The situation in LA

[Cheesefiend36]

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?

I'm not entirely surprised to hear this. I travelled there for work about 6 years ago and thought it was pretty dire then - the only comparable place I've been is Nairobi. I hope never to need to go back.

There has always been vast inequality in LA, and that has deepened due to covid. That inevitably results in crime.

The problems described are commonplace in cities in the UK too, although here the drug is spice rather than opioids.

@SandysMam

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

Nowhere near the levels of Skid Row.

We went there this summer as part of a family visit. Honestly, aside from Anaheim (which seemed quite clean and safe), the city was shockingly dirty and the sheer numbers of addicts/homeless/mentally unwell people wandering the streets and shouting at people made us feel really unsafe. My suitcase rolled through a pile of feces on the pavement in Beverly Hills. Beverly Hills. There was a gang of homeless drug users sitting outside of McDonald’s in Hollywood, yelling at everyone going in to give them money. LAPD officers were boarding and searching all of the buses the one day we rode one… presumably looking for a fugitive. We got our kids out of there as fast as we could.

We will not be going back.

@TheElusivePotato and @Fearnecuptea

The thing is, I don't think any place would be the same now post-COVID. I know you only visited within the last 5 years so ordinarily I don't think much would change in that time. But COVID has changed the way society works at the moment, in lots of countries. Some may be permanently changed, who knows?

There are 2 issues for us when considering a holiday to the US: the restrictions that are imposed from COVID itself (new variants, testing, threat of quarantine, ultra expensive car hire, possibility of testing positive over there, restrictions on entry to places), and then there are the societal changes that have resulted from the pandemic that make it a less attractive place to visit.

It's certainly gone all quiet on the California FB group I'm on...........sad.

@MistyElla, I'm sorry you had that experience. Someone else told me similar, but they went before COVID. THey said they felt unsafe there. Even getting off the bus on Hollywood Boulevard, they saw police holding a man at gunpoint. God knows what their young daughter must have thought.

I've got 18 year old DS insisting that it will all be fine...

I loved LA from my tourist/shopping POV and loved the climate… but I was revolted when I saw the most beautiful young man shuffling past Madonna’s mansion barefoot and quite clearly broken, penniless and in a perilous mental state.

I was also disgusted at the “hidden food vans” in those rich enclaves which feed the “help”, because heaven knows you wouldn’t want them eating from YOUR fridge.

I gather it’s now far, far worse.

Wow - I honestly had no idea and had always thought of LA as a wealthy county. Thanks for highlighting this, it’s really insightful.

@SandysMam

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

I knew someone would come on to say this. I don't recognise this description. Where in London is it, I'll make sure to avoid it?

@Scbchl

I follow her too and was shocked to read what she said and then the multiple replies to her story all saying the same. Absolutley astonishes me that people are living like that just stepping over dead bodies at the side of the road, going about their day in a developed country.

I was surprised that the first I heard of it was from an Australian influencer on holiday rather than an American celeb, it's not like there's a shortage of them living in LA. How can you ignore what happens on your doorstep, literally.

I thought LA was a rich place full of multi million dollar mansions.

@Blinkingbatshit

I’ve heard nasty reports from New York too….. so much for the 1st World..!!

I have American family in San Francisco and Seattle and have heard similar too. SF has always had pretty bad social problems. I remember visiting and finding it disturbing how many seriously mentally ill people were on the streets. My relatives have all sorts of horror stories like seeing people shit on the street.

Seattle surprised me though. Apparently loads of tent cities, homeless facilities are just overwhelmed. Really depressing stuff.

I’m liberal myself but I do think the US media can be quite biased and won’t report on how shitty the situation is in wealthy, liberal areas.

Sandysmam Where in London are you talking about?

That's why lots have celebs have left LA apparently plus the taxes are more attractive in other states.

@ginnig

That's why lots have celebs have left LA apparently plus the taxes are more attractive in other states.

Wasn't there also a bit of an exodus of celebs to Australia during lockdowns?

To the poster that mentioned Night Stalker ; yeah completely agree, equally disturbing was The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel - that was on Skid Row itself. They've just announced in the last few days that it's reopening soon for social housing

www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/the-cecil-hotel-featured-in-creepy-netflix-doc-will-reopen-as-affordable-housing/

@Cyrilgoggin

Sandysmam Where in London are you talking about?

I’m curious too. I’ve seen tents in central London but not tent cities. And never human faeces.

I’m long haul cabin crew, and have been going to all of these American cities monthly, for the last 22 years.
All of what you are saying is true, San Francisco is even worse than LA, all the shops boarded up in union square etc, no one is on the streets apart from the homeless.
New York is just as bad, I’ve never felt unsafe there until these last few months.

Yep, I've seen tents in the Tottenham Court Road area but not a city of them. I'm not convinced by the description.

@roses2

Wow - I honestly had no idea and had always thought of LA as a wealthy county. Thanks for highlighting this, it’s really insightful.

That's part of the problem. The gulf between rich and poor was shocking even before Covid. Skid row tent cities vs $40 million dollar Selling Sunset mansions within an hour of each other.

The pandemic has exacerbated all that to the nth degree.

@TickleMyPickle

I’m long haul cabin crew, and have been going to all of these American cities monthly, for the last 22 years. All of what you are saying is true, San Francisco is even worse than LA, all the shops boarded up in union square etc, no one is on the streets apart from the homeless. New York is just as bad, I’ve never felt unsafe there until these last few months.

I went to San Francisco around 15 years ago, actually stayed on Union Square, back then I thought it was a beautiful place but still remember walking down the street and the shock of seeing someone fishing in the bins for food.

@SandysMam

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

Which parts of London?

There's a certain irony in posters complaining of insular Americans while gasping open mouthed at the idea that LA isn't a city whose streets are pa Ed with gold.

The US is a society where there are extremes of wealth and poverty. Surely this is common knowledge? The reason for the extremes are - oppositionon the part of the rich to paying a fair income tax, leading to lack of social services, and above all the lack of the sort of welfare safety net that was developed in western Europe after WW2.

The strange part of all of this is that British people tend to vote Tory, implying that they support the same sort of anti-state, small government, its-your-own-fault-if-you're-poor mentality.

I love in what has been described here as an appallingly religious place, the Midwest, in a big city which has seen a large uptick in crime in the last year. Everyone is blaming the current states atorney for the mess, because her office supports less incarceration. The police are up in arms because they arrest suspects and they're out on the streets again the next day. They're also hopping mad about BLM, partly because the president of the police union is a fascist who openly supported the insurrection at the US Capitol last January, and partly because a lot of police officers tend to have racist or authoritarian views, and come from the armed services into policing. The mayor is a tough black woman, a red rag to a bull as far as the police union president is concerned. He led am effort on the part of the police to refuse to be vaccinated against covid.

Massive institutional change is needed, not the same old incarceration - poverty - poor education - incarceration cycle that has kept America ticking over for decades. Nobody really noticed the built in problems until BLM. The system black people have to contend with was perfectly acceptable - or completely possible to ignore - to the majority of Americans until victims started putting videos up on social media.

I honestly believe there's a reckoning coming. I'm very grateful to Bernie Sanders for saying the word 'socialism' out loud and unapologetically, but I fear there will be fascist rule here before people see sense, renounce personal greed, and accept that there is a need for a social contract.

Sorry for typos

Interesting, mathsanxiety