21 September 1996

Mercedes Envy

A number of San Francisco's homeless people have developed a strange attraction to luxury automobiles. Some jaywalk in front of expensive cars; the stupid ones do it in the hope that good fortune will literally rub off on them; the smarter ones know that an "accident" may yield a generous insurance settlement.

Some of the other homeless people who've been talking with the Buddhists living in the Tenderloin have started to leave offerings on expensive cars. As always, a lot gets lost in the translation.