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In November, San Francisco’s homeless residents living near a pet adoption clinic in the Mission District got some 400-pound, beeping, whirring new neighbours courtesy of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Frustrated by repeated break-ins and vandalism, the organization had posted robot security guards outside its building. The SPCA has denied intending to harass the homeless people camping nearby, but harass them the robots did, recording their activities on video and causing some to move their tents because of the noise and surveillance.

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The robots quickly became a symbol of San Francisco’s inequality problems, which many blame on the growing number of high-paying tech giants in the city. Those companies have brought massive economic growth to the region, but also skyrocketing rents, worsening gridlock and a growing homeless population.

There is good potential to make Amazon actually work in Toronto if the terms are negotiated early on, if it's not a carte blanche Abdullah Snobar, executive director of the DMZ

Those problems, experts say, may befall Toronto if it ever succeeds in becoming the location for Amazon.com Inc.’s second headquarters, a competition that in January was narrowed down to 20 possible sites, including Canada’s most populous city.