California WTF? A rant.

[Irredentist]

I spent the day in Los Angeles yesterday for a convention and, to be real, it wasn’t pretty at all. I had heard about human feces and trash in the streets but I thought that was exaggerated and hey, every city has their “bad” neighborhoods. Just in the drive to and from the venue, which was about an hour from LAX, I saw more than just some litter on the ground. I saw dozens of stuffed shopping carts blocking the sidewalks, people with giant bags of cans walking casually through traffic, drivers being hit up for spare change while waiting in line at a drive through, campsites and cardboard dwellings in virtually every open space along the freeway, tents pitched in the doorways of buildings and even streets lined with derelict, trashed out RVs (that **** would be towed away where I live).

No doubt, there are very nice areas of LA, much nicer than anything we have we live. I think, though, what I saw is an extreme example of what happens when you divorce people from any accountability for their lives and choices and, instead, place blame those who do work to take care of themselves. It actually isn’t selfish to take care of yourself so others don’t have to take care of you. Compassion is a great thing and we need social safety nets but compassion without some responsibility is just enabling and I don’t think anything I saw was beneficial to anyone.

/end rant

One of the main factors driving the increasing rates of homelessness nationwide is the systemic lack of affordable housing. The cost of rent has become so astronomically high that in some cities you will struggle to find even a single room apartment for less than a thousand dollars a month. The only likely solution to this crisis is a federally funded construction and public housing program.

 

[TheGoverness]

What are you going to be doing in LA?

Plenty of stuff: going to Hollywood, the Griffith Observatory, Venice Beach, etc. Outside of the city, I'm mainly exited for Galaxy's Edge (in Disneyland) and Magic Mountain. It's gonna be fun. :2razz:

 

[Lutherf]

I spent the day in Los Angeles yesterday for a convention and, to be real, it wasn’t pretty at all. I had heard about human feces and trash in the streets but I thought that was exaggerated and hey, every city has their “bad” neighborhoods. Just in the drive to and from the venue, which was about an hour from LAX, I saw more than just some litter on the ground. I saw dozens of stuffed shopping carts blocking the sidewalks, people with giant bags of cans walking casually through traffic, drivers being hit up for spare change while waiting in line at a drive through, campsites and cardboard dwellings in virtually every open space along the freeway, tents pitched in the doorways of buildings and even streets lined with derelict, trashed out RVs (that **** would be towed away where I live).

No doubt, there are very nice areas of LA, much nicer than anything we have we live. I think, though, what I saw is an extreme example of what happens when you divorce people from any accountability for their lives and choices and, instead, place blame those who do work to take care of themselves. It actually isn’t selfish to take care of yourself so others don’t have to take care of you. Compassion is a great thing and we need social safety nets but compassion without some responsibility is just enabling and I don’t think anything I saw was beneficial to anyone.

/end rant

Well, maybe LA County figures they need more voters. Having a huge homeless population is one way to get another seat in the House come census time.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Looks nice, for real. I live in El Paso, Tx and, to be fair, I doubt anyone would come here for a luxury vacation or booming nightlife. I like it here, a lot, myself but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I’ve always said it’s a nice place to live but you wouldn’t want to visit. Most of our city leaders are Democrats and some years back they started working on “revitalizing” our downtown. I, admittedly, scoffed at that but you know what? It is nicer.

El Paso is not a scary place and it's not even unpleasant. I've been to EP a gazillion times.
If I had the kind of career that was important to El Paso's economy I would have lived there.

There's four big production companies that pretty much get the lion's share of all the film-video business and I've worked with three of them in some capacity on gigs during the ten years I lived in TX. Two of them specialize in event gigs at conventions.
That's the majority of what they do.

Look, I did not support Garcetti's bid for Mayor but he won. Now he might soon be gone, and another person will get his job, and maybe they will be smarter about this issue, and if they are, we'll see some improvement but this much I do know:

Los Angeles will ALWAYS have more homeless because of two major factors...it costs a lot to live here and some people just don't make it and wind up homeless, and we have the great weather that attracts habitual homeless, also known as BUMS.
I personally believe that L.A. should take cues from both Salt Lake City AND San Diego but I know for a fact that liberalism doesn't cause homelessness and not all homeless are either wicked or just lazy bums, and it is far cheaper to put up some kind of subsidized housing than it is to incarcerate them all.

And by the way, other cities have a nasty habit of putting their homeless on buses and dumping them here.


NICE.

“It is maddening to hear reports from unhoused neighbors about how they are forbidden by police in neighboring cities from sleeping on sidewalks there and are directed to Los Angeles sidewalks,” said Bonin. “This is unfair and unjust and results in neighbors in LA being asked to bear the burden of solving homelessness for the entire region. Homelessness is not a problem that can be solved by pushing people into another neighborhood. We need to be on the same page as our neighbors and working collaboratively and collectively toward sustainable solutions to this urgent crisis.”

The other nasty habit is HOSPITALS dumping patients on the streets of DTLA.
But that problem IS now being addressed.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Not for “not having a home”, for breaking the law. Aren’t we a nation of laws? Homelessness is not a crime, but neither should it be a blanket defense. Should homeless people be arrested for theft? Intentionally causing property damage? Trespass?

They're not all the same. Some homeless are just plain BUMS or criminals, but some actually work and still can't afford a place to live anyway. You have to handle the criminal problem one way and the other problem with housing programs.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Plenty of stuff: going to Hollywood, the Griffith Observatory, Venice Beach, etc. Outside of the city, I'm mainly exited for Galaxy's Edge (in Disneyland) and Magic Mountain. It's gonna be fun. :2razz:

Ahhh Venice, one of my old stomping grounds.
It's not like it used to be, a little TOO gentrified now but it's fun to visit.
I had a basement studio on the Venice Boardwalk



and a house in the Abbott Kinney arts district. (don't skip Abbott Kinney!)



Miss them both a lot, but I still manage to get out to Venice at least a few times a year.

 

[Helix]

The point was to focus on what I saw. I promise, I did not seek it out.

fair enough. i'll take your word for it.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Plenty of stuff: going to Hollywood, the Griffith Observatory, Venice Beach, etc. Outside of the city, I'm mainly exited for Galaxy's Edge (in Disneyland) and Magic Mountain. It's gonna be fun. :2razz:

Have a beer at Babe Brandelli's Brig for me, definitely a fun Venice dive bar.
It's right across the street from what used to be my house.

 

[beefheart]

Plenty of stuff: going to Hollywood, the Griffith Observatory, Venice Beach, etc. Outside of the city, I'm mainly exited for Galaxy's Edge (in Disneyland) and Magic Mountain. It's gonna be fun. :2razz:

Los Feliz! Go to the Dresden for food and music!

 

[Bodi]

I spent the day in Los Angeles yesterday for a convention and, to be real, it wasn’t pretty at all. I had heard about human feces and trash in the streets but I thought that was exaggerated and hey, every city has their “bad” neighborhoods. Just in the drive to and from the venue, which was about an hour from LAX, I saw more than just some litter on the ground. I saw dozens of stuffed shopping carts blocking the sidewalks, people with giant bags of cans walking casually through traffic, drivers being hit up for spare change while waiting in line at a drive through, campsites and cardboard dwellings in virtually every open space along the freeway, tents pitched in the doorways of buildings and even streets lined with derelict, trashed out RVs (that **** would be towed away where I live).

No doubt, there are very nice areas of LA, much nicer than anything we have we live. I think, though, what I saw is an extreme example of what happens when you divorce people from any accountability for their lives and choices and, instead, place blame those who do work to take care of themselves. It actually isn’t selfish to take care of yourself so others don’t have to take care of you. Compassion is a great thing and we need social safety nets but compassion without some responsibility is just enabling and I don’t think anything I saw was beneficial to anyone.

/end rant

You must have driven through some bad areas... don't get me wrong, it is getting worse everywhere, but you can drive around LA for a couple of hours and not see the disgusting crap too... that said, San Fran is much worse than LA. Just blocks from the rich areas of downtown there are streets filled with homeless people, and I don't mean 10 or 15... I mean 60-100, it was insane... like a scene out of Escape From New York. I took a wrong turn around the Tenderloin and thank God there were two cop cars next to us as I am driving in our Lexus with my daughter. Thought it was all over for us for a couple of blocks.

 

[SDET]

Looks nice, for real. I live in El Paso, Tx and, to be fair, I doubt anyone would come here for a luxury vacation or booming nightlife. I like it here, a lot, myself but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I’ve always said it’s a nice place to live but you wouldn’t want to visit. Most of our city leaders are Democrats and some years back they started working on “revitalizing” our downtown. I, admittedly, scoffed at that but you know what? It is nicer.

I hear Juarez is rather "booming", however I prefer Monterrey. I could go for living in El Paso and spending weekends in Juarez.

 

[trixare4kids]

Do you honestly believe that ALL homeless people are just wicked? Seriously?

Red herring.

 

[Lord Tammerlain]

Not for “not having a home”, for breaking the law. Aren’t we a nation of laws? Homelessness is not a crime, but neither should it be a blanket defense. Should homeless people be arrested for theft? Intentionally causing property damage? Trespass?

If they do not have a home where should they go? They have to find a place to sleep to eat to spend their day.

They should be arrested for things that people with homes would be arrested for, so property damage, theft sure. For being in a park no, for hanging out downtown no.

If the city wants to limit pooping on the streets provide more public washrooms

 

[Grand Mal]

Considering vagrancy is illegal I don’t see the issue with jail.

Is that really the best you can do? Jail the homeless?
Tell me, how can you justify making extreme poverty illegal?

 

[EMNofSeattle]

Great idea throw people in jail for not having a home. At a cost if what $60 000 a year

No, you jail people for willfully violating the law, no law requires you have a home, there is however laws against illegal camping and laws against drug use, and parking RVs at non-authorized campsites, and having derelict vehicles on public property without valid registration.

 

[EMNofSeattle]

Is that really the best you can do? Jail the homeless?
Tell me, how can you justify making extreme poverty illegal?

Most of these people are addicts and if you make their life enough of a living hell they may choose to seek treatment.

How can you justify treating people differently under the law, if I as someone with a job and house just started parking derelict vehicles on the street and crapping on the sidewalk and dealing drugs you know full well the law would be enforced against me, as it should against them as well

 

[justabubba]

I have no doubt that the richest liberal areas of California don’t have that. Why would that be, you think?

because there are no deplorable republican trailer trash there expecting a handout
is my guess

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Red herring.

No it's NOT a red herring, based on your posts.
Do you honestly think that homelessness is a choice?
If you don't want to answer the question, just say you don't want to answer the question instead of whining about it being a red herring.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

because there are no deplorable republican trailer trash there expecting a handout
is my guess

Wife and I lived in Jonesboro Arkansas in a trailer park the first two years we were together.
This clip is pretty accurate, describes most of our neighbors.

 

[trixare4kids]

No it's NOT a red herring, based on your posts.
Do you honestly think that homelessness is a choice?
If you don't want to answer the question, just say you don't want to answer the question instead of whining about it being a red herring.

Stop assuming.
You don't know what I think. Ask.
I do know that some homeless people are as you mentioned above, criminals and bums. That might also include all of the three groups I mentioned above; sloth, mentally ill and the drug addicted.

There are no easy answers to hard questions.

 

[SDET]

No it's NOT a red herring, based on your posts.
Do you honestly think that homelessness is a choice?
If you don't want to answer the question, just say you don't want to answer the question instead of whining about it being a red herring.

Why not bring back the county poor houses that existed before WWII?

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Stop assuming.
You don't know what I think. Ask.
I do know that some homeless people are as you mentioned above, criminals and bums. That might also include all of the three groups I mentioned above; sloth, mentally ill and the drug addicted.

There are no easy answers to hard questions.

Yeah and because we have the perfect climate we've always HAD more than our fair share.
They come here because of the weather.

The problem is, housing has become too expensive.
LIBERALS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH HOUSING COSTING MORE!!!!!!!!
Working people had a place to live, then their rent got hiked.

It's the free market, try and get that.
But NO, you're going to just keep on shrieking about how liberalism causes homelessness, because Tucker Carlson says so, and Hannity says so.

I'm so fed up talking to automatons who refuse to think problems through and are convinced it's the scapegoat's fault.
I am done reading dogma from you.

 

[X Factor]

If they do not have a home where should they go? They have to find a place to sleep to eat to spend their day.

They should be arrested for things that people with homes would be arrested for, so property damage, theft sure. For being in a park no, for hanging out downtown no.

If the city wants to limit pooping on the streets provide more public washrooms

People with homes would be arrested if they took a dump in the street.

 

[X Factor]

Yeah and because we have the perfect climate we've always HAD more than our fair share.
They come here because of the weather.

The problem is, housing has become too expensive.
LIBERALS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH HOUSING COSTING MORE!!!!!!!!
Working people had a place to live, then their rent got hiked.

It's the free market, try and get that.
But NO, you're going to just keep on shrieking about how liberalism causes homelessness, because Tucker Carlson says so, and Hannity says so.

I'm so fed up talking to automatons who refuse to think problems through and are convinced it's the scapegoat's fault.
I am done reading dogma from you.

Liberalism may share some of the responsibility in attracting it, though, by the open display of near hostility toward enforcing even just basic standards of public decency.

 

[Roadvirus]

Because reality.

Typhus in city hall for example. Typhus. When was the last time you heard that word?

And in a city hall building? That kind of crap you'd expect to find in the third world...not the USA.