[jami]

We had a fareless area in downtown Portland for many years. It was no sketchier than the routes going to the 'burbs, and it wouldn't have made sense as a "makeshift homeless shelter", since the free part was only a few miles. My understanding of why they started charging is that our country suddenly ran itself out of money paying for simultaneous stupid wars and giant tax cuts for wealthy people, and our city couldn't pick up the slack any other way.

You say "homeless people", I say "George Bush", I guess.

[snogglethorpe]

For whatever reason, Seattle seems to have a particularly huge homeless population. They're far more noticeable (and more aggressive) there than they are in other cities I've lived in. Or maybe they're more concentrated or something, I dunno.

Anyway, although other cities have homeless problems, in Seattle it often seemed like public places would be swamped with virtual armies of them, and dealing with that is a real issue.

[Disclaimer: I haven't actually lived in Seattle for 20 years, and have only visited since.]

[zanny]

If you have a homeless population that sizable and aggressive, you have bigger problems to worry about than people stinking up free buses.