Venice: Where Recycling Is A Crime
By Y.
Miranda
A new crackdown on the homeless
in Venice by the LAPD is underway, say several of the homeless that I
interviewed for this article.
In addition to the usual harassment, they
are being fined for pushing grocery carts on the city streets by the police. The
fines range from $175 up to $270 without any explanation of the discrepancies of
the amounts.
When I asked them what was the
reason given by the police for the citations no one knew, other than they were
told it was against the law to push a grocery cart on the city streets. The
people I spoke to use the grocery carts to collect cans and most of them over
fill the baskets and attach plastic bags bulging with cans.
The more cans they collect, the more
they’ll make selling them. Unfortunately, Ralphs grocery store closed its
recycling distribution site almost a year ago (in spite of a growing recognition
that we need to recycle our mountains of trash). The nearest recycling center
now is miles away in Santa Monica.
A
crop of entrepreneurs with pickup trucks has sprung up. They buy cans and
bottles from the car-less in Venice since it’s too far away to walk with a
fully loaded cart on a city street.
Contrary to popular belief, not all
the people who collect our discarded recyclables are homeless. There are also
some married women who collect to help out their poor families. They are
immigrant women whose husbands earn minimum wage, or they are unemployed or
disabled and unable to receive benefits due to their immigrant status.
This is the case with Maria, who I met
in my alley. After her husband was fined for pushing a shopping cart, Maria
creatively converted a discarded baby buggy into a cart to collect cans.
“My husband was fined $175.00 in June for pushing a grocery cart full of
cans. We paid the fine, now he is ill and I have to do it full-time so I came up
with this idea,” says Maria as she smiles brightly. “No, the police
have not given me a ticket for my baby buggy. Gracias a Dios,” she prays.
Now that Maria is not able to sell her
cans at Ralph’s, she sells to the middle men with trucks. “See the
load I have,” she exclaims as wipes her hands on her immaculate clean
apron. She re-braids her long, gray hair and continues. “if I took it to
the old Ralphs site, they would give me between $11 and $12. Now I only can
expect $6 or $7. But I have no choice, I have to accept it, I need to feed my
family.”
“These people are
making a big profit off you. Aren’t you angry?” I asked her. She
smiles again, clasping her hands in front of her as if in prayer, and says,
“Yes, but if they weren’t here what would I do? In this life
everyone needs to work to earn money, so I understand. I’d rather have a
little less than nothing at all.” “¿Verdad?” she
enquires. She smiles brightly again, her humility illuminating.
“Si,” I respond, “usted esta correcta.” I walked away
wondering how she keeps her apron so clean while going through the dirty trash
cans.
Once the homeless people are
given citations, they have to appear in court to pay the fine or serve two days
in jail, says Neil, a homeless man, who has been given six citations for his
recycling work. Neil has made his living collecting cans and bottles in order to
survive after losing his factory job three years ago.
He does two days in jail to pay for
his fine and then returns to his collection work. He too sells his cans in
Venice to the people in the pickups. He grumbles under his breath when I asked
him if they pay him a fair price? “No, they have us by the tail, better to
take a pay cut on our cans than get a fine by walking to Santa Monica,” he
says. “They need us and we need them, it’s that simple.”
“This is my work,” Neil
explains. “It’s harder work than my job at the factory. It might
look easy but it’s not. I am not a thief, I collect recyclables that
people throw away, I would prefer having a regular job than doing this for a
living, he continues. “I have two purple hearts for being wounded twice in
the Vietnam war.” It was apparent that Neil, who is very articulate and
polite, still has his pride. He dresses in clean, Venice casual clothes. But
when I introduced myself and hold my hand out to shake his, he says,
“excuse ma’am, my hand is dirty and smelly.” “So is
mine,” I respond. I’ve been riding my bike, he laughed and shook my
hand.
I asked neil why he didn’t apply
for food stamps. “Excuse ma’am,” he said. “I have no
identification on me, not one piece of identification. Besides I wouldn’t
know how to go about
it.”
“What about medical
care when you get sick?” I asked. “Well ma’am, I was lucky to
take two days in jail for the last citation because I ended up having a heart
attack in jail and spending five days in the hospital.”
“Are you being followed up by a
doctor?” I asked. He breaks up into belly laughter. “If I go to the
county clinic I’d probably have a heart attack waiting almost a whole day
to see a doctor. I’ll take my chances, I feel pretty good now just hope I
stay that way.”
As we’re
talking a black and white car went by, Neil eyes darted, focusing on the car.
“I better go ma’am before they go by again. “Thank you for
spending time with me,” he waved as he pushed his grocery cart loaded with
bags of cans down the street.
Sheryl,
age 54, lives on the sidewalk just off a busy street. She receives small
disability payments but it’s not enough to pay rent. Sheryl was fined $57
for having a grocery cart full of her personal belongings. She now has a small
cart she bought for groceries and several plastic bags full of her belongings.
She makes her bed on the sidewalk and
the residents in the street kind of look after her bringing her food, personal
essentials and check on her daily to see how she is doing. When I was
interviewing Sheryl, Jamie Vargas a nearby resident came by on his bike to check
on her. A 45-year resident of Venice, Jamie told me he had offered Sheryl to
stay at his house but she declined, saying she does not want to be a burden to
anyone. So he and others on the street look after her.
According to Sheryl, she ended up
homeless after an altercation with a security guard who was being aggressive
towards her. She landed in jail for a month, lost her apartment because the
police mistakenly reported that she had been sent to prison. As a result her
disability checks stopped for the two years it took Sheryl to straighten out the
mistake.
Meanwhile, she became
homeless, bouncing in and out of temporary shelters and finally ending up living
full time on the streets. The streets have taken a toll on Sheryl, although she
doesn’t drink, or take drugs she is frail and thin and admits to looking
far older than her 54 years. She says in a soft voice that she is not bitter,
and that she is thankful for the neighbors looking out after her. Since she has
so many personal belongings in bags she can’t wander very far or
they’ll be stolen.
“Don’t ask me how I
accumulated so many things, it just happened, but everything I own is in these
bags, and I need them,” Sheryl exclaims. I spotted a roll of toilet paper,
tooth paste, clothes and a box of Kleenex.
She once had food stamps and received
General Relief but then she left her belongings to look for a bathroom and upon
her return everything was stolen, including her ID. But it all turned out well,
Sheryl says, “I am back on disability but of course rent is so high I
can’t afford to rent a
place.”
When I asked Sheryl if
she had children she yes but they don’t know she lives in the streets.
“I call them once in a while and tell them all is well.” I sense
this was a topic that was painful for her to discuss. She went on to talk
dreamily about the apartment she once had, with a microwave oven. She was
surprised I wanted to take her picture but happy I asked her. When I left,
Sheryl was sitting on her bed on the sidewalk. she yelled out, “Hey
Yolanda! Next time you come by maybe I’ll have my full set of upper
teeth!”
I asked each of the three
people I interviewed: “If your dream could come true today what would it
be?” Neil responded that it would be a room where he could lock his door
and a kitchen because he loves to cook.
Sheryl said, “I just want a simple,
safe place to live in.”
Maria
wanted just enough money to pay rent, to have enough food to eat daily and
“for all of us in my family to be
healthy.”
Sheryl and Neil also
wished that during the cold winter months there would be a shelter open 24 hours
a day so they could come in from the cold and drink coffee to stay warm, take a
shower and be able to use a bathroom.
Before I said goodbye to Neil, I asked
for a hug. Being a proud gentleman, he said, “Sorry ma’am, I stink
and I am embarrassed to hug you.” My heart sank but I had to respect his
dignity and pride, so I waved
good-bye.
Venice at one time was known as the
“slum by the sea” but now it is becoming gentrified, with bungalows
being torn down and McMansions being built three stories high, new commercial
buildings going up daily, artist loft apartments which true Venice artists
cannot afford to rent. The Boardwalk with it’s restricted city ordinance,
plus the old apartment buildings on the boardwalk now being rented for corporate
residents or visitors.
I can’t
help thinking about all the oppressing city ordinances, the hostile attitude
towards the homeless, the outrageous high rents, with many not caring about
preserving Lincoln Place and its long term tenants. We see daily efforts to tear
down livable, affordable housing to build high price condos, a concentrated,
vicious attack by developers and their supporters to get rid of the untouchables
– the homeless. There is no room for the elderly, the poor and the hourly
workers. They are making Venice, our community, unaffordable to live in. Venice,
known for its diversity of people and of colorful bohemian lifestyles, now is
being replaced by gentrification that is monochrome in color, lifestyle and high
income.
Free Venice from greedy
developers! Free Venice by making it once again a City with our own government!
Free ourselves by showing compassion and advocating for those who are down and
out and who are unable to fight for their basic human
rights!
We can begin by calling our
representatives to ask them to support the The Bringing America Home Act (H.R.
4347) introduced by Julia Carson (D-IN). This bill was introduced in the 109th
Congress to end homelessness. You can obtain all the necessary information by
searching the internet for The Bringing America Home
Act.
The occupation of Iraq, the loss
of lives of our soldiers and innocent civilians is out of control. We have to
fight and win our own country’s battle of poverty and homelessness before
we can proclaim democracy and freedom across the sea when our own citizens are
being denied their basic, fundamental rights.
Posted: Sun - October 1, 2006 at 06:20 PM