Politics Homeless people in Oakland

Discussion in 'Blazers OT Forum' started by MARIS61, Dec 3, 2019.

  1. MARIS61

    MARIS61 Real American

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    Oakland's rising homelessness crisis prompts DIY effort using large logs

    By Barnini Chakraborty | Fox News

    Logs placed on Oakland street in apparent attempt to deter homeless from parking vehicles

    Large logs line a two-block stretch of road in Oakland in apparent attempt to thwart the homeless from parking their cars and RVs.

    Someone in Oakland has been taking matters into their own hands by placing car-sized logs in front of businesses in an effort to deter transients from setting up camp in the California city.

    While the motive is clear -- to keep the homeless out -- no one person or group has come forward to say they are behind the long line of logs that have been preventing the homeless from parking their RVs or dilapidated vehicles in front of businesses.

    [​IMG]
    Large tree logs were placed outside Oakland, California businesses to help deter homeless residents from parking their cars outside. (KTVU)

    City officials have complained the logs have blocked crews from cleaning up the areas of Oakland but admit they have done little to root out the culprit.

    OAKLAND'S HOMELESS STATS SOAR AS PRESSURE GROWS FROM RESIDENTS, BUSINESSES FOR A SOLUTION

    Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney told the East Bay Times (EBT) she's reached out to local business owners but that no one would fess up to doing it.

    Sean Maher, a spokesman for Oakland's Public Works Department, said he considers the logs an "intentional obstruction of the public right of way," but admits the department has not reached out to local businesses to get to the bottom of the mystery.

    [​IMG]
    Large tree logs were placed outside Oakland, California businesses to help deter homeless residents from parking their cars outside. (KTVU)

    Greg Anderson, manager at the Oakland Music Complex, told EBT that he doesn't have a problem with the logs and blames the city for not addressing the homelessness situation earlier.

    "Since the city does an extremely poor job in preventing homeless encampments from developing in West Oakland, these logs that were placed out there by a neighboring company have been instrumental in minimizing these encampments," Anderson said in an email.

    [​IMG]
    Left Behind: Homeless Crisis in Oakland
    Fox News embarked on an ambitious project to chronicle the toll progressive policies have had on the homeless crisis in five west coast cities: Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Portland, Ore. In each city, we saw a lack of safety, sanitation, and civility. Residents, the homeless and advocates say they've lost faith in their elected officials' ability to solve the issue. Most of the cities have thrown hundreds of millions of dollars at the problem only to watch it get worse. This is what we saw in Oakland.

    But not everyone is on board with the DIY approach.

    Easy Bay Community Law Center's Osha Neumann called the barricade "hostile architecture."

    "If all these homeless people could turn themselves to stone, then this would not be a problem. But because they don't have that capacity they get pushed out by the real stones and boulders, which appear to be much more acceptable and aesthetically pleasing," she said.

    Still, the anti-homeless backlash from business owners and residents have been on the rise in Oakland -- and across the state -- for quite some time.

    Residents recently told Fox News they are tired of the uptick in numbers and the lethargic response by elected city officials.

    Oakland saw a 47 percent jump in homelessness in two years -- one of the largest surges of any California city, according to a one-night street count released in July.

    Left Behind: America's Homeless Crisis
    Fox News Digital embarked on an ambitious project to chronicle the toll progressive policies have had on the homeless crisis in four west coast cities: Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland, Ore. In each city, we saw a lack of safety, sanitation, and civility. Residents, the homeless and advocates say they've lost faith in their elected officials' ability to solve the issue. Most of the cities have thrown hundreds of millions of dollars at the problem only to watch it get worse. This is what we found.

    The count, which used federal guidelines, showed Oakland had 4,017 homeless people in 2019, up from 2,761 in 2017. The increase puts the city's per capita homeless rate higher than neighboring San Francisco and Berkeley and comes at a time when several West Coast cities are struggling with a homeless crisis that's been driven by rising rents, drug addiction, mental illness and pushback from progressives.

    The Point-In-Time Count also found that the number of people living in their vehicles had more than doubled, skyrocketing 131 percent. At the beginning of the year, there were 1,430 people living in their vehicles, up from 618 in 2017. Roughly half called their cars and vans home while the others sought shelter in recreational vehicles.

    The jump in stats has led to unconventional suggestions by fed-up Oaklanders like Gene Gorelik, who suggested the homeless should be put on a party bus stocked with alcohol, driven over the border and left stranded in Mexico. At one point, Gorelik tried to bribe the homeless to leave but was eventually shouted down by homeless advocates.

    The mystery logs in Oakland come two months after residents in neighboring San Francisco placed large boulders to keep the homeless off their sidewalks.

    [​IMG]
    A group of neighbors in San Francisco had two dozen boulders placed along a residential road to deter people from camping out. They have since been removed. (KTVU)

    In Ingleside, frustrated residents erected a plywood wall on a narrow pedestrian pathway to keep away transients who used the alley outside people's homes as a toilet. The nights it wasn't used as a bathroom, the area became base camp for illegal drug dealing, neighbors told Fox News during a visit in November.

    Caltrans (the State of California, Department of Transportation) has also been considering whether to put boulders or some other type of barrier to deter encampments in West Berkeley, where the homeless have made underpasses and train tracks their homes. Twice a month, Caltrans cleans the encampments, forcing dwellers to briefly leave but then allowing them back in once the sites are cleaned.
    https://www.foxnews.com/us/oakland-homeless-businesses-large-logs
     
  2. Lanny

    Lanny Original Season Ticket Holder "Mr. Big Shot"

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    I understand the frustration but we've got to address the root problem of the ever growing wealth disparity in the United States.
     
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  3. julius

    julius Global Moderator Staff Member Global Moderator

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    We just gotta find some other city to take our problems, give the homeless tickets to those cities and then start arresting them when they get back here.
     
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  4. tlongII

    tlongII Legendary Poster

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    Oh horseshit. Wealth disparity has nothing to do with the homeless problem.
     
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  5. Lanny

    Lanny Original Season Ticket Holder "Mr. Big Shot"

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    I call bullshit on your horseshit.
    Here's what Money Magazine has to say on the matter:
    https://www.businessinsider.com/the-top-20-presidents-in-us-history-according-to-historians-2017-2

    Now think about it for just a moment. The homeless aren't homeless because they have too much money now are they? Largely speaking, don't you think the homeless would have a home if they had the money for one plus the money for healthcare, food and things that you and I take for granted?

    Now, come up with a common sense rebuttal.
     
  6. riverman

    riverman Writing Team

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    Addictions, gambling, booze, drugs added to the cost of living have increased homelessness....most of the homeless in my area have been here for decades...none have a driver's license from multiple DUIs...at some point they just stop trying to pay bills and stay afloat....some of the addictions stem from struggles, others are mental health issues...whatever the cause, they are here to stay until we address the issue in terms of housing, rehabilitation or health care.....I donated to a fund in the 197os for container shelters in Oakland for the homeless...it was a step in the right direction but that real estate in the end was worth too much money to allow landowners to not sell for huge profits....now, those homeless will be without food stamps....that will increase crime...not help the country...a beggar outside Walmart probably make more than a minimum wage job provides...there are folks who can pick themselves up and scrape out a living but their are far more that sink into depression and apathy. Life can beat those people down...young healthy homeless people with expensive dogs and tailored cigarettes don't get any empathy from me at all
     
  7. tlongII

    tlongII Legendary Poster

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    There are plenty of jobs available for those who want to work. Now I will admit that some homeless people are not in their predicament because of their own actions, but most are. Most want to freeload and take drugs all day. This is obvious when you consider what cities the most homeless issues reside in. They are invariably in liberal cities that do nothing but placate them. I suggest you come up with something better than op ed about what someone considers the top 20 presidents in US history. What does that have to do with it anyway?
     
  8. yankeesince59

    yankeesince59 "Oh Captain, my Captain".

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    It certainly doesn't help the situation.
     
  9. Lanny

    Lanny Original Season Ticket Holder "Mr. Big Shot"

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    Look, this problem is new. The last time we had this sort of problem was during the Great Depression, a time when these people had no money.
    Doesn't the sudden influx of the homeless make you wonder why? Do you think they all suddenly turned lazy? Do you think they all suddenly had problems related to the stress of no money?
    Flipping hamburgers and cleaning hotel rooms is not exactly what I'd call providing jobs for the bulk of people. Not that the world doesn't need good ditch diggers and or road construction flaggers.
     
  10. EL PRESIDENTE

    EL PRESIDENTE Username Retired in Honor of Lanny.

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    The homeless seem to be getting more violent and destructive out here.
     
  11. Lanny

    Lanny Original Season Ticket Holder "Mr. Big Shot"

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    That's what an increase in desperation can lead to.
     
  12. EL PRESIDENTE

    EL PRESIDENTE Username Retired in Honor of Lanny.

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    I don't think its desperation. I think sometimes its a self of entitlement and anger at their predicament.
     
  13. tlongII

    tlongII Legendary Poster

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    My opinion is that it is a result of the social justice movement being pushed by liberals. As more liberal cities offer more services to the homeless, more homeless people will move into those locations. The majority of these people have no interest in working in my opinion.
     
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  14. Lanny

    Lanny Original Season Ticket Holder "Mr. Big Shot"

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    The predicament is what I'm talking about.
     
  15. Lanny

    Lanny Original Season Ticket Holder "Mr. Big Shot"

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    We've had social services ever since LBJ without all this homelessness. No, you're grasping as straws.
    You're seeing a co-incidence of homelessness and a vain attempt to deal with it by a stop gap method of increasing social services. The root is wealth disparity.
    I think I'll drop it now since I can see that you are never going to see this and a continuation is a waste of my time and energy.
     
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  16. TorturedBlazerFan

    TorturedBlazerFan Well-Known Member

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    This is completely anecdotal but I have two friends who said, screw working, I can just go to downtown portland not pay my bills, not work, but basically do whatever I want.
    I absolutely get that there are people who are homeless not of their own will, or even there own bad choices, but my generation see's things much differently than older ones and there are indeed many who are saying I don't want to work, and I can basically live for free in a homeless park and use mass transit to go where I want, and just chill.
     
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  17. tlongII

    tlongII Legendary Poster

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    It's probably a good thing that you drop it.
     
  18. riverman

    riverman Writing Team

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    Junkies and drunks get edgy when they need a fix
     
  19. riverman

    riverman Writing Team

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    sleeping in a tent in Portland in Dec I'd say was .."chill" I just got back from town and it looked like pure misery in the cold for those folks from me....the lazy beggars who want to chill are probably couch crashing or in mom's basement
     
  20. TorturedBlazerFan

    TorturedBlazerFan Well-Known Member

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    Some I'm sure, but the friends of mine who have chosen that lifestyle don't. I'm not bad-mouthing any homeless people for whatever reason they're homeless, for those that want a home it sucks they don't have one.
     

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