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The Guardian brings us a disturbing story from Anaheim California:
Somewhere in the southern California city of Anaheim, less than five miles from Disneyland, three porta-potties – two pink, one gray – are locked in a city storage facility. It's not where they're supposed to be.
They were meant for a dusty homeless encampment that sprawls along the west bank of the Santa Ana river, and is home to hundreds of men, women and children in tents and other makeshift shelters.
But the toilets are sitting unused after being confiscated by the city, and the residents have nowhere to relieve themselves except in the bushes, or in buckets, or in the cramped privacy of their own tents. Activists are up in arms over the primitive conditions in which camp inhabitants are living, and which, in their view, the local government appears to have sanctioned.
"This is a public health crisis for the homeless community," said Mohammed Aly, a homeless advocate and lawyer who helped install the toilets. Not least it was a case, he said, of providing people with simple human dignity.
[...] The closest public toilet to the Anaheim camp is over a mile upriver from where many riverbed residents live. So when the porta-potties arrived in May, after being purchased and delivered by local activist groups, they were a welcome alternative to walking half an hour or more to use the bathroom, or taking the more popular route of relieving oneself in a bucket and dumping the refuse in the riverbed.
But just 72 hours after the toilets were installed, there was bad news: the council of wealthy Orange County insisted the porta-potties be removed from their land, saying their presence was unauthorized.
Aly subsequently moved them about 300 yards, out of the county's jurisdiction, and onto city land. That lasted a week, until the city, too, ordered them removed, citing local ordinances regulating the installation of porta-potties. When Aly and other activists didn't remove the toilets themselves, the city government confiscated them, and took them into storage.
[...] Aly said he's not giving up on the toilets. And if he can't work something out with the city or county governments to get them back in place, he knows what he's going to do.
"Our next step is to proceed anyways," he said. "To leave the portable restrooms on a trailer, park the trailer adjacent to the riverbed, and move it around every 72 hours."
If the city of Anaheim doesn't want the homeless to use toilets, perhaps city council members could offer their bathrooms instead.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 09 2017, @08:00AM (4 children)
The November election was the first where Anaheim did NOT have an at-large mechanism in place.
Previously, everybody in the city got to vote for the city councilman for -every- district, even though they didn't live in those districts.
This time around, the city (which has a significant Latino population and is mostly Working Class) had a by-district thing, the way a democracy is supposed to work.
The people who live in a district--and ONLY residents of the district--decided who would represent that district.
City of Anaheim Districting 2016 [anaheim.net]
Even after the switch was made, however, representation by people other than affluent Whites is slow in coming.
A voting law meant to increase minority representation has generated many more lawsuits than seats for people of color [latimes.com]
Anaheim is also home to Disneyland; anything that is not tourist-friendly has been squashed by TPTB.
A bus stop in Anaheim that I use occasionally recently had the benches removed because homeless folks were using them.
(There was still a homeless guy sleeping on a piece of cardboard.)
.
Go south a bit and you get to Sana Ana, the county seat and the most populous city in Orange County.
It also has homeless encampments along the Santa Ana River (a big concrete ditch).
That city, however is dealing with the homeless situation a bit better, e.g. converting unused buildings into shelters.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Arik on Monday October 09 2017, @09:09AM (3 children)
OK, I'll trust your word on that for now. What's the significance?
"Previously, everybody in the city got to vote for the city councilman for -every- district, even though they didn't live in those districts."
Err, do you mean that previously it was an at-large system, with no districts? It sure sounds like that's what you're saying.
"This time around, the city (which has a significant Latino population and is mostly Working Class) had a by-district thing, the way a democracy is supposed to work"
Wow, umm, no. Districting was written into our laws in the US because it was the only practical way to conduct elections in the horse and buggy days, not because it's how 'democracy is supposed to work.' There are arguments on both sides but most folks figure that at-large is better, as long as there are none of the practical impediments that were common in less technologically advanced times. We could easily do a nationwide paper ballot and a unitary vote count today for the entire nation, let alone Anaheim.
"Even after the switch was made, however, representation by people other than affluent Whites is slow in coming."
Wow, that was a pretty racist thing to drop in the middle of the comment with no warning. And I'm not even sure what you actually mean. Do you mean poor brown people didn't vote? Or are you just unhappy with who they chose to vote for?
"Anaheim is also home to Disneyland; anything that is not tourist-friendly has been squashed by TPTB."
Yeah, that's why I remember the place. Wasn't it essentially a big orchard before Disney?
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 09 2017, @10:26AM (2 children)
Add the pejorative "classist" while you're at it.
Doesn't change the truth.
not because it's how 'democracy is supposed to work.'
You've managed to completely miss the whole "the consent of the governed" thing.
a big orchard before Disney?
That's why they called it Orange County.
Juice oranges came from Florida (they have an Orange County too) and eating oranges came from Cali.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Touché) by Arik on Monday October 09 2017, @05:52PM (1 child)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 09 2017, @07:53PM
For starters, you've omitted non-affluent Whites.
My assumption is that these folks
1) relied on Lamestream Media to give them useful facts.[1]
2) took note of what filled their mailboxes[2]
3) weren't aware of townhalls/debates in time to attend[3]
[1] I think that we've established that money talks and everything else is a distant 2nd place, and that business interests dominate corporate media.
[2] If their mailboxes in Anaheim were anything like mine here, those were crammed full of stuff from the best-funded candidates/issues and that was mostly negative campaigning.
[3] ...and even if, as some cities do, Anaheim had a public access channel (which I think they don't), [wikipedia.org] that's typically via cable so cord cutters and never-had-a-cord folks couldn't view that.
...and it also takes some time to build up popular political constructs after you've always been ignored/bulldozed for a century and a half and have grown to accept that your vote doesn't really matter.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]