Homeless Negotiations of Public Space in Two California Cities
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Homeless Negotiations of Public Space in Two California Cities By CORY ANDREW PARKER DISSERTATION Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in GEOGRAPHY in the OFFICE OF GRADUATE STUDIES of the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS Approved: Patsy Eubanks Owens, Chair Susan Handy Bruce Haynes Committee in Charge 2019 i Copyright © by Cory Parker All rights reserved. This dissertation or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a review. Abstract People experiencing homelessness find movement in urban public space constrained. Scholars have attributed this lack of accessibility to the consequences of anti-homeless laws, social exclusions and economic factors. I draw from spatial and mobility theory to frame movement and transgression within the partitioned city. I accompanied homeless people on walking interviews to discuss their movements, transgressions, and public space they occupied. I also mapped people’s behavior in public space, comparing the movements of homeless people with the movements of people with homes. The results indicate homeless people negotiate urban space by walking, biking and riding the bus in a manner that maximizes their ability to manage relationships as they travel. Constraints in movement arise from the partitioning of the city, i.e. the division into public and private, making it difficult to both rest in public space and move in socially-acceptable manners. The findings suggest cities can improve homeless movement through setting limits on the automobile and removing limits (or partitions) on informal patterns of movement. ii Acknowledgements Thank you to Patsy Owens for offering encouragement and academic wisdom, providing space for me to work and collaborating with me on some great coursework. Susan Handy patiently mentored me as I wrestled with qualitative methods in the world of transportation, as well as supporting me as part of the Institute of Transportation Studies. Bruce Haynes challenged me in my fieldwork and in the writing to strive for depth in relating to and describing others. I also owe a debt to the faculty in landscape architecture who offered critique on my work, assisted with teaching and celebrated when things went well… Sheryl-Ann Simpson, Michael Rios, Brett Milligan and Claire Napawan. Robert Hijmans provided opportunities to connect with others and guidance on life as a scholar as the Chair of the Geography Graduate Group. The staff in Geog- raphy and Landscape Architecture were incredibly supportive with information and a listening ear, particularly Carrie Armstrong-Ruport and Meaghan Lidd. I am grateful to the Social Sciences Research Council for initial funds for a pilot study on homelessness in several California cities. The Pacific Southwest Region’s University Transportation Center funded one season of fieldwork and a quarter of focused writing, in which I was able to refine my arguments, spend more time with homeless bicyclists and write three chapters. I am one beneficiary of their enduring commitment to holistic research in transportation. The dissertation would not have been possible without a circle of personal support. Within the Geography Graduate Group, Kate Munde-Dixon, Dustin Tsai and Ofurhe Igbinedion kept me sane. Sahoko Yui offered both academic and personal insights into the research and writing process, as well as the best co-instructor I could imagine. Outside of the academic cloister, Dave Boughton and the Friday group of stalwarts provided consistent emotional support. Harlin and Nancy’s gesture of providing money for books removed an initial worry of mine (and now I have a great reference library). I am grateful to my parents and Amy for asking good questions and providing time away from the research. Finally, I’d like to thank Kathy, Elise and Wren for their support and love. They showed incredible patience when the writing seemed like it would never end and a reminder of what is temporary and what is eternal. iii Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................iii Table of Contents ..........................................................................................................iv List of Figures ...............................................................................................................vii List of Maps .................................................................................................................. ix Chapter 1 - Introduction 1 The problem of homeless mobility ............................................................................... 2 Study purpose and scope ............................................................................................. 4 Scope 5 Research question 8 Project Significance ....................................................................................................... 9 Study Overview ............................................................................................................. 9 Chapter 2 – A Socio-mobile Dialectic 11 Socio-spatial Exclusion ................................................................................................ 12 Socio-spatial dialectic 13 Socio-spatial exclusion 14 Partitioning 16 Transportation exclusion ............................................................................................. 17 Differential mobility 19 Socio-mobile dialectic ................................................................................................. 20 Homelessness and the Mobile Identity ....................................................................... 22 The experience of homelessness 23 Homeless transgression 26 Homeless mobility 28 Socio-Mobile Conceptual Framework ......................................................................... 29 Chapter 3 – Mobile Ethnography and Mapping of Movement 31 Relationship of theory to methodology ...................................................................... 31 Mobile ethnography .................................................................................................... 33 Field 34 Mobility, participation, observation 38 Interviews and recording 41 Critical cartography and movement ........................................................................... 44 Neighborhood mapping 45 Behavior mapping and mobility 46 Counter-mapping 51 In the field – ethics of observation .............................................................................. 52 iv Extended visualization analysis ................................................................................... 54 A dialogue between observer and participant (and urban landscape) 55 A second dialogue of local processes and broader forces 59 An expanding dialogue with theory 59 Chapter 4 – Homeless patterns of movement in the urban landscape 61 Who is experiencing homelessness? People without place ........................................ 61 Counting the uncounted 62 Homeless people observed in this study 66 Where do homeless people go? – Places without people ......................................... 67 Sacramento homeless spaces 68 Santa Cruz homeless spaces 72 Modes of Travel of Homeless People ......................................................................... 76 Automobility system 78 Bicycling 82 Walking 86 The closed system of the bus 92 The open system of light rail 98 Comparison of homeless travel modes in two cities 101 Chapter 5: Homeless Bicyclist and Accessibility 103 Accessibility and the challenge of homeless movement .......................................... 104 A Socio-Mobile Approach to Examining Bike Mobility............................................. 108 Setting and population of homeless bicyclists 109 Analysis of bicycle movement 110 The Movement of Homeless Bicyclists ...................................................................... 111 The Interactive Accessibility of Bicycling while Homeless ........................................ 113 Destinations and interactions 115 The bicycle and access to urban space ..................................................................... 121 Chapter 6: The ‘Move Along’ - Rest as Transgression 123 The partitioning of the city and exclusion of homeless people ................................ 127 Sacramento’s tramps, hobos and homeless 128 Santa Cruz’s tramps, hobos and homeless 131 The effects of partitioning of cities 136 Urban removal of homeless inhabitants – the “move along” .................................. 137 Keeping them moving - enforcement 141 Inhabiting space to manage visibility ........................................................................ 144 Inhabiting urban wilds 152 Inhabiting eddies of transportation 154 Transgression of socio-spatial partitioning ................................................................ 160 Chapter 7: Transgression, politics and homeless movement 163 Negotiation within and against existing mobility infrastructure ............................... 164 Jaywalking and biking against traffic 165 v Trespass 168 Fare evasion 171 Transgression of social norms of travel behavior ...................................................... 173 Transgression of the partitioning of movement .......................................................