Fatale Abstraction

I'm not going to mention any names, but I'm going to talk trash for a moment about a city in the area wot's name starts with a big "D."

The city in question has had an inferiority complex for ever-so-long, and I think this drives its denizens to go overboard to show its wealth/quality/cosmopolitanliness (is that a word? who cares?) to the world by the most flamboyant means possible. A spot of unpleasantness which hurtled it onto the world stage some 4.5 decades back has been a major contributing factor to the low civic self-esteem, and local bigwigs have sought at every turn to demonstrate the merit of the place.

Not long back, some people got all lathered up to come up with a new, modern and ultimate (final?) solution to The Homeless Problem. Pour scores of millions of taxpayer dollars into a homeless facility which will feature storage units and a cafeteria and opportunities for jobs and training and all these people will magically get off the streets, right? Because everyone wants to work and earn their keep, right? The Man has been trampling them and keeping them down, right, and preventing them from earning a living or having a decent life of self-respect, responsibility and personal accomplishment, right? The man wants them on crack and going unbathed for weeks-- nay-- months at a time, right?

Right.

So, where was I?
Oh, yeah, million$ and million$.

It was telling that at the opening of said facility a few months back, only a few cherry-picked homeless were allowed in attendance, as the place was thronging with media there to laud the dawn of this new, halcyon age of enlightenment and other warm-and-fuzzy stuff.

Flash forward - apparently, this facility has acted as a magnet, and homeless from the surrounding states have thronged to it. Get this-- this multi-million dollar facility is designed to sleep 300 per night, yet is instead filled beyond capacity to accommodate more like about 1000. Billed as a progressive solution, this facility has a goal of helping people to recover from homelessness.

Unfortunately, down-on-their luck folk from neighboring states have flocked to the high-toned Hooverville, only to find themselves the victims of the local network of thuggish, street-hardened homeless reprobates who have moved their formal court from under overpasses and into the hallowed halls of this progressive palace. The homeless mecca, hoping to usher in a kinder, gentler and religion-free way of addressing homelessness, ensured there would be no police presence in the facility. Apparently, people from out-of-state have been robbed, beaten and even raped in that place, and yet there continues to be a no-police policy. The only way police will be allowed on premises, in fact, is if a 9-1-1 call originates from the facility.

So, now, rather than being assailed simply at intersections for money for meth and crack, folks in that county are now having their pockets picked by the local .guv to pay for the posh digs from which the reprobates run their little fiefdom.

Also, in the past several months, crime rates have doubled, trebled and quadrupled in the areas radiating from the new homeless facility. Robberies have increased dramatically, including carjackings and the like. It seems that by taking an altruistic tack on adressing the problem, the nastiness has only been compounded exponentially for the folks who live and work in the immediate area.

I'm wondering how this is supposed to be a solution? If we have to pay for them anyway, why don't we set up their free facility out in the middle of nowhere, instead of where the rest of us are trying to have a decent life? Can we buy them an island, or something? Can't we just give them a vacation (i.e., one-way ticket) to somewhere-- anywhere-- else? It'd be cheaper, even at first-class rates, and it would certainly be safer for the residents of D.

I'm just saying...