News & Blogs Engineer Develops "Map the Homeless App"

West

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http://nypost.com/2015/08/10/engineer-develops-map-the-homeless-app/

New Yorkers can now try to help tackle the city’s homeless problem with a new app.

David Fox, a 25-year-old data engineer from Murray Hill, developed Map the Homeless after getting fed up with transients aggressively begging and urinating in the street — while his local politicians turn a blind eye.

The app’s users are encouraged to take photos of the quality-of-life scofflaws and upload their pictures and location to a map.

“I want to help [city officials] be able to find these people and keep them off the streets,” Fox told The Post.

Just a few weeks ago, Fox noted, one of his friends was walking to his apartment from Grand Central Terminal and spotted two homeless bums.

“He saw a guy publicly urinating on a phone booth. He saw a guy going into the garbage fetching cans,” Fox said. “It just seems to be everywhere you go.”

Fox described his app as “really simple,” adding he made sure it was compatible with both Android and iOS devices.

As people continue to add photos, Fox hopes app users will be able to locate homeless “hot spots” — alerting people to high concentrations of hobos in particular neighborhoods or streets.
 

MolotovMocktail

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“I want to help [city officials] be able to find these people and keep them off the streets,” Fox told The Post.
It's weird that this article portrays the app developer as a crusader trying to solve the problem of homelessness. It sounds more like he's annoyed by homeless people and wants to push them out of the area by putting them on blast online.
 

Tude

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What a nasty app that is. It's like one of those papers that has the page 5 (or whatever) girl and post the homeless. Does nothing to solve other than making a spectacle.
 
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iamwhatiam

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hmmm.... I think there are much better ways of going about tackling the "homeless problem" but I can see from the guy's point of view, If there are people pissing on phonebooths, sidewalks, etc. or tweakers digging thru your trash possibly stealing important information or whatever, then I can see how he thinks that "public shaming" would help deter them from continuing to do that in his neighborhood. will be interesting to see how this pans out
 
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Matt Derrick

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Man, the way we're going it's going to be illegal to be homeless soon.

Someone should prank this guy by uploading hundreds of business men pictures and plotting them on his map around his house.
 

Brother X

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Welcome to the Panopticon. Even if you opt out, you're still opted in. ::depressed::
 
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milkhauler

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Now the cops don't have to do any leg work to harrass the homeless.

Cop#1 "I'm bored, lets go have fun".

Cop#2 "Yeah! I just got this new app called The Hobo Finder 3000, and it says thiers a hidden hobo camp near a culvert 4.6 miles due south from us"

Cop#1 Kinda like a fish finder? Lets bag some fish. "Fuck Yeah Dude"!

Sent From The Future
 

dprogram

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Man, the way we're going it's going to be illegal to be homeless soon.

Someone should prank this guy by uploading hundreds of business men pictures and plotting them on his map around his house.

THIS!!!
 
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Odin

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THis makes me think of an arms race in nature. Like when a predator and prey relationship drives each species to develop new ways of defense and attack.
Say a snake eats salamanders... so the salamanders become poisonous and kill the snake... but then the snake develops an invulnerability to the specific poison bringing about the selection among offspring for more toxic survivors... and so on.

The free people of this world are going to have to become more and more creative, to keep out of the grind.

Me thinks.

PS: What a jagoff...
 

Matt Derrick

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It would be hilarious if someone found this jerks picture and wrote a script that puts his face on all the pictures uploaded.

Genius. The trolling opportunities are endless.
 
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Art101

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Yeah this POS deserves some of his own medicine for sure.I am betting this dude is some slime bag who lives in the coop on 3rd and 33rd in Murray Hill in NYC.Might be a good place to start.
 
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Odin

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It would be hilarious if someone found this jerks picture and wrote a script that puts his face on all the pictures uploaded.

::cigar:: ... ... ... yes it would be.

I coulda been clearer - I posted this 'cause I think it's fuckin scary and awful, not 'cause getting the homeless off the streets gives me a boner or something :0


No... I think we all get that.
Thanks for posting the heads up.
There are douche bags out there that will try to profit (by money... creating an app... (scumbag that did this) and off the misfortune of others.
Exposing that putrid behavior is what sites like STP should do best.
 

Mankini

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Techie gentrification...All this reminds me of "A Tale of Two Cities"....The Techies are the 21st century version of the aristocrats in the novel.

And I am Madame Defarge.
 
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Parker Free

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Why don't they just up and be honest ~ the haves would like to have the havenots/homeless "disappeared", and don't care how. I mean seriously...the guy takes issues with someone taking cans out of the trash? Has he never heard of recycling? So what if that guy makes a buck or two doing something better for the planet than the lazyasses who tossed the cans in the first place?
 

Nelco

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I'll just leave this here

I was Indianapolis in 2010 and there was a warehouse with tons of folks stuff l, next to the supermarket..by the tracks..industrial area...and I was asking around about where everyone was and was informed everyone in the warehouse was picked up in white vans...than in 2011 85% of the homebums disappeared all at once in Chattanooga.
If you check out the y spot of the tracks, in Avon, between the bridge and before the tunnel, there's a jail type camp place hidden in the woods after the bridge before the y spot on the tracks.
 
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