Doc, Homless in LA

[_schreech]

There is a little park in front of Ruby's where the folks in the ally no sleep every night. And they come out in the mornings and sit on the benches in front of Starbucks. You might step on a needle. My point of the circle is that it is even in really nice places and if you took the time to read that you would understand.

Understand what? That you are clueless and happened to see a couple homeless people near the orange circle, therefore socal is in a decline?

Di you see the encampments on the 57 before they took them down?

yes, I ride my bike along the Santa Ana river trail regularly. Those people have been systematically kicked out of several surrounding towns and have banded together in an area that was typically more open to leaving homeless people alone. If you didn't make such a habit of seeing only what you want to see, you would notice that many of the beach and resort areas are mostly free of homeless as they have been kicked out. I have actually read a ton about that particular encampment and people live there for all kinds of reasons including people who have homes elsewhere but work in OC and don't want to pay high rents or commute. Again, you "experiences" driving around and looking out the window of your car are meaningless especially considering you are impervious to any information that is at odds with what you want to believe.

I was going to Burbank the other day and there is an camp along the 163 freeway of about 20 tents...one had about 20 birthday type balloons on the tent. And if you just look around you see these encampments all over the place. along the 101 going to Hollwood etc. It was not like this 5 years ago to the degree it is now...that is just a fact.

See above. You have no idea what you are talking about or why or how these encampments have sprung up. Many people have explained why things like this are happening but, in your mind, its some sort of symptom of the downfall of southern california because you have "experience."..

I never said anything about the city being rebuilt, I am apart of it...we finished up exterior of the Broadway trade center...the largest footprint of any building in LA.

And yet you don't see how any of that revitalization and money getting kicked into downtown might affect the homeless population that used to roam the entire downtown area...shocking...Again, you don't really seem to know the only city you have ever seem to have lived or worked in. I swear, ignorance and strong opinions seem to go hand in hand. You really have to choose to be that way.

I am not sure why you keep stating that?

Because any intelligent person would see how its relevant.

Are you saying skid row is not expanding? Or the folks around the city and county? It has grown 75% in six years?

Skid row is shrinking and has been for years - https://www.kqed.org/news/10498134/skid-row-land-rush-now-its-one-of-the-pricier-sections-of-l-a

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qbe3y3/gentrification-comes-to-las-skid-row-and-the-homeless-get-the-shaft

https://la.curbed.com/2016/3/1/10942504/downtown-la-skid-row-industrial-district-gentrification

This is why they are moving more into underpasses and other non-developed areas. Again, do you actually ever read anything about the city and the problems it faces? Do you understand cause and effect? We have already established that basic economics and finance evade you - do you consider anything beyond what you choose to "see with your own eyes"

I grew up in San Bernardino until 72...lived in Yucaipa since. I work all over So CA...San Diego to the Valley.

This doesn't surprise me - YUCAIPA??? geez, you've lived in middle of nowhere for significantly longer than I have been alive. So you have never even lived in or all that close to LA OR Orange county. Yucaipa??? LoL. You drive in an hour or two to work, drive around the sh$$%% parts of town and pronounce that Southern California is in decline....oh, and you somehow tried to tie that to immigrants. YUCAIPA!?!?! Dude, you are an ignorant nutter with no "real world experience" worth anything.

Well we can just meet and get to know each other, and share our opinions.

No thanks. When your opinion stretches beyond "i drove around and saw a bunch of homeless people therefore LA and OC have been on the decline for years because, immigrants" maybe we can chat. Maybe do a little research about the area you have such strong opinions of, or, maybe, listen to the experiences of those of us that actually live and work in it or those of us that take the time to read up and research the issues. I work about half the year outside of california - all over the US and Internationally - your ignorance is just staggering.

Where do you live?

South of LA.

[_Gadianton]

I have actually read a ton about that particular encampment and people live there for all kinds of reasons including people who have homes elsewhere but work in OC and don't want to pay high rents or commute.

Very interesting. I'd consider taking contracts in LA if I could camp and not pay rent.

[_schreech]

I have actually read a ton about that particular encampment and people live there for all kinds of reasons including people who have homes elsewhere but work in OC and don't want to pay high rents or commute.

Very interesting. I'd consider taking contracts in LA if I could camp and not pay rent.

Yea, the homeless around la and oc are homeless for all kinds of reasons. The weather makes living outside or in your van particularly easy and wages are higher in this area so, for some it makes sense. They are far from all being the losers and druggies that markk fantasizes about. There were whole industries and economies established inside the encampment. People fixed bikes for others who had jobs but no car, there were showers, cooks, etc. it was pretty impressive just not entirely legal.

Markk obviously spent no time there and really doesn't seem to know much about any of the encampments around costal SoCal. When wages don’t cover your basic needs people get creative. People like markkk move out to crappy towns in the middle of nowhere to be around like minded people and complain, ignorantly, about the downfall of SoCal due to the homeless and immigrants they occasionally encounter when they leave the “909” (blech). Others go a different direction.

[_Markk]

Yea, the homeless around la and oc are homeless for all kinds of reasons. The weather makes living outside or in your van particularly easy and wages are higher in this area so, for some it makes sense. They are far from all being the losers and druggies that markk fantasizes about. There were whole industries and economies established inside the encampment. People fixed bikes for others who had jobs but no car, there were showers, cooks, etc. it was pretty impressive just not entirely legal.

Markk obviously spent no time there and really doesn't seem to know much about any of the encampments around costal SoCal. When wages don’t cover your basic needs people get creative. People like markkk move out to crappy towns in the middle of nowhere to be around like minded people and complain, ignorantly, about the downfall of SoCal due to the homeless and immigrants they occasionally encounter when they leave the “909” (blech). Others go a different direction.

Your so full of it. I have worked wit the homeless for years. If you read anything I have written you would have seen i discussed their economy. You make it sound like it is a utopia of unfortunates and ignore that well over 50% are mentally ill and have drug and alcohol.

As if there is no blight in the 909? Occasionally encounter? What part of So CA do you live in. How many immigrants live in the IE Screech?

What town did I move out in the middle of know where?

This is exactly why people are in the streets, people like you play it down as if one just throws money at it i will be okay.

I have never read such a either ignore statement, or just a lie.

[_Markk]

I have actually read a ton about that particular encampment and people live there for all kinds of reasons including people who have homes elsewhere but work in OC and don't want to pay high rents or commute.

Very interesting. I'd consider taking contracts in LA if I could camp and not pay rent.

You read? ..have you visited and feed the folks.

I would love to walk the "2 blocks" (actually about 8 or so) of skid row with you. When is the last time you were down there

[_Markk]

There is a little park in front of Ruby's where the folks in the ally no sleep every night. And they come out in the mornings and sit on the benches in front of Starbucks. You might step on a needle. My point of the circle is that it is even in really nice places and if you took the time to read that you would understand.

Understand what? That you are clueless and happened to see a couple homeless people near the orange circle, therefore socal is in a decline?

Di you see the encampments on the 57 before they took them down?

yes, I ride my bike along the Santa Ana river trail regularly. Those people have been systematically kicked out of several surrounding towns and have banded together in an area that was typically more open to leaving homeless people alone. If you didn't make such a habit of seeing only what you want to see, you would notice that many of the beach and resort areas are mostly free of homeless as they have been kicked out. I have actually read a ton about that particular encampment and people live there for all kinds of reasons including people who have homes elsewhere but work in OC and don't want to pay high rents or commute. Again, you "experiences" driving around and looking out the window of your car are meaningless especially considering you are impervious to any information that is at odds with what you want to believe.

I was going to Burbank the other day and there is an camp along the 163 freeway of about 20 tents...one had about 20 birthday type balloons on the tent. And if you just look around you see these encampments all over the place. along the 101 going to Hollwood etc. It was not like this 5 years ago to the degree it is now...that is just a fact.

See above. You have no idea what you are talking about or why or how these encampments have sprung up. Many people have explained why things like this are happening but, in your mind, its some sort of symptom of the downfall of southern california because you have "experience."..

I never said anything about the city being rebuilt, I am apart of it...we finished up exterior of the Broadway trade center...the largest footprint of any building in LA.

And yet you don't see how any of that revitalization and money getting kicked into downtown might affect the homeless population that used to roam the entire downtown area...shocking...Again, you don't really seem to know the only city you have ever seem to have lived or worked in. I swear, ignorance and strong opinions seem to go hand in hand. You really have to choose to be that way.

I am not sure why you keep stating that?

Because any intelligent person would see how its relevant.

Are you saying skid row is not expanding? Or the folks around the city and county? It has grown 75% in six years?

Skid row is shrinking and has been for years - https://www.kqed.org/news/10498134/skid-row-land-rush-now-its-one-of-the-pricier-sections-of-l-a

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qbe3y3/gentrification-comes-to-las-skid-row-and-the-homeless-get-the-shaft

https://la.curbed.com/2016/3/1/10942504/downtown-la-skid-row-industrial-district-gentrification

This is why they are moving more into underpasses and other non-developed areas. Again, do you actually ever read anything about the city and the problems it faces? Do you understand cause and effect? We have already established that basic economics and finance evade you - do you consider anything beyond what you choose to "see with your own eyes"

I grew up in San Bernardino until 72...lived in Yucaipa since. I work all over So CA...San Diego to the Valley.

This doesn't surprise me - YUCAIPA??? geez, you've lived in middle of nowhere for significantly longer than I have been alive. So you have never even lived in or all that close to LA OR Orange county. Yucaipa??? LoL. You drive in an hour or two to work, drive around the sh$$%% parts of town and pronounce that Southern California is in decline....oh, and you somehow tried to tie that to immigrants. YUCAIPA!?!?! Dude, you are an ignorant nutter with no "real world experience" worth anything.

Well we can just meet and get to know each other, and share our opinions.

No thanks. When your opinion stretches beyond "i drove around and saw a bunch of homeless people therefore LA and OC have been on the decline for years because, immigrants" maybe we can chat. Maybe do a little research about the area you have such strong opinions of, or, maybe, listen to the experiences of those of us that actually live and work in it or those of us that take the time to read up and research the issues. I work about half the year outside of california - all over the US and Internationally - your ignorance is just staggering.

Where do you live?

South of LA.

I work in LA...and I live an hour and ten minutes east of LA...You live South of LA...where? My guess is it is not South Central.

I have maybe ten years experience actually working with and feeding the homeless, and actually get out and talk with these folks...but you have read about them?

This is a Challenge...let meet and walk through and encampment an talk with these folks, we can even video tap it if you like and they don't mind...in fact I challenge anyone here to come down and do the same. I will be in town several days next week and when it tops raining, lets meet off Alameda around 5th or so and take a walk...I will buy lunch...dress down.

It is easy to talk about it on a stupid forum, but now you have every opportunity to prove to me that what you wrote is true and what I have written is false. Let me what day is good for you and I try to bend my schedule around you schedule.

[_Doctor Steuss]

Yea, the homeless around la and oc are homeless for all kinds of reasons.

I apologize for the (very) loosely related story --especially since it has nothing to do with LA -- but for some reason this triggered the memory of when my parents were contemplating moving to Las Vegas.

The trucking job my dad had in Utah, with a gravel and asphalt outfit, just wasn't cutting it. He found a similar job in Vegas, but we were in no position to move. So, every Sunday night, after we had all been tucked in, he would drive down to Vegas in our 1972 Dodge Van.



He would stay in Vegas for the week, and would drive back home Friday night.

The van had particle board for a floor, and the three benches had bolts where you could fairly easily remove them. My dad would live in that van during the week.

There were several properties that his work owned. One of them was a large lot where they would keep the rigs overnight. This is where he would park the van, and live. Each day, early in the morning before the sun came up, he'd fashion a little enclosure out of some plywood beneath some pine trees, and he'd stretch a hose out. After the sun had hit the hose for long enough, he'd get about 4-5 minutes of warm water to shower with.

In a perpetually changing city, some of those trees incredibly still stand.

I don’t know exactly how long this went on, but I remember it being almost a year. My dad, with a full time job, a home with a mortgage, a wife, and four kids, was homeless for 5 days a week.

On a related/unrelated note, there are several gentlemen that I’ve had the privilege of getting to know that live in the downtown shelter, or on the streets, who have full-time jobs. One in particular is a limo driver. He and his wife have been homeless for a few years because they basically had to make a choice between paying for rent, or paying for her medications.

[_schreech]

I work in LA...and I live an hour and ten minutes east of LA...

So you don't even live in LA or OC. It seems like the people with the strongest opinions of the place I actually live and work are the ones who don't live here...funny how that works.

I have maybe ten years experience actually working with and feeding the homeless, and actually get out and talk with these folks...but you have read about them?

Good for you. You are not unique even between the two of us.

This is a Challenge...let meet and walk through and encampment an talk with these folks, we can even video tap it if you like and they don't mind...in fact I challenge anyone here to come down and do the same. I will be in town several days next week and when it tops raining, lets meet off Alameda around 5th or so and take a walk...I will buy lunch...dress down.

For what purpose? You still don't seem to understand the different between data and anecdote. You want to prove that there are homeless people? That they are homeless for all kinds of reasons (like I have repeatedly said)?

This entire discussion started because you decided to talk about how socal is in decline due to immigrants. How is this visit going to prove this?

It is easy to talk about it on a stupid forum, but now you have every opportunity to prove to me that what you wrote is true and what I have written is false. Let me what day is good for you and I try to bend my schedule around you schedule.

What is it that you think Im going to prove? that Coastal Socal is not the sh$%hole you claim it has become? That there are drug addicts among the homeless (something nobody is disputing)? That immigrants are pushing people into homelessness? You don't even know what you are trying to say or prove, you are all over the place. You literally picked 2 places in all of socal (one being a place that has been called skid row for decades) as your examples of the demise of LA and OC and didn't bother to point out all the amazing improvements the local cities have made over the last 20 years to clean up makeshift camps and provide services for migrant workers and homeless people.

I mean, look at this:

Your so full of it. I have worked wit the homeless for years. If you read anything I have written you would have seen i discussed their economy. You make it sound like it is a utopia of unfortunates and ignore that well over 50% are mentally ill and have drug and alcohol.

As if there is no blight in the 909? Occasionally encounter? What part of So CA do you live in. How many immigrants live in the IE Screech?

What town did I move out in the middle of know where?

This is exactly why people are in the streets, people like you play it down as if one just throws money at it i will be okay.

I have never read such a either ignore statement, or just a lie.

I literally have no idea what you are trying to say. Yucaipa is closer to palm springs that LA. You are in the ass end of the IE.

Who is playing anything down? Im telling you that your baseless experiences about the immigrant driven downfall of socal are ignorant and misguided. Im telling you that LA has the same problems all major cities (none of which you have ever visited) have. Im in chicago right now and there are homeless here as well - shocking! Chicago must be falling apart and in decline right? Oh, wait, they experiencing amazing growth along with rapidly increasing home/rent prices - interesting similarity to LA yea?. Im in NY Monday, im guessing Im also going to see homeless people there - gasp! Must be all the immigrants. Your experiences driving around LA are meaningless especially considering you ignore the actual data about why and how people end up homeless in favor of your limited experiences with cleaning out alleys and old buildings.

Im sorry yucaipa and the places you are forced to work suck. Maybe visit NOT skid row and reevaluate your opinions of LA and OC (I wont hold my breath).

[_schreech]

Yea, the homeless around la and oc are homeless for all kinds of reasons.

I apologize for the (very) loosely related story --especially since it has nothing to do with LA -- but for some reason this triggered the memory of when my parents were contemplating moving to Las Vegas.

The trucking job my dad had in Utah, with a gravel and asphalt outfit, just wasn't cutting it. He found a similar job in Vegas, but we were in no position to move. So, every Sunday night, after we had all been tucked in, he would drive down to Vegas in our 1972 Dodge Van.



He would stay in Vegas for the week, and would drive back home Friday night.

The van had particle board for a floor, and the three benches had bolts where you could fairly easily remove them. My dad would live in that van during the week.

There were several properties that his work owned. One of them was a large lot where they would keep the rigs overnight. This is where he would park the van, and live. Each day, early in the morning before the sun came up, he'd fashion a little enclosure out of some plywood beneath some pine trees, and he'd stretch a hose out. After the sun had hit the hose for long enough, he'd get about 4-5 minutes of warm water to shower with.

In a perpetually changing city, some of those trees incredibly still stand.

I don’t know exactly how long this went on, but I remember it being almost a year. My dad, with a full time job, a home with a mortgage, a wife, and four kids, was homeless for 5 days a week.

On a related/unrelated note, there are several gentlemen that I’ve had the privilege of getting to know that live in the downtown shelter, or on the streets, who have full-time jobs. One in particular is a limo driver. He and his wife have been homeless for a few years because they basically had to make a choice between paying for rent, or paying for her medications.

That is a great story, shocking that these homeless people arent lowlife druggies as we have been led to believe.

My father had that exact van, he bought it as a used ambulance and ripped the insides out and did the same, particle wood floors and benches along the inside. I remember sleeping in that thing on many occasions, it never lost the ambulance smell...

[_Doctor Steuss]

My father had that exact van, he bought it as a used ambulance and ripped the insides out and did the same, particle wood floors and benches along the inside. I remember sleeping in that thing on many occasions, it never lost the ambulance smell...

Ours fortunately didn't have an ambulance smell, but we did get to enjoy moderate engine fumes, and burnt oil that would emanate from the cracks of the inside engine cover. That van was my reading refuge.

Every time it rained, I would go out, crack open the gullwing windows on the sides and read The Outsiders.

Thank you Screech, for the lovely feeling of nostalgia that's warming my innards now.


(Sorry Mark for the derail )