Economic Dirty Bomb Explodes in Sacramento

[anarchist]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1owwvwi6t30 (External Embedding Disabled)

[Hope@ZeroKelvin]

A sign of things to come.  California usually "leads" the nation in things both good and bad.

[Grimus]

Holy shit, I didn't know KJ was their mayor.

[y9kids]

Holy shit, I didn't know KJ was their mayor.

The economy is so tough in California, KJ just was robbed in SF a few days ago.

http://news.aol.com/article/sacramento-mayor-kevin-johnson-robbed-in/713992

[Hogie2010]

China has a lot of those economic dirty bombs

 

[paland]

This is bullshit!  Oprah said the same thing 8 months ago about a HUGE tent city, and it was found to be non existant.  I live here. It's still the same.  The freeways are packed with people going to and from work.

I think this is just a prank to get the bigots riled up.  Sacramento is the most diverse city in the US. We have blacks, whites, mexicans, thai, vietnamese, chinese, japanese, russians, armenians, peruvians, and even other racial or nationalities.  There is no majority.  And yet I feel safer here than in most of the western cities I have lived in, which is quite a few.

This is just more bullshit to rile up the plebes.

[SabreKai]

Thinking isn't knowing. If you live in the area, why not go check it out? They give the location in the vid, go see for yourself. Take a camera and let us know if its bullshit or not.

Sabre
51 days n a wake up

[paland]

Thinking isn't knowing. If you live in the area, why not go check it out? They give the location in the vid, go see for yourself. Take a camera and let us know if its bullshit or not.

Sabre
51 days n a wake up

OK, I will.  I work downtown and will do it at lunch.

Edit: Just a few points.  The lady said that all the shelters were full here. Yes they are but they have always been. There aren't very many shelters here. Sacramento hasn't been as homeless friendly as LA or SF is.  Never has been.

Second:  I know this place. It hasn't gotten noticably larger. And the VAST majority aren't those who just hit the streets. They are regulars. The Homeless eat at Loaves and Fishes on North B street by Richard Blvd.  There are many there, but there were many there ten years ago.   This camp is located not too far from the North Area, just down the tracks.

One of the problems is that Mayor Kevin Johnson closed one of the larger camps about two months ago. So they all migrated down the river (Most of these camps are by the American River.)  There is quite a large nature area where the camps are usually located and the cops bust them up on a yearly basis. Now KJ wants to get into the action.

When my wife and I moved here 20 years ago, we camped out too but not by these camps. We had our camp by American River College. And we would shower at the college.  There are many places to hide here but most want to camp near the Loaves and Fishes so they can eat the dinners there.

I still say this is just a bullshit story.

[SabreKai]

Thanks Paland. I wasn't trying to be snotty or anything. It just occured to me that it might be an idea if LATOCers who were handy to an event could check it out, and give us an idea as to the medias veracity.


Sabre
51 days n a wake up

[paland]

OK, I didnt make it to any of the sites, but I did talk to two homeless about 2 blocks from the Loaves and Fishes. 

They said that indeed there is some more homeless arriving but said that they seem to be out of towners, not the middle class coming down here, even though one or two may be.  They did say that there are several "tent" cities but that those have been there for a while. The two that I talked to live in one.  He said that there were only 20 or so camping in his.  He did say that there was one toward the Capital City Freeway overpass that had maybe 80 or so, but that it was pretty devestated during the storm we had two days ago.  He said that it was a muddy field now. The campers are moving around once again.

"Frank" said that the big issue for them is that it seems that the cops are cracking down on them more, and its not even an election year. When I mentioned the youtube news article, he said that they hadn't heard anything about it. But then, they dont have any laptops down here.   "Tony" felt happy that they were getting national attention but that this could backfire on them."

I realize that this is only two out of many and that they only cover a small part of what is out here, but I only have a limited time for lunch.  I will try to check out more in the next few days, since this does interest me.

I didnt have much money on me so I could only give each of them $5 for their troubles, but they seemed happy enough with that.

[guitarbuddy]

OK, I didnt make it to any of the sites, but I did talk to two homeless about 2 blocks from the Loaves and Fishes. 

I don't live anywhere near SoCal, but there seems to be a huge disconnect between the numbers we're seeing in the doomer news and reports such as yours. Where are all these foreclosed-upon going? We're talking almost a million in the last quarter, right? I can't imagine most people who are losing their houses have it together well enough to start over out of whole cloth. Certainly many will end up with family or friends, but what are we up to since the crash started, 7 millions foreclosures?

[Broil]

There are huge numbers of homeless, Paland, it's just that if you aren't looking for them you probably won't notice them.  Oprah didn't make up the tent city with some kind of Hollywood special effects, it was really there until broken up by the cops.

I don't know how many hang out in the central valley areas.  I know many live along coastal cities where the weather is so much better.  You can die of heat stroke in Sacramento.  So if you want to see some real numbers of homeless, go from San Diego to LA to Santa Cruz to San Francisco to Eureka.  And actively try to find them, they can be easy to overlook.  For example, if you walk through Union Square in San Francisco, you might think the people on the benches and lying in the grass are just tourists and regular people hanging out on the lawn.  But if you were to ask all of them if they were homeless, and they answered you honestly, you'd find that the majority are homeless.

It's always been that way, but I don't have the slightest doubt that it's much worse now.

[Observer]

Certainly many will end up with family or friends, but what are we up to since the crash started, 7 millions foreclosures?

One of my sons is moving his family into his brother's house due to financial issues.  They are finishing off a basement.  So that is $1,050 in rent that is not going to be paid somewhere anymore.

[LuaHasFreedom]

One of my sons is moving his family into his brother's house due to financial issues.  They are finishing off a basement.  So that is $1,050 in rent that is not going to be paid somewhere anymore.

This is the only way to go. We HAVE to start thinking tribally again and families are the most logical units to double, triple, quadruple themselves into one house.

[TheNewWorldMan]

I live in Sac, and I haven't really noticed a substantial increase in the homeless population--yet.

Then again, we have to bear in mind there's a lot of fallout from the "Great Recession" that hasn't yet ricocheted through the economy.  Most of the people who have lost their jobs still have unemployment benefits.  Late this year into Q-II of next we're going to see waves of people lose their unemployment benefits.  That's gonna hurt.  We also haven't yet seen the full contraction in state government spending that's coming.  That's going to sting a lot.  And we'll be adding a couple dimes to the price of a gallon of gas in the next ten days to two weeks even if the latest run-up in oil prices stops where it is today.  That's going to exert a drag on an economic "recovery" that really can't afford any more resistance.

And while I haven't seen a run-up in the homeless, I've certainly seen a marked increase in the number of closed storefronts and office vacancies.  In the past eighteen months my local mini-mall lost a pizzeria, a coffee shop, a video store and a grocery store, and gained a gun shop and massage parlor.  That right there says a lot.  And Fulton Avenue is now sans every third or so auto dealer.  Lots of tumbleweeds and broken glass there.