Central City East/Skid Row Heights : Downtown Los Angeles

According to folks over at blogdowntown the CRA will begin the process of directing funding to the downtown streetcar project. Blogdowntown The money to be voted on consists of tax-increment funding that had been encumbered as part of legal challenges over the implementation of the CRA’s Central Industrial Redevelopment and City Central Redevelopment projects. Roughly $19 million is now freed up to be programmed in the City Central Redevelopment project area. The Downtown Streetcar program is estimated to cost $90 million to complete.

I grew up in the same area that Hurricane IKE set to land. I rode out Hurricane Alicia which was a category 3 in 1983 when it hit head on my hometown and, rode that out in a huge baptist church. This past storm ,as it hit my hometown, I was calm because I knew a storm that huge in diameter is usually just a big barker and would have no bite. This is why I know many people rode out the storm along the coast because they had been through many and intuitively knew that huge hurricanes with huge eyes are no threat. This time, it is looking like this may no longer be the case. Something is afoot. Inland, the reports are coming in that the damage wasn't that great , but those places along Galveston Bay and the Intracoastal waterway are reporting damage. The FACTS in Brazoria County is reporting that BASF and DOW Chemical USA weren't even touched. Freeport was lucky. It is looking like, now , when a hurricane comes, it is time to leave. Local Houston Area news stations are reportin...

What a trip!! I can't believe I can subdomain clean urls. That's it. The only obstacle stopping me from moving on up!!! All you haters out there can go stick yourselves because I am bringing as many people out of skid row in their own limos when I leave in mine. I have a surprise up my sleeve. While everyone is out there pimping us, I will be teaching the people here how to pimp themselves. Teach them to have their own skills and freelance and learn these things on their own time and not at the convenience of the working hours of the non-profit employees. We will slowly eat away at the problems on our own. Times are tough and many families are in skid row. It is time to stop thinking that the non-profits are going to follow through. They seem not to be able to multi-task. SKID ROW residents are about to step up to the plate. We have come to the point that we know we don't need to count on the non-profits to begin certain initiatives. We are not going to be deterred in our ...

I posted this last year around this time. It was sad . But now I have overcome some obstacles. It is great to see a future other than being on skid row and without the dignity of work. Just thought it was interesting to read this after a while. I am just thinking about mental illness. To suffer with a mental illness doesn't make someone mentally incompetent, but it sure does make one suffer much when one gets to the point that they think that no amount of medication will alleviate one's suffering. Those who wish to help become fewer and far between when one has a lapse in their thinking or think they don't need their meds anymore because you feel fine. My problem was the physical ailment I had recently -I still have physical maladies -and I decided not to take any medication at all. That wasn't good because anxiety becomes a problem not just the depression. I can't believe that I do suffer with Major Depressive Disorder , but that comes with PTSD. I mean , you can...

Subdomaining , subdomaining and changing .htacess files and being able to host on my hosting plan neighbors who need websites. The obstacle was overcome. God bless us all!!! Sudomain subdomain I have conquered you !!!! Let the freedom ride begin!!!!

Andy Bales, President of the Union Rescue Mission , has a series of videos on youtube explaining such things as, why don't homeless get jobs? do you give money to the homeless? . All kinds of little videos to answer questions about skid row etc. In one of the videos he explains how the URM is also trying to regionalize the homeless problem and says that the containement policy, the policy of placing all of the services in one place downtown has been a human tragedy.  Way to go Andy because the media we count on to get the real stories out there 

In life you really know who your friends are and those who are truly who they claim to be. When the Central City East DASH bus press conference happened and the City Councilwoman thanked me publicly for my work in securing that for the community along with other residents and community members of Downtown Andy Bales was there and I asked him to take photos for me , since I knew that many of the press people would not. Enoch Magazine did an article on him and it tells us a bit more about the history of the CEO of the Union Rescue Mission.Who would know that he was fired from a job because he actually cared to take care of the poor.I am shunned because I tell the truth about what really happens in skid row. I tell how reporters , bloggers, journalists , come here and do their warm and fuzzy stories , but never follow up, never a call for action , nor do we ever hear from them again. Andy Bales and Orlando Ward were there for me . God showed me that day who were my true friends and wh...

Everyone this past week had ceremonies and made tear jerking speeches and waved ton's of flags and showed their patriotism for this country commemorating 9/11. Tonight, as we watch the Firefighters in the southern California Region rescue and recover those who perished during the metrolink tragedy, it reminds us that we must honor them while they are living. We must tell them thank you when they are tired and don't even feel like getting those thanks , we must wave at them , salute them as they pass us while returning from an incident or going to one. These are our heroes. These are those who are there for us. They protect us and defend us even after we diss them or have confrontations with them, esp the LAPD and the Sherriff's department. These are our heroes. I remember 9/11 and I wave my flag , but I think there comes a time when we must stop with the outward and begin to honor those Americans and those who perished during 9/11 by doing much more than flag waving but t...

The Revolution has begun. Where many people in the Downtown Community have failed to bring major open source tech conferences where people can share their knowledge and corporate recruiters can come and employ local Los Angeles Residents and where over 110 people beginning to learn how to build websites with one of the most in demand Open source applications: drupal. It took Don Garza to contact the organizers and bring that open source opportunity to Downtown Los Angeles. It is just the beginning . Don Garza will take these types of opportunities to learn, all over the city of Los Angeles. Skid Row will have it's own Drupal Organization along with it's own tech club. The end of people in skid row clamoring for a marketable skill and places to learn such skills with software that is free to use and share and is completely legal is about to Transform the community. It will also bring a marketable skill to many father's with children who have asked him to learn. The revool...

General Jeff with Deputy City Attoreny Gordon Turner It was a fascinating thing to walk the streets of skid row in the middle of the night with Gordon Turner. Gordon Turner works closely with the Union Rescue Mission on the issues of Patient dumping etc. He was out walking with myself and General Jeff as a crew doing a documentary were out with myself and General Jeff as we went on a walk of the skid row area as he does and sometimes I go with him as we docment the sidewalks and the lights and just to see if everything is ok in the area. General JEff SPeaking with the FIlm Crew One of the most embarrassing things was when we got to the automated public toilets. During the day they work fine , people use them for what they are used for. For some reason, late at night and early morning hours ,they become out of order. Some people manage to open the doors and just urinate onto the inside of the floor of the toilets and what we witnessed last night was one toilet out in front of the Un...

The photos speak for themselves. Jan Perry kept her word!!!! Today I am going to be able to use my portable oxygen and take short trips to the West Side of downtown because now I can connect to other DASH buses directly from skid row. I am going to take my first trip to RALPH's using the Central City East DASH bus today and I will not run out of oxygen because I am able to get around downtown quicker well easier anyway!!!!! The first place I went to yesterday was little tokyo and had my fill of pastagina!!! God has been good to us!!!

I was so moved by what I heard tonight from a father with two sons who has been out on the streets of skid row going on two months now. What was told to me was so moving I had to sing this myself. It comes from the Messiah and it is one of the most moving soprano and alto arias there is. What I heard was that this father of two sons was walking down San Julian Street when the two sons spotted Andy Bales with his cart of water and they told their father, who doubted that they should ask that gentleman for help. It was the two children , teenagers , who took their father to ask for Andy's help. It is said that the sheep know the voice of the shepherd and it is amazing to me that these children would go directly to Andy Bales the President of the Union Rescue Mission for help. From Andy's blog:

Where were you when Barack Obama accepted the nomination for the Democratic Party's candidate for president of the United States? Wasn't it a historical event? Tears welled up in the eyes of many Americans whom I assume know that this will be a drawn out battle, with both sides battling for the white house not throwing punches that would normally be thrown into the fracas of public opinion. As I stood in the loft of DANIEL BANALES, a small business owner in Downtown Los Angeles ,listening to Barack Obama Speak, Obama spoke the words of how the DIGNITY OF WORK is important. What did I hear when Barack Obama spoke those words? I heard the word freedom.There is a movement in skid row in Downtown Los Angeles to fight the dependency that these social service providers have us here clinging to . Many providers are changing their ways, but some refuse to get with the program. The biggest problem is that they always need money to implement any program, specifically for the purpose of...

Central City East DASH begins service on September 4th Due to the years of the local Rescue Missions and other social service providers sending out fundraising literature that the people in skid row are helpless and hopeless and for the most part unemployed , the many low income residents that do work ,who live in skid row, were ignored when it came to DASH Bus Service in downtown. Today I walked to the corner of 5th Street and San Pedro and looked South on San Pedro Street and there it was , the sign for the DASH Central City East. When I pointed this out to an employee at the corner market he came from around the counter he was serving food from, looked through the window of the store, and saw the stop. He is a veteran of the military who works on the westside of downtown and catches the E DASH to get to work in the mornings. HE told me that now he can use the Central City East DASH bus to transfer to the E DASH on 7th and Los Angeles instead of walking there. His life has just be...

VIDEO: Water laps over Industrial Canal