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TurdF3rgusontoday at 3:48 AM4 repliesview on HN

You will encounter homeless people in libraries, because it's one of the few public spaces that won't kick them out. Your reaction to that shouldn't be to hate and avoid libraries though. It should be to appreciate them more.


Replies

arghnonametoday at 8:02 AM

I don't go to libraries very often anymore because so often they're effectively homeless shelters. Should I not mind this? I don't know, 'should' is doing a lot here, but the truth is I used to love going to libraries, browsing books, and soak up the general scholastic atmosphere.

Homeless shelter just isn't that much fun for me. If I want to be virtuous and go to a soup kitchen or otherwise try to interact with and help homeless people, I'll just do that.

What people in general don't seem to realize by taking things that almost everyone likes (libraries, as one example) and requiring one to go through some virtue test to go is that in the end, public support for the good is going to collapse, it will lose funding, and then no one can have it.

I think we're going to lose libraries.

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gadderstoday at 9:22 AM

Sounds safe: https://ciceroinstitute.org/news-media/more-than-50-of-homel...

"In 8 states, over 50% of unsheltered homeless individuals are registered sex offenders.

National average: ~13% when including those with “unknown addresses.” "

eudamoniactoday at 2:27 PM

I hate and avoid homeless people. They're often in the library. Therefore...

I've had this idea for a business kicking around for awhile, basically a private library with membership fees. It would have all the accomodations you wish a library would have but that it can't have due to being public commons, like free coffee, private reading rooms, locker storage, and of course no vagrants.

vascotoday at 5:33 AM

The guy didn't said he hated it, you did. He just said he avoided it. I would too. The same way I wouldn't want to hang out at a homeless shelter (and why many homeless themselves avoid any places with many other homeless people).

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