Eva Martinez, 63, and Grace Hilliard, 59, tearfully discussed offers they had received for temporary shelter. They especially were upset because it appeared they were going to be separated. "This is very devastating," said Hilliard who has lived on and off at the Jungle for 16 years. Martinez could barely speak. "This is my home," she said quietly. "Now I'll have to lay down on the street, somewhere outside. I couldn't bring out all of my stuff. The rest will end up in the Dumpsters, I guess. It's terrible. It's terrible for all of us."
The Jungle's population had been growing in the past year, with estimates of between 200 and 300 people living there in unsanitary conditions. But Ray Bramson, the city's homeless response manager, said there were only about 50 to 60 stragglers left by Thursday. Bramson said the city is doing everything it can to ease the crisis: 144 people had been placed in housing, and another 55 have housing subsidy vouchers and are looking for homes through this pilot program. An additional 70 to 80 temporary shelter beds also had been arranged. The city's Bramson said that while everybody had to be out of the Jungle on Thursday, workers will be cleaning up the site through Dec. 19 at a cost of between $400,000 and $500,000, which is being shared by the city and the Santa Clara Valley Water District. When completed, park rangers and San Jose police working overtime will patrol the site to prevent re-encampment, which is exactly what has happened after past cleanups.
Meanwhile, outreach workers fanned out as they encouraged the homeless campers to accept their offers of temporary shelter.
The Jungle: San Jose shuts notorious homeless encampment - San Jose Mercury News
Last edited by Michael; Dec 6th 2014 at 1:58 am.
Dec 6th 2014, 1:53 am
#257
Joined: Dec 2001
Location: Dixie, ex UK
Posts: 52,448
Re: When you moved here, did you notice right away that poverty is more apparent here
If you were to drive through the SF south bay, you'd think there wasn't any poverty. Even the roughest neighborhood in east San Jose has well kept houses and lawns with the only indication that you may be in a rough neighborhood is the graffiti tagging of fences and overpasses. However there is one hidden area that few people ever saw in San Jose that tolerated the homeless and yesterday the city shut it down. Watch the video in the following link.
Veiled by the yellow willows and brush along a forgotten creek bed in San Jose, hundreds of people jerry-built a treehouse and constructed underground bunkers and ramshackle lean-tos to form one of the nation's largest homeless encampments.
The 68-acre shantytown is just minutes away from downtown and the high-tech giants that made Silicon Valley one of the world's most opulent locations. For years, the city turned a blind eye to "the Jungle." But the camp along the muddy bank of Coyote Creek has become more crowded in recent years and is awash in rotting trash, rats and human waste — so bad that the endangered steelhead trout have essentially disappeared.
After years of halfhearted cleanups, city officials on Thursday plan to begin shutting down the Jungle for good.
Since deciding to close the Jungle, San Jose has spent $4 million over 18 months to relocate the camp's inhabitants and connect them to services.
[Silicon Valley homeless no longer welcome in 'the Jungle' - LA Timesl]
Veiled by the yellow willows and brush along a forgotten creek bed in San Jose, hundreds of people jerry-built a treehouse and constructed underground bunkers and ramshackle lean-tos to form one of the nation's largest homeless encampments.
The 68-acre shantytown is just minutes away from downtown and the high-tech giants that made Silicon Valley one of the world's most opulent locations. For years, the city turned a blind eye to "the Jungle." But the camp along the muddy bank of Coyote Creek has become more crowded in recent years and is awash in rotting trash, rats and human waste — so bad that the endangered steelhead trout have essentially disappeared.
After years of halfhearted cleanups, city officials on Thursday plan to begin shutting down the Jungle for good.
Since deciding to close the Jungle, San Jose has spent $4 million over 18 months to relocate the camp's inhabitants and connect them to services.
[Silicon Valley homeless no longer welcome in 'the Jungle' - LA Timesl]
The homeless had built quite an encampment under the southern end of Waterloo bridge in London, just a one minute walk from Waterloo station (the largest station in the UK, and one of the largest in the world), and under the end of the bridge that leads across to the West End, London's theater district. It is also just minutes now from where thousands come every day to ride the London Eye and (in the other direction) visit the Tate Modern and the recreation of the Globe Theatre. I accidentally strayed once into the public "underpass" walkways that had originally been dug to enable commuters to avoid having to cross the roads by dodging traffic. The homeless had built shacks and shelters from pallets and cardboard boxes, and fires here and there filled the area with smoke. Stray dogs wandered around, and there were piles of blankets and clothing scattered here and there; some piles had people sleeping under them. It was like some post-apocalytic movie scene. "Escape from London" could have been filmed down there. ..... It eventually got some media traction, under the tag-line "Cardboard City", but few people knew where it was, and even fewer visited. ..... I only made the mistake of going down there once, after that I just dodged the traffic.
Eventually it was cleaned out, and the center of the junction was used to build London's first Imax cinema. I guarantee that few of its patrons know what that place looked like 25 years ago!
Last edited by Pulaski; Dec 6th 2014 at 3:45 am.
Dec 6th 2014, 3:38 am
#258
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jun 2008
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Posts: 10,678
Re: When you moved here, did you notice right away that poverty is more apparent here
It doesn't surprise me in the slightest, every city has such places, you just need to know where to look; or perhaps you just need to know how to avoid such places. The homeless had built quite an encampment under the southern end of Waterloo bridge in London, just a minute's walk from Waterloo station (the largest station in the UK, and one of the largest in the world), and under the end of the bridge that leads across to the West End, London's theater district. It is also just minutes now from where thousands come every day to ride the London Eye and (in the other direction) visit the Tate Modern and the recreation of the Globe Theatre.
I accidentally strayed once into the public "underpass" walkways that had originally been dug to enable commuters to avoid having to cross the roads by dodging traffic. The homeless had built shacks and shelters from pallets and cardboard boxes, and fires here and there filled the area with smoke. Stray dogs wandered around, and there were piles of blankets and clothing scattered here and there; some piles had people sleeping under them. It was like some post-apocalytic movie scene. "Escape from London" could have been filmed down there. ..... It eventually got some media traction, under the tag-line "Cardboard City", but few people knew where it was, and even fewer visited. ..... I only made the mistake of going down there once, after that I just dodged the traffic.
Eventually it was cleaned out, and the center of the junction was used to build London's first Imax cinema. I guarantee that few of its patrons know what that place looked like 25 years ago!
The homeless had built quite an encampment under the southern end of Waterloo bridge in London, just a minute's walk from Waterloo station (the largest station in the UK, and one of the largest in the world), and under the end of the bridge that leads across to the West End, London's theater district. It is also just minutes now from where thousands come every day to ride the London Eye and (in the other direction) visit the Tate Modern and the recreation of the Globe Theatre. I accidentally strayed once into the public "underpass" walkways that had originally been dug to enable commuters to avoid having to cross the roads by dodging traffic. The homeless had built shacks and shelters from pallets and cardboard boxes, and fires here and there filled the area with smoke. Stray dogs wandered around, and there were piles of blankets and clothing scattered here and there; some piles had people sleeping under them. It was like some post-apocalytic movie scene. "Escape from London" could have been filmed down there. ..... It eventually got some media traction, under the tag-line "Cardboard City", but few people knew where it was, and even fewer visited. ..... I only made the mistake of going down there once, after that I just dodged the traffic.
Eventually it was cleaned out, and the center of the junction was used to build London's first Imax cinema. I guarantee that few of its patrons know what that place looked like 25 years ago!
Within walking distance from either is the Grand Century Shopping Mall which I have been going to about once a month since I lived downtown and I've never noticed anything unusual in that area except forests on both sides of the road.
The encampment was in the 'V' shaped area north of Kelley Park between Coyote Creek and Coyote Creek Trail on the following map. I suspect the people that lived downstream of Coyote Creek (North San Jose and the edge of downtown San Jose) didn't know the creek has been contaminated by the encampment for the past 6 years.
Kelley Park Map
Everyone that was interviewed by TV or newspapers that was removed from the encampment when it was closed had reasons why they wouldn't accept city provided shelter. One guy wouldn't because he had 2 pit bull dogs and he couldn't take them with him. If he is poor, how is he feeding two large pit bulls?
Last edited by Michael; Dec 6th 2014 at 4:03 am.
