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walkable cities mean sittable cities
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this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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... A public bench every block is insane? You sound suburban 😆
Seriously, look at the density of public benches and bus stops and seating areas in any European metropolis or dense urban center. A bench every three minutes' walk isn't crazy. It's normal for any city built for the needs of people rather than the needs of cars.
Where I live, unfortunately, a lot of benches have been removed. Because unhoused people sit and lay on them and our authorities think the best way to solve the "homeless problem" is to take the benches away. Which doesn't help unhoused people and hurts everyone else. Loathsome.
I seriously doubt they removed seats because people were sitting on them.
More likely it was costing too much money.
At least in my city, some people don’t just sit on a seat (or sitable landscaping feature like a low wall). They eat on them, drink alcohol, leave behind food scraps rats eat the food, bottles get smashed, some people even go to the toilet next to the seat, etc. And yes - there are rubbish bins and toilets nearby.
Sometimes it’s worse, bloodstains, fights, etc.
The only parts of the city that have seats are cleaned three times a day and heavily policed with plain clothes officers on foot patrolling the area 24/7/365. That cost wasn’t necessary 10 years ago but it is today. We could go into why but that’s largely irrelevant.
Really? With all the awful shit that cities do to homeless populations, this is hard to believe?
Check out some examples of "hostile architecture". Cities will dump a ton of money on making areas unusable for anything other than walking. Hell, there's no benches at all where I live, and instead there's signs at major intersections saying it's illegal to gove money to the homeless, and I've seen much worse in other cities.