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Laws restricting the behaviors of homeless people in public places are proliferating. Proponents argue that such “quality of life” laws will encourage homeless people to move off the streets and into services, and thereby improve their quality of life. Critics argue that these laws target vulnerable individuals and show little evidence of improving the lives of homeless people. To inform this debate, this article reports data from two separate surveys of Colorado homeless residents regarding their experiences with quality of life policing, supplemented by a review of police data regarding contacts, ticketing, and arrests of homeless people. The data reveal that the oft-stated goal of improving the quality of life of homeless residents through “tough love” policing campaigns has not been met. Instead, most homeless residents report their lives have become more challenging, more stressful, and less safe following expansion of quality of life policing.

Since World War II, San Francisco has been transformed by the high-rise postindustrial restructuring of central cities and by corresponding gentrification pressures. In one low-income inner-city district, the Tenderloin, residents organized and fought successful battles against the gentrifying growth regime through the 1980s. Moving beyond being a reactionary antigrowth movement, Tenderloin activists have advanced a proactive, neighborhood-sensitive regime, with a social-production capacity of its own, represented by the neighborhood's nonprofit housing movement. Their example teaches about the neighborhood-responsive progressive forces that characterize San Francisco and about the potential of grassroots mobilization as a response to international economic restructuring.

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Engaging students in the design, administration, and postelection analysis of an exit poll can be an excellent experiential learning activity. Lelieveldt and Rossen (2009) argue that exit polls are a "perfect teaching tool" because they provide students with a cooperative (rather than competitive) learning experience; help students better connect theory, methodology, and course substance; and allow students to move outside of the classroom by branching out into the community. As professors at the University of Colorado, Denver (UCD), we have organized student exit polling during the 2008 and 2010 elections in the Denver area for research methods and elections classes. Although we have found these exit polls to be rewarding experiences for instructors and students alike, the reality is that conducting an exit poll with a group of polling neophytes, in the confines of a single semester, can be challenging. In this article, we discuss strategies and issues for instructors to consider when using an exit poll as an experiential learning exercise.