Comments
AN ANGRY ANGELENO - Because we're stupid.
It gets worse.
I'm not even talking about LA County, which has 88 incorporated cities plus unincorporated areas. I'm talking about the CITY of LA. A City that can't trim its trees or fix its sidewalks and has been on the verge of bankruptcy. A City that kills kittens, puppies, dogs, and cats at its half dozen “shelters” because it is horrible at managing its money. Why would a City such as this take on the Sisyphean task of housing the NATION's homeless??
If you were homeless in the United States, WHERE would you go?
You would want nice weather and a Blue State that is welcoming to you, unlike a Red State. What's the Bluest State with the Nicest Weather? California.
If you were a young homeless druggie in California, WHERE would you go?
You would go to the Big Counties run by Progressive Politicians and Prosecutors like District Attorneys George Gascon and Chesa Boudin (removed from office by recall in June 2022) in San Francisco and County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and DA George Gascon (again) in Los Angeles (Gascon barely survived a recall effort in LA in 2022), because you need to commit crime to buy your drugs.
In LA County, you can even ride LA Metro Rail FOR FREE. You can also live in LA Metro stations, live on LA Metro rail cars, and do your drugs in both. The LA Daily News' Clara Harter recently did a series on homeless druggies in the MacArthur Park area of the City of LA, part of Council Member Eunisses Hernandez' Council District. I covered it in my recent column “We Do NOT Live Under a Dome” (google it). One of the 4 articles in the series was entitled “Fentanyl Addiction Fuels Underground Shoplifting Economy in LA's MacArthur Park”. It focuses on Elliot, a 24 year old who began using heroin at the age of TWELVE. The reporter follows Elliot on his shoplifting trips WITH PICTURES...to pay for his drug habit. He steals a gallon of chocolate milk from the store with PHOTO! Elliot has a “full-time job” to pay for his drugs...”he makes 4 to 5 [shoplifting] trips a day – stealing from shops all over the City.”
But here's the best part: The reporter tags along as Elliot rides LA Metro Blue Line to Long Beach to shoplift in the City of Long Beach (2nd biggest city in the County of LA). I doubt he paid for his fare. There are pictures of his open sores and him riding LA Metro Rail without a shirt on...lovely. And then a picture of him with his shoplifting haul after the trip...GO LA County Metro...TO STEAL!
If you were a young homeless druggie in LA County, WHERE would you go?
You would go to the CITY of Los Angeles because it is run by Young Progressives like the “Gang of Four” Council Members, Nithya Raman, who famously blamed Toyota for catalytic converter thefts (google it) from the Prius AND ALSO recently voted against money for LAPD (even Katy Yaroslavsky wasn't foolish enough to do that), and the other 3 foolish youngsters recently ushered into office by the Progressive LA Times, owned by the father of Progressive Activist Nika Soon-Shiong: CouncilMember Hugo Soto-Martinez, who refuses to remove homeless encampments that are next to SCHOOLS using LAMC 41.18 (when you choose homeless druggies over school children, you can be considered “extreme”); Eunisses Hernandez, a member of the Democratic SOCIALISTS of America, who wants to defund the police; and the infamous Katy Yaroslavsky (google my columns on her, at least 3 so far). Extending Katy's crazy logic to its logical (or rather illogical) conclusion, if all the homeless people in the United States found their way into her council district (there are 15 council districts), one of the most affluent council districts in the City of LA, we would have to house them all in Council District 5, which includes Beverly Grove, Westwood, Century City, Bel-Air, and Palms, among other neighborhoods.
The City of LA, first under Mayor Garcetti and now under Mayor Bass (aka “Garcetti's Third Term” ?), is spending Taxpayer Money BUILDING New Apartments and Miniature Homes for Homeless People REGARDLESS of where they came from and HOW LONG they've been here! I know, crazy, right?? They're even building them in NICE neighborhoods, affluent neighborhoods, on expensive real estate. Crazy, right? Fully furnished with appliances, of course. The City is also housing homeless people in Luxury Hotel Rooms! They used a WHOLE Luxury Hotel near me at 3rd and Orlando in Beverly Grove for over a year...those rooms were $300-400 a night rooms when I stayed for a single night while my apartment was being fumigated.
What about the Angelenos who ride the bus and bust their butts working two or three jobs to make rent? Where's their free apartment? Perhaps they should BECOME HOMELESS to be taken care of for the rest of their lives...three meals a day, free health services. What's the motivation for working when you see young homeless druggies who JUST GOT HERE from OTHER STATES getting FREE APARTMENTS?? People WILL start becoming homeless ON PURPOSE. Maybe even take up a drug habit to boot, to be extra sympathetic to our progressive politicians. What we have created is utter madness and it needs to stop...it is not sustainable, it is enabling, and it is destructive...and middle class and upper class families ARE LEAVING along with our TAX BASE. We're importing bums from other states (and other parts of California) and exporting our wealth and taxes to those same states.
If you were a young homeless druggie in the CITY of Los Angeles, WHERE would you go?
You would go to the nicest, most affluent, and safest (at least, before you got there) neighborhoods, of course. The Venice Beach Council District, Council District 11 (which also includes Brentwood and Mar Vista among other neighborhoods), run for almost a DECADE by Progressive City Council Member Mike Bonin. A recall effort against him almost succeeded. He likely didn't run for reelection because he knew he would lose. Bonin DESTROYED Venice. Traci Park is now cleaning up his mess.
Other affluent council districts: Nithya Raman's Council District 4 and Bob Blumenfield's Council District 3 and, of course, Katy Yaroslavsky's Council District 5, where I live...even the weather's better in Council District 5. Remember that EACH Council District is the size of a City, and EACH Council Member is essentially a Mini-Mayor that earns over 200k per year and has 3 offices (one at City Hall and 2 in their Council District) with a staff of at least 15 people.
You can beg for money and get it in these affluent council districts. Theft and shoplifting are easy and lucrative in these areas..to pay for your drugs and alcohol and smokes. Even the dumpster diving is better. Heck, people even discard nice stuff in front of their homes and apartment/condo buildings...stuff you can use to build your encampment nearby. The police response by LAPD is still horrible. The City is still soft on crime in these areas. These areas are cleaner (until you get there and make a mess to mark your territory).
I have homeless people shoplifting at the mall next door to me (the Beverly Connection) on an almost daily basis. I see the discarded alarms and security devices everywhere. I've seen a homeless person walk out of a store, his arms full of ringing merchandise...nobody stopped him. I've looked out my window at a homeless person smashing a pair of ringing pants against a metal gate to get the security device off. We have homeless people on bikes stealing our packages...massive mail and package theft...it's so easy...and the package contents are better in these nice hoods. My security cameras caught a homeless person climb the side wall of our property in the middle of the night to steal a (locked) bike and ransack a car at the security building next door.
We were terrorized and under siege in the past for OVER A YEAR by a huge encampment on our corner at 3rd and Croft in Beverly Grove. People moved away and sold their condos. The building next door to me even sold.
It's funny how these young renters paying high market rent read the LA Times and vote for the foolish Progressive Politicians the Times tells them to vote for...then when the horribly dangerous policies of these politicians come to their doorsteps and endanger them on their walks to work or their dog walks, they RUN to a safer neighborhood to get away from the consequences of their votes.
So, yeah, if I were a young homeless druggy, I would come to Council District 5, and wait for Katy Yaroslavsky to give me a Newly Built Apartment in Council District 5.
Even Progressive Courts and Judges Do NOT Require Housing Homeless People in Affluent Hoods of a Large City Because They Happen To Be Found There.
Actually, they don't even require apartments and miniature homes...they require BEDS (with a roof over your head). Eric Garcetti had to go and reinvent the wheel for how to house homeless people with his Developer-Based Solution to Homelessness. Enter the Homeless Industrial Complex.
These Progressive Politicians are hell-bent on destroying good hoods with Homeless Housing, like Katy Yaroslavsky with her Pico/Midvale Project. Put it in a single family home neighborhood, everybody...businesses, commercial property owners, homeowners...runs away, and the Developers win.
Completely Ridiculous to Restrict Homeless Housing to Council District Where Found
I would actually argue that you can even house a lot of these folks just OUTSIDE of the City. And it's only fair to do so if they're from ELSEWHERE. The COUNTY should be handling all of this anyway, with the financial assistance of the State and the Feds, NOT the City of LA. The COUNTY is the Social Safety Net, NOT the City. The 5 LA County Supervisors must be loving our financial stupidity and public safety cluelessness...less problems for them, more money for them to play with. We should never have taken on this ridiculously impossible and financially suicidal task and we should STOP NOW.
One Final Thought for Those Debating Whether A Lot of These Folks Are FROM OTHER STATES and OTHER PARTS OF CA
In the January 2023 Homeless Count, the number of homeless people rose by 9% for LA County and 10% for LA City. The State of California's Covid-19 Eviction Moratorium ended on July 1, 2022. The
City and County of LA Eviction Bans ended on March 30, 2023. That's TWO MONTHS AFTER the Homeless Count took place! So, if NOBODY got evicted in LA (while people were getting evicted in OTHER STATES and OTHER parts of CA)...AND lots of LA Homeless people were getting housed between consecutive homeless counts with A LOT of our tax dollars...WHY OH WHY did the LA Homeless Numbers GO UP ?? Because there were LOTS of Homeless people coming INTO LA from Elsewhere. THAT SHOULD be a BIG part of the political conversation about LA Homelessness Policy, but our Progressive Politicians, the LA Times, and The Homeless Industrial Complex don't want us to have that conversation.
Wondering About the Image That Accompanies This Column?
Mayor Karen Bass posted that on Twitter. “Angelenos” used SIX times! They're just like you and me.
(“An Angry Angeleno” is the nom de plume of Yuval Kremer, a former ballot candidate for both LA County Supervisor and LA Mayor. The opinions expressed by Mr. Kremer are solely his and not necessarily those of CityWatchLA.com.)
