July 2, 2019

"We have to take the people... And we have to do something... We may intercede. We may do something to get that whole thing cleaned up."

Said Trump, about the homelessness in San Francisco and L.A....



"We cannot ruin our cities. And you have people that work in those cities. They work in office buildings and to get into the building, they have to walk through a scene that nobody would have believed possible three years ago.... When we have leaders of the world coming in to see the President of the United States and they’re riding down a highway, they can’t be looking at that. They can’t be looking at scenes like you see in Los Angeles and San Francisco."

I ran across that at WaPo, where the headline is, "Trump paints a dark picture of homelessness in cities: 'We may intercede.'"

Dark, they love that world. Trump is painting it, painting it dark.

And what is the intercession? What does it mean to "take the people"? I assume it was just an awkward, unformed thought, and it could have been fleshed out to something like, We have to take care of the people or We have to take the people as they are, and they are troubled, some are sick, some are mentally ill, it's a complicated problem.

The commenters over at WaPo think the worst of him. They paint him dark:
This is the key quote: “We have to take the people,” he said. “And we have to do something.”

I dread what that means ...
And:
Trump only seems concerned with people having to experience the presence of the homeless rather than caring about homeless people. This attitude exemplifies how superficial he is, both mentally and emotionally. Oh, and the economy is great!
ADDED: I haven't used the tag "Trump's urban renewal" in a long time, not since August 2017. I started it in December 2016, when Trump nominated Ben Carson for HUD Secretary.  After I created the tag "Trump's urban renewal" in December 2016, I went back and added it to a post from August 2016, "Asking for the black vote."

137 comments:

tim in vermont said...

The economy IS great.

You know what might help ease the problem of homelessness? Stop the flow of illegals coming into the US and bidding up the price of housing!

Naaah!

rehajm said...

Yes, the economy IS great. There are many reasons for homelessness but lack of a strong economy isn't one of them at the moment.

rehajm said...

I blame Colin Kaepernick. Runs his mouth, homelessness ensues.

jameswhy said...

It's more fun to criticize Trump's rhetorical styling than to address the homelessness problem in CA. Just ask Chuck.

wild chicken said...

My mom and went to SF for a day and time here panhandlers and bums all over Market Street.

And that was 25 years ago.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

““When we have leaders of the world coming in to see the President of the United States and they’re riding down a highway, they can’t be looking at that. They can’t be looking at scenes like you see in Los Angeles and San Francisco."”

Yes, this is who you Deplorables still worship.

Ralph L said...

Republican presidents are supposed to be noisily defensive about the homeless, since they're off the radar and the federal agenda in Dem administrations. Trump needs to put the blame squarely on local governments and do nothing else.

rhhardin said...

Handy mnemonic for percentages of homeless

CATO

40% crazy
30% addict
20% tramp
10% out of luck

only the last, the out of luck, are helped by help; 90% are not.

Before Erving Goffman wrote _Asylums_ on the social life in mental institutions, the crazy were institutionalized. Goffman's result was that nobody was doing what his job claimed he was doing, including the patients.

Unfortunately nobody understood the point. Goffman's point is that it's the same as society outside of institutions, just easier to study in a totalizing institution.

People took his point as that mental institutions are a sham, and started the great mental institution closure.

We still live in a society however with the same properties - nobody is doing what it's claimed he is doing. A society that is in the same sense a sham. But that's the way ordinary society is.

Michael said...

Inga
Can I send you a link to the app that shows where piles of human shit lay in SF? You don’t get out much as we know, but you might read about the situation in SF, LA and Seattle. There is a sweet video about Seattle: Seattle Dying. On YouTube. Enjoy.

chuck said...

WaPoo and its commentariate never surprises. Imagine a future without cities...

Ann Althouse said...

Sorry I screwed up the code that would take you to where the relevant discussion begins (in the video).

It works now.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Two words:

Soylent Green.

Leland said...

I don't agree with Trump that the federal government needs to solve the homeless problem in cities.

ALP said...

Like a few posters here I am familiar with Seattle - work downtown. The ironic thing is that if you read Seattle social media - the prevailing attitude is "why doesn't the Seattle government DO anything?" Very much a Trump vibe, very very common attitude.

Mike Sylwester said...

What we need to do is ...

1) import hundreds of thousands of uneducated peasants from Central America

2) raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

ga6 said...

Well, Austin TX just opened up their streets for them..but I don't think the C California contingent would like the weather and no beaches...

Kevin said...

"We cannot ruin our cities. And you have people that work in those cities. They work in office buildings and to get into the building, they have to walk through a scene that nobody would have believed possible three years ago....

Yes Inga, I'd skip over that part and pretend he never said it too.

Those are words you'll never hear a Democrat politician utter.

Nonapod said...

A typical politician would never in a million years attempt to directly tackle a problem as politically difficult as homelessness in our modern times. It's politically much more rewarding to talk a great deal about homelessness, perhaps throw a bunch of money at various programs that wouldn't do anything but exacerbate the problem, but never honestly attempt to solve the underlying problems. Stuff like mental health and drug addiction are difficult to deal with without violating people's civil rights.

It's sort of like dealing with the national debt, it's a solvable problem from a practical standpoint, but unsolvable from a political standpoint. We've ensured that anyone who tries will be demonized

Kevin said...

When Trump finishes his second term, he might have to take a part-time job as Mayor of NY.

Just to show them how it's done.

Chuck said...

Althouse we all know you as a lover of language and as astute student of word usage.

For my part, I am completely unconcerned about any urban affairs policy coming out of the Trump Administration. As blogger Ann Althouse would say (as she did about health care reform in the Democratic debate a week ago), that’s a legislative function, not an executive function.

No; because of your standing as a blogger interested in language, I want to know what Althouse makes of this pile of word-vomit

https://mobile.twitter.com/ddale8/status/1145891322127114240

Incoherent? Rambling? Ranting? Psychotic? I don’t know quite how to describe it. But normal terminology of political debating wouldn’t factor into it.

Kevin said...

2016: Trump goes for the votes of middle Americans whose jobs were shipped overseas.

Democrats: No fair, Russian collusion!

2020: Trump goes for the votes of big city office workers tired of stepping over needles and wiping feces off their shoes.

Democrats: [something in Spanish]

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Chuck said...

From the transcript:

“Tucker Carlson: Right.”

n.n said...

Urban renewal is a diversity issue? That's the problem.

Limited blogger said...

Can Trump actually fix everything? Maybe.

roesch/voltaire said...

Yes this homeless problem just started to happen two years ago thanks to Liberal Mayors; I suggest Trump build towers that are rent affordable for those who work for minimum wages--that would help.( Frankly this is a complex problem of tough luck for those living from paycheck to paycheck or lose a job or have medical set back, for others it is drugs and/or mental issues are the problem, and for a few who just like the homeless life style and move from place to warm place. Here in Madison the homeless have made the upper State St an unsafe area at night even with all our social services and new low income housing for a few.)

0_0 said...

Businesses downtown have to spray the sidewalks down every morning. Where do most of the homeless urinate and defecate? Yep. Right there. Broad daylight, squatting on the curb or sidewalk.

The ones living in all the broken down RVs? They aren't hooked up to the sewer lines.

The City and County of San Francisco's income is over $2B/ year, the city is still screwed up, and nobody will ever get elected to actually solve the homeless problem.

Spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to remove the Early Days statue because someone is offended? No problem.

narciso said...

it really is striking, what becomes acceptable to big city mayors, los angeles and san Francisco has rather intricate infrastructure, but it's regressed to the point of a third world city like the favelas of rio de janeiro, where the most feral gangs are from, perhaps a little like the island penitentiary in escape from new York,

bagoh20 said...

For some people the most disturbing thing they can imagine is "President Donald Trump". Compared to that disease, epidemics, people living on the streets in feces, garbage, recession, unemployment, and just about anything else they can imagine is preferable. They would literally trade all that to get rid of him. Come on. Admit it.

bagoh20 said...

The root cause of the decrepit conditions in Democrat run cities is public employees, their numbers, their pay, their benefits and their incompetence. That's entirely why they have no money and no possibility of fixing it. They have made it inevitable and impossible to fix even in good economic times. If you can't fix things now, how can you ever? Vote yourself a chance, and stop hiring the same idiots.

roesch/voltaire said...

Oh come on B don't exaggerate. We are all Americans who want the best for our country and democracy but are critical of some of the actions of the royal family and make those views known.

Michael K said...

We are all Americans who want the best for our country and democracy but are critical of some of the actions of the royal family and make those views known.

You want 30 million illiterate peasants in the country illegally and that you define as "the best for our country." Got it. You are obviously unthreatened, just as San Francisco leftists do not consider themselves threatened. You are above it all, until someone breaks into your house or carjacks you.

"We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."

Attributed to George Orwell (Eric Blair)

bagoh20 said...

Oh, come on R/V, face the truth you know yourself. It may not be true of you, but we all know plenty of people famous and not who clearly would accept anything to get rid of Trump, and I mean anything. They might regret it afterward if they got their way, and they assume it would not affect them personally, but they could not resist the option if they had it. I know you know some of these people. TDS is a hell of drug.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“It started two years ago....schnurff”.

Michael K said...

Yes this homeless problem just started to happen two years ago thanks to Liberal Mayors;

You are just a fountain of misinformation. The "homelessness" problem began with the deinstitutionalization movement,. in the 60s, mostly created by ignoramuses like harrogate, who get history from movies. It has accelerated like a rocket due to leftists government in cities like San Francisco and LA, and now Austin, which encouraged lawless behavior like "Jumping the stiles" in subways and who reversed successful policies like "broken windows" which saved New York for 30 years.

Carol said...

"why doesn't the Seattle government DO anything?"

Didn't Seattle spend $1 billion dollars on the problem already? Or was that just one year?

Paul said...

Far left Liberals brought the third world to America. Homeless, illegals, drug addicts, etc...

Now they are trying to get them all to sign up to vote... for 'free stuff'.

Hence the big cities are becoming shit*ole cities.

Does anyone here know that after 1776, when America hosted to first elections that ONLY THOSE WITH PROPERTY COULD VOTE. Those without could not least they vote in 'free stuff'.

'When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic.' - Benjamin Franklin

Carol said...

Some moron on Facebook just lamented that Missoula has "know resources" [sic] for our meth addicts, when we have 7 rehab centers and a slew of other agencies and nonprofits trying to help. Which is probably what attracted all the meth addicts. Missoula - mental health center of western Montana!

Built it and they will come!

Michael said...

Homelessness begins on Inauguration Day for any Republican president. The very next day. You can read about this phenomenon in the WaPo and the NYT archives.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Peeing on the street in Japan is ok

Someone tell Hannity, the expert on street peeing.

tim in vermont said...

Oh I remember pretty clearly somebody who was obsessed with pee pee for about two years, ’til Mueller's secret vault turned out to be empty.

Jim at said...

No. A thousand times no.

The people in these cities (Seattle, Olympia, Portland, SF, LA ...) voted for this crap. Make them choke on it.

steve uhr said...

I don’t know if it is true but he seems to be acknowledging that homelessness got a lot worse under his watch.

tcrosse said...

Banning plastic straws seems like a good place to start.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Despite Tokyo’s tremendous number of convenience stores that by and large now tend to have a toilet, many Japanese men of a certain age still have a puzzling predilection for peeing in public, with their desperate discharges often done with a total disregard to people passing by.

A propensity that quite possibly prompted the owner of this ideal-for-a-quick-wee wall to try and persuade them to at least piddle on somebody else’s property.”

https://tokyotimes.org/largely-not-allowed-to-have-a-leak/

Oooooo someone tell Trump!

dreams said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
dreams said...

The corrupt democrats and the crooked liberal media seem to be channeling Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai, they don't realized that they're the enemy of our country. Will they have their epiphany before they destroy our country? I'm afraid they won't.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Homelessness in Japan

Someone tell Sean Hannity! He and Trump, dumb and dumber.

tim in vermont said...

“I don’t know if it is true but he seems to be acknowledging that homelessness got a lot worse under his watch”

Everybody drink!

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Blogger Nobody said...
Oh I remember pretty clearly somebody who was obsessed with pee pee for about two years

Inga must miss her bedpan carrying days. She has a weird fixation on pee.

tim in vermont said...

When the economy gets better, that causes more homelessness. Not millions of illegals pouring over the border competing for housing, that has zero to do with it.

PM said...

SF pols think of it as a 'homeless-rich' environment.

Lawrence Person said...

The Austin City Council just foolish voted to import the same filth and disorder into the city.

It's almost like the hard left is trying to get Trump reelected.

Rick said...

Yes, this is who you Deplorables still worship.

Worshipping politicians is a left wing phenomenon, as is pledging allegiance to them and having children sing their praises as if they were god.

But none of this matters to you because your only purpose is venting your hate. What a useless waste of cells.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Worshipping politicians is a left wing phenomenon,...”

Then along came Trump singing your song with his golden voice and you rejoiced in worship!

Hallelujah!

tim in vermont said...

In Boston you can walk by senior housing, supplied by the city and occupied by people who don’t speak a word of English. Makes you wonder how they put in a lifetime earning that. in the US.

tim in vermont said...

I think either Inga has had a stroke, or somebody got ahold of her password, or maybe it was the Mueller Report, but she’s a shadow of her former self. It’s kind of sad. Maybe it’s the same lame bot that posts as “Howard."

Bay Area Guy said...

Remind me again which party (cough, Democrat, cough) runs every major City in the USA for the past 50 years:?

San Francisco
LA
Chicago
NY
Detroit
Baltimore
ST Louis
Philly
Oakland
Portland

Some nice places mixed therein, true, but a lotta shitholes

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Inga now thinks there’s no difference between Tokyo and Los Angeles filth-wise, based on a couple of Japan Times articles. Has she ever been out of Whitopia, Wisconsin, where she lives?

Bay Area Guy said...

In Pacific Heights in SF, there's no homeless problem, and nobody is shitting on the sidewalks. Whew!

Of course, that's where Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, Willie Brown, Gavin Newsom, Barbara Boxer and Kamala Harris live.

Pure coincidence?

I think not.

hstad said...

Blogger Leland said...I don't agree with Trump that the federal government needs to solve the homeless problem in cities.7/2/19, 2:25 PM

I agree with you 100%. But remember we are fast approaching the political season and Trump is not immune to taking on Liberal Cities' homeless issues. Hopefully, it is all talk. Federal government has to many powers already.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

If he's going to do something about cities, I wish he would take on the gangs in Chicago. Some RICO and federal penn time couldn't hurt.

Unfortunately he found out that he can't trust the FBI, so that makes anything big iffy.

Rick said...

roesch/voltaire said...
Oh come on B don't exaggerate. We are all Americans who want the best for our country and democracy


Dems spend 99% of their lives calling everyone who disagrees with them racist and the other 1% asking "can't we all just get along?".

JAORE said...

Trump, by this tweet, will have media talking about his wanting to be a dictator. But the net result will also be showing how San Fran and the other cities become shit holes under Democrat rule.

The left still does not get it.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“I think either Inga has had a stroke, or somebody got ahold of her password, or maybe it was the Mueller Report, but she’s a shadow of her former self. It’s kind of sad. Maybe it’s the same lame bot that posts as “Howard."”

I don’t need to waste time arguing with Cultists. Sad that you Deplorables couldn’t pull yourselves out of it, but just got sucked in further.



Rick said...

Then along came Trump singing your song with his golden voice and you rejoiced in worship!

Other than everything you wrote the rest is all true. Your streak of comments with no relationship to reality remains unblemished.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

You're a real corn-pone hick, Inga. For someone with obviously no experience of other countries or cultures, you seem very sure about what you're saying.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

The Dark Knight

Kid to Trump: "Are you Batman"
Trump: "I...am Batman!"

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

They should be placed in a giant open walled pen, humane - mind you - and huge and humane - and give them all the drugs they want. Shooters, Meth, Pot, Coke, Crack, any of the various opioids and fentinol and everything - piles of it. Then give them a choice, do yourself in, or you can enter re-hab and chose to function in society.

Antifa belong in hard core prison.

Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...

Urine may smell, but it is sterile. Human feces smell, and contaminate everything. Big difference.

This is a serious public health issue. However, it is not a Federal issue.

Trump is telling big city mayors to solve this issue that has increased exponentially on their watch. One thing Trump can act on that is a Federal issue: Sanctuary Cities. He is signaling a warning to get things cleaned up, or he can persuade them by other means (like Federal funds).

Anonymous said...

Ignatius,

You're asking a 90-IQ bigot like Inga to make a distinction. Snakehandling religious manias can't do that.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...

GPB: Oh, I know what I’m doing. I’m wondering if she does.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

'We have to take the people,” he said. “And we have to do something.”

I dread what that means ...'


Bullshit. Lefties simply love the opportunity to infer what that means.

PackerBronco said...

The best thing the federal government could do would be to pick up all of filth and refuse and dump on city hall and in the yards of the city leaders. The city officials would quickly find a way to solve the problem if they were the once who were forced to live it with every day.

Anonymous said...

Of course she doesn't. Some idiot, never been to Japan, probably tweeted that article (it's not like Inga heard of the Japan Times before five minutes ago) to "prove" that TURMPS IS DUMM. But once Inga reposted the "argument," without attribution obviously, outside her narrow-minded amen corner, it looked like the kind of thing only a drooling dipshit whose experience of Japan was five minutes of manga would find convincing. That's when SHE WON'T ARGUEZ WITH US ANYMORES, WE HURTS HER FEEWLINGS.

PackerBronco said...

Dems spend 99% of their lives calling everyone who disagrees with them racist and the other 1% asking "can't we all just get along?".

Or ... "we need to have a national conversation with you racists ..."

Francisco D said...

I don't agree with Trump that the federal government needs to solve the homeless problem in cities.

I agree with you Leland. The local governments need to clean up their mess.

The one thing that the feds can do is to change legislation and incentives so that states can bring back mental institutions. They were never as bad as portrayed. I worked in a step-down halfway house for long term mental patients (mostly schizophrenics) back in the 70's. It was more boring than anything else.

Trump brought up this suggestion to highlight an issue that there liberal MSM does not want to cover if it cannot blame it on Republicans.

narciso said...

there's also the inconvenient fact, that japan has been in a downturn since 1990, which the bubble burst, which trillions of dollars in spending haven't resolved,

Francisco D said...

You Deplorables ... You Trumpists... You Cultists ...

Inga is braying like a donkey again with about as much intelligence and insight as a donkey's ass.

She moved from simplistic virtue signaling to her Junior HS mean girl schtick after we found out what Mueller knew.

It is not a flattering persona.

Drago said...

Nobody: "I think either Inga has had a stroke, or somebody got ahold of her password, or maybe it was the Mueller Report, but she’s a shadow of her former self."

Lefty LLR Chuck, Inga's philosophical and rhetorical soulmate, has experienced the same pronounced and sustained degradation in their already feeble mental meanderings.

Not surprising really. This is the case across the lefty spectrum.

Known Unknown said...

Look at Inga throwing Japan under the bus.

narciso said...

making them make a virtue of filth,

http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=382084

this dovetails into my pet scenario, which spun out of control for manafort to the tune of about a few billion in sanctions,

Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...

Trump has ZERO to lose politically by cutting off the sanctuary cities. They’ve been suckling on the Federal teat for decades. He’s not going to win any precincts in these big cities, so he has nothing to lose.

The issue is the LAWLESSNESS that today’s Democrat Party stands for today with regards to immigration. Mayors Richard Daley, Ed Koch or Ed Rendell would never have tolerated this nonsense! It doesn’t sit well with the majority citizens who just want to go to work, live in peace and take care of their families.

If Trump takes a strong stand and follow through, he will win over law-and-order voters who broke for candidates like Giuliani in NYC. If Trump sticks with the immigration, sanctuary cities and the public health madness, he won’t win in a city like NYC — not a chance — but he’ll certainly do better there than he did in 2016.

Seeing Red said...

Send them to Austin.

Yancey Ward said...

There will always be homelessness- it is a problem that cannot be solved without basically arresting the homeless an putting them into institutional care. What has changed, and this change has come over the last two decades, is that the cities' governments are becoming increasingly dysfunctional and broke. You see this in uncollected trash building up in certain corridors, the streets increasingly decrepit, and law enforcement slowly retreating from one area after another. In another two decades, at this rate, you won't be able to tell the difference between LA and Caracas. Things are rapidly approaching a point of no return.

Seeing Red said...

Voters. Flat-out ginning up the vote. What’s a little poop and bubonic plague if they can stay in power?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Watched a vagrant pee in the river where kids and students and adults tube and kayak.

The left side with the vagrant.

Drago said...

Known Unknown: "Look at Inga throwing Japan under the bus."

Not surprising.

She went after Filipinos too. Probably because the Filipinos love America and the vast vast majority are conservative Christian.

Bad combo from a dem/LLR point of view.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The left do not care about homelessness. They want more of it.

As long as the illegals can drive and vote. Never mind the carnage.

rcocean said...

Liberals have been running our big cities since forever. If they really wanted to solve the problem of homeless people and their popping on the streets they would've done so. So, why haven't they? Well simple. To Liberal homelessness is just like crime. A certain percentage of liberals insulate themselves. Another group just puts up with it. A small number get upset and want to solve the problem, but won't go against the liberal orthodoxy - let alone vote Republican. And the rest of them just revel in it or see it as a $$ making opportunity. There's a lot of programs/non-profits who make a lot of $$$ "solving" the problem that never gets solved.

That's why everything Liberal turns to shit. Sooner or later.

Bilwick said...

Back when hunger in America was the cause du jour for "liberals" and their media mouthpieces, the late libertarian writer Joseph Sobran had a novel suggestion: that chits or coupons be issued to the hungry, and that they would read: "Good for one free meal, payable by any liberal." Maybe we could issue something similar for the homeless: "Good for one free crashpad at the home of any liberal." They could have the image of Martin Sheen on them.

rcocean said...

Of course, the smart, well-to-do liberals insulate themselves. Its the poor and working class that suffer. Which is the main reason the problems never get solved.

wildswan said...

"JAORE said...
Trump, by this tweet, will have media talking about his wanting to be a dictator. But the net result will also be showing how San Fran and the other cities become shit holes under Democrat rule."

That's how I see it. And then Mayor Giuliani could talk about what NYC - not the rest of the country - needs to do about NYC. I bet he has ideas. And I'll bet AOC and DeBlasio do not. And Repub candidates for Mayor of LA could work on the topic and then their campaigns would actually help someone.

Kevin said...

Look at Inga throwing Japan under the bus.

Morpheus: Do you believe that Inga's pivot to Japan has anything to do with the homeless situation in this country?

You think she came up with Japanese men peeing on the street on her own?

Hmmm.

rcocean said...

We were talking about Busing that was Exhibit A for the Liberal behavior. The Rich and powerful were never "bused" anywhere, they went to private schools or lived in the wealthy suburbs. The Less fortunate liberals just ran away to another school district. And of course, the Gays or childless Liberals didn't give a fuck.

tim in vermont said...

"I don’t need to waste time arguing with Cultists” - Inga

"How conveeeeenient” - Church Lady.

BarrySanders20 said...

We have the hamburgers. We have to cook the hamburgers.

We cant have leaders from other neighborhoods coming in and seeing the uncooked hamburgers.

I am going home to cook the hamburgers.

wildswan said...

I believe that if a city passes an ordinance letting people sleep on city streets then the condition of those people becomes a city responsibility. The city has to provide water, sanitation and medical services on the streets to the level of an immigration detention facility or a refugee camp. So Austin could be sued by the Tort Gang for not providing full services. And Seattle also. And Portland. The Oberlin Move. It should be made.

Big Mike said...

Yes, this is who you Deplorables still worship.

Damned right! We intend to erect alters to him and sacrifice virgins to him, if we ever find any above the age of twelve.

He's right but he's wrong. It's a terrible problem, and the standard Democrat solution of throwing money at the problem has been an abysmal failure. But there's no role that I can see for the federal government. What we cannot do is supply more money for Democrat mayors and city councils to abuse via graft and corruption. Let them figure out how to use what they have.

stevew said...

Blogger Leland said...I don't agree with Trump that the federal government needs to solve the homeless problem in cities.7/2/19, 2:25 PM

I agree with you 100%. But remember we are fast approaching the political season and Trump is not immune to taking on Liberal Cities' homeless issues. Hopefully, it is all talk. Federal government has to many powers already.

Agree with all of that. This is a local problem. I cannot find the source but read an article recently that stated most homeless are substance abusers. Seattle, maybe, is attempting to get people clean and sober as a way to reduce the homeless population. Until we identify root cause we cannot solve or reduce the problem.

Imagine the outrage if the conditions of the homeless in San Francisco and Los Angeles were replicated at our southern border and experienced by the 'undocumented' folks trying to enter the US and being detained and housed. What would AOC have to say about that?

Howard said...

Yeah, ship those defecating druggies back to their shithole home town in the middle of Trump cuntry

tim in vermont said...

“No one knows what Mueller knows!” - Inga just a few short weeks ago

"I don’t need to waste time arguing with Cultists” - Inga today.

Howard said...

Boston is a clean city compared to SF and LA. The homeless migrate to better weather, duh. Can we get some fucking border control to prevent the dregs of the welfare deplorable states from soiling the California Republic

Michael K said...

the dregs of the welfare deplorable states from soiling the California Republic

Too late. Most of us have left.

tcrosse said...

I knew that when Howard moved to Massachusetts he would fit right in.

Michael K said...

shithole home town in the middle of Trump cuntry

Who knew that California and Chicago were "Trump Country?"

Michael K said...


The one thing that the feds can do is to change legislation and incentives so that states can bring back mental institutions.


Leftist know nothings like harrogate will fight that. They know all the history from the movies they've seen.

Families of Schizophrenics have spent years begging for the return of commitment and residential care.

Read "My brother Ron" and learn what heartbreak those families face.

narciso said...

well they don't have cholera outbreaks like a certain California berg, but walsh's tenure has been full speed away prog,

JAORE said...

"Urine may smell, but it is sterile."

In a healthy human. But there are many conditions that lead to blood in the urine. That is not sterile.

Fen said...

I think either Inga has had a stroke, or somebody got ahold of her password, or maybe it was the Mueller Report, but she’s a shadow of her former self.

Well in this particular instance the discussion is about removing the mentally ill from the streets.

Inga squats here daily to yell at strangers passing through.

Maybe the topic frightens her, so she's lashing out. Wouldn't be surprised if her daughters have already tried an intervention or three and are quietly discovering what standard they need to commit Crazy Mum to the New Vistas Treatment Home.

Honest, if she was your mother, wouldn't you be worried about her mental condition?

Bob Loblaw said...

I agree with those who've said this isn't something the federal government should be addressing beyond just general good stewardship of the national economy. Homeless people and their impact is a state and local matter.

Jupiter said...

The reason the cities along the I-5 corridor are are inundated with "homeless people" is that their municipal governments are in a bidding war to see who can attract the largest encampment. The criminal vermin running my city, Eugene, just hired a consultant from Massachusetts (take a bow, Howard) to tell them how to "solve" the "problem" of the "homeless". The answer was raise taxes so we can provide more free stuff to homeless people.

Carol has it exactly right. Build it, and they will come. I notice when I drive up the Willamette River, the little town of Oakridge does not seem to have a homeless problem. Why do you suppose that is? Because they have more houses than we do?

Gk1 said...

I do work in San Francisco and see many homeless in the doorways of businesses all down Market, through the financial district and SOMA. It really is a flop house and the liberal population is just too weak willed to do anything about it. They just banned e-cigarettes which doesn't seem to be as pressing a problem. They will never enforce people smoking joints on the sidewalk so why don't I think they will not enforce this either? This is what happens when you hand over the welfare of the city to idiots.

rcocean said...

"Boston is a clean city compared to SF and LA."

What about compared to NYC or Philadelphia? BTW, why don't we ever hear about the homeless problem in Baltimore, East St. Louis or Detroit?

Michael K said...

I notice when I drive up the Willamette River, the little town of Oakridge does not seem to have a homeless problem. Why do you suppose that is? Because they have more houses than we do?

I don't see any near McMinnville, where my stepson lives with his family. They all shoot guns and stuff which probably drives the homeless away. They know where they are welcome.

DavidUW said...

Maybe AOC and her fellow liberals in SF can suggest further concentrating the homeless into, I dunno, camps. Concentration camps for short.

Jupiter said...

When I go camping I see a lot of people in tents, but they don't look to be drug addicts. I only see drug addicts living in tents on the sidewalks of Eugene. And, of course, in the numerous "shelters" set aside for that purpose by the municipal government. You know why that is? Because it isn't cheap being a drug addict. You need to have someone giving you handouts to live on, so you have time to steal enough shit to pay for your habit. And you don't get much for stolen shit, so you have to steal a lot of it to cover a serious drug habit. It really requires an urban environment, and a peculiarly welcoming one, where shoplifters aren't arrested and the police won't even take a report for property crimes, and of course, no one messes with your tent and your stolen shopping carts and bicycles while you are out stealing shit.

Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...

Something is terribly wrong with the incentives we are offering people.

iowan2 said...

Blogger Leland said...I don't agree with Trumpt that the federal government needs to solve the homeless problem in cities.7/2/19, 2:25 PM

President Trump has no intention of elbowing his way into Democrat leadership's actions, and the resulting disasters. He is just forcing the conversation. He might throw out an idea, and have the leftist scream how stupid it is. The exchange just highlights that the left is incapable of solving the problems they create. More to the point...unable to call what is happening a problem at all. Advantage President Trump.

chickelit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Chuck said...


Blogger Bay Area Guy said...
Remind me again which party (cough, Democrat, cough) runs every major City in the USA for the past 50 years:?

San Francisco
LA
Chicago
NY
Detroit
Baltimore
ST Louis
Philly
Oakland
Portland

Some nice places mixed therein, true, but a lotta shitholes


You’re right, of course.

So why did Trump answer Tucker Carlson’s question about “filth” all across once-great American cities by saying it was a problem that started in the last two years?

Maybe I am asking too much, to try to make sense of that one line since Trump’s entire rambling diatribe almost entirely nonsensical.

Michael McNeil said...

I just drove through San Francisco, to pick up a friend at a hotel, and it was a striking sight all the rainbow flags cracking smartly in the breeze lining major boulevards (Delores, for instance, and Market).

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Updated woke version of old 60's song:

"I see a red door and I want it painted dark..."

buwaya said...

I used to sublet in a Victorian on Dolores. It’s a charming place.
It was easy to move around in those days (80’s), rent was low for yuppies and apartments plentiful.

Part of the problem with SF is housing, increasing rents and condo-ization drove a lot of marginal people from their old slums and residence hotels, and redevelopment got rid of many of their warrens. It’s not usually understood that “white flight” had at one point depopulated the city through the 60’s and 70’s. Formerly gracious Victorians became subdivided into rooms affordable to homeless people’s incomes (then as now paid by the City). That’s why it was cheap for hippies and bums and weirdos and starving artists.

But then SF was rediscovered, notably by the homosexuals. These flooded in and bid up prices. And the old opportunistic bums and marginals had nowhere to go. Homelessness became endemic in the late 90’s. It’s also why the black population of the City has collapsed.

I have seen the mechanism here. The genuine slum areas of both SF and LA county are much smaller than they used to be. There is less real architectural urban blight here, but much of it has moved onto the sidewalks.

Birkel said...

roesch/voltaire:
"Here in Madison the homeless have made the upper State St an unsafe area at night even with all our social services and new low income housing for a few.)

You misspelled "because of".
You are welcome.

Birkel said...

JAORE found the PURPLE ELEPHANT!
Don't tell the Democratics.

walter said...

Simply FWIW, a disgruntled Dem take:
Why I Quit the Democratic Party — Housing and Homelessness

Birkel said...

Howard, Boston is lousy with homeless.
Or at least Cambridge is.

That's where the government supports the homeless the most.
So that's where the homeless go.

Not as many prominently in Southie.

P.S. You are an idiot.

Michael K said...

Does Chuck have any comment that is not about Trump?

Asking for a friend.

Oso Negro said...

Fuck the homeless! Round their sorry asses up and put their shitty tents on barren Federal land somewhere unpleasant.

Darleen said...

In Los Angeles a city attorney came down with typhus because of the vagrant squalor around city hall. There are reported cases of typhoid fever in deputies that have had to deal with vagrants.

People have been assaulted and murdered by the mentally ill that are tolerated by politicians to squat on public streets - to defecate and urinate and shoot up.

YES these people must be forcibly removed.

chickelit said...

I just drove through San Francisco, to pick up a friend at a hotel, and it was a striking sight all the rainbow flags cracking smartly in the breeze lining major boulevards (Delores, for instance, and Market).

God hates flags. Expect a major smiting shortly.

Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...

Things have gotten so much better since SCOTUS quashed vagrancy laws in the 1960s and 1970s. And the de-institutionalization movement by the mental health advocates/activists has been equally helpful.

Leftists love chaos and anarchy. It’s their stock and trade. They think it’s fun.

Let people do whatever the fuck they want. That’s freedom and liberty. Happy Fourth of July!

bagoh20 said...

Part of the problem of homelessness is a loss of shame in it. Like a lot of young people who got to California with no plans and no money, I was homeless once, and I've known a few homeless people as friends. It's become a tolerable thing now to those in it and those not. I was ashamed, and therefore got myself out of it pretty quick, but lots of people not only are not ashamed of it, but they choose it for the freedom and the lack of bills and responsibilities it offers. You may get cold, be dirty and hungry a lot, but your time is your own, and you can get fucked up every day all day.