Some Respite, if legal Tents, for Skid Row Homeless



T

Twittering One

Guest
The New York Times
October 31, 2007
Los Angeles Journal

Some Respite, if Little Cheer, for Skid Row Homeless
By SOLOMON MOORE

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 30 - Not so long ago, Kenneth Johnson, 29, lived in
a West Los Angeles condominium with his wife and three children and
earned $4,000 a month as a forklift operator.

Now he is unemployed and divorced, and beds down each night on a grimy
sidewalk in downtown's 50-square-block Skid Row.

"It's weird to be down here," said Mr. Johnson, leaning against a wall
as night fell. "It's not a very easy feeling, but over a couple of
weeks I got used to it."

Like thousands of others in this despairing city within a city, Mr.
Johnson came to Skid Row because it is the easiest place in Los
Angeles to find services, shelter and three square meals a day.

And beginning this month, the neighborhood's homeless have also been
guaranteed some respite from the police. Under pressure from the
American Civil Liberties Union, Los Angeles agreed on Oct. 10 not to
appeal a federal court order and will instead allow sleeping on the
sidewalk, at least until the city provides 1,250 new beds in low-
income housing.

The deal partly rolls back a zero-tolerance crackdown on petty
offenses in the Skid Row area, including sleeping in public places,
that was undertaken late last year by Police Chief William J. Bratton.
The effort has reduced by about half the 8,000 homeless who frequented
the area a year ago, according to police estimates.

Some advocates express concern that the flight from Skid Row has left
people cut off from vital assistance. The police, however, maintain
that the area is safer - for everyone, including the homeless - with
fewer people living on the streets.

As of Oct. 6, the police had made 10,742 arrests in and around Skid
Row this year, 15 percent more than in the corresponding period of
2006. At the same time, property crimes had dropped by 25 percent and
violent crimes by a third, police statistics show.

But while there are 17,000 shelter beds in Los Angeles County, most of
them within the city, there are some 74,000 homeless across the
county's 4,060 square miles, officials say. And despite the decline in
their numbers on Skid Row, it remains an area with one of the nation's
largest concentrations of the homeless. As a result, the shelters
remain full every night, said Andy Bales, chief executive of the Union
Rescue Mission, which operates one of them.

Though the shelters have set up courtyard cots to accommodate the
nightly overflow, some of the homeless prefer the street, which, they
say, is safer. One woman, Guadalupe Ibarra, who showers and eats at
the missions but does not sleep there because she fears for her
safety, gestured at the sleeping bags and tents under a store's
awning. "This is our residence," she said. "We all respect each other
here."

Yet Skid Row's street people have been watching their territory shrink
for years, as downtown developers open the long-neglected area to
gentrification. Late-night restaurants, art galleries and refurbished
loft spaces selling in the high six figures now form the edge of the
neighborhood.

Every few days, Hollywood producers descend upon nearby streets to
floodlight a midcentury bank building or a bar, standing in for the
grit of an East Coast city. Dogs are walked past bookstores and DVD
shops, their owners only occasionally approached for change or
cigarettes. "There's a lot more money people around now," Ms. Ibarra
said. "They put fences and gates around a lot of places where we used
to stay."

She said the changes had pushed many homeless people into East Los
Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, and west to Santa Monica and
Venice Beach. (Homeless-population maps - at http://homeless.cartifact.com/
- that were produced by the police chart the dispersal of street
people from Skid Row since last year.)

Much of Skid Row, however, remains a place of wandering drunks and
drug addicts, with homeless people lining urine-stained sidewalks in
sleeping bags, cardboard shelters and tents.

Lee Ann Salazar, 63, said she had lived on the streets for six years.
She tries to keep on the move, tending to 70 or so stray cats with a
sack of Friskies. Ms. Salazar told of having recently been attacked by
gang members who burned her shopping cart full of possessions.

"Living out here is like sliding down a 40-foot razor blade," she
said. "Your body cannot rest. It's like you're pulling out your
eyeteeth to get up every morning."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/us/31skidrow.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
 
"Patrick keeps our sidewalk
Clean, too ~ !"
~ Twittering
 
"Patrick keeps our sidewalk
Clean, too ~ !"
~ Twittering
 
"... but the rats & roaches are worrisome."
~ Twittering LSTOO & Folly IAG
 
"... but the rats & roaches are worrisome."
~ Twittering LSTOO & Folly IAG
 
"If you do not get enough sleep your chances of developing a
psychiatric disorder are much greater, say researchers from Harvard
Medical School and the University of California at Berkeley. Brain
scans revealed that the sleep-deprived brain becomes tired and
abnormally emotional.

You can read about this latest research in the journal Current
Biology, October 23 issue.

The researchers explain that sleep deprivation is known to undermine
a
range of functions, including immune regulation and metabolic
control,
as well as learning and memory. However, evidence so far on how sleep
regulates our emotional brain-state is very limited."

(more)

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/86512.php
 
"If you do not get enough sleep your chances of developing a
psychiatric disorder are much greater, say researchers from Harvard
Medical School and the University of California at Berkeley. Brain
scans revealed that the sleep-deprived brain becomes tired and
abnormally emotional.

You can read about this latest research in the journal Current
Biology, October 23 issue.

The researchers explain that sleep deprivation is known to undermine
a
range of functions, including immune regulation and metabolic
control,
as well as learning and memory. However, evidence so far on how sleep
regulates our emotional brain-state is very limited."

(more)

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/86512.php
 
"Twittering One" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "If you do not get enough sleep your chances of developing a
> psychiatric disorder are much greater, say researchers from Harvard
> Medical School and the University of California at Berkeley. Brain
> scans revealed that the sleep-deprived brain becomes tired and
> abnormally emotional.
>
> You can read about this latest research in the journal Current
> Biology, October 23 issue.
>
> The researchers explain that sleep deprivation is known to undermine
> a
> range of functions, including immune regulation and metabolic
> control,
> as well as learning and memory. However, evidence so far on how sleep
> regulates our emotional brain-state is very limited."
>
> (more)
>
> http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/86512.php
>


Perhaps if these losers would get their act together and get a job, they
might just be able to afford a real bed to sleep in. After a day's hard
work, they then should have no problem falling to sleep. If, however, they
prefer the old cardboard box on the sidewalk in a rat and roach infested
environment, they should blame themselves and not society as the culprit for
their misfortune. Where there is a will, there is a way. If you can't
muster the will, then you obviously have arrived at your permanent station
in life. Quit *****ing.
 
On Oct 31, 10:28 am, Twittering One <[email protected]> wrote:
> The New York Times
> October 31, 2007
> Los Angeles Journal
>
> Some Respite, if Little Cheer, for Skid Row Homeless
> By SOLOMON MOORE
>
> LOS ANGELES, Oct. 30 - Not so long ago, Kenneth Johnson, 29, lived in
> a West Los Angeles condominium with his wife and three children and
> earned $4,000 a month as a forklift operator.
>
> Now he is unemployed and divorced, and beds down each night on a grimy
> sidewalk in downtown's 50-square-block Skid Row.
>
> "It's weird to be down here," said Mr. Johnson, leaning against a wall
> as night fell. "It's not a very easy feeling, but over a couple of
> weeks I got used to it."
>
> Like thousands of others in this despairing city within a city, Mr.
> Johnson came to Skid Row because it is the easiest place in Los
> Angeles to find services, shelter and three square meals a day.
>
> And beginning this month, the neighborhood's homeless have also been
> guaranteed some respite from the police. Under pressure from the
> American Civil Liberties Union, Los Angeles agreed on Oct. 10 not to
> appeal a federal court order and will instead allow sleeping on the
> sidewalk, at least until the city provides 1,250 new beds in low-
> income housing.
>
> The deal partly rolls back a zero-tolerance crackdown on petty
> offenses in the Skid Row area, including sleeping in public places,
> that was undertaken late last year by Police Chief William J. Bratton.
> The effort has reduced by about half the 8,000 homeless who frequented
> the area a year ago, according to police estimates.
>
> Some advocates express concern that the flight from Skid Row has left
> people cut off from vital assistance. The police, however, maintain
> that the area is safer - for everyone, including the homeless - with
> fewer people living on the streets.
>
> As of Oct. 6, the police had made 10,742 arrests in and around Skid
> Row this year, 15 percent more than in the corresponding period of
> 2006. At the same time, property crimes had dropped by 25 percent and
> violent crimes by a third, police statistics show.
>
> But while there are 17,000 shelter beds in Los Angeles County, most of
> them within the city, there are some 74,000 homeless across the
> county's 4,060 square miles, officials say. And despite the decline in
> their numbers on Skid Row, it remains an area with one of the nation's
> largest concentrations of the homeless. As a result, the shelters
> remain full every night, said Andy Bales, chief executive of the Union
> Rescue Mission, which operates one of them.
>
> Though the shelters have set up courtyard cots to accommodate the
> nightly overflow, some of the homeless prefer the street, which, they
> say, is safer. One woman, Guadalupe Ibarra, who showers and eats at
> the missions but does not sleep there because she fears for her
> safety, gestured at the sleeping bags and tents under a store's
> awning. "This is our residence," she said. "We all respect each other
> here."
>
> Yet Skid Row's street people have been watching their territory shrink
> for years, as downtown developers open the long-neglected area to
> gentrification. Late-night restaurants, art galleries and refurbished
> loft spaces selling in the high six figures now form the edge of the
> neighborhood.
>
> Every few days, Hollywood producers descend upon nearby streets to
> floodlight a midcentury bank building or a bar, standing in for the
> grit of an East Coast city. Dogs are walked past bookstores and DVD
> shops, their owners only occasionally approached for change or
> cigarettes. "There's a lot more money people around now," Ms. Ibarra
> said. "They put fences and gates around a lot of places where we used
> to stay."
>
> She said the changes had pushed many homeless people into East Los
> Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, and west to Santa Monica and
> Venice Beach. (Homeless-population maps - athttp://homeless.cartifact.com/
> - that were produced by the police chart the dispersal of street
> people from Skid Row since last year.)
>
> Much of Skid Row, however, remains a place of wandering drunks and
> drug addicts, with homeless people lining urine-stained sidewalks in
> sleeping bags, cardboard shelters and tents.
>
> Lee Ann Salazar, 63, said she had lived on the streets for six years.
> She tries to keep on the move, tending to 70 or so stray cats with a
> sack of Friskies. Ms. Salazar told of having recently been attacked by
> gang members who burned her shopping cart full of possessions.
>
> "Living out here is like sliding down a 40-foot razor blade," she
> said. "Your body cannot rest. It's like you're pulling out your
> eyeteeth to get up every morning."
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/us/31skidrow.html?_r=1&oref=slogin


The other night I was cutting through the woods and thought one of
those tents was an outhouse. After I'd peed I heard "ahh, a shower at
last. I feel and smell so much better".
 
On Fri, 02 Nov 2007 11:55:47 -0700, [email protected]
wrote:
>The other night I was cutting through the woods and thought one of
>those tents was an outhouse. After I'd peed I heard "ahh, a shower at
>last. I feel and smell so much better".


That's too good for the bums.
 
"Frank Shorter" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Fri, 02 Nov 2007 11:55:47 -0700, [email protected]
> wrote:
>>The other night I was cutting through the woods and thought one of
>>those tents was an outhouse. After I'd peed I heard "ahh, a shower at
>>last. I feel and smell so much better".

>
> That's too good for the bums.


So when your useless-assed wife winds up with a double radical mastectomy, I
guess we'll all just say, You shoulda chosen better parents, *****.
Right?
You fagits have it all figgered out, experts at the blame game.
SMD.
--
------
Mr. P.V.'d (formerly Droll Troll), Yonkers, NY

Stop Corruption in Congress & Send the Ultimate Message:
Absolutely Vote, but NOT for a Democrat or a Republican.
Ending Corruption in Congress is the *Single Best Way*
to Materially Improve Your Family's Life.
The Solution is so simple--and inexpensive!

AND,
Make sure whomever you do vote for believes in
ABSOLUTE separation of Church & State--ferchrissakes

entropic3.14decay at optonline2.718 dot net; remove pi and e to reply--ie,
all d'numbuhs
 
On Sat, 03 Nov 2007 15:55:40 -0400, Frank Shorter
<[email protected]> wrote:

>See how wrong you were? Meat us at Knebels house tonight, and you can
>our "all male revue" bash he's having. It's one party you are
>guaranteed to walk funny for a few days afterward.


Oh, and you won't be walking funny from the heavy drinking either, if
you get my drift?
 
"Frank Shorter" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Sat, 03 Nov 2007 15:55:40 -0400, Frank Shorter
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>See how wrong you were? Meat us at Knebels house tonight, and you can
>>our "all male revue" bash he's having. It's one party you are
>>guaranteed to walk funny for a few days afterward.

>
> Oh, and you won't be walking funny from the heavy drinking either, if
> you get my drift?


Yeah, your drift is clear to me, but surely not to you.
It is this:

Should you, or anyone else, be wondering what possible purpose you and your
sociopathic ilk serve on this planet, it's this:
To make the people who are lucky enough not to live in the same zip code (or
state, for that matter) as you realize just how great their good fortune is.
God help/bless anyone sharing your trailer.
SMD.
--
------
Mr. P.V.'d (formerly Droll Troll), Yonkers, NY

Stop Corruption in Congress & Send the Ultimate Message:
Absolutely Vote, but NOT for a Democrat or a Republican.
Ending Corruption in Congress is the *Single Best Way*
to Materially Improve Your Family's Life.
The Solution is so simple--and inexpensive!

AND,
Make sure whomever you do vote for believes in
ABSOLUTE separation of Church & State--ferchrissakes

entropic3.14decay at optonline2.718 dot net; remove pi and e to reply--ie,
all d'numbuhs
 
On Sat, 3 Nov 2007 18:30:15 -0400, "Proctologically Violated©®"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Yeah, your drift is clear to me, but surely not to you.
>It is this:
>
>Should you, or anyone else, be wondering what possible purpose you and your
>sociopathic ilk serve on this planet, it's this:
>To make the people who are lucky enough not to live in the same zip code (or
>state, for that matter) as you realize just how great their good fortune is.
>God help/bless anyone sharing your trailer.
>SMD.


Sounds like your BF didn't lube you up last night? *****y, *****y,
*****y...
 
"Frank Shorter" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Sat, 3 Nov 2007 18:30:15 -0400, "Proctologically Violated©®"
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>Yeah, your drift is clear to me, but surely not to you.
>>It is this:
>>
>>Should you, or anyone else, be wondering what possible purpose you and
>>your
>>sociopathic ilk serve on this planet, it's this:
>>To make the people who are lucky enough not to live in the same zip code
>>(or
>>state, for that matter) as you realize just how great their good fortune
>>is.
>>God help/bless anyone sharing your trailer.
>>SMD.

>
> Sounds like your BF didn't lube you up last night? *****y, *****y,
> *****y...


Mebbe...
But, Accurate, accurate, accurate....
SMD.
--
------
Mr. P.V.'d (formerly Droll Troll), Yonkers, NY

Stop Corruption in Congress & Send the Ultimate Message:
Absolutely Vote, but NOT for a Democrat or a Republican.
Ending Corruption in Congress is the *Single Best Way*
to Materially Improve Your Family's Life.
The Solution is so simple--and inexpensive!

AND,
Make sure whomever you do vote for believes in
ABSOLUTE separation of Church & State--ferchrissakes

entropic3.14decay at optonline2.718 dot net; remove pi and e to reply--ie,
all d'numbuhs
 
On Sun, 4 Nov 2007 00:12:30 -0400, "Proctologically Violated©®"
<[email protected]> wrote:
>Mebbe...
>But, Accurate, accurate, accurate....
>SMD.


KMA, SMD, and GFY.