Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Homelessness in the MBTA Subway Station

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. ✗plicit 23:42, 26 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Homelessness in the MBTA Subway Station[edit]

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Homelessness in the MBTA Subway Station

There are at least two problems with this article. First, it is an edge case as to whether it satisfies general notability. Second, more seriously, it is a statement of opinion by the author, and as such is a non-neutral point of view. Neutral point of view is the second pillar of Wikipedia. The opinion appears to be that housing the homeless will alleviate the problem of homelessness in the subway system, which is probably true but is an opinion. Rewriting this into a neutral discussion of what reliable sources say about homeless in the Boston subway system would not leave much, since the sources do not provide much.

Number	Reference	Remarks	Independent	Significant	Reliable	Secondary
1	mbta.com	A history of the Boston transit system	Yes	Not about the subject	Yes	No
2	Boston Globe	Editorial calling for end to homelessness	Yes	Yes	Yes, although a statement of opinion, and so a reliable report of the opinion of the newspaper	No, a primary statement of opinion
3	Boston Herald	About homelessness in the subway system	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
4	Boston Globe	About armrests in middle of subway benches	Yes	No	Yes	Yes

This article was moved to draft space by User:WhoAteMyButter once as not ready for article space (and it was not ready for article space), but was moved back to article space by the author. Robert McClenon (talk) 22:47, 19 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the deletion sorting lists for the following topics: Discrimination, Transportation, and Massachusetts. Robert McClenon (talk) 22:47, 19 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Delete: This is primarily a personal persuasive essay, not an encyclopedia article. There's no evidence of notability; these sources strike me more as run-of-the-mill coverage. There's no indication that there's any substantial difference between homelessness on the MBTA and elsewhere in Boston, or between the MBTA and other transit systems. Any relevant information can go in a sentence or three at Homelessness in the United States by state#Massachusetts. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 00:02, 20 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Delete: Good grief: Wikipedia is not the editor's personal editorial column. I recommend he start a blog on Wordpress or Blogger. Now with a century's worth of abandoned tunnels and stations (Scollay Square, Adams Square, the Pleasant Street Incline, the old Broadway streetcar tunnel, etc), there's always been a homeless population in the T tunnels, but all the coverage you see about it is an "OMG the troglodytes!" article every few years in the Globe or the Herald. Ravenswing 02:10, 20 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
- I suspect a school assignment. Uncle G (talk) 02:25, 20 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Delete First of all, "Homeless in the MBTA Subway Station" is a grammatically incorrect title. It implies the article is about one singular subway station. And as has been said above, this is an essay, not an encyclopedia article. This calls for WP:TNT at best, but I don't think there's really a notable topic here either. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 13:17, 20 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Delete This is just not encyclopedic. I have to laugh at "in Boston in the winter it easily gets below freezing during the day and especially at night." In Boston in the winter there are times it does not get above freezing at all for at least multiple days, if not longer. The sentence misstates the issue. However I have to agree that "oh the troglodytes" articles rarely give us a good picture and are not the type of sources actual good encyclopedic articles can be built on.John Pack Lambert (talk) 14:31, 20 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Those articles follow a general pattern: (a) "Did you know that there are long-abandoned subway tunnels and sections under Boston?" (b) "HOMELESS people sleep in them!" (c) "Isn't it awful/dangerous/depressing?", and concluding with (d) "Gosh, the MBTA/police/National Guard/priests of Cthulhu should chase them out of there, because reasons!!" Ravenswing 23:21, 20 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Delete per WP:NOTESSAY. TartarTorte 16:07, 20 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Delete and this user should check WP:TEAHOUSE for assistance and clarification. User:力 (powera, π, ν) 22:23, 23 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.