WTF Just Happened To California?!

"this new bill however aims to lump all the theft together so if you're caught stealing $500 worth of goods on day one and then another $500 on day 89 even if it's in another County all of a sudden that's over the $950 limit and subject to Grand security camera security this also makes it a crime to possess stolen property over $950 which creates a crime that didn't exist before and it also allows peace officers to make a warrantless arrest if they suspect somebody is shoplifting"

"85 to 90% of the police calls for service deal with the homeless in some fashion most of these crimes are committed by mentally ill or drugged up homeless people rather than some group of organized criminals"

"California has so far invested more than $1 billion in encampment resolution grants to clean up homeless encampments and address the underlying issues and keep in mind this is already after they've spent 24 billion to clean up the streets and House people and for anyone who wants to do the math on that by the way with 181,000 unhoused people in California that equates to an average of $138,000 spent per person"

"the state of California has required us to build almost 9,000 units over 6,100 that have to be affordable so that's a different issue we have to build we don't have expansive uh areas of vacant land so we're literally going to take probably bergamont artstate we're going to take empty parking lots on Main Street in Santa Monica anything we can to try and satisfy the state because their law is we have to provide the units if we don't provide them starting in 2029 we can get find about $10,000 a day by the state or they can completely negate our zoning laws and just start zoning themselves"

"I need to have a safe City I need to have appropriate amount of public safety personnel I need to have an appropriate amount of social workers on our streets I need uh Department of Mental Health LA County psychiatrist in our city who can take care of people who are having a drug induced episode uh I need to make sure that the County of LA no longer distributes uh glass pipes or syringes in three of our Parks weekly I need to make sure that people who do something wrong are arrested"

"a lot of people are afraid to ever rent their properties because they're so terrified of getting a tenant in there and not being able to get them out or not being able to raise rents to even match their cost if they could even just submit receipts and saying this is how much my expenses have gone up I want to match this they're not able to and so for that reason a lot of them are choosing not to rent their property and instead sell it or just keep it empty"

"it was declared an opportunity Zone which gave Builders a financial incentive to build more units that meant the property investment was rewarded more units are ultimately built"

"ultimately we've determined that it's better to protect someone's right to refuse service and live on the streets than get them the help they might not be mentally capable of accepting on their own and that means the problem is very likely to persist regardless of how much money you spend for instance I've witnessed people out there who I think are functionally incapable of ever assimilating back into society without severe intervention"

"this is a national issue that can't be the sole responsibility of whatever City they just happen to end up in perhaps there could be greater social safety nets job training centers Rehabilitation Facilities mental health hospitals or better conditions for those who need a bed to sleep in"

"encampment resolutions take people from the street and put them into interim housing typically at a dilapidated hotel with no case management or Services these hotels become very dangerous and unhealthy very fast most people wind up on the street again within a year a small portion of those individuals get connected to proper services and permanent housing"

"spending $1 million a unit is probably not the best use of taxpayer money I just think until there's an independent third party overseeing exactly where the money is spent I can't imagine it changing anytime soon"

"the issues with in Santa Monica are really just like the symptom of a much greater issue which is the fact that policies within California affect every city within it and there's only so much they could do on their own without California making some rather substantial changes"