While Attention May Have Faded, the Walk Goes On

yes ed, I agree with you. I have noticed an increase in the number of tents on 5th st. You put into words what was beyond my ability to describe the current scene. There was an attitude in the air of “ownership”, not short term rentals. I am glad you were sensitive enough to see that.

Walter,

NO offense . But I have to take issue with your statement.

There are two reasons for the number in increased tents on 5th street that are common sense and have nothing to do with the safe cities initiative.

1. Christmas season is over and what you are seeing are the tents that were passed out by the well meaning people who came out to help the poor.

2. ON the neighborhood watch walk we witnessed the homeless with tents getting ready for the rain. Are our LAPD so stoic and evil that they would go around and tell the people not to get ready for the rains, tearing down those tents and running them away?

The streets , overall during that walk were empty, very empty , or as empty as I have ever seen since living here since 1999. I witness the LAPD do thier jobs every day, I walk to the taco truck on San Pedro between 5th and winston and I watch how the LAPD , at 6 am are waking up those who are still in front of the businesses, having them move.

Walter

Again please don’t take offense , but I have been living in the heart of skid row since 1999 , so I have seen the huge changes out on the streets. As a matter of fact I have a photo we took on the neighborhood watch walk on Wednesday to show how there wasn’t anyone hanging out in front of the St Mark’s and the Crescent hotel and the Fred Jordan mission ,selling dope when that area used to be notorious for dope. There was concern over those who had set up their tents on the corner of crocker on the walk on wednesday, again I took a photo of that. But I know that they were just preparing for the rain. I will put up the photo on my blog ,to show them set up Wednesday night and I will show them there right now. Gotta take that photo.

So yes , there are reason’s for an increase in tents which have nothing to do with lack of law enforcement. I also know that these days , even when I mention those two first days of the month hopping and busy , well , let me say they aren’t as crowded as they were before the safe cities initiative. Walter, you just arrived in skid row earlier this year. And I don’t mean to be mean , but I have seen the changes. You arrived well after many of the changes took place, I am speaking of years. So we have made improvements. Vast improvements. I haven’t noticed ownership problems as much as seasonal rain making preparations , where I have seen ownership places, has been on the corner of 6th street and San Pedro where the church of the Nazarene is located, the corner of Maple and 6th Street where the Police Station is . I will post those recent photos after my jaunt to 7 -11 I took Tuesday evening. 5th Street has only seen a small increase on a stretch on the east side between Los Angeles and Maple and that because of the do gooders coming down here that passed out tents.

Nothing has changed in 5th street in front of the Los Angeles Mission , I have seen a decrease in activity , but it is still there nonetheless. I even see the security people and people who work at the LA Mission buying cigarettes through the fence from those selling dope and beers in front of the wall below. That hasn’t changed.

Between thanksgiving and after Christmas people were passing out tents to folks. You will see a decrease in tents set up on the sidewalks as the year progresses and then up until the holiday’s again. Where are all of those tents in that great photo you took in the toy district on new years day? I don’t see them and that was a holiday? Seems to me that the enforcement of the 9pm until 6am is causing those who line that street to be conditioned to move.

As far as ownership , the LAPD owns the streets. I see this when I walk outside my hotel, everyday.

And for those who don’t know ; the toy district on 4th street and winston is always and has always been a place where we see an increase of tents and man made shelters. There is a lot of dope selling that comes from that area, and there are places for people to hide in front of the storefronts there. This is nothing new and I don’t see an increase of anything , really , there. I only live a block from Winston and I walk these streets everyday.

Ownership, I still see belongs to the LAPD. At Certain times of the day you will see different attitudes. IN the late afternoon when everyone is arriving here , in the heart of skid row , to wait for the Winter Shelter buses , and waiting to eat at the missions , you will see and sense a different attitude since there is a massive amount of people. You also see an increase in LAPD cars patrolling up and down San Julian Street and along 5th Street.I believe that most of the dope dealing that is happening now is between the early shift change at central and the afternoon when there is mass people on the streets. When it gets dark is when you can judge to see if the safe cities initiative is working , because then ,the people who shouldn’t be down here are the only ones out scoring dope and weed and you can see who is still left on the sidewalks sleeping.

They are always on that corner and in that area. But it is amazing to me that just by the photo you took there was a time on new years day just a couple of years ago there would be tents and make shift shelters all up and down 4th street.

If you go to the corner of 4th and San Pedro , even tonight you will see tents and make shift shelters there on both sides of San Pedro. But it is evening.

One thing that I have noticed along 5th street and here in the heart of skid row , was how people had been lighting up crack pipes. I hadn’t seen this type of boldness since the safe cities initiative began. I know there are many out there who would like to have ordinance 41.18d- no sleeping, sitting , or lying on the sidewalk- enforced all night too. But we have to wait for that.

But around thanksgiving up until new years eve, People lighting crack pipes in the open has increased. You can tell the difference between someone lighting a cigarette in the dark as opposed to someone lighting a crack pipe.

Another reason why the tents have been set up in these locations , such as Los Angeles and 5th street, is because people use those tents to smoke the crack in , because I have passed a lot of dealers on 5th street between Los Angeles and Maple that have increasingly been aggressive at trying to sell there. And the conversations just give the whole thing away.

You will see a decrease in tents as the year progresses. But who knows, now that the City and ACLU have agreed to not enforce 41.18d until we a certain amount of housing is built , we might be seeing the beginning of a trend….

Ed,

again , this does not portend some sort of trend that is taking us back . people will tell you that people relapse hard around the holidays. Tonight , and the skid row walk night , I did not see the crack pipes lighting up. I am sure they were lighting up all over the place.

Tents are just a cosmetic issue. If you take the tents away , those same people will still sleep on the streets , but because the tent is not there , people think the homeless are also gone.

And just because we see one or two people lighting a crack pipe in public , at night, or early morning doesn’t portend a trend that is taking us back to before the safer cities initiative. If I start to see what I saw when I moved here with people lighting up all over the place , then we have a problem.

I mean ,during the 1st of the month I see ton’s of folks out on San Julian street sitting next to the James Wood Center smoking weed during the day. And this after the safe cities initiative was started. Since the cops aren’t going after the homeless , but the drug dealers , you can see this during the day time. It is the evenings and early morning hours which tell us if safe cities is working , because it was at these times that people came from out of the neighborhood to buy and party all over the streets of skid row.

I should create a google map to show you where the people are that are selling dope and at what times they are observed. The problem is, that now there is a system. They move their stash from time to time , the dealers don’t keep their product on their bodies , sometimes they keep them in the children’s back packs. Sometimes they hide it in a plastic bag in the open on the flower bed at the James Wood Center. One woman was packing weed into a small plastic baggy,in front of the LAPD as they drove by, in front of the James Wood Center one Sunday afternoon. Making these drug dealers work at it instead of just posting somewhere and drug and money is exchanged was what it was like even a couple of years ago. Sometimes a buyer has to walk all the way around the block before they get that drug handed to them after paying for it.

One has to observe over a long period of time what the trends are. What the tell tale signs will be after the holidays and how the effect of the settlement with the ACLU will have on the community is still hard to tell, thus I leave the statement of fact out of my conversation.

The tents , the people smoking crack , that is all cosmetic . It is the long lasting effects of the safe cities initiative that I see on a daily basis that tell me something is changing.

The fewer people on the streets late at night. People not walking around under a drug induced psychosis banging on the metal panels in front of the store fronts after coming down off of their drug of choice. Aggressive panhandlers , wanting their dope so bad they spit at you when you tell them no. Men and women coming onto you after striking up a conversation if you are standing in front of the building, to try and get you to take them in and pay them for their services,actually wanting a place to shoot up or smoke, no longer doing that anymore. Yes , they have tried it with me . But I wasn’t buying what they were selling .People who came here from all over Los Angeles to score dope not coming anymore to party all night., for fear of being busted and coming out in the lATIMES if they are a celebrity. People you have known who have relapsed, Begging you to take them in because you won’t, so they can shoot up or smoke , for fear of being seen by the LAPD. People making the choice to go into programs instead of being out on the streets. Drug dealers no longer setting up right next to programs that house many of my friends who are trying to recover.( San Julian Street is still the biggest problem )).The City and the County finally working together to solve this problem of homelessness.

I live in skid row and I see the changes and this is the momentum we need to keep pushing. The middle of next year will see where we are.

oops!!!! The middle of this year…