These Green Carpets are Absolutely Distasteful!

On Thursday I went to the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association monthly meeting. I felt I was really lucky to have found such a well organized meeting. The people were wonderful, although busy, and answered any questions that I had.
The actual meeting was fairly uneventful, but I did find some humor in some of the issues the meeting addressed. The meeting, which took place on Fell street, had large windows from which pedestrians often looked in on this meeting. Apparently, this was really upset the Neighborhood Association. At the previous meeting someone had hit the window and startled several members. Members also were very annoyed with the harsh lighting of the room, they concurred that the lighting just made things look ugly. I took diligent notes but couldn't help but laugh just a tiny bit.
Shortly after the rant on the appearance of the meeting room, a homeless man appeared outside the window. I watched the members of the meeting glance at him every now and again becoming more and more annoyed. Five police officers stood in the back of the room prepared to encourage him to move onto another location, but the man gave them no reason. He just stood there looking in, with this expression that held both interest and awareness of exclusion.
He stood there for the majority of the 90 minute meeting.
It made me feel more uncomfortable than annoyed. I wondered how many in the homeless community have been pushed out of Hayes Valley in order to maintain its appearance.
The meeting also addressed the low crime of the area. Which is true, Hayes Valley has impressively low crime rates. However, if you walk 3 blocks in a different direction you are in one of the most crime ridden neighborhoods in San Francisco. I kept wondering if those meeting members were as aware of that fact, as they were of the homeless man peering at them through the dangerously large windows.