Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass wants to spend a record $1.3 billion on converting hotels and motels into housing for the city’s sprawling homeless population. Mayor Bass also wants to hire 1,000 police officers. To get this done, she has to convince a city council that’s far to the left of her.
She was elected in November and prioritized solving the city’s homeless population problem during her campaign. She plans to house them. It’s a laudable goal, but it seems impossible and unworkable.
Shortly after her election, she set up a program called Inside Safe, which saw about 1,000 homeless people [out of 40,000] being housed in hotels and motels around the city.
Bass’ new proposal would see the city buying hotels outright to convert them into homeless shelters and treatment centers for substance abuse problems.
Her ideas for straightening out LA don’t stop there.
REFUNDING THE POLICE
After Los Angeles officials defunded the police for years, Bass wants to hire 1,000 new police officers. Former Mayor Eric Garcetti followed the wishes of Black Lives Matter and defunded the police, cutting the force by 1,000.
She will recommend that the LAPD recruit new officers from historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) — a move to increase diversity on the force and overcome resistance from the political far-left.
She will meet great resistance from the further left city council. At least two of them want the police defunded or abolished.
We wish her luck.
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M. Dowling,
I applaud your balanced report regarding Mayor Karen Bass.
In this day and age of greater and greater rifts in our society the tendency is to rip others apart.
Nearly 500 years ago Dr. Martine Luther wrote regarding the commandment –
You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.
What does this mean?
We should fear (meaning respect) and love God that we do not tell lies about our neighbour, betray him, or give him a bad name, but defend him, speak well of him, and take his words and actions in the kindest possible way.
Luther faced dangerous enemies and he pointed out exactly what they were, but he taught that with God we must also be truthful and not misjudge either.
When people show they are treacherous we are not required to naively sacrifice ourselves to their evil, but if someone is trying to do what is right they should be encouraged in their efforts.
Buy hotels to fix the problem? I would not try it but I don’t known the turf.
In England in the late 50-early 60’s they built the “new towns” around London. Then they moved people from the east-end slums to those nice new cities. As we would expect it was only partly successful. Some just went back to their old habits and even returned to the slums. But there is some truth in the old adage, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” The key is helping the people to change their patterns of living, teaching them to be responsible for their own actions and stop thinking as victims, as well as when needed provide thing like drug rehabilitation, treatment and programs for alcoholics, etc.
Yes I was in London in 1965 and I visited a new town (I seem to remember the name Harlow). A friend was a Christian missionary in the town and knew it well.
M. Dowling: keep giving us the good stuff, keep us informed. It is good when you can share rays of hope as in this report.
The inmates, I am afraid, ARE firmly in control of the asylum,…and they are reaching out to control ‘other’ institutions…