A Delicate Balance

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-me-homeless-park-20130901,05414094.story

Hello Everyone:

I hope you all had a great weekend and are ready for the week, more or less.  I was looking at the page view count and I saw, much to my satisfaction, that we're up to 2252 page views.  Shall we try to go for 2500?  I think we can do it.  I also noticed in my dropbox folder that I have a stockpile of articles to get through so I'm good for now on topics to get on my soap box about.  Speaking of soapboxes to stand on, today we look at an article written by Los Angeles Times columnist Gale Holland on the homeless in Los Angeles's urban parks.  The sad fact of modern life is the number of men and women, individuals and families living in the streets and public spaces.  There are also "hidden homeless," people living in garages or abandoned buildings.  Recently, Ms. Holland wrote, "L.A.'s urban parks; for the homeless too?" which looks at how smaller newer urban parks include features that, park managers hope, will prevent people from living there.  Yet homeless advocates contend that these new features are really intended to harass the homeless.

Grand Park, Los Angeles, Ca
inhabitat.com

Downtown Los Angeles' Grand Park has become the site of a curious mix of people. The one-year old, $56-million county-owned place park, across the street from City Hall, attracts office workers, loft-dwellers, the curious, suburbanites, and the homeless to evening concerts, public events, and farmer's markets.  Strangely, the continued presence of the homeless has done very little to diminish the appeal of the park.  No one seems to be put off by the dawn line up of men in front of the purple-tiled bathroom to perform their daily hygiene rituals.  The relationship between the homeless park population and the more fortunate is not always relatively harmonious in other urban parks.

Spring Street Park
inhabitat.com

In other urban parks, such as Spring Street Park, officials try to carefully balance making the park more welcoming to the urban community and homeless advocates claims of harassment. This has given way to the homeless being gently pushed out of one park, only to relocate to another.  Thus, what has emerged is an uneasy truce between one of the United States' largest homeless population, downtown business owners and residents who depend on some level of harmony in order to thrive.  Gale Holland cites UCLA law professor Gary Blasi, "Ot's a game of cat and mouse, except the mice have nowhere to go."  In the past year the city and county of Los Angeles have or plan to open several new public spaces, including Grand Park and Spring Street Park.  They are part of a network of parks of parks that have welcomed visitors for decades.  Managers at Grand and Spring Street Parks have included numerous regulations and design features to discourage homeless encampments.  The parks are also further away from skid row, which helps keep the population down.

Pershing Square
pps.org

Five blocks to the south of Grand Park, is Pershing Square Los Angeles' original central park, described by one resident as a "day-care center" for the homeless.  The city is trying to change this perception by regularly scheduling events such as outdoor movies, concerts, farmer's markets, and so forth.  While park administrator Kevin Regan concedes that the homeless do need a place to just sit and be, the park is not a place to live.  Skid Row activists call it harassment.  One thing that's always bothered me about homeless advocates, instead of fighting for the right of a homeless person to camp out in front of some one's business or apartment building why aren't they fighting for more transitional housing and better mental health facilities?  Curious no?

Spring Street
articles.latimes.com

Los Angeles Community Action Network activist named General Dogon leads weekly patrols of Pershing Square and other downtown-area parks to keep tabs on what he refers to as widespread intimidation of the poor and homeless.  The General pointed out to Ms. Holland seating areas cordoned off by yellow police tape, a chained off grass area. The washrooms are located underground, accessible to those with a parking ticket.  Tables with umbrellas, previously left out all the time, are kept in storage, brought out only for noontime concerts.  The police patrol the area around the plaza and fountain, sometimes stopping homeless for loitering.  The General was quite aghast over this, "How do you loiter in a park?"  Park official have a seemingly good explanation for all of the above accusations  and the police deny any bullying tactics, claiming that their efforts are directed at illegal activities.  One person's illegal activity is an other's intimidation.  According to Captain Horace Frank, head of the downtown detail, "The key is keeping the areas in way that can be used by all." The police did enhance their presence in the wake of complaints after the Occupy Los Angeles Movement was forcibly rejected from Pershing Square and the remnants of the group disrupted the farmer's market by urinating on the walls, grabbing food samples, and pan handling.

El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument
golosangeles.about.com

As the Occupiers drifted away from Pershing Square, they set up a raucous encampment outside of El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument.  According to Father Richard Estrada of La Placita church, the Occupiers partied all the time and tossed needles over the wall into La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, a museum dedicated to the contribution of Mexican-Americans in Southern California.  A joint city-county task force was established to to clean up the encampment, and now some of the shopping carts and tents move across the street to Union Station.

La Plaza de Cultura y Artes
golosangeles.about.com

The Spring Street Park opened in June between Fourth and Fifth Streets.  There is a sign posted at the entrance outlining twelve rules, including a ban on shopping carts.  The perforated metal benches discourage lying down and there are no enclosed spaces.  In fact, according to Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council President Patti Berman, the only real complaint has been loose dogs.  However, this small park, less than two-thirds of an acre including a playground, needs to be monitored carefully in order to make everyone comfortable.  DLANC is currently raising money to pay for a full-time ranger to patrol the park.

It is a delicate balance between the needs of users to have a clean safe place to rest and recreate and the homeless individuals' needs to have a place to simply be.  Personally, I can say that the park across the street has its share of homeless men wandering about.  To clarify, I live in an urban area.  No one really bothers anyone, we just tolerate each other's presence.  Once in an odd while, one of the homeless with cause a commotion requiring police attention.  It's difficult but I believe that more attention is needed to providing easier access to drug and alcohol rehabilitation, better mental health care, more transitional housing for individuals, families, and the disabled.

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