Walking home from work I took a route through downtown for the first time in a while. Everything was boarded up with big sheets of plywood. There were police everywhere; gathered in small groups of two or three, looming overhead on horses, parked on every street corner silently but with the lights flashing. They've wheeled in mobile security camera systems too. Large groups of unhoused people were sleeping near the fountains, surrounded by nice, modern-looking apartment buildings and condos that are likely not full.

After I passed all of that, I walked by a sign in the shape of a waving guy indicating that the place I'd just left was the "Downtown Improvement Zone." Nice work, I guess.