I disagree strongly with Dyna on this one. And I can see this being hard for
most listmembers (well educated and gainfully employed) to relate to. But the
undersides of bridges are a very important resource for the homeless and for
some travellers (hitchhikers, people on the tramp, etc).
Bruce, where did poor people find shelter before the highway builders provided them bridges all over the place? They built shelters, in fact during the depression there was a whole shantytown in Camden along the river. Even today most homeless people find better places to sleep than under bridges.
I've spend hundreds
(not an exaggeration!) of nights traveling with little or no money (sometimes
on the way to a job, sometimes just for the heck of it) from Miami to British
Columbia, from Maine to southern California, and bridges have saved me on many
an occasion.
As have I, and I quit sleeping under bridges about 3 decades ago. I carry a bivy sack, 3 season sleeping bag, and foam pad when traveling by motorcycle. During the winter In my car I carry 2 sleeping bags and the sleeping pad. You need to get a good nights sleep so you'll be awake and aware the next day, so I try to sleep as far from the highway and it's noise as possible. I also keep good track of the weather forecast so I seldom have to seek the cover of a bridge in a downpour.
You are right that they are not the best defence against the cold
(often having a "wind tunnel" effect) but they sure can't be beat when it is
raining and you don't have any other place to go--especially when you are new
to a town and haven't had time to explore other options. Setting up tents in
urban areas just isn't realistic (except in some cases in wooded park areas)--
they are way too high profile, attracting the attention of kids, others who may
wish you harm, and the police. (But by the way, many tents are self-supporting
these days and don't require tie downs anyways).
I have one of the self supporting tents too- what do you do when it blows away and gets trashed by the traffic or lost when you get out of it? I try not to stay in big cities anyway- I can usually find a cheap but decent motel in the smaller towns and seldom need my camping gear.
Access to the undersides of bridges can literally mean the difference between
staying safe and dry (and thus warm) or getting a drenching and being exposed
to hypothermia. In the vast majority of locations, people under bridges are
more or less invisible to citizens and cause very few problems.
Again, if you're going to be traveling or homeless you need to at least plan for the weather. If I were homeless I would have probably headed to a warmer winter climate about a month ago, unless I had a vehicle or some good reason to stay here.
This brings to mind a related issue--Minneapolis has done almost everything it
can to drive out of town low cost motels that might provide an alternative for
people needing short term inexpensive shelter.
Agreed- like many cities Minneapolis seems intent on pricing the seniors, working families, etc.. that patronize affordable motels out of our city.
If you were to try sleeping out in urban areas for awhile or even just to
sincerely talk with and listen to the people who do use the bridges for
shelter, I doubt you would still feel that "all together barring off the
underside of bridges does no harm to the homeless."
Again, I speak from experience, and the underside of a bridge would be my last choice for shelter. BTW, I could build a decent shelter out of a yard shed kit, a wood stove, and some insulation and odds and ends for about a thousand dollars. Plop it down in the middle of some obscure public land and likely no one will ever bother you. I have also compared notes with homeless people in my 'hood and most of them know better than to sleep under bridges. In fact, they consider the bridges a squat for newbies who don't know better and drunks. I have no central heat, it was 42 degrees in my bedroom last night, and I slept well.
holed up in Hawthorne,
Dyna Sluyter
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