Homelessness in Chula Vista

 This is the agenda item from the Chula Vista City Council Meeting on 6 October 2023.

Calling the event a workshop seemed to put a kind of benevolence on the proceeding. That was wiped away by much of the city's staffers when it became clear that part of the motivation to hold the event was for the city to demonstrate all of the efforts that it has put into doing something, anything about the problem.  Clearly to me, it was a tour de force of a municipality doing all that it imagined that it could to assuage those who have roofs over their heads to of the cognitive dissonance that homelessness generates short of telling the ugly truth that it's constituents lack a combination of the character or motivation to build sufficient quantities of housing for all of their neighbors.

Due to much of the latter, there was some low-key, very soft reduction of homeless people to abstractions by conflating those who are homeless due to economic impacts with those who abuse mind-altering chemicals and mental illness. There was scant mention of the scant housing alternatives that the city can offer those who are without.

It is the last point that matters most. Chula Vista, like all of California, needs hundreds - perhaps a few thousand - units for neighbors without shelter. That would be the solution - a lot of public housing. Chula Vista won't discuss it because that is not in the budget. Resurfacing streets wasn't in the city budget until the federal government handed out grants to repave streets after the start of the pandemic. Bigger, more expensive issues would cost much more.

issues about a horse race

This is a passage from a post about the 2024 POTUS race that I responded to:

“Only FIVE states will determine if 2024 will be stolen and during his CNN Town Hall, Trump revealed his plans. 

Wisconsin is the most important swing state in the country and will be the key to keeping the White House and Senate blue in 2024. 

In the last three years, Republicans have sought to remove state officials who wouldn’t manufacture votes and falsely declare Donald Trump the winner. 

Trump not only repeated his election lies, but he laid the groundwork to continue to erode our systems.

Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, will determine who will make election decisions in states where the White House is won or lost.” 

My Comment:

[This point] is close enough to my home to give some validity to my assertion that I cross to Tijuana for travel to fly through, my dentist, our dogs' vet, shop and see in-laws. I see...

🔹 3 states that are ignorant and indifferent to the lives of people who cross the border

🔹 a state pretending that it isn't becoming more Latino that thinks it is the same as the previous 3

🔹 a state on the border which is coming to terms with its demographic diversity and the complexities of having a foreign nation on its southern border.

Rooftop solar is scant in California. There is even less in desert cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix for some reason. 😒

Speaking of Nevada and Arizona, I'm sure that they [would] stick a knife into California for Colorado River water if they got a chance.

I left out the other part of my usual border rant about how dumb, cruel and short sited the U.S. policy is towards refugees and migrants who are queueing up to cross the border from Mexico as I compose this piece and how that is a bi-partisan failure.

The original comment hasn't received a 👍 from anyone in the original post. That might have to do with it being the public (business) page of a comedian on Facebook. That might also have to do with addressing some issues about the horse race instead of the horse race itself.

Revenge of The Studio Flacks

 I'm with Maron.

I remember watching an Academy Awards broadcast within the last 10 years to see the names and faces of men and women in the In Memoriam segment who were identified as executives and publicists. As the Sun Does Rise In The East, it's possible that these people had long, amiable professional relationships in the motion picture industry. But I never heard of them and knew that they didn't have a lot to do with what I would see on a screen - just that they had something to do with leading me to watch that work on a screen. If the AMPAS thought that they were important enough to remember, I figured that they could know their industry better than I do. That doesn't shut down how cynical I am.

I watch national morning news shows and late-night talk shows and am always annoyed by how much content they broadcast that is put together by motion picture public relations flacks as opposed to producing original content. CBS Mornings reminded me how I'm more annoyed by Tom Brady than I like Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Sally Field or Rita Moreno today, again. Maybe AMPAS might remember their special relationship with 3 of those 4 acclaimed actors. IMO, movie flacks have a reverse Midas touch with me.