The deployment of so-called defensive architecture is in the news again. This time the controversy is in the public realm, as San Francisco considers a fence to keep homeless out of McCoppin Hub.
"There are many proposed solutions for the city’s homeless problems: more housing, more treatment, more funding, more tough love," writes Adam Brinklow. "The latest proposal is a fence around a troubled plaza."
The fence in question would go up around McCoppin Hub, a public square near Market and Valencia Street.
Local blogger Michael Petrelis broke the news that McCoppin Hub will be fenced in as an anti-homeless measure by Labor Day.
Brinklow sums up the trouble with using a fence as a deterrent to the homeless:
There would appear to be a built-in contradiction here: If the plaza is a public space, the public should presumably have access to it. "Installing this fence will not only keep the homeless out, it will keep all the rest of us locked outside too," the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence complained in an online petition circulated last year.
The article also includes a poll to ask readers whether they support the fence. At the time of this writing, 472 respondents have weighed in on the question, with 61 percent saying the fence should go up.
FULL STORY: Poll: Should the City Fence the Homeless Out of Plazas?
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The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
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The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association