LA was already one of the last places on earth I would ever want to visit. This just validates my thoughts on the matter.

Gross.

What’s with all the dumping of trash? Most municipalities set up incentive systems to prevent that.

That just seems like a straight forward policy error.

New York used to have a lot of problems like that. To its credit, it found solutions.

Maybe look at examples of other cities that have succeeded at curing the problems, or at least minimizing them.

Or are there reasons that won't work in Los Angeles?

Part of this is the result of tossing mentally ill and addicted people out to the streets as if they were garbage themselves.

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
Part of this is the result of tossing mentally ill and addicted people out to the streets as if they were garbage themselves.

I agree, but it also seems to me that the inability to force the mentally ill and addicted off the streets is sometimes the problem also. (As in, into a shelter specifically for the mentally ill or addicted).

Yeah, I don’t pretend to know how to solve the homeless problem in any humane way. But garbage should be relatively straightforward.

Here in California we continue on with the high-speed rail project (originally LA to SF, now cut down in scope to Pixley to Hootersville) at a $90 Billion price tag, while homeless people are living rough on the streets and a public health disaster looms. It is time to guarantee some form of housing to everyone (whether they have money or not) and get the people off the streets. Followup help with mental health problems and substance abuse should be available. The present system is unfair to both taxpayers and homeless. Viable solutions to the problem will probably require politicians with common sense and a desire to improve living standards for everybody. Sadly, the average California politician is a posturing doofus. The exceptions to this are the crooked posturing doofusses. As you may be able to tell from this post I haven't had my coffee yet today.