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Original poster

The situation in LA

442 replies

Cheesefiend36 · 14/12/2021 10:34

www.nytimes.com/2021/12/12/us/los-angeles-mayor-race.html

I've been reading with interest that LA has had a terrible time of it since Covid and new anti prison sentence laws which has seen crime go up. I follow somebody who was in LA for a holiday last week and vowed never to go back after seeing the amount of poverty, homeless camps in tourist places, crime rates and a general feeling of not being safe. Lifeless bodies on the side of the road is apparently the norm with no body batting an eyelid

LAPD have recommended that tourists stay away because they can't keep them safe

Is anyone there right now or has been recently that can share their experience?
So much wealth there, how can this be happening?

OP posts:
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5
thinkingaboutLangCleg · 15/12/2021 14:17

There are parts of London that are like this now, tent cities, homeless people everywhere, human waste on the pavements. It’s terrifying.

What part of London have you seen this, Sandysmam? I remember the tent city set up by Stop the City campaigners a few years back, but that was a temporary installation, as part of a protest. Some Roma families squatting near Marble Arch. And I’ve seen occasional homeless people in tents, but only individually. I’ve never seen anything like a real encampment of people living in tents.

DottyHarmer · 15/12/2021 14:18

A basic problem is young men. If you've seen The Wire it's evident that there is a generation of men who have no solid family background. Their role models are gang members. The drug culture is endemic.

Then, when they're older and out of their mother's home and addicts, where are they going? They can't hold down a job (certainly not modern world jobs) and are moving from billet to billet (ie women) and then to the street.

The problems (minus the gangs) are similar in rustbelt America too.

It is a problem of being no use.

OhWhyNot · 15/12/2021 14:21

The biggest issue in LA isn’t guns it’s inequality

Some of worse poverty you will see in the western world and the large numbers of people living this way living in the same city as a huge amount of wealth and there is social segregation. We don’t have that in our big cities in the same way. We don’t have huge area of mass poverty, Skid Row areas

We also have more support for those with MH issues we know about the US healthcare system.

But it’s not a war zone. There are areas you avoid and areas where it feels very safe and people are very friendly (more so than in the UK)

I wouldn’t go back if I didn’t family there. I love Paris and Marseille but have felt unsafe in both these cities at times.

My family live there and I spend a lot of time there. It’s not a city I like but

OhWhyNot · 15/12/2021 14:25

There is nowhere in London that is like the LA slums far far from it

Neither do we have the areas that gangs as so prevalent and the area feels edgy like LA

We have too many homeless on the streets and we have gang crime and light avoid particular areas but it’s not on the same level (thankfully)

FourTeaFallOut · 15/12/2021 14:35

The Wire not withstanding Hmm there's a big difference between the proportion of men and women who make up the homeless in America and the UK. In America it's estimated that up to 30% of the homeless are women and here it's much less, just over 10%ish by the looks of it. So something different is happening there.

DingleyDel · 15/12/2021 14:38

unname how awful. My deepest sympathies. I have an alcoholic sibling (currently sober but for how long is anyone’s guess). Addiction is such a terrible thing for a family to deal with.

whataboutbob · 15/12/2021 14:57

@DottyHarmer

A basic problem is young men. If you've seen The Wire it's evident that there is a generation of men who have no solid family background. Their role models are gang members. The drug culture is endemic.

Then, when they're older and out of their mother's home and addicts, where are they going? They can't hold down a job (certainly not modern world jobs) and are moving from billet to billet (ie women) and then to the street.

The problems (minus the gangs) are similar in rustbelt America too.

It is a problem of being no use.

Deeply sobering but probably quite true. If only those young men could see the trajectory before they start on that road...
Fordian · 15/12/2021 15:05

What's San Luis Obispo like?

Possible uni (Polytech) placement opportunity!

zafferana · 15/12/2021 15:10

@Fordian

What's San Luis Obispo like?

Possible uni (Polytech) placement opportunity!

Really nice little university town - don't remember seeing any homeless people there. Some nice independent shops, bars, I liked it a lot!
LifeIsWhat · 15/12/2021 15:11

For those who are interested in the opioid crisis, which is a big cause of the whole homeless situation. I highly recommend a TV series called Dopesick, which is utterly brilliant portrait of the event. It was shocking how regulator, pharmaceuticals, and doctors (many are unwilling) carefully trapped ordinary people into addiction. And how small town lawyers put up a flight. Really make you think....

The situation in LA
julieca · 15/12/2021 15:17

@FourTeaFallOut

The Wire not withstanding Hmm there's a big difference between the proportion of men and women who make up the homeless in America and the UK. In America it's estimated that up to 30% of the homeless are women and here it's much less, just over 10%ish by the looks of it. So something different is happening there.
That is because in Britain homeless women with kids get some form of accommodation however poor it is. In both places women without kids don't get accommodation.
PermanentTemporary · 15/12/2021 15:17

San Luiz de Obispo is a delicious little jewel of a place with really interesting history. I remember they employ tourist greeters who certainly looked like college students who tell you about nice places to visit. They have a tiny art gallery which is glorious - even 15 year old ds remained interested. Recommended.

They have one really weird thing - an alley where lots of people have stuck their chewing gum on the wall and this is now a tourist attraction. I don't know why I thought this would be fun, it's as horrible as you might expect! But that was the only negative.

julieca · 15/12/2021 15:18

And I agree the issue is inequality. Anywhere in the world where you have wealthy people living close to desperately poor people, crime soars.

Firesidefox · 15/12/2021 15:24

@Fordian

What's San Luis Obispo like?

Possible uni (Polytech) placement opportunity!

Really lovely little academic town! Great location, cute, I would take that like a shot!
Guardian12 · 15/12/2021 15:26

We were in Seattle a few years back and were blown away by the homeless crisis so I can only imagine what it's like post COVID. It seems to be an issue in a lot of cities on the west coast. There were tents and homeless people out of it on drugs everywhere, even around the main tourist attractions. It felt like an episode of the walking dead at times and was impossible to ignore. I'd never go back there.

I know it's been repeated by many but the homeless situation in London is not like that at all, it's simply not comparable.

FourTeaFallOut · 15/12/2021 15:28

That is because in Britain homeless women with kids get some form of accommodation however poor it is. In both places women without kids don't get accommodation

Yes, so it's not simply a matter that young men can't get their shit together...which my post was in response to.

MaMaLa321 · 15/12/2021 15:31

the West Coast has a temperate climate and you can live outside all year.

FourTeaFallOut · 15/12/2021 15:33

What happens to the tent cities in Canada in the winter?

DottyHarmer · 15/12/2021 15:38

@julieca Why inequality? It's a ridiculous assertion that everyone who is not homeless is living like Succession or a Hollywood star. Throwing money at people is not a solution. The end of meaningful work, family instability and the pervasiveness of drugs is the problem.

You might ask why homeless like cities. I guess a proportion have been born there, there is drug availability and also in some ways a "community". Why others flock to certain cities is down to policy. West coast cities have been accommodating to incoming homeless, and of course this encourages others. In Portland people were all kind and cuddly to one or two homeless on their street. When your whole neighbourhood is a tent city and you feel threatened and it is no longer a pleasant place to live your compassion - even for the most liberal hipster - runs out pretty fast.

icelolly12 · 15/12/2021 15:55

Isn't it just the epitome of capitalism- the have and the have nots, but living side by side. Take away the free healthcare, the benefits and we're not that far away ourselves. The amount of homeless in our cities is rising.The number of drug users loitering around and clearly zombied out on spice is rising.

We need to look at LA as a warning of what we're rapidly moving towards, rather than a rather patronising oh how bad it must be for those Americans, we're nothing like them...

icelolly12 · 15/12/2021 16:11

[quote DottyHarmer]@julieca Why inequality? It's a ridiculous assertion that everyone who is not homeless is living like Succession or a Hollywood star. Throwing money at people is not a solution. The end of meaningful work, family instability and the pervasiveness of drugs is the problem.

You might ask why homeless like cities. I guess a proportion have been born there, there is drug availability and also in some ways a "community". Why others flock to certain cities is down to policy. West coast cities have been accommodating to incoming homeless, and of course this encourages others. In Portland people were all kind and cuddly to one or two homeless on their street. When your whole neighbourhood is a tent city and you feel threatened and it is no longer a pleasant place to live your compassion - even for the most liberal hipster - runs out pretty fast.[/quote]
Of course the issue is inequality, and the gulf is widening each year. LA is the place to be. Where you have multi billionaires residing, prices are through the roof from the cost of rent to the cost of a fast food meal.
LA...the American dream, How many of those homeless are wannabe actors or models who moved for their chance of stardom, never made it and are now on the streets.

Capitalism cannot work, it is not sustainable, hence why safety nets and taxes are needed. If those are taken away you get a teeny tiny percentage of extremely wealthy and a huge proportion of people fighting for basic survival.

fournonblondes · 15/12/2021 16:14

Taxes and high cost living for the middle classes can make Britain the same. We already paid quite a lot in taxes and not much in return for the higher earners. The big cities are overpopulated and the quality of life not very good. We have not much incentive to be here tbh.

icelolly12 · 15/12/2021 16:16

And if those taxes didn't exist the proportion of homeless and desperate would be astronomical.

Ellowyn · 15/12/2021 16:18

I live in a western state - inland thankfully, in a very conservative area where it is safe, clean and pretty much law-abiding. Democrats/liberals are useless running cities. They have now even decriminalized some stealing and assault in their areas.

We used to visit Seattle about once a month for business. We'd take care of our business early in the day and then, after parking under the Alaska viaduct, we'd spend the rest of the day on the waterfront & Pike's Place market. We had to stop visiting the area about 10 years ago when we were getting held up for $$$ by men pretending they were parking attendants etc. It was getting pretty scary. Also the waterfront was getting taken up by people pan-handling, camping or sleeping on all benches, so I couldn't even sit down and enjoy the bay. We see since then the filth and crime has exploded to an unbearable level.

In some of the conservative run cities and towns in the eastern parts of the west coast states they had the 'homeless' try to move their tents into parks and city centers, but it didn't work out for them as well. In ground sprinkler systems were turned on or in one city, after plenty of warnings city workers would load the tents etc into garbage trucks and haul them off to the dump.

The nice thing is these Conservative run towns offered shelters, warming centers and even sleeping huts in fenced off safe areas for the homeless. Also they are trying to get the people into drug treatment or help them with their mental health. Liberals expect the people that live in these cities to tolerate the filth & the increased crime.

It seems to me it's not about being poor but instead a problem with drug addiction and/or poor mental health. There are tons of jobs to be had right now here and also away from the coast the cost of housing is cheap.

It disturbing that many of the Liberals in the big cities can't stand living in the mess they voted for and are now moving to conservative areas to get away from the horrors they have created. The trouble is here they are not only complaining about farming practices, such as the smell from dairy farms, the idiots are trying to vote in Liberal politicians to recreate the place they fled from.

America is still a lovely place to visit as long as you keep away from anywhere Democrats/Liberals control.

fournonblondes · 15/12/2021 16:21

@ all Ellowyn. Yes, but the democrats in these cities do take responsibility. A poster earlier was talking about California and Reagan, seriously 😐

If it works for red cities why it does not work for blue cities?