As I was walking down the Ave, tuning out the world while listening to my iPod, making a to-do list in my head, I noticed a homeless man yelling out jibberish while holding on to his dog that looked just as homeless as the man wearing a raggedy bandana. Usually I’m immune to the homeless community around the U-district since I have been living here for three years now, but then our assignment about finding a border around the city popped in my head. Then I realized the large border between college students/working community in Seattle and the homeless community that is typically populated by the mentally disabled and addicts ranging in all ages.
Thinking about this in the sense of a “border”, I came to the conclusion that although there are often physical borders such as Nickelsville and other homeless shelters around Seattle, the main border lies within our societal behaviors. College students for example typically do not associate with the homeless community, and the homeless community does not associate with everyone else. The cultural border expands throughout most of the greater Seattle area and it seems difficult to cross into the other side of the border.
Although Seattle appears to be diverse with working adults, college students, and the homeless community walking on the same sidewalks together, we do not seem have anything more in common than sharing the same city. In reality, anyone can be homeless if they chose to be, yet, not everyone who is homeless can chose to have a home, a job, or an education. I think Nickelsville is a good example of where our borders meet because it is set up to help the homeless community get back on their feet. Although it is just temporary living and that living situation is a tent in a parking lot, it is also a starting point. They have a place where they can put their things and sleep and a chance to perhaps look for a job and move into the other side of the border.
Thinking about this in the sense of a “border”, I came to the conclusion that although there are often physical borders such as Nickelsville and other homeless shelters around Seattle, the main border lies within our societal behaviors. College students for example typically do not associate with the homeless community, and the homeless community does not associate with everyone else. The cultural border expands throughout most of the greater Seattle area and it seems difficult to cross into the other side of the border.
Although Seattle appears to be diverse with working adults, college students, and the homeless community walking on the same sidewalks together, we do not seem have anything more in common than sharing the same city. In reality, anyone can be homeless if they chose to be, yet, not everyone who is homeless can chose to have a home, a job, or an education. I think Nickelsville is a good example of where our borders meet because it is set up to help the homeless community get back on their feet. Although it is just temporary living and that living situation is a tent in a parking lot, it is also a starting point. They have a place where they can put their things and sleep and a chance to perhaps look for a job and move into the other side of the border.
Lauren,
ReplyDeleteI randomly chose your blog to read (well maybe not randomly, it was one of the few I hadn't opened yet) and I'm so glad I did! I wrote on the same topic, the social border between the homeless and the housed, but missed a point that you touched on. I'm really glad you did: the homeless, as we see them, are helpless souls, but they have stories and reasons for being in those situations. Like you said, mental health, addictions, lacking the means to turn their lives around... these things are so important to recognize and play a large part in our treatment of them. The other topic this briefs and I missed is the physical borders of districts or neighborhoods that maybe set the parameters for such dehumanizing treatment.
This will definitely be interesting to try to observe in Berlin.