I'm glad I'm living in the land of the free, where the rich just get richer and the poor you don't ever have to see.
— Randy Newman
Two worlds were on view outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center, host this week to Expo Expo, the tradeshow for tradeshow organizers.
One was the world of wealth and conspicuous consumption; the other, the world of poverty and homelessness.
Perhaps because we're aware of the coming holidays—an occasion to reflect on good fortune—more than one attendee mentioned to me that they found Philadelphia's efforts to hide the homeless from visitors' view wanting.The homeless hovered in doorways and alleys around the convention center, and the streets were squalid, littered with their debris.
Meantime, the caviar and cocktails flowed at the Jean-Georges SkyHigh, atop the nearby Four Seasons Hotel.This kind of dichotomous display isn't what you'd expect in the US, where we're adept at hiding poverty from visitors' view. In the Philippines, yes. In Indonesia, yes. In the US, no.
But Philadelphia has bigger problems to worry about.
Visitors' discomfort be damned.
