I guess I've always been used to them, but they sometimes scare the crap out of my grad school friends and out-of-town visitors. It's part of the fallout from the city's Great Emptiness, I think... there are probably more panhandlers in bustling major cities, but there's also more foot traffic in general, especially after 5 on weeknights.
I'm surprised that they're showing up more north of 8, though. We used to have a conspiracy theory that the police rounded up random homeless people who appeared in the O.C. and shipped 'em back to the Cass Corridor.
Nine times out of ten, they seem more threatening than they really are. I just wish there was some way to reverse some of the decisions that turned a lot of these folks out on the streets in the early 1990s, which is when I first remember seeing them.
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