Equity

Abstract

A recurring theme of this book is that behind the picture postcard image of successful cities are profound inequities. Staying at the downtown Berkeley YMCA¹ from August to November 2000, I was shocked to discover how many low-wage workers called this budget hotel accommodation home. I also observed men and women sleeping rough. Indeed, by 2003 street homelessness had attracted such public concern that the issue dominated the San Francisco mayoral race (Calvan 2003). I regularly met the same ‘guests’ in the one communal kitchen and this way got to know the work routines of two African American men, Sol and Dino, both long-term residents of the YMCA and experts in the art of living frugally. It was Sol who advised me not to store food in the open shelves provided. Instead, he had a brown paper sack (the sort routinely provided by US supermarkets) as his ‘larder’ and used this to carry sugar, peanut butter and other condiments to and from his bedroom, along with a small cool-box. Most meals consisted of ramen instant noodles, hot-dogs and Pop-Tarts: those heavily processed foods which require only basic kitchen preparation. That both men were unhealthily overweight was a consequence of them camping out rather than over-eating.