The Cabbage Patches of Silicon Valley

In the the canyons of dirt and concrete, along and below the freeway exits into San Jose, lay "cabbage patches."

"The Wiggses lived in the Cabbage Patch. It was not a real cabbage patch, but a queer neighborhood, where ramshackle cottages played hop-scotch over the railroad tracks. There were no streets so when a new house was built, the owner faced it any way his fancy prompted."

Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch

by Alice Hegen Rice

Originally published in 1901

👉The Wiggs family consists of 3 girls and 2 boys. The eldest boy is 15. The father has died of alcoholism. The eldest son soon passes away due to pneumonia and exposure from the abusive working conditions of the time. The woman next door is crippled and has been bedridden for a decade. A little boy in another shack is missing a leg. There is little coal for heat, the handmade shacks are from board and tent and tin. The fortunate may have a tiny coal burning stove. I cannot help but see the echo.

1901. There were no safety nets then, there are no safety nets now.

I haven't seen any self-driving cars this trip to my home of Silicon Valley. They can be very annoying, you know. They always seem to go at slightly under the speed limit.

It is a zero-sum game, this American economy.

I use to say that American poverty comes with a refrigerator, and I still stand with that. For many Americans, it's a grinding kind of indeterminable poverty that includes scrambling to keep the cell phone on and finding free WiFi.

Yet something, some threshold, some critical mass has been hit because not a single person I meet doesn't feel deeply disturbed by the number of people now living on the streets of America. This is not a result of COVID, I wrote about the cabbage patches in 2018.

I'm a Californian and I'm ashamed. California’s auditor is unable to determine how 24 billion dollars over 5 years (2018 - 2023) to fund at least 30 housing and homeless programs has been effective or helped in any way.

I want a massive Federally funded Housing First program in this country with no barriers. I want to vote where my tax dollars go. I’ll make it easy. Hey, Federal Government! Just put a bunch of boxes for me to check or leave blank on my tax return.

[ ] Climate [ ] Childcare [ ] Housing [ ] More Guns [ ] Less Guns [ ] More Bombs [ ] Less Bombs [ ] Job Training [ ] Process Immigrants [ ] Build a Wall [ ] Healthcare

You get the idea.

Without running water, without heat, without light in the darkness, how does one escape the cabbage patch?