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I find it amazing that the residents of the city have allowed their city to be turned into a 3rd world cesspool. That they haven't demanded that the police tear out these encampments. That they allow people to live there year after year, on handouts rather than getting a job and producing. Housing cost IS an issue...but the concept of moving out of one of the most expensive cities in the country and finding somewhere that you can afford to live on a modest salary doesn't seem to be comprehensible to these people...or to the LA city council for that matter. Why go somewhere else when you're allowed to live for free and get handouts every single day? Not to mention do drugs with impunity. I find it amazing that the residents of LA are allowing their city to be destroyed.
On a more general note, outside of the weather, I found LA pretty unimpressive. Somewhat dirty and trashy (streets/sidewalks not clean, even in the nicer business areas in the downtown core). Given the reputation of the car culture, I was surprised at the poor condition of the area highways. I always figured that the place would be kept up really nice. Compared to say Tampa or Phoenix, downtown LA, even the business district, was a dump. This was my first trip to downtown-previous ones have been to business areas outside of the core.
Flip side, for the most part drivers were excellent, know how to actually merge onto a highway, keep out of the left lane when not passing and move at a decent speed (traffic permitting, with is rarely). Even more, they make room for people to switch lanes and cut in. Most of the people we met were nice (granted a lot were Uber drivers). And of course the weather was wonderful, and the occasional view of the mountains was nice.
I make monthly trips downtown on business. I happened to be there one day during a mass cleanup of the tent cities. It was heart breaking to see these people ejected and what few possessions they had scooped up and thrown in a train of garbage trucks.
LA isn't all that impressive at street level, but neither is any other major city these days. If you want impressive head to the beach cities, Palos Verdes, or NE to Pasadena, or west to Ventura Blvd... etc.
The homeless aren't destroying our city nearly as much as the liberal city council, Mayor, representatives and Moonbeam. SF is in a state of squalor even worse than LA. I've yet to see human feces and piles of used syringes in the gutters.
Working middle class are fleeing, while the poor and illegals are flooding in. It's only going to get worse because of the utter incompetence of the people managing the state. It has become a joke to the people born and raised here for generations, and sad and angered to see it being driven into the ground.
This is what socialism looks like; according to Kamala Harris this (sad) state is the future of the country. THAT is scary.
This idiot has been our Mayor since 2013 , what more do you expect ? He promised to get rid of homelessness it got much much worse . And we are stuck with him for about another 4 years . Unless he gets elected as your President in 2020 as he wishes .
The LA region of 20,000,000 people has severely dilapidated areas?
Some country bumpkins think Skid Row represents wide swaths of LA and has allowed it to become a third world country? Want to see third world, go to some of America's rural areas.
start a thread about it if you wish instead of trying to derail this one, please.
I spent last week down in LA at a trade show. The LA convention center is a massive, multi-million dollar facility, right next to some of the cities largest skyscrapers and most expensive properties. Yet within a couple blocks of this is an area taken over by bums and derelicts. Block after block of bums living in tents. Garbage everywhere. A stench that would make a hog puke. Much of that in front of some very decent buildings.
I had seen these videos on here before but always figured it was just one concentrated area. IT'S NOT. This goes on for block after block. The derelicts have taken over much of downtown LA. It isn't just the bums, it's the massive piles of garbage allowed to collect. The trash in the streets.
I find it amazing that the residents of the city have allowed their city to be turned into a 3rd world cesspool. That they haven't demanded that the police tear out these encampments. That they allow people to live there year after year, on handouts rather than getting a job and producing. Housing cost IS an issue...but the concept of moving out of one of the most expensive cities in the country and finding somewhere that you can afford to live on a modest salary doesn't seem to be comprehensible to these people...or to the LA city council for that matter. Why go somewhere else when you're allowed to live for free and get handouts every single day? Not to mention do drugs with impunity. I find it amazing that the residents of LA are allowing their city to be destroyed.
On a more general note, outside of the weather, I found LA pretty unimpressive. Somewhat dirty and trashy (streets/sidewalks not clean, even in the nicer business areas in the downtown core). Given the reputation of the car culture, I was surprised at the poor condition of the area highways. I always figured that the place would be kept up really nice. Compared to say Tampa or Phoenix, downtown LA, even the business district, was a dump. This was my first trip to downtown-previous ones have been to business areas outside of the core.
Flip side, for the most part drivers were excellent, know how to actually merge onto a highway, keep out of the left lane when not passing and move at a decent speed (traffic permitting, with is rarely). Even more, they make room for people to switch lanes and cut in. Most of the people we met were nice (granted a lot were Uber drivers). And of course the weather was wonderful, and the occasional view of the mountains was nice.
The hyper-gentrification of Downtown LA and high rents of SoCal have displaced many of these people. There used to be many “apartments” (old, converted hotels) that housed a lot of this population. Unfortunately, these were purchased to make room for luxury buildings. These homeless folks have few options left.
The LA region of 20,000,000 people has severely dilapidated areas?
Some country bumpkins think Skid Row represents wide swaths of LA and has allowed it to become a third world country? Want to see third world, go to some of America's rural areas.
Perhaps we can separate the two between poverty and homelessness...people who wind up homeless are due to either mental / drug addiction issues or unemployment for the most part....as for poverty I drove through rural Mississippi south of Memphis and was shocked that it was populated by capable people unencumbered by the issues I posted above.
The hyper-gentrification of Downtown LA and high rents of SoCal have displaced many of these people. There used to be many “apartments” (old, converted hotels) that housed a lot of this population. Unfortunately, these were purchased to make room for luxury buildings. These homeless folks have few options left.
That's not the whole picture or even close to it. They recently cleaned up the Santa Ana river bed in Anaheim not all that far from Los Angeles. In so doing they picked up 14,000 used needles. The people were given vouchers to stay in motels for up to a month at tax payers expense. Many of them didn't want to stay in a motel or have any roof over their heads and didn't take the vouchers.
This is more about drug addiction and mental illness, not lack of housing for poor people.
IMO, the mayor of Los Angeles represents everything that's wrong with that city. He's hopeless and clueless and doesn't give a rat's behind about anything except his political career.
Last edited by marino760; 03-11-2018 at 07:34 AM..
A lot folks don't understand that the homeless "need" their drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes. Sending them to an abandoned military base or warehouse does nothing because they would insist they need to get their drugs. Unless officials plan to turn it until some massive crackhouse.
Solution? There is no solution, only trade-offs. Have any one of those liberal LA billionaires pitch in some money to help the homeless kick their addictions and become productive members of society.
It's only fair that those who have contributed to making LA/San Fran/etc grossly unequal put some skin in the game to help the victims of it. Just spit-balling, obviously none of this will happen.
Thing is, they don't "need" those things, they want them. And by allowing the use of drugs and alcohol to run rampant among the homeless, they are being enabled to kill themselves. We aren't being "kind" to the homeless by allowing them to live in the "tent cities" on our streets, we're killing them. To say nothing of destroying any remnant of what being a human being means in them. The idea of an abandoned military base is smart because access can be controlled and the flow of drugs, if not eliminated, can at least be highly reduced.
Set up those facilities, start rounding up those living in the "tent cities" and ship them there. Eliminate the drugs and booze. Require some degree of work or contribution in return for food and housing. Clean up the cities and make sure the word gets out that living as a bum, squatting on the sidewalks will not be tolerated. Cut down the section 8 housing. Those things alone might clean up the drunks and drug users. The camps can have "life skills" training to teach the basics. Like bathing, laundry, showing up for a job, maybe cooking. And such an environment will provide a chance to separate the mentally ill from the lazy and the drug/alcohol abusers and work to get them help.
It will cost money, but likely far less than what the current "skid row" does, in terms of policing, crime, health issues and cleanup. Let alone it can help turn the city around and make it less of a cesspool. And restore a decent quality of life for people living in these neighborhoods.
Last edited by Toyman at Jewel Lake; 03-11-2018 at 09:36 AM..
The hyper-gentrification of Downtown LA and high rents of SoCal have displaced many of these people. There used to be many “apartments” (old, converted hotels) that housed a lot of this population. Unfortunately, these were purchased to make room for luxury buildings. These homeless folks have few options left.
There are a whole lot of cities that have costs of living FAR less than downtown LA. There is no reason for someone with no skills and only the ambition to get a minimum wage job to live there. Heck, I wouldn't live there or SF due to the cost of living. I could easily get twice the income in CA as an engineer, but the quality of life, both due to housing costs, other cost of living issues, combined with the crowding, traffic and lack of access to rural areas would suck. Yeah, the weather is nice, but there is a huge price to pay for sun and beaches.
I make monthly trips downtown on business. I happened to be there one day during a mass cleanup of the tent cities. It was heart breaking to see these people ejected and what few possessions they had scooped up and thrown in a train of garbage trucks.
LA isn't all that impressive at street level, but neither is any other major city these days. If you want impressive head to the beach cities, Palos Verdes, or NE to Pasadena, or west to Ventura Blvd... etc.
The homeless aren't destroying our city nearly as much as the liberal city council, Mayor, representatives and Moonbeam. SF is in a state of squalor even worse than LA. I've yet to see human feces and piles of used syringes in the gutters.
Working middle class are fleeing, while the poor and illegals are flooding in. It's only going to get worse because of the utter incompetence of the people managing the state. It has become a joke to the people born and raised here for generations, and sad and angered to see it being driven into the ground.
This is what socialism looks like; according to Kamala Harris this (sad) state is the future of the country. THAT is scary.
Makes you wonder just how long the working, productive people (who I assume actually vote) of CA will actually allow this to continue? How long will it be before they dump the utterly clueless, far left politicians that are destroying the state? The people I happened to talk to did not seem to be big supporters of the policies enabling these conditions. Thing is, the Democrat party of 30 years ago is not the Democrat party of today. They used to make an effort to represent the working, productive, contributing members of society. Now...they embrace those living on "skid row" and criminals, while dumping working people.
At least LA is working on the problem--especially with homeless vets. That is why a military parade seems like such a waste when there are organizations trying stem the homeless vet problems that could use the $30 mill more than just 'for show.'
This thread says more about the US than it does about LA. It is a national problem and one that the current admin has no interest in addressing.
"...That formula was to work together with local organizations in cities and states across the country that know their communities, use an approach called Housing First, which means getting veterans indoors before trying to solve their other problems like substance abuse, and then massively fund it through HUD and the VA...
"...That is to say that LA has housed more veterans than many other states and cities combined. And the city did pass a $1.2 billion bond to build housing for the chronically homeless, including veterans. But the number of newly homeless vets is outpacing their efforts. Outside of the LA numbers, national advocates say progress is slow but steady..."
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