Haiku for Anti-Hobo Benches
ADB-160322#159
Disciplinary
Architecture keeps the bums
Off our precious seats
There’s a big difference between solving a problem and pushing a problem out of your jurisdiction.
Do a Google image search for disciplinary architecture—a condescending term for punishing vagrants and ne’er do wells (skateboarders)—and you’ll find modern, polite versions of the iron maiden.
There are bars and spikes, balls and rails, all designed to keep the unwanted away from our precious spaces.
Instead of acknowledging homelessness or providing areas for bored youth, we ‘encourage’ them to move on, to be someone else’s problem.
There are humans who deal with causes and humans who deal with symptoms.
We expend an inordinate amount of time and energy designing things to deal with symptoms because we hate changing our behaviour (Exhibit A. Climate change, Exhibit B. Childhood obesity, Exhibit C. Cancer rates).
This is not architecture; this is architorture—cynically designed to allow the neighborhood to ignore the disenfranchised.
Other than that, it’s a really pretty bench painted by happy children from well-off homes, two blocks away from my house.
Should I remove the anti-hobo bars in the middle of the night? Or should I volunteer at a local drop-in centre or homeless shelter?
Wait, I know what will help the most: I’ll take a picture of it, write a poem, and post it on social media.
TPlease recommend if
this poem offends your sense
of entitlement
