Los Angeles’s Union Station is an architectural gem combining a distinctive Mission Revival exterior with an art decor interior. In normal times, it serves as a grand thoroughfare for more than 100,000 Californians commuting in and out of the city daily. Like most of the metro area’s public spaces these days, it also usually serves as a de facto homeless camp.

Hence, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’s decision to move this year’s Oscars ceremony to Union Station seemed inexplicable from the start. Sure, far fewer people may be commuting into the still highly locked down city these days, but the pandemic has exacerbated California’s already dreadful homelessness crisis. So really, was the Academy going to bet on the optics of shooing away scores of homeless folks to fete a bunch of Balenciaga-bedecked brats who didn’t even make decent films this year?