-
-
related tags:
tagged w/ Skid Row
-
The Crime of Being Homeless In “Tinseltown” or Any Town USA
Los Angeles’ Skid Row is an area of downtown that has one of the largest stable populations of homeless people in the United States.
“Come and take a look at Skid Row and you can compare it to the third world countries”, Michael, an activist, says.Los Angeles’ Skid Row is an area of downtown that has one of the largest stable... more -
Did Jon Bon Jovi help give Skid Row a 'Bad Name'?
The former bassist from the original irish band says Jon Bon Jovi stole their name-
- WizardOfOsrin
- added this
- 4 months ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Gary Moore dies in Spain
The renowned rock guitarist Gary Moore has died in a hotel room in Spain.
Mr Moore, 58, was originally from Belfast and was a former member of the legendary Irish group Thin Lizzy.
Adam Parsons, who manages Thin Lizzy, told the BBC that Mr Moore had died in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Mr Moore was originally drafted into Thin Lizzy by its singer Phil Lynott. He later gained acclaim for his solo work and was a former member of the Irish group Skid Row.
The Northern Ireland guitarist was only 16 when he moved from Belfast to Dublin in 1969, to join Skid Row, which featured Lynott as lead vocalist.
He was later brought into Thin Lizzy by Lynott to replace the departing Eric Bell, another guitarist from Northern Ireland.
Mr Bell told the BBC on Sunday he was still "in shock" at Mr Moore's death.
"I still can't believe it," he said.
"He was so robust, he wasn't a rock casualty, he was a healthy guy.
Parisienne Walkways
"He was a superb player and a dedicated musician."
Scott Gorham of Thin Lizzy said it been a pleasure to share a stage with Mr Moore.
"Playing with Gary during the Black Rose era was a great experience, he was a great player and a great guy," he said.
"I will miss him."
Niall Stokes, the editor of the Irish music magazine, Hot Press, described Mr Moore as a "genius".
The lead guitarist received critical acclaim for his work on the 1974 Thin Lizzy album, Nightlife, but would never be constrained by the music group format.
A year earlier, he had released his first solo album Grinding Stone and his virtuoso playing was to make him a recognised artist in his own right.
Although returning to Thin Lizzy briefly in the late 1970s, his solo work cotinued to garner interest and he also enjoyed UK chart success with Lynott, via singles Parisienne Walkways and Out In The Fields.
Throughout his career, Gary Moore was to embrace a range of genres including blues, metal and hard rock.
He performed on stage with a range of major artists and released 20 studio albums.The renowned rock guitarist Gary Moore has died in a hotel room in Spain. Mr Moore,... more-
- eternal_springs
- added this
- 1 year ago
- |
- 14 comments
-
-
Los Angeles Confronts Its Homelessness Reputation
he New York Times
December 12, 2010
Los Angeles Confronts Homelessness Reputation
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
LOS ANGELES — It was just past dusk in the upscale enclave of Brentwood as a homeless man, wrapped in a tattered gray blanket, stepped into a doorway to escape a light rain, watching the flow of people on their way to the high-end restaurants that lined the street.
Across town in Hollywood the next morning, homeless people were wandering up and down Sunset Boulevard, pushing shopping carts and slumped at bus stops. More homeless men and women could be found shuffling along the boardwalks of Venice and Santa Monica, while a few others were spotted near the heart of Beverly Hills, the very symbol of Los Angeles wealth.
And, as always, San Julian Street, the infamous center of Skid Row on the south edge of downtown Los Angeles, was teeming: a small city of people were making the street their home in a warm December sun, waiting for one of the many missions there to serve a meal.
At a time when cities across the country have made significant progress over the past decade in reducing the number of homeless, in no small part by building permanent housing, the problem seems intractable in the County of Los Angeles.
It has become a subject of acute embarrassment to some civic leaders, upset over the county’s faltering efforts, the glaring contrast of street poverty and mansion wealth, and any perception of a hardhearted Los Angeles unmoved by a problem that has motivated action in so many other cities.
For national organizations trying to eradicate homelessness, Los Angeles — with its 48,000 people living on the streets, including 6,000 veterans, according to one count — stands as a stubborn anomaly, an outlier at a time when there has been progress, albeit modest and at times fitful, in so many cities.
Its designation as the homeless capital of America, a title that people here dislike but do not contest, seems increasingly indisputable.
“If we want to end homelessness in this country, we have to do something about L.A.; it is the biggest nut,” said Nan Roman, the president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. “It has more homeless people than anyplace else.”
Neil J. Donovan, the executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said he believed that, after years of decline, there had been a slight rise in the number of homeless nationally this year because of the economic downturn, and that Los Angeles had led the way.
“Los Angeles’s homeless problem is growing faster than the overall national problem,” he said, “trending upwards in every demographic, dashing every hope of progress anywhere.”
In a reflection of the growing concern here, a task force created by the Chamber of Commerce and the United Way of Greater Los Angeles has stepped in with a plan, called Home for Good, to end homelessness here in five years. The idea is to, among other things, build housing for 12,000 of the chronically unemployed and provide food, maintenance and other services at a cost of $235 million a year.
The proposal, based on the task force’s study of what other cities had done, was embraced by political and civic leaders even as it served as a reminder of how many of these plans have failed over the years.
“This is not rocket science,” said Zev Yaroslavsky of the County Board of Supervisors. “It’s been done in New York, it’s been done in Atlanta, and it’s been done in San Francisco.”
Part of the impetus for this most recent flurry of attention is concern in the business and political communities that the epidemic is threatening to tarnish Los Angeles’s national image and undercut a campaign to promote tourism, particularly in downtown, which has been in the midst of a transformation of sorts, with a boom of museums, concert halls, restaurants, boutiques, parks and lofts.
The gentrification has pushed many of the homeless people south, but they can still be seen settled on benches and patches of grass in the center of downtown.
“If you have a homeless problem, then your sense of security is diminished, and that makes people not want to come,” said Jerry Neuman, a co-chairman of the task force. “It’s a problem that diminishes us in many ways: the way we view ourselves and the way other people view us.”
Fittingly enough, it was even the subject of a movie last year, “The Soloist,” which portrayed the relationship between a Los Angeles Times columnist, Steve Lopez, who has written extensively about the homeless, and a musician living on the streets.
The obstacles seem particularly great in this part of the country. The warm climate has always been a draw for homeless people. And the fact that people sleeping outside rarely die of exposure means there is less pressure on civic leaders to act. (In New York City, when a homeless woman known only as “Mama” was found dead at Grand Central Terminal on a frigid Christmas in 1985, it was front-page news that inspired a campaign to deal with the epidemic.)
The governmental structure here, of a county that includes 88 cities and a maze of conflicting jurisdictions, responsibilities and boundaries, has defused responsibility and made it nearly impossible for any one organization or person to take charge.
And Los Angeles is a place where people drive almost everywhere, so there are fewer of the reminders of homelessness — walking around a sleeping person on a sidewalk, responding to requests for money at the corner — that are common in concentrated cities like New York.
“It’s easy to get up in the morning, go to work, drive home and never encounter someone who is homeless,” said Wendy Greuel, the Los Angeles city controller. “I don’t think it’s seeped into the public’s consciousness that homelessness is a problem.”
The homelessness task force offered its plan at a conference that attracted some of the top elected officials here, including Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa and three of the five members of the Board of Supervisors, a notable show of political support.
“We believe that with the release of this plan, we now have a blueprint to end chronic homelessness and veteran homelessness,” said Christine Marge, director of housing for the United Way of Greater Los Angeles.
Yet in a time of severe budget retrenchment, the five-year goal seems daunting. Even though the drafters of the plan say that no new money will be needed to finance it — Los Angeles is already spending more than $235 million a year on hospital, overnight housing and police costs dealing with the homeless — government financing of all social services has come under assault.
“I don’t for a minute think it’s not going to require a tremendous amount of political will to make it happen,” said Richard Bloom, the mayor of Santa Monica. “Do I think it can happen? Yes, because I’ve seen what happens in other cities, like New York City, Denver and Boston.”
Still, Mr. Bloom, who said he regularly attended conferences involving officials from other communities, added: “Our numbers are way out of whack with those numbers I hear elsewhere. It’s just so much more enormous and daunting here.”
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/12/13/us/13HOMELESS1/13HOMELESS1-articleLarge.jpghe New York Times December 12, 2010 Los Angeles Confronts Homelessness Reputation... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 1 year ago
- |
- 1 comment
-
-
Sebastian Bach is a Biter!
It seems that former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach is quite the biter. Now some women might like that.
http://www.ineedmyfix.com/2010/11/15/sebastian-bach-is-a-biter/It seems that former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach is quite the biter. Now some women... more-
- Kelly_Taylor
- added this
- 1 year ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Novel Program Rescues Skid Row's Most Vulnerable | Project 50 Targets People Most Likely to Die | Los Angeles, California
Jul 25, 2010 12:12 pm US/Pacific
Novel Program Rescues Skid Row's Most Vulnerable
LOS ANGELES (AP) ―
.
After living two decades on the streets of Skid Row, Sheila Nichols was dying.
Her body had withered to 61 pounds, ravaged by a heavy-duty crack cocaine addiction, hepatitis, HIV, and late-stage syphilis, when late one night a stranger offered her a sandwich and, just maybe, survival.
Two years later, the 55-year-old former computer analyst proudly shows off her tiny apartment, and wears bright red lipstick on her smile. "I'm not that person any more," said Nichols, now drug-free and weighing a more respectable 108. "I have the desire to live, I have hope."
Nichols was rescued by a program targeting the 50 people most likely to die if they remained homeless.
Dubbed Project 50, it marked a dramatic shift in homeless policy. Instead of funding temporary-fix shelters and apartments that typically house Skid Row's highest-functioning residents, it focused housing, medical care and social services on the most down and out.
The concept initially raised eyebrows because the chronically homeless, who have spent at least a decade on the street suffering from severe mental illness, addiction and physical ailments, are generally considered hopeless. They either refuse to budge or if they agree, are unable to adjust to living within four walls.
After two years, 68 people have gone through Project 50 with 84 percent still housed through the program or alternatives like a nursing home or rediscovered family. Of the remaining 16 percent, six died of causes such as cancer and kidney failure and four went to jail. Six people walked out of the program, but four found their own housing. Two remain unaccounted for, possibly back on the street.
Getting nearly all participants off the streets has ignited hope that a solution is at hand for the roughly 20 percent of the homeless population considered chronic street dwellers.
"We have disproven the myth that chronically homeless persons can't live in a housing unit," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who championed the project and a $3 million one-time grant from the county to fund it.
The program will continue, financed by various county departments and federal subsidies. Costs are expected to decrease now that the system is in place, enabling the program to be expanded to 74 people, Yaroslavsky said.
The success of a pilot program in the nation's capital of homelessness -- about 50,000 people live on L.A. streets -- has caught attention from Denver to Detroit. Neighboring cities are copying the model and the Department of Veterans Affairs is starting a similar project for chronically homeless vets in L.A.
Although it was expensive, Yaroslavsky and other proponents maintain it will pay for itself in the long run because it keeps the chronically homeless away from even more costly jails and hospitals. Participants also pay a small rent out of their social security income. A cost-benefit analysis is slated to be done later in the year.
"It costs more to do nothing," said Mike Alvidrez, executive director of the non profit Skid Row Housing Trust, which operates 1,000 apartments for the homeless including the Project 50 units in a new building.
In the year before entering the program, the Project 50 participants cost taxpayers a total of $756,000, according to a study by homeless advocacy group Common Ground, which developed the survey that identifies the people most in danger of dying on the street.
A portion of the program's cost is the intensive treatment the chronically homeless require. Each participant is assigned a case manager, who shepherds them through psychiatric, medical, social and life skills services. Most services are located at the Skid Row building where they live.
Some have taken issue with Project 50 because it does not require participants to enter rehab and participants are housed in the same neighborhood where drugs are readily available.
"I think it's a mistake to concentrate this in Skid Row and not mandate an end to the behavior," said Orlando Ward, public affairs director at the nearby Midnight Mission. "Are people really getting better? I'm taking a wait-and-see attitude."
By offering housing, program advocates hope to lure those who would never participate and then get them to enter addiction treatment. "That's why we always say 'housing first,"' Alvidrez said.
Nichols said she never wanted to get off crack until she got an apartment despite numerous stints in jail and court-ordered rehab. "Living like a human again" gave her the impetus to finally kick drugs, she said.
A native of Louisiana, Nichols was transferred to Los Angeles in the mid 80s for her job as computer analyst. Her downfall came when she met her husband, who introduced her to drugs, she said.
Once she started smoking crack, she couldn't stop, even when she lost her job, new car, house and spouse. She ended up on Skid Row, selling cocaine and prostituting to support her habit.
After 19 years on the street, it wasn't easy to get her into housing. When an outreach worker approached her at 3 a.m. with a questionnaire and later an offer of an apartment and medical care, Nichols' reaction was typical -- she didn't believe it.
She hid when she saw workers returning, figuring they were trying to trap her.
During still another jail stint for drugs. Nichols signed up for the program, mainly for a promised gift card but also because she knew she was at the end of the line.
She couldn't swallow because of thrush through her mouth and throat. She suffered from chronic, severe diarrhea, had no muscle left that would take an injection and was nearly bald. Her body was caked with thick grime. All she wanted was another hit of crack.
Medical treatment, Social Security disability benefits, and an apartment helped build back her life. Still, it was hard to get used to living indoors. "I was claustrophobic for a long, long time," she said. "I would still go on the streets. Now I spend most of my time in my apartment."
She also attends prayer and Bible study groups and goes to Narcotics Anonymous meetings. Whenever she feels an urge to go back to her old habits, she looks at the raft of medicine bottles on her dresser and knows she has choices.
"I was at death's door, but they saved my life and gave me my home back," she said. "I'm pretty elated about it."
.Jul 25, 2010 12:12 pm US/Pacific Novel Program Rescues Skid Row's Most... more-
- EthicalVegan
- added this
- 1 year ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Skid Row: Where Did All the People Go?
My blog is a day late because yesterday we moved our offices from Hollywood to a production facility across the 110 Freeway from downtown Los Angeles. Conveniently, at lunchtime, when Tania Rashid and I were looking to shoot some test footage, we drove over to Skid Row, now less than half a mile away. If you saw that 2005 piece that Max and Jason did with Tracey Chang and me, you’d know that LA’s Skid Row traditionally has been the largest in the US, a teeming, tumultuous locale.
When Tania and went down there a couple of hours ago, we were expecting that it would be even more packed, given that California is the one of the states hardest hit by America’s economic hard times, and here in southern California we’ve been hit particularly hard. But when we got there, the place looked much less populated than in years past. Maybe everyone was at a matinee of New Moon---mid-day last Friday, Grace Baek and I pulled into a small town up in the series for a shoot and saw a huge line outside the local movie theater, not something that you usually see in that environment. But more likely, they were somewhere else. The question is where? Since we were just shooting a test, we didn’t do a follow up investigation.
But there’s a question. Homelessness seems like something that increases with hard times. But searching on-line just now, I found an editorial from today’s Los Angeles Times that says that the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority reports that homelessness in LA County is down 38% from 2007—when economic hard times began.
So here seems to be another example of why sometimes journalists are needed to investigate: There doesn’t seem to be a readily obvious explanation.
Recently on the Vanguard Blog:
- There goes the neighborhood - Mitch Koss
- Eating on the run with Vanguard - Joanne Shen
- What Came Through the Wall - Mitch Koss
- Does porn have the answer? - Christof Putzel
- What world have we entered? - Mitch Koss
- Hey Electronic Arts, when you going to do a pirate video game? - Kaj LarsenMy blog is a day late because yesterday we moved our offices from Hollywood to a... more-
- MitchKoss
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Homeless in Los Angeles (Synopsis)
“To create awareness about individuals trapped in poverty, homelessness, and/or forgotten to society for the purpose of creating a new standard of well-being for all mankind based on Utilitarian ideologies.”
When a 26-year-old Filmmaker graduates college with a Bachelor degree and enters the most difficult industry on the planet, he soon realizes that accomplishing his purpose in life is not as easy as he had thought. A recession, an over saturated market and a cold, hard world have forced this young Producer to be homeless in the streets of Los Angeles. He must survive, day by day and pursue his dream of helping the world with his gift of story telling. He realizes that God has put him in this predicament to completely understand what it is like to have nothing and struggle to survive in a place surrounded by individuals who have lost it all. Compassion, Business and an over-all understanding of how to cause awareness as a filmmaker are his only weapons and he relentlessly pursues his dream of leading the people to an Independent Revolution. His tale is the sad story of what happens when a boy has to run away at the age of thirteen from an abusive family and figure his own way out, on how to complete his mission and help the world to love one another and have compassion for those who are less fortunate... ”My story is a true story and I will never become content with survivability. The world must be as one, this is my mission and I will be successful and accomplish my purpose or I will die on the streets of L.A. I hope my sacrifice, is not in vain...”
- Brandon Miller, Producer“To create awareness about individuals trapped in poverty, homelessness, and/or... more-
- brandonmiller
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Robert
When Robert and his wife moved away from Las Vegas in search of a better life, they never thought they'd end up homeless in LA's notorious Skid Row district. But that's exactly where they are today.
Rather than stay in shelters or an SRO (single room occupancy hotel), Robert and his wife choose to stay outside on the streets. Shelters, he said, separate men and women, and SRO’s are downright nasty (he's right; I know from experience!). Furthermore, the hotels that accept welfare vouchers tend to attract crime, drugs, sex offenders, parolees, and gangs.
The day we met it was his wife’s birthday, but they weren't celebrating. They were spending the day waiting in line for services at a homeless drop in center.
I don’t have words for to describe Skid Row. Los Angeles' police chief called Skid Row the worst social disaster in America. To me, the most accurate depiction of Skid Row can be found on the links below. Please take a moment to watch the first and fifth video. They’re short, but very powerful.
Can this really be America?
http://www.goodmagazine.com/section/Features/on_skid_row_introduction
// more stories http://invisiblepeople.tv // follow http://twitter.com/hardlynormalWhen Robert and his wife moved away from Las Vegas in search of a better life, they... more-
- hardlynormal
- added this
- 2 years ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
The Homeless Count
How do you count homeless people?
Why would you count homeless people?
7 years old is the average age of someone homeless in LA.
This new startling statistic is a sign of a changing homeless population.
Children are the fastest growing homeless demographic, along with their mothers, who have to sleep in their car or on the streets. The changing economy is presenting changing data.
Every two years the government obtains updated data on a city's homeless population. It is with this data that policy makers allocate appropriate funds to the streets, shelters, and blocks that desperately need it the most.
But where does this data come from? It isn't gathered by government workers, but by common volunteers with efficient execution and organization.
This group took on counting the homeless of Los Angeles as their mission, and the streets of Skid Row became their urban field.
Daniel Polk reports on why everybody counts.How do you count homeless people? Why would you count homeless people? 7 years old... more-
- danpolk
- added this
- 3 years ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
LAPD and ACLU reach settlement on skid row searches
The following excerpt from the article baffles my mind:
"The current LAPD captain for Central Division, Jodi Wakefield, said that she disagreed with the judge's assessment of her officers' conduct.
"We agree to disagree," she said. "But there's nothing wrong with us going back and making sure that our officers clearly understand the Constitution, and all the laws they have to abide by. I feel confident they do.""
Is she implying that the officers are currently rusty on their one and only job? Why else would they need to go back and make sure that the LAPD "currently understands the Constitution, and all the laws they have to abide by." I could be completely wrong, but her statements make her sound incompetent.
On a positive note, I think the ACLU is invaluable to our society. Who else sues on behalf of homeless people? It's not the Churches... They are too busy offering the "real" help of prayer and ever bigger churches.The following excerpt from the article baffles my mind: "The current LAPD... more-
- tbowman131
- added this
- 3 years ago
- |
- 0 comments
-
-
Getting real with a community organizer
In Downtown Los Angeles's Skid Row, General Jeff proves that community activists can make a powerful difference.
On a corner deep in the heart of Skid Row during a hot, sunny afternoon, there are a couple dozen people milling around the entrance to the Midnight Mission, one of the homeless shelters and recovery facilities in the neighborhood. One man is selling cigarettes. Another man, in a dingy white Panama hat and white loafers sits in a lawn chair, listening to his boom box. Just down the street sits the Central Division Police Station. It looks like a fortress.
Beyond law enforcement, this is not a neighborhood that gets a lot of attention. The man I am meeting, who asked to be identified as General Jeff, is a community organizer, a job that was recently vilified and mocked by Gov. Sarah Palin and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani [recently] at the Republican National Convention. Jeff is a c.o. for what is perhaps the least organized community in the country. And it's quite large. According to the 2000 Census, there are approximately 17,000 residents in Central City East. (For the record, that is approximately three times as big as Wasilla when Palin was elected). There are 3.7 million people in the City of Los Angeles -- and only one mayor.
On this afternoon, Jeff is late. He has been passing out fliers for the new DASH (Downtown Area Short Hop) route starting in Central City East (Skid Row's official name). It's Jeff's responsibility to "give out all this information to [his] constituents". He talks about their short attention spans, how some of them can't read, how he would go through the flier "line by line" if someone needs it.
Palin and Giuliani's mockery indicated that they didn't think a community organizer had any real worth or power: the race for the presidency is a race for the most constituents, and maybe the Republicans don't believe community organizers have any. Or perhaps the Republicans and Palin think community organizers don't do anything. According to Palin, being "a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities."
Well, it certainly looks like Jeff has responsibilities, but what exactly is a community organizer, who are his constituents and what does he do for them?
General Jeff is the first to admit that it's hard to stick a definition on the title of "Community Organizer." He thinks that's why it's so easy to laugh at the idea — "even if you could stick a definition on it, that would be limiting," he says.
"There isn't enough paper in the world to list everything I do."
In the past year, General Jeff has taken part in starting a basketball league, a street-cleaning program, and a program to put murals on some of the grey, depressing walls that line Skid Row's streets. This doesn't include any number of other, quotidian measures he has accomplished -- like handing out the DASH public information fliers)to better the lives of Skid Row's residents.
To him, a community organizer is someone who is "active in the community, doing good things, fighting the good fight, if you will."
That's fairly vague, but he's also at City Hall everyday. Every week, he reviews the Council's agenda, highlighting any item dealing with Skid Row. He attends those hearings, filling out a speaker's card and testifying on behalf of residents. Jeff says that there are three shifts on Skid Row: the day shift, the night shift, and the graveyard shift, and he hits the streets during all three, checking in with the residents and passing along information.
That morning, he had also met with a representative from one of the developers who is converting lofts along Main Street to discuss some of the issues related to the new development. "I go heavy on the emails," he laughs. *CONTINUES In Downtown Los Angeles's Skid Row, General Jeff proves that community activists... more-
- goldenways
- added this
- 3 years ago
- |
- 5 comments
-
-
Los Angeles VA Hospital dumping Veterans in Skid Row
This is just sad-
- curleysound
- added this
- 4 years ago
- |
- 2 comments
-
