A San Francisco library is turning off Wi-Fi at night to keep people without housing from using it

withersailor@aussie.zone to World News@beehaw.org – 153 points –
A San Francisco library is turning off Wi-Fi at night to keep people without housing from using it
theverge.com
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Read the article, the problem isn't their online activities but the wifi attracting them to cluster outside the library building. The residents don't want the homeless hanging around outside the library and turning off the wifi would reduce their incentive to be there.

Maybe instead of taking things away, we should be providing tax funded public wifi in more places. The internet isn't a luxury anymore, and those without homes still have a right to access it (yeah even at night).

brilliant. it's practically a utility at this point; i hate going places and seeing weird shitty scam 'freeATTwifi' everywhere. public internet now.

Sure, but that’s not the responsibility of the library in question. This article is great, an obvious victim and an obvious villain for easy consumption and allegiance, but there’s definitely more to the story. If the homeless are making the lives of the library staff a living hell then I don’t see a problem with this honestly.

The actions of the library are cowardly and the justifications of the residents in the area are abhorrent. God forbid we do something to help those in need, let's just push them out of sight instead.

The residents don’t want the homeless hanging around outside the library and turning off the wifi would reduce their incentive to be there.

i mean bluntly, sucks to be them? but get over it. homeless people are people too! the obvious solution is to provide them with social services first if this is the objection (which, to be clear, it generally isn't--it's that homeless people exist and aren't out of mind)

classic nimby bs. what they dont realize of course is that getting rid of wifi isnt gonna stop them from congregating, theyll just congregate elsewhere

Which is the point. That's a win for the NIMBYs who got this policy enacted. It's literally no longer in their backyard.