It's easier to move a problem than fix it.

You may be smiling your little smug smile of glee by pointing out this hypocrisy but I really donÂ’t think you understand the magnitude of the homeless situation around here.

Yes, “we” voted in people who have greatly exacerbated the problem, largely by ignoring the old adage of “don’t feed the bears” but what started as “compassion” has turned into a full fledged fuck over of people who aren’t homeless.

People are getting fed up around here. Hopefully we can turn it into a voting out of those in power but I have long suspected that the game is fully rigged here in CA.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

So the elected officials did what they said they would do and now the electorate doesn't like the outcome but will still vote the same type of people into office.

Live somewhere really cold and the homeless problem is reduced

There are plenty of warm places with little to no homeless.

Again, donÂ’t feed the bears.

Every year on the day before thanksgiving our local homeless shelter opens up for the brutal Santa Barbara winter. ThereÂ’s a gas station right next door to it. Guess who gets robbed every year on Black Friday...

Also our homeless population is estimated to double during the winter. I used to have a photo studio a few blocks away from the shelter (I shared a building with an auto mechanic so it looked like, you guessed it, an auto shop). Every year during the 3 weeks following TG I spent my mornings purging people who were sleeping by my front door and cleaning up human shit.

I started out by calling the cops but after 4 or 5 “we’re not going to do anything even though I can clearly see him drinking/drunk in public and he’s being belligerent and cussing us both out and threatening us” by the police I gave up on that.

So I took care of things on my own. PIA.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Is this true? (Honest question.)

There are lots of homeless people (formerly known as bums, hobos, drifters, etc.) in Denver and Colorado Springs. Those are the two "cold" cities I spend time in.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

We have grown to imagine that we can do "good things" w/o consequences. Those that say "beware of this or that consequence" are shouted down as mean spirited, heartless, or that old "go to" epithet "racists". There's almost always consequences.

Look at the way rent control assures the region that the # of rental properties declines. So an idea intended to help people find affordable homes results in precisely that scarcity.

I read something the other day re. some lady in FL, I think, bemoaning property taxes that had risen so high she wasn't going to be able to make ends meet. One of her points made was that for decades she'd voted for every state and local program someone wanted funded, maybe looking for a quid pro quo relief program, or maybe voicing her surprise at the consequential tax increases.

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Books @ Amazon
"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart

Anecdotally yes. I can look for stats in a bit if you want. For what it's worth I don't consider Denver a "cold" city since it's been 70 at least one day I've been there in the winter every time.

We have a similar problem here. Warmest climate in the country, so all our homeless flock here. Absolute moonbeam mayor and city council here making the problem much, much worse. To the point where our mayor released a statement saying people with additional space in their homes should open their doors to the homeless, much like the community did for vets returning from WW2. Because, you know, that's kind of the same thing.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

There is a building near a large bus stop in downtown Columbus that plays opera very loudly. My co-workers couldn't figure out why. Seemed to work pretty well, not sure what that says about opera.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Give them a bus ticket to Seattle where the taxpayers provide ports potties and trash collection for the tent cities.

Soon the taxpayers will provide a safe injection site where heroin addicts can shoot up without “fear” of being arrested.

Where the city council wants to tax companies $50 per employee to fund homeless programs with no accountability for the funds already raised and disbursed.

Freeattle is the best place to be homeless.

We had a big tent City go up a few years ago that lasted for over a year. At the time, I was living two blocks from it. We experienced break ins, needles left on the ground, human feces nearby, constant noise complaints, many, many threats of violence against nearby residents. In one year a beautiful city park was destroyed to the point that it resembled a kolata slum.

It cost the city probably close to a million dollars. Off the top of my head, the police department asked for an additional $250k for overtime to manage the site, porta potty and garbage bins were provided for a whole year, nearby business and residential buildings were vandalized constantly and the clean up operation had a $300k price tag as the whole park had to be bulldozed, all the soil removed as it was too contaminated, and rebuilt.

Now our city mayor and council is opening up a safe injection site right across from an elementary school.

My real frustration is at people's complete lack of awareness of local politics. The only people who voted or get involved are extremist busily bodies from the left or right, so you end up with complete whackjobs running the show and pandering to very small interest groups with nothing better to do then complain.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

Nah man...forty...forty below...forty below keeps the riff raff out.

Chump change.
"Jurisdictions in San Diego County have collectively spent more than $630 million in the past two fiscal years to combat homelessness." Or as I see it- Invite more homeless.
https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/How-Much-Money-Is-Spent-On-Homeless-Services-In-San-Diego-County-442277753.html


Our city leaders care little about the tax payer. It seems every other news story here, is about how the city council is going to help the homeless.
We have toilet- sanitation problems here too! Especially since a new hepatitis A out break (The hepatitis A virus is shed in human feces and transmitted when a person comes in contact with fecal matter. ) It is getting so nasty and dirty that people are dying, last count 17 with 481 confirmed cases.
Quick example of waste:
"San Diego spent more than half a million dollars installing its two loos double the initial price tag. Now, due to more costs and residents' complaints, it's planning to remove one and put it in storage. A nearby homeless shelter will open its bathrooms around the clock instead."



Our homeless are to dignified to use a $700 Porta John.

Your post reminded me of the during and aftermath of one of the last grateful dead concerts at soldier field before Jerry Garcia died.