Out of the Litter Box
By Ali
Katz
This lil’ Kitty has noticed
a diminution of amenities in Venice. Here’s Kitty’s list; maybe
Beachhead readers can supply more.
• No pay
phones,
• Bus benches are being
converted to “leaning poles” for bus patrons to use instead of bus
benches,
• No outside reading areas at
the Venice Library,
• Benches have been
eliminated on the Ocean Front Walk,
and
• Mere ghosts of the pagodas are on
the Front with uncomfortable
seating.
Ali Katz’s friends
called several city agencies and were told the same by all of them: “To
discourage the “criminal element” and the “homeless”
from congregating.”
Well, this
cat has news for you: THEY CONGREGATE anyway! Much as the much hailed
“anti-crime” lights on the Front were supposed to discourage crime,
failed to deter criminal activity. All the lights did was to give those folk a
place to ply their after hours bike repair shops, fight deals in a place where
they could meet and beat (each
other).
How are people supposed to be
lured into using mass transportation when one has to stand/lean for half an hour
waiting for a bus? Perhaps the busses themselves should be seatless, so as to
discourage people from riding them day and night when they are homeless. Waiting
for a bus is no fun if one has a disability and might need to sit down.
Pay phones are being discontinued
because “dope dealers use them and they get vandalized.” So do
people who need to call someone in an emergency. Well, buy a cell
phone.
No benches on the Library
concrete. Homeless people might use them. Well, yes, but library patrons might
like to use them also.
Why should
simple comforts like bus benches, park benches, and pay phones be eliminated
because homeless people use them? Can’t the benches be made of a shorter
length to discourage sleeping on them?
Why is this country so grudging in
providing a little comfort in public
places?
Maybe instead of eliminating
bus benches that mostly working people, students, children, the elderly (another
repeat of the tragic accident at the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market because
of lack of public transportation) use to get them places, there could be an
increase of police patrols, low-income housing, and outreach services to better
solve the problem of vandalism.
Perhaps
the buses should be eliminated altogether to discourage the poor from roaming
from their squalid enclaves into places where they don’t belong—like
beaches.
And talk about misplaced
compassion, every California governor from Pat Brown to Schwarzenegger has
mourned the loss of houses and property during the rainy season, as houses and
swimming pools do their mudslide waltz. Every governor has promised to help them
rebuild—whoops pull Ali Katz’s whiskers! Pete Wilson threatened at
one time to look into the permits in regards to allowing building on fragile
hillsides.
Anyway, the Govs have promised to
help the property owners to rebuild on the same hillsides! Perhaps some brakes
should be put on disaster relief if people are going to rebuild in the same
slide location. The money saved could go into a real disaster fund housing the
homeless.
And maybe a few decent bus
and park benches so Los Angeles can pretend to be a real city like New York and
Moscow.
That’s all for
Meeow.
Posted: Tue - March 1, 2005 at 08:57 PM