When will LA gets it's "Rudy Giuliani"? (San Diego: 2015, city hall)

[disgruntled la native]

Originally Posted by Western Urbanite

Salt Lake City and San Diego are not Republican cities. And while San Diego currently has a Republican mayor (SLC doesn't), he is of the sane variety (like Michael Bloomberg.)

PS. LA is the 4th safest major city in America (Democratic NYC, San Diego, and San Jose are lower), but it has recorded the biggest decrease in crime (1995-2011.) In all honesty, I think crime is more tied to the prosperity of a city, not its political affiliations. Democrats control most cities, so they have some of the worst (Detroit, Chicago), and the best (NYC, LA.)

Salt Lake is pretty Republican. San Diego, okay, it's become pretty Democrat, but it has a Republican history and mayor.

LA crime is going up since 2011 though, due to left wing policies. Same w/NYC

[joey joe-joe]

Woah. Hah.

Lots of people in denial on the last page of this thread.

Sad. I guess they're the majority.

[seain dublin]

Originally Posted by JohnG72

What, I hit a little too close to home?

I see you're from downtown LA. Something's up when 96% of residents of an area all continually vote for the same people despite the very visable unsolved problems in that area.

Where are you getting 96%, less than 40% of LA residents even voted in the last election for mayor.

[Vanderbiltgrad]

No need for that type of mayor I love that LA has a lot of street characters including street people who are fun to talk. Parts of Hollywood and Skid Row were the most intriguing parts of LA that I love visiting.

[JohnG72]

Originally Posted by seain dublin

Where are you getting 96%, less than 40% of LA residents even voted in the last election for mayor.

I was speaking to downtown specifically in my post. Downtown votes 95%+ establishment Democrats every election cycle.

Considering Downtown has the most out in the open issues of the entire city, and considering everyone not named Riordan and Bratton has completely failed in addressing the homeless issues, you'd think the residents of the area would attempt just a little out of the box thinking.

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by Vanderbiltgrad

No need for that type of mayor I love that LA has a lot of street characters including street people who are fun to talk. Parts of Hollywood and Skid Row were the most intriguing parts of LA that I love visiting.

Yeah it's a lot of fun...

" Some business owners along Bessemer Street where the homeless congregate say the situation has improved, but more tents now line the adjacent Orange Line busway bike path, which continues to attract drug dealing, prostitution and defecation in the streets.

"It looks really bad, disgusting," said Artour Teroganesian, who owns an auto repair shop on Bessemer Street, west of Cedros Avenue.

Teroganesian said the tents along the bike path are affecting his business "big time." When customers drop off their cars and start walking around, "they don't want to come (back)," he said."

Business owners struggle with homeless, crime along Orange Line in Van Nuys

[Happy in L.A.]

Originally Posted by silverkris

Well, they had Darryl Gates, and his hard-line paramilitary style of law enforcement sowed the seeds of the 1992 King riots. Sometimes it's not always better to see every problem like a hammer sees a nail.

I agree, Darryl Gates was a terrible Police Chief and IMO somewhat of a racist. During his time in LA, Police Chief Bill Bratton was a great chief and a visionary.

[Happy in L.A.]

Originally Posted by joey joe-joe

Why is there such apathy towards the growing number of homeless and the ever degrading quality of the downtown area?

I go to LA usually 1-2 times a year for work, and for the past two years or so, skid row and the number of homeless people just becomes larger, and things get uglier, yet I rarely hear citizens complain about it. Things used to be confined to the 5th and San Pedro area, but it looks to have spread like cancer from there. At least when I was there last week. It's like a living with a person who insidiously gets fat and you don't really realize it until they step on the scale months later. You need an outside opinion.

Listening to Eric Garcetti hear about it is so bizarre. There just seems to be so much apathy from city council. Instead of solving problems he seems more concerned with the "plight" of those in a sanctuary city (while still doing nothing about it).

Not to turn this into a "my city is better than yours" but I remember over a decade ago Toronto had a major looming garbage services strike in the middle of summer and stores were just leaving mountains of garbage on Yonge Street. After like two days random citizens started taking the garbage away themselves for the remainder of the strike, because they didn't want their city looking and smelling like crap. I just get the feeling that would never happen in LA in a million years.

It's just weird for a such an important city like LA to not care about how bad things are getting in it's downtown area.

Thoughts?

I don't know anyone in LA who's not aware of the homeless problem. We all see it and are concerned because it affects the entire region, not just downtown LA. The vast majority of homeless are not even from the LA area. I'm sure our sunny weather and climate have a lot do do with that.

A recent report by the LA Times put the homeless population at 47,000, and that's just in LA, a city with a population of 4 million and a greater metro population of over 15 million. All the cities on the west coast have seen their homeless problem get worse.

There's no doubt the rising cost of living throughout California has played a big part in forcing people out of their homes and on to the streets. Without federal funding I don't see the problem improving. And it's not likely the Trump administration will help California regarding our homeless problem.

[Happy in L.A.]

Originally Posted by disgruntled la native

Not true. Actual areas that vote Republican have low crime. The areas in red states with high crime are usually the inner cities that vote Democrat anyway (like St Louis)

But the cities with the most murders and crime are totally Democrat run and filled:

Chicago. Baltimore. Detroit. Flint. Cleveland. Washington DC.
All run and dominated by the left.

Republican large cities like Mesa, Salt Lake City, Irvine, Huntington Beach, San Diego, and Colorado Springs have very little crime.

Mesa, boring, Irvine, boring, Colorado Springs, boring, Huntington Beach, not as boring as the rest, but boring. And BTW, San Diego voted for Obama twice and in last election, voted for Clinton. The mayor of Salt Lake City is female and a Democrat and SLC voters voted for Obama twice and Hillary this time around.

Chicago, beautiful and exciting, Washington DC, beautiful and exciting, Detroit, getting better every day, Cleveland, no longer the mistake by the lake. And I don't know why Flint is in the mix.

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by Happy in L.A.

I don't know anyone in LA who's not aware of the homeless problem. We all see it and are concerned because it affects the entire region, not just downtown LA. The vast majority of homeless are not even from the LA area. I'm sure our sunny weather and climate have a lot do do with that.

A recent report by the LA Times put the homeless population at 47,000, and that's just in LA, a city with a population of 4 million and a greater metro population of over 15 million. All the cities on the west coast have seen their homeless problem get worse.

There's no doubt the rising cost of living throughout California has played a big part in forcing people out of their homes and on to the streets. Without federal funding I don't see the problem improving. And it's not likely the Trump administration will help California regarding our homeless problem.

With many of these folks it's more mental issues versus money .
If you gave the average guy or gal living on the sidewalk screaming at every passerby the money for rent would they actually go and rent a place and function like a typical non homeless person ?

I do agree that something should be done on the federal level .
The most practical thing would be relocating them to somewhere where housing is not $350,000+ a unit .
That way you could actually house a lot more people . I'm guessing mental health worker salaries are also higher in la versus lower cost of living places .


Like you said many of these people aren't even from the area and L.A already has a budget deficit .