Quote:
Originally Posted by destroycreate
I'm not going to lie--I'm getting super frustrated with the filth and squalor being allowed all over west coast cities. I feel like you aren't even allowed to express this openly without being labeled a hateful, heartless pig. I do have compassion for the homeless, and hate our fucked up cowboy capitalist society for enabling these inequities.
But should we not be allowed to be upset seeing needles scattered about on residential sidewalks?
Express disdain for bulky encampments with massive items like refrigerators taking up entire portions of the sidewalk in middle class neighborhoods?
Disgust for open air toilets?
A massive, shanty encampment right next to my apartment complex (originally right outside our lobby, the dude was hoping for our leasing office to pay him to go away) in Koreatown recently went up in flames. Cooking Crystal Meth inside was the culprit. Who knows if this could've caused a massive explosion--what I can tell you is that the blackened encampment was left in the open and untouched by the city for upwards of 2 weeks.
I get that people need a tent and to be able to live somewhere, but I don't like that a free for all is being allowed, where people can set up shop just anywhere. Seriously, hardworking families with children shouldn't have to have their kids step over squalor and drug dens to wait for the school bus. In my part of LA, it's the norm. Why can't we designate certain areas better?
It just seems like this is only going to get worse with every year, despite more money being thrown at the issue than ever before. IMO, it's really affecting quality of life out here. Do we think this issue will ever be resolvable?
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Jesus Christ.
You claim to have "compassion" for unhoused individuals and hate a "fucked up cowboy capitalist society" but your answer is... we need to impose further barriers to their lives of those who already face so many by restricting where they can exist. Do you not see how egregiously egoistic and classist you sound?
Despite your awareness of capitalism being a problem in this situation, you offer no solutions for the actual people who find themselves without access to safe and adequate housing, and are only concerned with yourself and how you feel about their presence. It really shouldn't be about you. Like, yes, it sucks to have to walk by used syringes, or whatever, but at the end of the day, you get to go back to adequate shelter, have access to income, and so forth, so who cares what you think?
The focus should not be on basically corralling houseless folks into designated quarters so that essentially gentrifiers can not have to look at this "squalor" or whatever villainous term you'd like to project onto marginalized people. It should be with providing housing, access to education, healthcare (including safe injection sites, mental health resources), and employment, and giving them community spaces.
Get over yourself. It sounds like you'd have a better time in a more whitewashed, sanitized urban experience. You know Anaheim isn't very far from you, right? Yes, it sucks to see these situations, but if you truly care, then do something that actually helps these people, rather than advocating for their removal, citing they somehow have less of a right to your "middle class" neighbourhood than you. The arrogance you show against those living without housing is abhorrent. Do better.