"They are doing jobs Americans won't do. They're only looking for a better life. They pay taxes. The immigration system is broken. This land was stolen from Mexico" (ignoring the pesky fact Mexico occupied the area for only 324 months almost two centuries ago), etc., ad boredom.
Illegal alien cheerleaders have artfully conflated opposing illegal immigration with bigotry and xenophobia. It is their "go to" tool because they cannot legitimately or factually defend its' negative societal and economic impact...INCLUDING on legal aliens.
It will continue to be an uphill battle with such seditious entities as the SB City Council and our local version of Alejandro Mayorkas: Salud Carbajal. Perhaps having them recite their Oath of Office in the public square may be a worthwhile exercise to remind them of their commitment and responsibility to the people they claim to represent.
I literally despise Carbajal. He's such a deceiving narcissist. So is Oscar Gutierrez. Just absolute despicable people. They are both rude and selfish. They're both liars and thieves. And that's as nice as I can put it 😡
Oscar Gutierrez needs to explain why he presided over a city, that during his two terms authorized increasing expenses while producing declining revenues. Since rumors claim he now thinks he is qualified to run for mayor. After winning his city council elections in a CVRA-protected special district, where he needed to earn only a few hundred votes total to win his full voting seat on council. Should be a very interesting mayor's race coming up in 2026.
I completely agree with you. If a couple of hundred votes are all that is required compared to several hundred or even a thousand plus votes for other seats, then his seat should be weighted and he should not be given an equal vote to other members of the council. This man is as corrupt and uncaring as they come. God help us all.
Remember Kathy. No qualifications, local public news character. Oscar held the camera. The Dems just put a face in office, not qualified individuals. Bec they are mere puppets.
I remember most of all, Cathy sneaking in due to a three way vote split (Thank you SB Chamber of Commerce for running one more spoiler candidate, causing two qualified conservative and independent candidates (Francisco and Hotchkiss) to lose in two different mayor's races, to the long term detriment of SB).
I also remember also SEIU/Mickey Flacks swooping into to co-opt Cathy Murillo's with a "fund-raiser" before she was even sworn in as mayor. That all took place, before she installed Gutierrez as her alter-ego on council giving him both cover and directions right there from the dais, in full public view when he admitted he did not know how to vote on any issue.
I can give Oscar credit for originally being open to learning, showing up at events, and going through the motions of listening until it becomes obvious any actual independent choices would run counter to his handlers. Then he capitulated to the destructive powers that be that are ruining this city. Thereafter he ceased any further engagement, amply demonstrating he was not an independent free agent after all.
His low point just came when he just bragged at the Democrat Labor Day picnic that "people who look like him" would not be on city council if it were not for the CVRA "protected minority" district. Slap us in the face that we are a racist city, eh Oscar?
Tell that to Gil Garcia or even Cathy Murillo and all other hispanic heritage city council members who served city wide in the past. Without needing the calculated insider boost of these statutorily protected, low-voter turn out, rotten borough districts.
It’s hard to ignore the glaring failures Congressman Salud Carbajal has stood by and even defended while our communities suffer. Year after year, California spends billions on “solutions” to homelessness, yet the only thing we see in Santa Barbara and across the state is more tents, more encampments, and more people falling through the cracks. Where has the accountability been? Certainly not from Carbajal.
Instead of demanding real results, he votes in lockstep with Sacramento’s failed priorities—putting the interests of illegal immigrants ahead of struggling American families, veterans, and working-class citizens. Santa Barbara is short thousands of housing units, yet our leaders tolerate tens of thousands being occupied by those here illegally. Meanwhile, veterans sleep on the streets and young families are priced out of the communities they grew up in.
Carbajal and his allies are quick to blame Washington, or Trump, or anyone else, while ignoring the billions wasted right here in California. They talk about compassion but deliver policy malpractice: shelters closing, funding disappearing, and definitions of “success” rewritten to hide their failures.
Enough is enough. We need representation that fights for working families, veterans, and citizens first—not politicians who throw money at the problem, then look the other way while our neighborhoods decline. Salud Carbajal has had years to show leadership, but all he has delivered is more of the same broken promises.
How about just commenting on Santa Barbara and South County. Then you can apply it to the entire State.
SB is only one of about 6-7 locations in the entire world that have the same latitude and longitude, access to a moderating ocean, protective mountains etc. When I was a kid the statement was how expensive it is to live here. (plenty of ranch land and enough water except of our 15 year drought).
Then came the do-gooders. It was a time when the "local" churches etc. took care of the needy and tried very hard to give them a hand up. The dg's became tired, and they demanded government handouts. Then came the Cacique St. shelter and the word was OUT! Come to Santa Barbara, weather is great, food to be found, and hey a shelter that was supposed to have 5 beds is now in the hundreds.
The Political Theater of the Socialist stated, look a the wealth of the private sector and we can tax, tax, tax.
We now have the Housing Authority, significant loans and money from the city, while the property that used to provide taxes are now government owned and produce nothing.
"On top of that, California would no longer be bleeding $31 billion every year on benefits, healthcare, and subsidies, for people who have no legal right to be here..."
The long range population trends stated in the 1960's are setting in. SB is losing population. SB is ageing with less earned income. SB is facing a growing deficit because of really terrible street and traffic planning that has failed over a minimum of 40 years (documented).
I could go on.
Now LOOK at what the State of Calif. is facing! A $20 some Billion deficit. A welfare system that is crashing and adding to the deficit. A fleeing population, and aging population. A freeway system that is not maintained because Sacramento does not want you to have mobility. (gov. buses and trains)
There is the short of it. (looking up not so short)
You laid it out very well, Brian. When will clear thinking Californians see what is going on with their state and local government. Has the brainwashing of the California teachers association, local and national media really turned people into non-thinking robots? I’m very afraid that we will not be able to overcome The lazy fools that have let their entire thought process fall into the hands of these evil doers. God help us all.
Brian, as you illustrated once the border was opened housing became a bottomless pit in California. Yesterday the Democrats used Labor Day not to celebrate labor but to push for the passage of Prop 50 to use politics to increase the number of members of their party in the U.S. House of Representatives in order to, what else, STOP TRUMP.
Agreed. The Labor Reports during the Biden years showed manufacturing employment declining. Government employment continuing to increase was amazing since during COVID it did not decrease. My question of where did they work was answered by only 5% of federal employees in D.C. reporting to work.
Very sobering summary Brian of our state and local Democratic scam perpetrated on us, the tax paying public. Using the homeless and illegal immigrants as convenient pawns, while using lefty NGO’s to dole out the money, completes the scam. What’s next, controlling elections by way of re-districting? Oh wait, that’s exactly what is happening with the Dems latest scam, Prop 50! Clearly, Newsom’s campaign for Prop 50 should be a 3 alarm fire, all hands on deck proposition for anyone concerned about the current disastrous trajectory of our city and state.
The latest bad news for the City? Sales tax revenues are down, despite having raised the rates by way of Measure I. So where is the money supposed to come from to pay for housing for illegals AND the homeless? That’s right folks, you and me!
In the meantime, liberal Democrats continue the death spiral, void of any economic reality and continue the virtue signaling, attacking “Orange Man” and his followers.
Welcome to “Little Jalisco” folks, formerly known as Santa Barbara. Remember that next time driving down Hope Ave. and seeing the usual band of gray hairs protesting, jumping up and down about “protecting democracy!”
Great article, Brian. A Raytheon Corporate guy once said, "After we are finished with the engineers, we should sweep them up and put them in a closet." The Dems have a very temporary need for the homeless and illegals for votes. But after they've voted, I'm certain the Dems wish the homeless and illegals would simply disappear into the wilderness somewhere, so they are not a nuisance. Engineers are a nuisance because management sees them as a potential complainer or whistleblower, aka pain-in-the-ass.
The "Homeless Enabling Industry" is incentivized and career building only if more and more homeless show up. There is zero incentive or career motivation to solve the vagrant, er I mean 'homeless', problem. Hence we have developed a cynical, counterproductive and highly profitable 'Homeless Enabling Industry' here.
All government jobs need sunset clauses and evidentiary cost/ benefit audits built into them, before the first paycheck is handed out. But one asks, who would take a job if it was not a blank check that guaranteed lifetime employment and benefits?
Indeed, who would. Just raid the treasury and hire the relatives is no longer good enough for government work. These are tax dollars getting spent. Let no elected official ever forget this. Let no employee ever forget this.
Tax dollars are an unstable form of revenue, and have no business supporting guaranteed streams of lifetime benefits to growing numbers of our population. Particularly, when the business of government becomes very anti-business. (Eg California)
Hard to imagine that anyone can argue against these points, only someone so blinded by TDS that they only look to blame the symbol, with the endless repetition of the ritual of the Two Minutes of Hate against the Goldstein of our age.
Excellent column, Brian. Thank you. Additionally in just four years, Biden's open back door to the US led to 20 million new uninvited residents.
America instantly was asked to create the equivalent of twenty brand new cities from scratch, that could accommodate one million new residents each. With the assumption these uninvited Biden 20 million new residents would not quickly add 5-6 children per couple. Which they did. Where were Biden's plans to built 10 brand new Austin, Texas size cities overnight? There were none.
That is a lot of residential planning and development for one single administration to inflict on this country. Using only backdoor policy making. Leading to these now draconian development demands made on an unwitting and increasingly unwilling legal population. How could it be any other way?
California taxpayers are now required to hand over their OPM Gilt card (endless new taxes), while Democrats pull out their signature Guilt and Race cards should taxpayers resist. Unrelenting drama queen and hysteria "crisis" demands are now the Democrats stock in trade. Yet they created the crises. And they alone serve to benefit from them.
Follow the money to the emerging third pillar of the Democrat command and control: the government contract construction industries. Now coalescing with the previous Democrat command and control taxpayer-funded SEIU and teachers unions. Voting to allow these three taxpayer-funded interests to gain increasing decision-making power over the rest of us, watch out. The worst is still yet to come.
With all due respect to Brian, the problem is we don't do step 2 (criminalize homlessness and encampments). If you think we do, just go to skid's row in LA. Building housing is not going to solve the homeless problem since many of them are there because of mental illness and drugs/alcohol. What we need to do is enforce the laws and prohibit people from sleeping outside in our urban and residential areas. In states that really do criminalize it, like Florida, there is hardly any homeless on their streets.
I have not been in Fort Lauderdale for a few years, but last visit found their expansively redesigned waterfront park with new restaurants virtually empty except for the the couple dozen vagrants who not only set up shop there amid all the new facilities, but were also plugging their cell phones into the city's electrical supply lamp posts in the events pergola which was being used as their shelter from the storm.
Hopefully, this report is now badly dated and the Gov Desantis administration in fact has been effective regarding downtown vagrancy. But seeing this waterfront redevelopment effort in Fort Lauderdale, proved city "improvements" can be wasted money unless they also improve and enforce their public conduct guidelines as well.
Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law House Bill 1365 in March 2024, which prohibits homeless individuals from sleeping or camping on public property, including streets, sidewalks, and parks, effective October 1, 2024. The law requires cities to move homeless people into shelters or designated government-run encampments, offering resources like mental health services and workforce services but also allowing for penalties if individuals decline these options.
Update on the FLL Riverwalk Rark, completion expected end of 2025, to be both "usable and safe":
..."What began in 1990 as a central green space in Fort Lauderdale is now undergoing its most ambitious upgrade in decades. The reimagined Huizenga Park—framed by East Las Olas Boulevard and the New River—is poised to redefine how locals and visitors experience Downtown.
During the evening celebration, Steve Hudson, Chairman of the Huizenga Park Foundation, delivered remarks on the project's scope and impact, calling it one of the most significant public investments in Fort Lauderdale’s Riverwalk since its original debut.
His message underscored a broader mission: to build a public space that is not only beautiful, but usable, safe, and designed with intention..."
There are degrees of homelessness. From the poster child drug addiction/mentally ill to the urban surfer to the person who works minimum wage jobs and can barely afford rent.
And just bec Newsom says it’s illegal, he created a statewide problem that does not disappear magically. It is up to the municipalities to enforce their laws.
For example parts of LA has no sleeping in your car in residential neighborhoods. Hence the underpasses.
Here we allow the homeless to sleep in front of schools and playgrounds and public parks.
Why?
To degrade neighborhoods.
There are solutions like using public land not near neighborhoods and businesses and build tent cities with facilities on site.
But there’s no money for the corrupt in it. Building tiny homes, taking over properties in prime neighborhoods and making them shelters or low income housing paying developers , hi rises shelters, etc…. You can launder money that way.
SB has 36 non prophets for the homeless? And spends tens of millions each year.
Money machine.
Why is such a large part of the city and county spending not have its own line item in the budget? Bec then you can track the money.
Take those who are here illegally out of California K-12 classrooms and overnight you instantly have smaller classrooms, less demand for expensive new school construction bonds, and drastically less dilution of the already generous Prop 98 allocation for California public education.
Per pupil spending would soar. Only administrative overhead and numbers of teacher union memberships would decline.
California could return to her previous position as one of the best school systems in the county, not fighting in this current race among the bottom 10% in student outcomes. Democrat-backed open borders has inflicted horrendous damage on this state.
If we needed targeted new labor resources, legal process never should have been circumvented like what we have seen over the past few decades of Democrat super-majority control of this state.
What are you going to do about this, Senator Monique Limon and Assemblyman Gregg Hart? Besides curry more open borders protections and teacher union and SEIU political endorsements. Voting Democrat is a death sentence for this state.
- Local 'Villages' comprised of ADU's, (Accessory Dwelling Units), for the Homeless with their own police & security, medical care, social workers, laundry etc., and integrated with the local city. Micro-communities that reduce the strain on shelters, hospitals, law enforcement etc.
- Look on Amazon - nice little homes for $10K that can be assembled in a week !
Ya Brown, let’s make sure we have large swaths of land set aside in Hope Ranch and Montecito. Oh, and make double sure there is plenty of open space for the “residents” to shoot up!
I hear ya LT - of course it will be a mess. Dealing with the homeless losers is always a mess, but with a place to put 'em at least they won't be lying around our streets. Wouldn't surprise me to find our Commie-Dem leaders getting behind these 'Sanctuary' villages.
The next scam to come from Newsom and the calif democrats is the agricultural equity program. More tax money to be wasted, increasing the state deficit. More tax paying Californians will flee to other states, adding to the downward spiral.
WAIT FOR IT:
"They are doing jobs Americans won't do. They're only looking for a better life. They pay taxes. The immigration system is broken. This land was stolen from Mexico" (ignoring the pesky fact Mexico occupied the area for only 324 months almost two centuries ago), etc., ad boredom.
Illegal alien cheerleaders have artfully conflated opposing illegal immigration with bigotry and xenophobia. It is their "go to" tool because they cannot legitimately or factually defend its' negative societal and economic impact...INCLUDING on legal aliens.
It will continue to be an uphill battle with such seditious entities as the SB City Council and our local version of Alejandro Mayorkas: Salud Carbajal. Perhaps having them recite their Oath of Office in the public square may be a worthwhile exercise to remind them of their commitment and responsibility to the people they claim to represent.
Well done Brian!
I literally despise Carbajal. He's such a deceiving narcissist. So is Oscar Gutierrez. Just absolute despicable people. They are both rude and selfish. They're both liars and thieves. And that's as nice as I can put it 😡
Oscar Gutierrez needs to explain why he presided over a city, that during his two terms authorized increasing expenses while producing declining revenues. Since rumors claim he now thinks he is qualified to run for mayor. After winning his city council elections in a CVRA-protected special district, where he needed to earn only a few hundred votes total to win his full voting seat on council. Should be a very interesting mayor's race coming up in 2026.
I completely agree with you. If a couple of hundred votes are all that is required compared to several hundred or even a thousand plus votes for other seats, then his seat should be weighted and he should not be given an equal vote to other members of the council. This man is as corrupt and uncaring as they come. God help us all.
DEI....District Election Ineptitude
100% 👏🏼👏🏼
Remember Kathy. No qualifications, local public news character. Oscar held the camera. The Dems just put a face in office, not qualified individuals. Bec they are mere puppets.
I remember most of all, Cathy sneaking in due to a three way vote split (Thank you SB Chamber of Commerce for running one more spoiler candidate, causing two qualified conservative and independent candidates (Francisco and Hotchkiss) to lose in two different mayor's races, to the long term detriment of SB).
I also remember also SEIU/Mickey Flacks swooping into to co-opt Cathy Murillo's with a "fund-raiser" before she was even sworn in as mayor. That all took place, before she installed Gutierrez as her alter-ego on council giving him both cover and directions right there from the dais, in full public view when he admitted he did not know how to vote on any issue.
I can give Oscar credit for originally being open to learning, showing up at events, and going through the motions of listening until it becomes obvious any actual independent choices would run counter to his handlers. Then he capitulated to the destructive powers that be that are ruining this city. Thereafter he ceased any further engagement, amply demonstrating he was not an independent free agent after all.
His low point just came when he just bragged at the Democrat Labor Day picnic that "people who look like him" would not be on city council if it were not for the CVRA "protected minority" district. Slap us in the face that we are a racist city, eh Oscar?
Tell that to Gil Garcia or even Cathy Murillo and all other hispanic heritage city council members who served city wide in the past. Without needing the calculated insider boost of these statutorily protected, low-voter turn out, rotten borough districts.
It’s hard to ignore the glaring failures Congressman Salud Carbajal has stood by and even defended while our communities suffer. Year after year, California spends billions on “solutions” to homelessness, yet the only thing we see in Santa Barbara and across the state is more tents, more encampments, and more people falling through the cracks. Where has the accountability been? Certainly not from Carbajal.
Instead of demanding real results, he votes in lockstep with Sacramento’s failed priorities—putting the interests of illegal immigrants ahead of struggling American families, veterans, and working-class citizens. Santa Barbara is short thousands of housing units, yet our leaders tolerate tens of thousands being occupied by those here illegally. Meanwhile, veterans sleep on the streets and young families are priced out of the communities they grew up in.
Carbajal and his allies are quick to blame Washington, or Trump, or anyone else, while ignoring the billions wasted right here in California. They talk about compassion but deliver policy malpractice: shelters closing, funding disappearing, and definitions of “success” rewritten to hide their failures.
Enough is enough. We need representation that fights for working families, veterans, and citizens first—not politicians who throw money at the problem, then look the other way while our neighborhoods decline. Salud Carbajal has had years to show leadership, but all he has delivered is more of the same broken promises.
EnoughIsEnough805
He is only place-holding, keeping the seat warm for the vacuous Princess Laura to finally take over this hereditary entitlement.
How about just commenting on Santa Barbara and South County. Then you can apply it to the entire State.
SB is only one of about 6-7 locations in the entire world that have the same latitude and longitude, access to a moderating ocean, protective mountains etc. When I was a kid the statement was how expensive it is to live here. (plenty of ranch land and enough water except of our 15 year drought).
Then came the do-gooders. It was a time when the "local" churches etc. took care of the needy and tried very hard to give them a hand up. The dg's became tired, and they demanded government handouts. Then came the Cacique St. shelter and the word was OUT! Come to Santa Barbara, weather is great, food to be found, and hey a shelter that was supposed to have 5 beds is now in the hundreds.
The Political Theater of the Socialist stated, look a the wealth of the private sector and we can tax, tax, tax.
We now have the Housing Authority, significant loans and money from the city, while the property that used to provide taxes are now government owned and produce nothing.
"On top of that, California would no longer be bleeding $31 billion every year on benefits, healthcare, and subsidies, for people who have no legal right to be here..."
The long range population trends stated in the 1960's are setting in. SB is losing population. SB is ageing with less earned income. SB is facing a growing deficit because of really terrible street and traffic planning that has failed over a minimum of 40 years (documented).
I could go on.
Now LOOK at what the State of Calif. is facing! A $20 some Billion deficit. A welfare system that is crashing and adding to the deficit. A fleeing population, and aging population. A freeway system that is not maintained because Sacramento does not want you to have mobility. (gov. buses and trains)
There is the short of it. (looking up not so short)
Daunting list Mr. Campbell.
You laid it out very well, Brian. When will clear thinking Californians see what is going on with their state and local government. Has the brainwashing of the California teachers association, local and national media really turned people into non-thinking robots? I’m very afraid that we will not be able to overcome The lazy fools that have let their entire thought process fall into the hands of these evil doers. God help us all.
Brian, as you illustrated once the border was opened housing became a bottomless pit in California. Yesterday the Democrats used Labor Day not to celebrate labor but to push for the passage of Prop 50 to use politics to increase the number of members of their party in the U.S. House of Representatives in order to, what else, STOP TRUMP.
"Labor" to Democrats means more government jobs and government funded construction projects. In exchange for more Democrat votes.
Agreed. The Labor Reports during the Biden years showed manufacturing employment declining. Government employment continuing to increase was amazing since during COVID it did not decrease. My question of where did they work was answered by only 5% of federal employees in D.C. reporting to work.
Very sobering summary Brian of our state and local Democratic scam perpetrated on us, the tax paying public. Using the homeless and illegal immigrants as convenient pawns, while using lefty NGO’s to dole out the money, completes the scam. What’s next, controlling elections by way of re-districting? Oh wait, that’s exactly what is happening with the Dems latest scam, Prop 50! Clearly, Newsom’s campaign for Prop 50 should be a 3 alarm fire, all hands on deck proposition for anyone concerned about the current disastrous trajectory of our city and state.
The latest bad news for the City? Sales tax revenues are down, despite having raised the rates by way of Measure I. So where is the money supposed to come from to pay for housing for illegals AND the homeless? That’s right folks, you and me!
In the meantime, liberal Democrats continue the death spiral, void of any economic reality and continue the virtue signaling, attacking “Orange Man” and his followers.
Welcome to “Little Jalisco” folks, formerly known as Santa Barbara. Remember that next time driving down Hope Ave. and seeing the usual band of gray hairs protesting, jumping up and down about “protecting democracy!”
https://santabarbaraca.gov/press-releases/santa-barbara-city-council-votes-place-1/2-cent-sales-tax-measure-november-ballot
https://www.noozhawk.com/santa-barbaras-sales-tax-revenue-falls-short-for-fiscal-year/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Noozhawk’s%20A.M.%20Report%2009.03.2025&utm_source=9ec8acd2c4&utm_source=Noozhawk&utm_campaign=fb858023be-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_09_01_07_57&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-fb858023be-247371824
You are 100% correct Brian. Well written and stated. And so true!
Great article, Brian. A Raytheon Corporate guy once said, "After we are finished with the engineers, we should sweep them up and put them in a closet." The Dems have a very temporary need for the homeless and illegals for votes. But after they've voted, I'm certain the Dems wish the homeless and illegals would simply disappear into the wilderness somewhere, so they are not a nuisance. Engineers are a nuisance because management sees them as a potential complainer or whistleblower, aka pain-in-the-ass.
The "Homeless Enabling Industry" is incentivized and career building only if more and more homeless show up. There is zero incentive or career motivation to solve the vagrant, er I mean 'homeless', problem. Hence we have developed a cynical, counterproductive and highly profitable 'Homeless Enabling Industry' here.
All government jobs need sunset clauses and evidentiary cost/ benefit audits built into them, before the first paycheck is handed out. But one asks, who would take a job if it was not a blank check that guaranteed lifetime employment and benefits?
Indeed, who would. Just raid the treasury and hire the relatives is no longer good enough for government work. These are tax dollars getting spent. Let no elected official ever forget this. Let no employee ever forget this.
Tax dollars are an unstable form of revenue, and have no business supporting guaranteed streams of lifetime benefits to growing numbers of our population. Particularly, when the business of government becomes very anti-business. (Eg California)
A brilliant summation of the horribly obvious.
Hard to imagine that anyone can argue against these points, only someone so blinded by TDS that they only look to blame the symbol, with the endless repetition of the ritual of the Two Minutes of Hate against the Goldstein of our age.
Excellent column, Brian. Thank you. Additionally in just four years, Biden's open back door to the US led to 20 million new uninvited residents.
America instantly was asked to create the equivalent of twenty brand new cities from scratch, that could accommodate one million new residents each. With the assumption these uninvited Biden 20 million new residents would not quickly add 5-6 children per couple. Which they did. Where were Biden's plans to built 10 brand new Austin, Texas size cities overnight? There were none.
That is a lot of residential planning and development for one single administration to inflict on this country. Using only backdoor policy making. Leading to these now draconian development demands made on an unwitting and increasingly unwilling legal population. How could it be any other way?
California taxpayers are now required to hand over their OPM Gilt card (endless new taxes), while Democrats pull out their signature Guilt and Race cards should taxpayers resist. Unrelenting drama queen and hysteria "crisis" demands are now the Democrats stock in trade. Yet they created the crises. And they alone serve to benefit from them.
Follow the money to the emerging third pillar of the Democrat command and control: the government contract construction industries. Now coalescing with the previous Democrat command and control taxpayer-funded SEIU and teachers unions. Voting to allow these three taxpayer-funded interests to gain increasing decision-making power over the rest of us, watch out. The worst is still yet to come.
Just say no, and vote like you mean it.
With all due respect to Brian, the problem is we don't do step 2 (criminalize homlessness and encampments). If you think we do, just go to skid's row in LA. Building housing is not going to solve the homeless problem since many of them are there because of mental illness and drugs/alcohol. What we need to do is enforce the laws and prohibit people from sleeping outside in our urban and residential areas. In states that really do criminalize it, like Florida, there is hardly any homeless on their streets.
I have not been in Fort Lauderdale for a few years, but last visit found their expansively redesigned waterfront park with new restaurants virtually empty except for the the couple dozen vagrants who not only set up shop there amid all the new facilities, but were also plugging their cell phones into the city's electrical supply lamp posts in the events pergola which was being used as their shelter from the storm.
Hopefully, this report is now badly dated and the Gov Desantis administration in fact has been effective regarding downtown vagrancy. But seeing this waterfront redevelopment effort in Fort Lauderdale, proved city "improvements" can be wasted money unless they also improve and enforce their public conduct guidelines as well.
Google AI:
Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law House Bill 1365 in March 2024, which prohibits homeless individuals from sleeping or camping on public property, including streets, sidewalks, and parks, effective October 1, 2024. The law requires cities to move homeless people into shelters or designated government-run encampments, offering resources like mental health services and workforce services but also allowing for penalties if individuals decline these options.
Update on the FLL Riverwalk Rark, completion expected end of 2025, to be both "usable and safe":
..."What began in 1990 as a central green space in Fort Lauderdale is now undergoing its most ambitious upgrade in decades. The reimagined Huizenga Park—framed by East Las Olas Boulevard and the New River—is poised to redefine how locals and visitors experience Downtown.
During the evening celebration, Steve Hudson, Chairman of the Huizenga Park Foundation, delivered remarks on the project's scope and impact, calling it one of the most significant public investments in Fort Lauderdale’s Riverwalk since its original debut.
His message underscored a broader mission: to build a public space that is not only beautiful, but usable, safe, and designed with intention..."
Lou,
There are degrees of homelessness. From the poster child drug addiction/mentally ill to the urban surfer to the person who works minimum wage jobs and can barely afford rent.
And just bec Newsom says it’s illegal, he created a statewide problem that does not disappear magically. It is up to the municipalities to enforce their laws.
For example parts of LA has no sleeping in your car in residential neighborhoods. Hence the underpasses.
Here we allow the homeless to sleep in front of schools and playgrounds and public parks.
Why?
To degrade neighborhoods.
There are solutions like using public land not near neighborhoods and businesses and build tent cities with facilities on site.
But there’s no money for the corrupt in it. Building tiny homes, taking over properties in prime neighborhoods and making them shelters or low income housing paying developers , hi rises shelters, etc…. You can launder money that way.
SB has 36 non prophets for the homeless? And spends tens of millions each year.
Money machine.
Why is such a large part of the city and county spending not have its own line item in the budget? Bec then you can track the money.
Absolutely stunning facts. Now if we could force feed the facts to most Democrats.......!
Thanks Brian.
Take those who are here illegally out of California K-12 classrooms and overnight you instantly have smaller classrooms, less demand for expensive new school construction bonds, and drastically less dilution of the already generous Prop 98 allocation for California public education.
Per pupil spending would soar. Only administrative overhead and numbers of teacher union memberships would decline.
California could return to her previous position as one of the best school systems in the county, not fighting in this current race among the bottom 10% in student outcomes. Democrat-backed open borders has inflicted horrendous damage on this state.
If we needed targeted new labor resources, legal process never should have been circumvented like what we have seen over the past few decades of Democrat super-majority control of this state.
What are you going to do about this, Senator Monique Limon and Assemblyman Gregg Hart? Besides curry more open borders protections and teacher union and SEIU political endorsements. Voting Democrat is a death sentence for this state.
2026 Dem Campaign Promises:
Higher taxes, less services
More crime, less enforcement
Open drug markets
More illegal immigration
Less housing, more homelessness
Massive inflation, more deficits
More DEI
More race divide, quotas
More money for Unions
EV mandate, carbon tax/credits
More Transgender sickness
Higher utilities, less water
More law-fare, impeachments
More Gerrymandering
More support for enemies abroad
What could possibly go wrong?
So true, yet the average jerk on the street keeps voting for these Commiie-Dems.
Here's an answer:
- All illegal aliens - O-U-T !
- Local 'Villages' comprised of ADU's, (Accessory Dwelling Units), for the Homeless with their own police & security, medical care, social workers, laundry etc., and integrated with the local city. Micro-communities that reduce the strain on shelters, hospitals, law enforcement etc.
- Look on Amazon - nice little homes for $10K that can be assembled in a week !
Ya Brown, let’s make sure we have large swaths of land set aside in Hope Ranch and Montecito. Oh, and make double sure there is plenty of open space for the “residents” to shoot up!
I hear ya LT - of course it will be a mess. Dealing with the homeless losers is always a mess, but with a place to put 'em at least they won't be lying around our streets. Wouldn't surprise me to find our Commie-Dem leaders getting behind these 'Sanctuary' villages.
The next scam to come from Newsom and the calif democrats is the agricultural equity program. More tax money to be wasted, increasing the state deficit. More tax paying Californians will flee to other states, adding to the downward spiral.
https://freebeacon.com/california/stolen-land-gavin-newsoms-agricultural-equity-advisers-prepare-plan-to-redistribute-farmland-to-racial-minorities/