Tent City in the IE

NEW -> Contingent Buyer Assistance Program
Trooper: why no police officers ever pick up these homeless for panhandling at least? I see loads of them on 7th and Figureoa most of the weekdays, and nobody does anything about that (police cars driving by and just ignoring them). I'd rather have them locked up in jail then trying to poke my eyes with an umbrella at the bus stop (true story) :)) Oh, is it also true that the city of LA decided to release all parolees in the Skid Row area (800,000 estimated to be released there in several years, around a 100 a day). And I totally agree that most homeless (excluding mental cases) are just lazy. How difficult is that to take a shower and find some Macjob at a minimum wage, get a roommate, and so on? Anybody who gives to homeless just indulges their laziness and addictions.

Lawyerliz: why are trailer parks "tornado magnets"? Is it just a figure of speech? I'm curious.
 
<p>They aren't really tornado magnets.</p>

<p>It's a Florida joke.</p>

<p>A really well built Florida house will resist wimpy Florida tornadoes and up to Cat 5 hurricanes. Even cat 5 if you spend enough money and get a really good contractor to build. Poured concrete roofs too. Trailers, well, don't.</p>

<p>Tho there is a new kind of hurricane protection device. that consists of a mesh roll that attaches to loops set into the ground and goes up and over the roof, and is tied down on the other side. These had been experimentally installed in a trailer park south of here on the space coast. Those trailers survived one of the storms, don't remember which one, in the years of the 8 hurricanes, when all around them was ruin.</p>

<p>My developer did a pretty good job; a few booboos revealed by hurricane Andrew, but not too many. Nobody sued him, and at least 20 purchasers asked the former developer to come in and rebuild for us, including me. He declined, wisely, it turned out, as county went from being totally remiss in checking things to totally insanely tough. </p>

<p>We were at ground zero in the strongest part of the eye wall. Nobody died in my development. People are like roaches scurrying hither and yon to save their lives. The hub used to work for the hurricane center, and heard where it was coming and how strong it was, and said we're outta here. We warned a few neighbors, but nobody else left. We endured a 7 hour traffic jam to go to a small cheap house we had on the space coast where he worked for NASA and still does. A 7 hour traffic jam is nothing compared to hours of terror, wondering if you will survive. We had warm dry cozy beds.</p>

<p>The pictures shown on national tv were accurate as far as they went, but didn't convey the utter destruction, as far as the eye could see. Rich, middle class, lower middle class, all destroyed together.</p>

<p>I've asked a couple of times about earthquakes, and nobody has responded. People here discuss shutters, and if you should buy a back up generator system, and what kind of roofs are best, and there's a developer who advertises hurricane proof housing, and might be right.</p>

<p>How come no equivalent earthquake discussions? Is there nothing, really to be done?</p>

<p>Do y'all not want to think or talk about it?</p>
 
LL: Earthquake preparedness is one of those unpleasant issues most folks here like to leave to somebody else. We "know" the government will be here to help if things get tough. We also believe home prices never decline. Same principle.
 
<p>My mom always had an earthquake kit in a camper in the driveway that included medical supplies, water, bleach (I think to make the pool water drinkable, but it has been awhile), canned foods, batteries, radio, etc. </p>

<p>Other than prepare necessities, there isn't much else you can do.</p>

<p>Okay, I take that back. My parents built the house they still live in today in 1984. My father is a geologist, and so he understands exactly what power the Earth has. He always says the San Andreas is "10 months pregnant." Anyhow, I believe that house I grew up in was a 2 story house built on the foundation for a 12 story building. It could have been an exaggeration, but regardless the house was made extra strong on purpose.</p>
 
Most earthquakes we experience do little to no damage...just a little swaying. Earthquake insurance is costly and there is a huge deductible but we have it nonetheless because it's only a matter of when "The Big One" will come and not if.



Also, we "earthquake proof" all of our tall bookshelves, dressers, tvs, or anything else that can come tumbling down in a large earthquake. Also, schools have mandatory earthquake drills and they also store supplies for such an emergency.



The discussions happen, but because earthquakes that cause major damage or pretty infrequent compared to hurricanes, I think some become a little complacent.
 
It is pretty amazing that some houses are so well-built as to withstand hurricanes and tornadoes, I thought nothing can be done to prevent destruction in cat 5 hurricane... How come anyone buys homes in Florida (other the fact that homestead exemption covers the entire house) and other places where you know for a fact that this house is not going to stay, and sooner or later it will be gone? How do you live with this, where do you keep your family heirlooms? Does your insurance cover hurricanes? After watching the Twister movie I realized that I'd never ever live in a place where you are that unsafe. Do the home prices in Florida even reflect that?

I once heard that the safest place in the U.S. in terms of natural disasters is Santa Barbara, CA (and that with all their mudslides???)

Anyway, your question about earthquake-proofing the house: have you ever been to Hearst Castle? It withstood many major earthquakes due to thick (a believe 1 foot) concrete walls (not that wooden sticks construction that we have here throughout California). Also, supposedly that California-style construction is going to protect you during the quake, since you don't have heavy concrete pieces or bricks to fall on you. Plus, your water heater is strapped to the wall and you have a main gas line shut-off valve handy. Other than that? Nothing other than prayers as far as I know...

Oh, by the way, about fire-proofing your house: I heard about a house in Laguna Beach custom built with fireproof glass windows and walls, and that was the only house in a particular area that survived amidst a fire that destroyed several streets in Laguna Beach a few years back. I wonder why can't they build all these homes by the canyons and forests using these materials? I would definitely pay extra for this!
 
<p>Our house was in the worst part of Andrew. Cat 5 storms are just as rare as bad earthquakes.</p>

<p>We prefer hurricanes, because you know when they're coming and know when they are gone.</p>

<p>Given what it was facing, our house, built in a particularly complacent era, would have safely sheltered us, in 5 different rooms. After we rebuilt it, much more strongly, I think it would have been, well, not-totalled!! We put in a safe room, got shutters etc. The roof was stronger. The interior walls had wood supports, not those stupid cheap aluminum things. The real problem is the roof. To protect against a cat 5, poured concrete is best, but there was one develpment, like the hole in the doughnut of destruction, where the tile roofs were really well constructed, where the roofs stayed. I'm sure a few tiles blew off, but the roofs were sound. So it can be done, even without poured concrete.</p>

<p>Janet Reno's house, built by hand by her dad of wood, did ok, but was slightly north of the band of total destruction anyway.</p>

<p>The anemometer at the zoo blew off at 164. Or was it 194? Maybe it was 194 at the Turkey Point nuclear plant? The zoo was about a mile away.</p>

<p>I think that the difference is that ordinary people can do stuff that actually protects, even against a cat 5. I'm not sure that is true of a bad earthquake.</p>

<p>By the way, our antiques all survived, albeit a bit battered. Our modern furniture did not.</p>
 
<p>blackacre - I have also heard the story about the parolees being released into the population, but you'll have to ask the L.A. County Sheriff about that, they control the prison population. At least half the "homeless" on skid row are parolees all ready. I think it has something to do with "no money left to house all the criminals". Hence, why we don't arrest bums for panhandling very often, there is simply no jail space available for nuisance crimes like this....they are also all ill in some way shape or form. This requires mandatory medical treatment at the City's (Um, my) expense. </p>

<p>Today's homeless caper of the day was a 350 pound <strong>nude </strong>man on the bus bench at Hollywood and Cahuenga. Thank goodness officers were able to calmly express the need for clothing to him. If this guy hadn't gone with the program, it would have taken at least 4 officers to take him down. No way was I going to subject my officers to "taking him into custody" for indecent exposure...you could smell the guy from 10 feet away - he probably has lice and staph - he had also conveniently sh*t himself (they do this on purpose sometimes, b/c they know we won't touch them). I'm not kidding. The tourists today sure did get an eyeful (and so did I....ugh). He kept spouting gibberish, his feet were ulcered (diabetes) and his hair was all matted. Now THESE guys I feel sorry for. They're crazier than loons and have no business being in the general public. When Reagan closed down the mental institutions, these people no longer had a place to go.... but this guy is one of 1000's wandering around L.A. right now (and trying to poke blackacre in the eye). </p>

<p>I had a homeless woman take a cr*p on the sidewalk (right in front of me) because she was pissed we were issuing her a citation....again, for sleeping on a bus bench. I nearly tossed my cookies, partner kidded me for months about it.</p>

<p> Homeless are a nuisance that the gov't needs to do something about. Now THAT I would gladly pay more taxes for. </p>
 
I lived in SF for a while. You learn not to walk between the cars parked at the meters.



Homeless people love to take craps between the cars (sense of privacy, then they wipe on your license plate). So if you're coming out of a club or a restaurant at night after a few glasses of wine and you walk between cars to cross the street, good luck to you.



I also lived across from Union Square in SF. The fountain in the center is basically the urinal. Most poor tourists do not realize this, and allow their kids to play in the fountains, pigeons (who eat the crap) cooing all around.



At night when the tourists leave, the City sprays down the fountain (twice) with ammonia/chemical solvant to wash away the human waste.



Yummy.
 
lawyerliz: I've never been to Florida, but do you have some sort of mountain areas or areas with hills, as we do here in Cal? Common sense tells me that such areas would be better protected during a hurricane... (if you are not on top of the hill, of course) I can't say people here are really scared of earthquakes... When I worked on the 14th floor, that was scary. Now that I'm on a 5th floor-not so much. Oh, and when there was an earthquake that'd shaken up our 14th floor building pretty badly, do you think anyone else bothered to get out of the building for a few minutes (other than yours truly :)

Trooper: that's gross, I can't imagine they pay you enough to look at that. My guess of the reason for not picking them up was that most of them are mental cases (and as such cannot be prosecuted :)) In addition to them being gross, of course... My solution to the homeless problem is to gather mental cases and lock them up and then ship the rest off to the uninhabited island :)) Where do I sign up with my donation?

UniHighAlum: I actually distinctly remember that area, because I was told not to cross the Market street (if you look at the map, it divides the city into 2 parts, the one by the water and the one down. So, as you come closer to that area, you see more and more homeless and other scary-looking people (i mean really scary). And thanks for the tip, i sure didn't know that :00
 
<p>Virtually NO hills in South Florida. There are some gently rolling hills near the Ga border, in Gainesville, and some sand dunes here on the space coast. The highest is 70-80 feet. The highest "hills" in South Florida are the landfills and the highway overpasses. There is a long outcropping of coral rock in Coconut Grove, leading down to Biscayne Bay, called Silver Bluff, maybe 25 feet high.</p>

<p>I live on an outcropping maybe 8-10 inches high. We got a lot of rain in one of the hurricanes. Didn't flood. The guy across the street in a 8-10 inch valley did flood.</p>

<p>The wind is higher, the higher you go, so I don't think hills would be helpful anyway, except to break up the wind as you go inland.</p>
 
<p><em>My solution to the homeless problem is to gather mental cases and lock them up and then ship the rest off to the uninhabited island</em></p>

<p>The limeys tried something similar with Vegemite as the end result. I don't know of any suitable islands that remain. Also, much to the chagrin of the natives, the island wasn't actually uninhabited. </p>
 
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