Springfield MA

http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/crimreport/allcities.html

NOW....Where do you think I am right now? Springfield MA.
This place gets a low rating for its handling of the homeless problem. Another western MA town, with all the benefits of being in the state of MA but somehow getting away with being really cheap with the homeless.

Having only one shelter in the whole city for single women (as usual women who have kids get handed privilege power and status in the USA. My mother used to use this to the hilt...she'd brag about how MA would always protect and side with mothers...many women use this as a means to an end. Kids are great but it shouldn't be ALL that you've ever accomplished in your life..unless you are dead serious about forming the children into kings, princes, winners and warriors. I just don't understand anything less than kids as the ultimate art projects that excel..whatever)..that houses only 24 women and becuz the women on staff are not monsters, they sometimes take in a few more.
I was told that they are building a new shelter for women down the street...looks to me that it should have been built a long time ago.

First this rent a copette comes out of an architectural nightmare typical corporate structure and tells me that "You cant sit here and ask anyone for anything..oh and the park across the street is ours too". I need money for food and coffee, not to loiter in yer crappy little park. It was so snooty and arrogant. I'll get the address and post it later.

Then I move over to city property and a cop is all happy cuz I return a hello out of not wanting hassle as he interrupts my conversation with a citizen...he comes out of CVS later and says "Oh sweethaart, dont tell me ya beggin four change hea" (spelt phonetically in Boston speak for your entertainment) and tells me to take my money and move on. I ask about the MA state law that pan handling is legal on city property and before I can finish he interrupts (habit with this guy?) and I get that vibe like hes going to arrest me, as he says "I'm not gonna argue with you about this"... I push through but I have to keep doing what he wants which is for me to act like a little girl which works well with overly authoritative men for some reason, though one should not have to do so.
I have had more and more trauma added onto years of abuse from a tyrant mother as well as a domestic abuse situation as well as my past associates being very controlling and abusive..just by having to deal with the police repeatedly just being a traveller that they treat like every other homebum in thier city.

So Springfield has a poor subjugated population that falls into the typical traps that the System sets up to make money off thier miser-jail and drugs- and of course homelessness.

First of all dont address me as sweetheart in any interaction where you are suppposed to be professional( I am not adverse to this in normal interactions as this is a very northeast way of kindly addressing females).
Secondly I have a right to ask a question about the city's laws without being treated like your unruly stepchild.
In fact as a traveler one should ask for future reference and to tell other traveling houseless people.

In this culture up northeast and in the USA nowadays the attitude is that one gets what one deserves if one lives out of step with what the system dictates as unacceptable..yet this is the same system that is guilty of corruption and especially covert warfare not only on the public but on specific groups and specific individual persons.

So the public goes along with it and assists the corruption at the root without realizing it or they are just plain uninformed of how the con job works.

If you want to honestly investigate every houseless person and find out who is full of sh*t and who is indeed being victimized and this is the best they can make out of thier situation please do cuz I got a story for you and naming names finally would be very much fun.
And then issue me some sort of card where I can do my art/activism on the road without being screwed with becuz it deems me not a total a hole robbing the system or whatever thier problem is with most homeless people.

And if you dont like mentally ill people wandering around acting crazy then go to Reagan's grave and ask him why he let them all out onto your streets. Well at least this way the human experimentation would have to be out in public space and not within the walls of institutions..oh wait. That is whats been happening.
Duh.

So Springfield gets a crap rating for its attitude towards the homeless ( I dont think they are worldly enough to understand what a houseless traveler is becuz in other cities where the houseless seem to pass through alot they either accept thier presence more so or the harassment is more geared towards travelers who have some intel about thier rights and how to advocate for themselves.)

Here is a lovely bit about the cops here trying to ID homeless people through peeping tom methods..(were some of the girls or boys cute or something guyz? ) Typical town that assumes the world is not watching so they can do as they please.

As far as the shelter goes its like a third world country level of quality in there and the residents were annoying. However to the staffs credit they accepted me at night and the male employee from the mens shelter wanted to insure my safety. Also they are obviously crowded and working with very little. The drain is raised so the shower area that doubles as storage for the ladies clothing bins is always wet, there are only 2 showers and one bathroom.
In a city this size with a local snooty attitude towards the homeless its putting people at a disadvantage from the get go.

I told the women that they should march up to the mayors house and tell him they are camping out on his lawn or does HE have any room available becuz they certainly need a place to stay. Lucky they are building a new shelter but with the way this city treats thier homeless, what kind of corruption and treatment in future can one expect of this population?

San Francisco resources

My work on this blog should improve soon but its been hard to have limited internet access so the info and layout are not as comprehensive as I would like.

Here is what I discovered about San Fran CA,USA.
Berkeley CA is right off the BART public transit system. It is full of hippies travelers and amusing people. You can sleep on the street and food not bombs is in People's Park every day at 3 pm. However, I noticed a lack of shelters. And its not like other college towns- the UC kids are a drag in general. Unlike Boston where if your panhandling in Kenmore Sq near BU some drunk Dutch professor will sit down with you and talk and he is interested in your activism, no one here will want to deal with you at all. In Boston intelligence itself is still prized above money and status in its most raw forms- in CA your dealing with a new money sort of snobbishness and the status quo taken very seriously. Find your place among the alternative community there. Be careful as always.

San Fran is not someplace I would try to sleep outside but I have seen men doing it and they usually are in a group with a very trained and mean traveling dog (usually a pit bull mix that is very large).

Thier shelter system is typical big city and has a ghetto element to it. They are nicer than the east coast for sure.

Their is a little game with getting a bed so ask them to tell you how it really works before going into the system. I waited all day for a bed and ended up back in Berkeley becuz of the way thier system is set up. You have to have a TB test in a few days after arriving and you have to register with an ID, I dont know if this is for all of them.

In Berkeley its impossible to get computer use as UC has gotten rid of all except for strict research only (.org, .gov, .edu).

This is typical of conservative schools around the US now as they would rather block out activists than manage thier public use computers better. I dont want the kid playing video games or the old guy looking at porn next to me either while I am trying to get real work done..but these types are used as excuses to get rid of everyone who isnt part of the university usually. Keep in mind that LIBRARY employees are usually against this kind of limitation and hate having to do this...its the people in administration who make these decisions.

If only they could verify say someone like me for instance and give me a public use account that cuts out porn or video games and has a time limit on it, they would never have had the problem with the public abusing thier public use computers-which they usually get a federal grant for anyway so dont buy into them being private and doing you any big favors.

So UC is one of THOSE schools like BU, that let the public hang themselves and now have major restrictions.

San Fran seems to have good computer public access as its a major city.

This area in general is tolerant of the homeless or the traveler but you might get bored after a while.

In Berkeley there is a youth drop in(The Suitcase Clinic) that if you look young enough, are a traveler and are well behaved you can get all kinds of cool stuff as well as fed with real food. YOUTH SERVICES ARE ALWAYS MUCH BETTER IN THE USA AS THE PUBLIC DOESNT PERCEIVE THEM AS LOST CAUSES YET, OR BLAME THEM FOR THIER SITUATIONS. AMERICA LOVES FAMILIES BABIES AND CHILDREN MORE THAN HUMAN BEINGS INDIVIDUALLY AND THE GUILT FACTOR WORKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE WHO ARE HOMELESS.
The people who work this youth drop in have the best attitude I have ever seen towards homelessness. You are treated as a human being and you feel your dignity intact.

Here is at least the San Fran list of resources. Berkeley is just a place where you can show up.
HITCHHIKING IN OR OUT OF THIS AREA IS IMPOSSIBLE so you might want to take the BART train from a surrounding area. Like pick a place on the map that is very far from the city and get off there take the train in. Total paranoia of hitchers. In certain towns outside the area if you have a back pack the cops are on you 10 minutes after you arrive and will want to know your life story. Get out the camera like I did. Its profiling but even truck drivers hate Cali as the cops are restrictive.

However in Berkeley all I had to do was report one instance of obvious gang stalking harassment to police and it stopped and all the 'creeps' disappeared. You have to understand there is a faction of powerful wealthy people in this area who side with not only the homeless but activists who are targeted I would assume. Its like they just werent having it in thier town. It was pretty cool actually. Their is a fabulous little war you get to be part of between powerful liberals and the conservatives and the homeless are used to this end. Amusing as hell. Great.
And the home bums are colorful usually.

Dont get sucked in here. The circus is meant for temporary visits. Also there is something going on with ..how should I say this, illness. I got a rash when I arrived that was a bitch to get rid of and the whole time I was there I was sick with a bronchial thing as well as yellow stuff constantly coming out of my nasal passages as well as my coughed up from my lungs.
Rumor has it UC is involved in bio warfare..who knows.
But it'll be easier for the young and the very healthy.

Here are the pages I picked while there. Its not complete but it should be enough to get you by.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/21966118