#HTE

Today’s Urban Design Observation: Leapfrogging Baggage Train Transportation Method

This is one of the homeless gentlemen that resides in my neighborhood.

All of his life’s belongings are loaded onto three carts he’s acquired.

I’ve had ample opportunity to observe this man, who migrates around daily but always travels back to the same scaffolding to sleep under. He is headed that way now. But the three carts he has are too wide/heavy to pull all at the same time. So what he does is leapfrog. He lashes two carts together and pulls them as a single unit (A) for about half a block, then returns to the single cart (B), pulls it past the first two carts about half a block, and so on.

I’m dying to get an up-close look at the two lashed carts, which I only catch glimpses of when he passes me closely; he has his things bundled and arranged very neatly. He has a folding table and a grid-like store display on there, a piece of plywood, and a wire shelf, all of which he uses to construct a makeshift shelter. He’s also got bungie cords and durable blue plastic bags that contain what I think is clothing.

These photos are all shot long because, as most of you know I am sensitive about sticking a camera in people’s faces. People routinely and wordlessly snap photos of me and my (admittedly photogenic) dogs, without asking and even blocking our path, when I am walking them and I find it unconscionably rude.