Last year at this time, I brought guests from out of town to see an O.C.T. play.  Walking the short 2 blocks was very unpleasant and it's something I'll never forget.  Travelers took up much of the sidewalks and tried to engage us in the 'fun' they were having.  We had to carefully weave through and ignore them.  They were practically in our face---fun for them, but it felt like taunting to us.  Plus, we had somewhere to be on time and this experience was made even more annoying and stressful.   This wasn't the only time I had unpleasant experiences.   I don't enjoy going downtown because of this and therefore, go rarely.   It's not always unpleasant, but I'm tired of bracing myself for the worst almost constantly!  
Kitty Piercy was astute to differentiate between travelers and homeless a few years ago...and I take issue with the former, not the latter.