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On Thursday night, Anaheim Mayor Pro-tem Dr. Jose Moreno stood in statuesque ignominious glory before the homeless haters. Imagine Hillary Clinton standing naked smothered in bacon grease and barbecue sauce with a side of coleslaw on her head before a crowd of ravenous Trump lovers in South Carolina!
They berated him, blasted him, and they also demonized the homeless mercilessly. “How dare you back a homeless facility!” “Arrest the homeless!” “Leave them on the streets to die!” The attendees offered no answers or solutions to the stubborn problem, apart from additional screw-twists to the cruel status quo.
But Jose Moreno was there with one good proposal – “a recuperative care facility for 65 people, on Lincoln near Euclid.”
Down, Paul Kott, down! Thataboy…
Paul Kott, the realtor, whose office is nearby, raved that “homeless people leave feces, graffiti and trash everywhere” and I thought – does he or has he ever had kids? This is a realtor who has probably been in many houses before they are prepared for sale. He should know first hand what feces, graffiti and trash looks like in people’s homes. He must have to tell homeowners daily that they need to clean up the mess before they put the house up for sale.
“Kids, what’s the matter with kids today” marking the walls, not cleaning up the toilet and leaving trash everywhere! But we are afraid to throw them out of the house as they would then be homeless and exposed to the hatred on the streets!
Now maybe, just maybe, Paul Kott only goes out to prepare potential sales by little old ladies that have those meticulous homes where every little bibelot is in its place and dusted daily. But even then… he goes in the bathroom, the smell assaults his nostrils and he realizes that this little old lady hasn’t hit the toilet in perhaps years.
Nobody’s perfect.
“They are all a bunch of criminals loosed on the community by Prop 47!” Kott ranted as if these were actual documented facts not just pulled out of his ass. In fact, 8% of the people on the streets were released under prop 47 and even those should not/would not be there if not for a botch in the system.
The failure in the implementation of Prop 47 was this convenient bureaucratic blunder: Hundreds of millions in savings from jail costs for rehabilitation services apartments and more somehow never made it to its intended use. Where has that money gone? Take a guess, yours is as good as mine. Down another political rabbit hole, chipmunked away as Judge Carter would say…
“Prop 47 earmarked millions saved in prison costs for inmate rehabilitation, but not a penny has been spent. Meanwhile, the state’s shortage of treatment programs is more glaring than ever. Expanding rehab would be expensive, but it is still a cheaper, more effective and more humane strategy for addressing addiction than locking drug abusers in prison.”
Funny, I’ve been by the Paul Kott building on Lincoln hundreds of times day and night and never noticed trash, graffiti or feces … unless you can call Kott himself human trash, “OOOHHHH, dig there!”
Then Council candidate Mitch Caldwell (Moreno’s opponent this year) stood up and blamed Jose for hurricanes, tornadoes, and death in general and that is why people should vote for Mitch. So! The masked robber is exposed and speaks up! Caldwell is part of the SOAR PAC that has infected Anaheim politics for years. Mitch’s gang pushed through legislation such as a 45-year BAN ON GATE TAXES for Disney!!! Hotel Subsidies that exempts hotels from TOT for 20 years costing the Anaheim coffers up to $1 Billion!
These masked robbers like Caldwell have devastated Anaheim and made us a third world city in the OC. We have the same parks as B.F. Egypt, the same roads as Santa Ana and the same police force as Santa Ana per person even though we have 25 million tourists and twice the area for them to cover.
Thanks to the SOAR robbers like Mitch, we have the same general fund as Santa Ana even though we have the resort area, the Anaheim Ducks, the LA Angels, and the convention center.
The homeless haters like Kott and Caldwell want no recuperative center near their homes or businesses. Apparently they’d prefer that homeless people e shipped to Nevada or just killed outright.
So remember –
There are hundreds of thousands of people in Orange County that have problems. Most have someone that loves them, helps them and does not throw them to the streets, would not even think of it – Please do not toss your mother, father, son, daughter, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, cousin or friend out on the streets or people will kill them, literally.
Google search California is #1 in attacks on homeless people
Google search Homeless Deaths Orange County
Perhaps it’s the rabid and ravenous people WHO LIVE IN HOUSES, such as Paul Kott and Mitch Caldwell, that need rabies shots. In the stomachs.
It was a hatefest enjoyed by all. Somehow every problem in the city was caused by Dr.Moreno, the anti rv Crowd seemed to blame Dr.Moreno solely even though most of the complaints were from and about District 2 not district 3. Not one shred of empathy for the poor or sick was to be found. A sad view of my fellow Anaheim residents.
As the crowd slung zingers at Jose he flung them aside with aplomb. But as the anger grew and things got out of hand I saw the elements of opiods and narcotics in this crowd’s dinner coffee. I certainly would not think of leaving the house for an undignified event like this without some heavy drugs! As sure as I am alive today the crowd was flying high on some exotic drugs. With stats like 1/3 of America on the heavy opiods I did not doubt it for one moment. But here in Anaheim with 25 million tourists this is the heart of the drug dealer community, THE place for pimps and prostitutes and add in some human trafficking. So you can bet this crowd was on some of that special mushroom sauce only available to the Anaheim hatred elite!
I was not one to ever leave others flying high and not join them, so before the meeting I merely stopped at my favorite spot on Harbor and Katella to pick up some ‘shroom sauce too.
Now as tempers flared I could see the drugs taking hold of those around me and through my cloudy vision the bats came at me –
No point mentioning those bats, I thought. The poor bastards will see them soon enough…
Weren’t these two characters, Mitch Caldwell and Paul Kott, among the ones who pressured the council to abandon the Karcher property as the site for the shelter?
I stood witness to this event. Dr.Moreno, gave a very fine presentation with dignity and class,not worthy of the crowd he was addressing, it was much more like a Donald Trump Rally and a kickoff for Mitch Cadwell for Council,and most of the crowd was ‘singing along with Mitch’s.. I said at the moment “Dr Moreno,should get home and barricade the door…
Hey Mark, before district 3 has another community meeting remind Dr. Moreno to ask Mayor Tait if he can borrow his gavel!
*Happy 4th of July folks…..can anyone believe we got LeBron? Make the Lakers Great Again! MTLGA! If we get Kawhli…..we will really do good!
I knew it was going to be a shit hall meeting with a bunch of heartless community, I tried to keep my cool but not for long when I couldn’t even ask the question to the police chief “is homelessness a crime” after I didn’t get an answer, and just before I left I told the people to go look at themselves in the mirror because they all looked just like the homeless I have meet. Next Council meeting I’ll suggest renaming Anaheim to the city of hate.
“In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime is getting caught”. Just hard to hide when you have no home, harder to hide when you have no home and having no home is a crime!
How bout “The City of Kindness to Animals”
With the $40 million they are spending on the shelter in Irvine over 10 years.
BUT… if you’re a pet and your owner is homeless, they could rip you away as quick as a Honduran toddler!
My letter to Dr. Moreno after reading this:
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Dear Dr. Moreno,
I’m not entirely sure what to think of “Fingal O’Flahertie”‘s article on the Orange Juice Blog, “Moreno faces Mob of Screaming NIMBY’s.’ His wording is prosaic, but the story painful to read about: if you were standing alone, or felt you were alone, then I was not there to back you up on a topic in which residents of Anaheim need to stand up.
I was actually at an event in Anaheim run by the CAIR and the ACLU re ‘Trump v. Hawaii,’ but I’d like to know more about your proposal for a recuperative care facility for 65 people, on Lincoln near Euclid. Next time you offer a good idea like that, I’d really want to help it to go forward: the needs are extreme, and the work you do to try to meet them merits respect.
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Thanks for writing this, Fingal (and I hope my calling your writing ‘prosaic’ isn’t taken as criticism…it was NOT intended that way, nor would I regard that as a defect…)
It’s ok, it’s all part of our big prosaic mosaic here.
LOL, actually, it was intended more ironically, but poorly set up. Ah well, don’t think Moreno cares what I intended, and do hope “Fingal” isn’t flustered.
I’ll see him tonight. You should come to the People’s Homeless Task Force meeting. Anaheim Unitarian Church on Harbor and Santa Ana, 7 pm.
Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived, or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?
JM endured the storm lashed to the mast at his own insistence.
Now can he paint a picture worth a darn is the question?
Let me point out artist J M W Turner had himself lashed to the mast in a storm for 4 hours and then painted it. As perfect a painting as ever created. Can something good come out of this JM encounter with the drug infused crowd? Will it be worth a darn? Did they all survive the bats?
I left around that time…
How can anyone take this article as fact or truth? It’s comical. Someone actually had a copy of the application from the owner of the property and the report prepared by the planning department that contradicted what was being said by Moreno and the property owner. Don’t believe me, check for yourself. The entire meeting was recorded by several people. Take a look.
Vern,
While the meeting was certainly tough, I felt most of those present had a legitimate set of concerns regarding the process of the proposed facility. Yes, most folks present voiced opposition to the facility but I don’t think it was simply a “nimby” question.
Most folks in the surrounding neighborhood (my neighborhood) were not aware of the proposed project until after planning commission voted on it. It turns out the required radius of notification (300ft based on state minimum) was woefully inadquate thus very few residents knew anything about the project.
In addition, over the past weeks we have learned that there has quietly been a seeming proliferation of “group homes” in this area. Since only those homes with more than 6 people need city permitting and thus notification it seems this area has seen a significant growth in “clandestine” group homes thus leaving folks feeling that the area is in fact carrying a big share of filling housing needs.
In short my sense is that the frustration and intensity was about lack of notification and sense of feeling overwhelmed by increasing clandestine group homes and not a rabid hate of the homeless.
This is not to say there weren’t comments made that made me pause or that a few had a clear political agenda. What I am certain of is that this neighborhood is very compassionate and looks after our local parks and schools and wants to see solutions to address the crisis of homelessness and its contributories.
We help each other when there are needs and try to simply look out for our kids and one another through volunteerism and goodwill.
When the owner discussed the facility I sensed many folks listening and assimilating the information. Again, it was for most the first details they were getting on the proposed facility. It was also the owner’s first true engagement with a large sector of the neighborhood.
As I often like to say–only good things can come when good people come together to engage, dialogue, and act on that goodwill. I cannot speak for the intentions of the central political players in your account but I am confident that for most of those present this meeting, while tense, also had some humor and sense of “let’s figure this out together in an open and transparent way.”
In short…it was community. And for that I was grateful.
Thanks for writing in, Doc, but I’m seriously not Fingal, nor was I at the meeting.
FOF, when are you gonna weigh in?
Okay Dr Moreno.. Just a suggestion at the next community meeting District 3 cookies and water maybe Prozac could be handled out at the front door a half-hour prior to the meeting.
“It turns out the required radius of notification (300ft based on state minimum) was woefully inadquate thus very few residents knew anything about the project.”
I never heard anything about it. Nor did I hear anything from the City about an outreach meeting.
Dr. Moreno, thank you for your response, your tone, and your leadership on this. It sounds to me like this was not “one man against an enraged mass” – but just a tense conversation about what is best for the community. Not the easiest conversation to arrange, but is there any more important one in which to engage (and when engaging in, to do so fairly)?
Jose is being very diplomatic. But from about five people I know who were there, Fingal’s description of a lynch mob was closer to the awful truth, and doubtless a portent of the coming election, where the homeless are going to be a wedge issue.
Anaheim is just a city controlled by resort industry hit men and women with all the money they need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable and they have the homeless people in their sights. Kind of like shooting buffalo slow easy targets!
Election season and murder seem to go together…
Murder people, murder the constitution, murder the democratic process –
And who really cares about the homeless people, and the Muslims and the immigrants and the Jews and the Protestants and the – wait a minute – not the PROTESTANTS!
When they are done with the homeless people they will inevitably come to you. The lesson learned in Germany WWII.
For years after get’n in the know I’ve regarded the existence of SOAR as a monument to all the rancid genes and broken chromosomes that corrupt the possibilities of the American Dream and indicative of corporate cruelty; they create a foul caricature of Mickey mouse, a corporation with no soul, no inner convictions, with the integrity of a hyena and the style of a poison toad.
I couldn’t imagine the Disney CEO Bob Iger laughing at anything except maybe a paraplegic who wanted to vote Democratic but couldn’t quite reach the lever on the voting machine. And there on the night of the full moon, bloody fangs exposed, was SOAR rep Mitch Caldwell with the slobbering Kott realtor, harassing Cute little old Jose Moreno.
Next time please add some information about the venue and the topic of the event.
I have no idea where this was, who was invited (other than not me), or what specifics were discussed about something or other.
There is obviously a site chosen and some sort of site plan proposed or it could not have gone to a planning commission.
Thanks.
Recuperative care facility Lincoln and the 5 frw/ homeless/ RVs/ and drug infused haters, called to order by JM to squelch the burning torches.
But where, exactly?
Do you know who called this meeting and how was someone supposed to find out about it?
hi
I imagine Jose called it because there was a bunch of crazy stuff being said on the site Next Door in his district. Probably instigated by his political rivals?
At the Church of the Latter Day Saints on north Loara.
Usually only sent out news of a meeting in his district?
I have no faith in politicians, but trust change will come in God’s time. Let’s be praying and seeking Jesus, and may God change the hearts of those who hate the poor. May God forgive them and help them to see the truth. This is a spiritual battle and prayer is powerful I know
I wish Jose had just said it was just the right thing to do? We need more facilities and if another district does not want them we should not let them die in the streets to spite them? Seems to me.
When this was presented to the Planning Commission the 1st time, we were concerned because Anaheim had very few guidelines to govern such a facility in such a zone. It was postponed. It came back before the Commission after a very thorough vetting process by the City and was approved. We increased the notification process to 500 feet, which is larger than most cities require but I agree it seems inadequate in certain instances. It was NOT approved as a homeless shelter. It was actually approved to be a facility that will help people from becoming homeless. While I noticed this action being mentioned on Facebook post a month before the first meeting, there were probably no more than twenty people total who attended the meeting and only 2 who spoke against it. One spoke about the lack of parking in the area ( which would be mitigated by this business) and the other by Paul Kott complaining about the number of homeless in the area. Anyone staying at this facility has to be referred by medical personnel. After much deliberation I believe this was passed 7-0.
The political geeks Kott and the other guy running against Jose came out to play it for their purposes and that is why there was the big, bad response.
Respectfully, whereas we are all probably one step away from this condition, and mercy is required, Fingal O’Flahertie, I find your post to be disingenuous at best. You demonize entire groups of people who have a different point of view on the homeless experience than you do.
Perhaps the relentless disrespect of someone’s property by the individual homeless creates a tension and/or anger in the law abiding property owner. The fact that you have to spend tons of money EVERY YEAR to repair, replace, or pay for acts of the homeless who destroy your property isn’t right any way you look at it. It’s hard not to take that personally or lump every homeless person you encounter into that certain stereotype.
Why the homeless’ animus toward their fellow human beings? I didn’t cause that person’s circumstances. I’ve done nothing but contribute to the solution for them by paying increasingly more taxes and “homeless assessments”. I’ve done nothing but repaint the graffiti and repair the outlets and hose off the crap and replaced the broken windows and cut fences and torn fabric and missing wire and stripped copper, and damaged plumbing. I’ve removed used needles and crack pipes so little kids wouldn’t find them, and fielded the complaints of panicked tenants and neighbors, and nicely escorted the occasional seething homeless person away with grace and respect, I buy them meals, I contribute to my church’s homeless ministry in order to help those in my community to better their situation and provide a place to shower and pick up good shoes, I’ve served meals for the homeless, I’ve taken 2 homeless teens into my home long term and helped educate them, I adopted a child that was eating out of trash cans and living in a car, etc, etc, etc.
Guess what?- I still don’t like the property destruction of the homeless. It still angers me – I still don’t understand the mentality and the disrespect for people who chose to live differently and even own property – we aren’t the enemy – there’s nothing to be jealous of or to hate us for wanting to protect that for which we’ve worked tirelessly. Why should our property be considered theirs although they do nothing positive for it and nothing to pay for it? You don’t know our history or circumstances, just like we don’t know those of the “homeless”.
One other thing – what does your political hatred of the President and your perception of an event that happened in South Carolina have ANYTHING to do with homelessness in West Anaheim? I realize it’s your blog and your opinion, but consider your news sources and their agenda – follow their money. California has been Democrat run for decades and the homeless situation is worse than ever – obviously, their solutions don’t work. Perhaps you should try something different. How many homeless housing locations are there in Santa Monica, West Hollywood, San Mateo or other rich democrat run areas?
Feed a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for life.