A Day in Tallahassee

There's Not Much Here

Finally, Florida was looking behind me and not in front of me as Tallahassee reared its head. I can’t say much about this place, and it’s a sad way to end Florida, but I gotta be honest, overall at this point I was happy to leave it.

Tallahassee has the distinction of being one of the cities with the most people on the street. It’s doesn’t have the most homeless in the states, but it feels like it has homeless everywhere, because even in nice neighborhoods, you can see it. Tallahassee is a shadow of its former self. You can clearly see a rich/poor mechanism in a way you don’t see in a lot of cities.

It’s not all bad. Downtown is pretty. The little buildings and stuff that are historic are nice to see, and there’s definitely a remnant of a nice place inside the city. That all said, you can see the rot of abandoned businesses, buildings that haven’t been sold, and the sheer glut of empty on the main streets. Walking around looking for a place to sleep, I got to see it all. In fact, I know how full it is because my first place I was going to take was taken by three different homeless people in different spots.

So let’s get to the rules of how to find a place to sleep in cities. Now, it’s not something I can recommend doing, but since it’s part of the adventure, I’ll tell you.

First option is to find a homeless shelter. Some places are easier about it than others. Vancouver, Redding and Sudbury were excellent for welcoming people in. I tried getting shelters in Truillo and Boston. Those were much more difficult. The shelters were there but the trust wasn’t. Boston and New York especially require going through a process.

Florida by and large outside of the larger cities don’t have a lot of shelters. The one in Melbourne that I saw is closing this year. There are services in the state, but not stuff that other states have. Florida the state is by and large unsympathetic to the plight of the homeless and less well off. There are services in the state, but not places to go.

So when you don’t have a place to go, you look for them in what I call plain sight places. Hiding in plain sight seems counterintuitive, but by and large, if you’re out there, people leave you alone. I found a funeral home to sleep on. Me and the concrete got well acquainted. Now there’s one last rule: Be out after the sun comes out. When you’re on the streets, you have to get up and gone. Don’t be a nuisance. Do your thing and go.

I found fields, churches and funeral homes to be good places. They worked for me. Now again, I’m not condoning it, just telling you to do what you got to do if you go out there.

The next day I went to starbucks and worked through the rain. I didn’t have an eventful time here, as it was a maintenance day. I did work for a client, wrote substacks like this, and prepped to get out of the state.

I was excited. Florida was a rough experience for me. There are amazing people in the state, and I’m glad I got to see what I did, but the state is a rough place. It wasn’t for me, and I’m a big enough man to acknowledge this truth. I’m sure it’s great for others, but it’s not for me.

That night I caught the bus and went straight to New Orleans. I was excited to finally go west. February had come, the last freeze was finished, and I was going to experience a more normal weather for the year. Kind of.