Walking In San Diego

Camera: Leica SL
Exposure: 1/10
Aperture: f/1.7
Focal Length: 35mm
ISO: 800

At this year’s SfN meeting, I could not afford a hotel closer in, so I stayed about 7 miles out in Mission Valley rather than downtown. The good news was this afforded me the opportunity to walk back and forth from the meetings. The bad news was that I walked back and forth from the meetings… I say that because for all the promise that San Diego has to offer, there are some real challenges across the country that are very much manifested in San Diego.

Homelessness is an upward trend over the past couple of decades as an increasing number of people are unable to afford housing and are increasingly marginalized. While this is a global phenomenon, I have seen it most acutely in large California cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego where the weather is nicer and the social infrastructure that supports people in lower socioeconomic brackets is unraveling.

On this trip, I made 3 roundtrip 7 mile walks on 3 separate paths through wealthy neighborhoods and not so wealthy neighborhoods and you could smell human urine *everywhere* along with the debris and detritus of humanity, living without a home. I walked past a protest and picket line (I’ve never crossed a picket line), saw some beauty, some ruin, and too many scooters lining the streets arrayed like garbage blocking sidewalks. Don’t get me wrong, I want to like the last mile economy, but these things are a hazard to pedestrians, particularly the visually impaired.

I don’t know what the solution is, but we are clearly letting people fall through the social safety nets in America. Contrast this with what I saw in Helsinki a month or so ago and the contrast could not have been more dramatic with a system that has a broad and tightly woven net to prevent people from falling through. Affordable housing and healthcare for everyone should be a start. I cannot believe that we are headed into 2019, and people in the United States of America are not guaranteed a roof over their heads or access to healthcare.