No Parking

We saw a lot of these small tents in the city as we walked around today. Many were under freeways, wedged between columns and fences, or simply right on the curb. The people seemed to have a lot of possessions for this mobile lifestyle-- overflowing carts and bulging trash bags and wagons piled high, all of it arranged around the tents. This particular encampment is in a tiny alley off a one block street in an old industrial part of town that probably won't even exist in a year. New buildings are going up like crazy, construction everywhere, places we thought we knew that we don't recognize any more.
We were on our way to have lunch in the new Twitter building; the entire ground floor, called The Market, is full of food stands--coffee, pizza, sushi, chocolate, a full bar, groceries, fresh juice, tacos, sandwiches and curries. It was crazy busy and loud and the food was tasty. The building itself was rehabbed and retains a lot of interesting wood and stone detail. At our communal table we talked with a guy who has something to do with a Below Market Value housing project going up across the street, but it does not address the needs of the tent folks down the block.