Harvey West workers complain of increased illegal activity after Pacific Avenue crackdown

[Fenole]

Robert Norse was in Scotts Valley yesterday scouting for new digs for his peeps. This is NO BS.

[Boby Boy]

Mr. Woolever sounds as if he’s fed up with the Progressive Liberalism Socialist policies entrenched within the community of Santa Cruz. It’s tough doing business in a community which caters to the socialist idealists who confiscate your taxes and provide a myriad of socialist services to the unproductive members of society! Welcome to Liberal Land Mr. Woolever! Your hard labor and earnings are continually taxed by you duly elected socialist liberal leaders who provide multiple services to the hordes of lazy unproductive losers who flock to socialist idealistic communities ruled by elitist socialist progressive liberals! Welcome to the new world order Mr. Woolever. Now be quite, don’t complain, get in line and bend over for the socialist to have a go at you then move along! There’s plenty more to come under the Marxist Democrat Obama agenda. Better buy some KY!

[jbd]

A tough issue. The presence of the soup kitchen as part of the homeless services on Coral does draw a crowd. My knowledge of the other parts of the facility is that they are geared toward no tolerance of drugs/alcohol for those who are truly try to clean up or find housing.
How about a blizzard machine that could be pinpointed to certain individuals,
just like in cartoons. So that the weather around that person would be too inhospitable and eventually they would decide to leave Santa Cruz county. The machine could be set to follow a chip implanted in repeat offenders to the anti-bum laws. Those laws would be set by upright citizens who have never had any problems in their lives-financial, addictions, violence, etc., and who have passed a vigorous no sin/first stone caster exam. A special watchdog committee could be appointed to make sure the blizzard machine would not be used against political opponents, loud neighbors,
out of town relatives overstaying, etc.

[Boulder Bob]

SCPD ought to park there and cite all the Costco moms from Aptos who hold up traffic while they wait and wait to turn right from Coral into the left turn lane on River to go south on Highway 1. Right turn only into the rightmost lane, that's Vehicle Code section 22100(a). You can make a U-turn at Mission St. or on River St. or else don't use Coral, use Encinal or Fern.

[BillyMaHoBlodaJo]

Becky Johnson wrote:

BTW--the "Illegal behavior" is 90% sleeping at night, using a blanket, or camping--NOT "drug dealing" or "prostitution".

No, no, no, the illegal behavior is smoking crack, whipping it out in public and plssing all over the place, pulling their pants down and taking a dump in a bush, prostituion, and drinking in public. Thousands of people are sleeping outside every night Becky and thats not the issue.

[SCTrollBuster]

Becky Johnson wrote:

SC NATIVE WRITES: "Yes, I do want to line up the homeless and shoot them."
BECKY: Hitler would have approved.

I approve T.R.O.L.L.S. suck!

[Wescruz]

rita wrote:

Homeless population increases, making people disappear is not going to happen, banning from one area while not dealing with issue just makes a problem in another area. Unless you want to line up the homeless and shoot them, we have to deal with an increasing problem. Not having access to restroom facilities doesn't decrease the need to defecate or urinate from a human being. Just being able to take a shower and have clean clothes makes an amazing difference in ones' outlook on the world. No, we are not talking about the less than 20 real problem homeless, we are talking about a population that is growing everyday. People that, falling through the cracks, find that the longer they are homeless, the harder it becomes to climb back up the ladder.

Great points Rita!! I agree with you 100%. Thanks for posting it on here.

[Becky Johnson]

WS NATIVE WRITES: "Wake up! Ever since this VAGRANT haven, the Homeless Center, opened the number of VAGRANTS has been increasing on a yearly basis."

BECKY: Homelessness in the US has been steadily increasing since 1980 when Ronald Reagan became President. What he did was to drastically cut funding for federally subsidized housing citing crime-ridden public housing as "the problem."

Homelessness increased under Bill Clinton as well due to wages not keeping pace with the high costs of housing. The number one reason for homelessness is the gap between wages and the cost of housing. That statistic has always been bad in Santa Cruz County regardless of the federal policy at the time. The number one common characteristic found in all homeless people is that their family structure has been shredded. People with strong family support tend to weather bad economic times without becoming homeless.

In Santa Cruz, services for homeless people were offered as a RESPONSE to the number of homeless people who were suddenly new on the streets.

When I was a child, back in 1960, one did not see homeless people as one does now. Only on "Skid row". Now you see homeless people everywhere.

Which came first, the fly or the flyswatter?

[Used to be local]

Becky Johnson wrote:

FROM THE ARTICLE: ""You try to crack down and they move to the next place," said Santa Cruz Park Ranger John Wallace, whose office is in Harvey West and who sees the problems firsthand. "You just do the best you can."
BECKY: As HUFF has been saying FOR YEARS---we need a homeless campground AND a homeless carpark so that people have a legal and safe place they can go. Porta-potties prevent unwanted urination and defecation. Dumpsters prevent litter from trashing our parks and neighborhoods. BTW--the "Illegal behavior" is 90% sleeping at night, using a blanket, or camping--NOT "drug dealing" or "prostitution".

Becky, you are correct. Wouldn't it be nice for the homeless to have a safe place that they could go and spend the time that is needed to get there feet back on the ground. And by homeless, I mean the families that are a victim of the unfortunate downturn of our ecomony. The homeless that have worked hard all their lives and suddenly find themselves without a job, a way to put food on the table or make a rent/mortgage payment. These are the people that deserve a safe place to sleep at night and a clean restroom to use. The people that do not deserve to have that sort of facility are precisely the people that are camping out in their huge, gas guzzling, modified monstrosities of busses that they call homes that are CHOOSING to be homeless. They are the problem. They take that song from the 70's "Free-ride" too literally. They are the heroin using, park defecating, filthy people that make Santa Cruz a joke to most of the visitors. They have no desire to get a real job, or contribute anything but waste to society. They feel that mainstream everyday people are a joke, and Make that very clear by there lifestyle. I am all for sympathy for homeless people. But when I walk by the people that are on the street corner with their cardboard sign that says "who am I kidding? I need a beer?" My sympathy goes right out the window. I feel sorry for those peoples poor dogs more then I do them. If there is no sympathy and nowhere where the "BUMS" are welcome, then that might force them to becoming a contributing member of society.
As for Harvey West Park, what a sad state of affairs. I spent most of my life playing ball down there, as did the rest of my family. During my brothers little league games, my parents felt perfectly comfortable to leave me and my little friends unattended to play on the train while they watched the game, knowing they were just a shout away. It is not that way anymore. What is it going to take? A small child stepping on a Hep C infected syringe in the sandbox to make the sympathizers open up their eyes to the mess that this kind of sympathy has caused? My brother took his family there recently to play, and they had to leave because a family living out of their bus came to play too, and rather than the mom walking her daughter to the restroom to go poop, she let her daughter do it right in the sandbox. When my brother asked if they were going to clean it up, he was met with hostility. It's disgusting, and the "BUM" sympathizers should agree with that! If we create a camp for these people to spend all of their time, this will be the way it is treated. The only people that will feel safe staying at the permanent camp are the dangerous people. The people who don't believe that have the wool pulled over their eyes. The perpetual "BUMS" that think "Great, now we can really live in a beautiful place, do what we want, and not have to pay a dime" These places, if they will ever exist, Should have a full time police presence to keep the crime under control. Without that, It will be a larger scale of what is always found down by the San Lorenzo River: Garbage, human waste, drugs and one sad state of affairs.

[Brigid]

So have the people who've seen police cars from other cities drop homeless people off in Santa Cruz reported this to OUR police department?

I suggest that whenever someone sees this happen they note down the time and place, as well as noting the city name and license plate # on the police car. Let's put up a website/blog where this can be made public, as well as present it to the city council and police department.

Sometimes publicizing and embarrassing our officials will get the ball rolling to solve a problem.

[Metteyya Brahmana]

35 Year Local wrote:

I've seen this first hand, operating a business in Harvey West like Greg Woolever at Polar Radiator. It is not the "homeless" that are the problem. It is the chronic alcoholics, drug addicts/dealers, prostitutes/pimps and homeless by choice folks. I call these people bums. They expect free food, shelter and maybe a shower once in a while, but don't suggest they actually try to get a job. There are two other types I noticied while I was there for > 5 years. The mentally ill and the homeless by circumstance need help and seek it out, trying to change their situation. Greg, myself and other business owners in that area have sympathy and compassion for these latter two types but are enraged when the bums get labeled homeless. The bums take resources away from those who can truly utilize the available resources to better themselves and are the cause the unlawful activity. Let's start calling it the way it is rather than using the term homeless to apply to bums. The term homeless generates sympathy and deviates scarce resources away from those who could really use it.

Well this is an interesting point of view. Homeless by choice? I want to meet such people, and learn whether they really WANT to sleep on the street or in the bushes, really want to stand in line at the local soup kitchen for food, and whether they really choose to be poor.

Every week I encounter a homeless guy on Front Street named "Zone", and I asked him if I found him a job would he take it? He said he had mental health issues and some physical health issues, but if it were a stocking job in a warehouse or something like that, he said he would do it.

Granted, there is a diverse homeless population, and we probably shouldn't put everyone in the same category. But those with mental health issues should get mental health treatment, those with substance abuse issues should get substance abuse treatment, and those who are just down on their luck, should find a community that helps them find pathways out of poverty.

Being a compassionate society that cares about the welfare of its people is not "hippie liberal agenda gone haywire", it is a sign that we regard our fellow human beings with the dignity and respect they deserve.

On a trip to New Zealand, for example, it was remarkable to note that there were no homeless people on the street. While I was there, there was "one" homeless person found to be sleeping on the street and this made the front page of the Auckland newspaper! Apparently, the residents there thought it was an insult to them as a society to have someone who thought it was necessary to sleep on the street, so this was NEWS!

In the wake of Reaganomics, we have lost this compassion toward fellow human beings and the sense that we are all in this together. Ayn Rand is a great philosophy for the selfish individual, but do you really expect to run a society that is a desirable place to live this way? Dog-eat-dog, pull-yourself-up-by-your-boots traps is a barbaric, cruel and disconnected way at looking at human beings, and completely incompatible with progressive ideals found in most advanced societies.

This does NOT mean that those seeking help should not do their part to help themselves, but it DOES mean that we as a progressive community should assist them in whatever way we can.

-Metteyya Brahmana

[Tony]

Rocket J Squirrel wrote:

<quoted text>
Bakersfield?

Wow. That's brilliant. What makes you think they want them anymore than you do?

[jimmylee]

We do not need a homeless campground. We do not need a homeless carpark. We need law enforcement. Period. After spending time at a friends shop next to Polar I could not beleive the level of criminal activity. There should be arrests happening in large numbers daily. The "homeless" designation is a complete crock of ****. The area is a junkie and hooker haven because of the cushy "homeless" services offered there, and because idiot activists have created an atmosphere of acceptance of this behavior. "These unfortunate, poor, addicted people need help" they tell us. B.S. I say. Arrest them !

[Tony]

SCTrollBuster wrote:

Had enough yet Santa Cruz residents? It's time to round all of these **** up, beat on them for a while, then bus them outta town!
Santa Cruz = Loser Friendly!

I vote you get it first. Loser = SCTrollBuster

[that]

I work with kids and this white guy in his late 20
always there doing drugs smoking and shooting up I have called the police and they took him once but he is there everyday this happens at Star Of The Sea Church, and this guys picks fights with everyone there but no one pays any attention to him cause he is high. I sent an email requesting better patrol in that area we will see what happens today

[SCTrollBuster]

Tony wrote:

<quoted text>
Wow. That's brilliant. What makes you think they want them anymore than you do?

Ok, how bout Modesto?

[Done and Done]

Becky Johnson wrote:

BECKY: As HUFF has been saying FOR YEARS---we need a homeless campground AND a homeless carpark so that people have a legal and safe place they can go. Porta-potties prevent unwanted urination and defecation. Dumpsters prevent litter from trashing our parks and neighborhoods. BTW--the "Illegal behavior" is 90% sleeping at night, using a blanket, or camping--NOT "drug dealing" or "prostitution".

Are you really this dense to think that only 10% of the illegal behavior is a result of anything other than camping? There you go again, Becky. Making up statistics and using them as a matter of fact. I've called you out on this many, many times yet you refuse to respond. Nice journalism.

With respect to the situation at hand, unfortunately, as many note, SC has become somewhat of a place of attraction for the homeless. Organizations such has HUFF exacerbate the problems concerning the homeless in SC by creating avenues of enablement to behaviors that, far too often, come associated with the homeless population (ie. drug use, public intoxication, prostitution, ect.).

[wino_man]

For some reason Solyent Green keeps coming to mind. Maybe someone was on to something...

[westside also]

beejar wrote:

The vehicle abatement department seems completely unwilling to enforce parking regulations so it would be a waste of time to follow-up on Don Lane's idea of parking limits. I've been complaining about an RV in front of my house since last November. It's still there.

We notice this on the westside too. After many many complaints utilizing the abandoned vehicle and camping ordinances, we get no cooperation from the city. Expect the situation to get even worse if the city is ignoring what laws already exist to protect our neighborhoods, making new ones won't have any effect at all. A lot of departments in our city are not doing their jobs.

[SC Midtown]

that wrote:

I work with kids and this white guy in his late 20
always there doing drugs smoking and shooting up I have called the police and they took him once but he is there everyday this happens at Star Of The Sea Church, and this guys picks fights with everyone there but no one pays any attention to him cause he is high. I sent an email requesting better patrol in that area we will see what happens today

That saddens me to hear, my friends and I used to play at Star of the Sea park all the time unattended and there was never, EVER a problem or junkies like you've mentioned. I hope he gets the boot soon!