First Lady Gets Tour of Spruced Up Skid Row : Politics: Literacy advocate Barbara Bush drops in on the new $25-million L.A. Mission and dedicates education program. Police clear area of homeless for her visit.
First Lady Barbara Bush, fresh from dinner at Spago the night before, visited the gritty streets of Skid Row on Thursday, bringing a measure of hope to at least one homeless man.
“There’s gonna be a lot of cars that need watching,” said Ricky Newton, seeing a business opportunity in the influx of reporters and dignitaries. “I can hustle me up some work.”
For about one hour, a block of 5th Street was swept clean of sleeping, soiled bodies and broken bottles as Bush and her entourage toured the new and gleaming $25-million Los Angeles Mission and presided over the dedication of a literacy and education program.
Indeed, 5th and Wall streets imparted the clean vision of a bustling business district after police told those camped in shopping cart forts--the mobile homes of Skid Row--to move away for a while.
Inside, like a scene from the set of a television talk show, complete with dusty rose-upholstered chairs and a silk flower arrangement, Bush cheerfully replied “that’s great,” and “that’s wonderful,” as six students, in suits and dresses, quickly recited the short versions of their formerly wretched lives.
“Everything was going wrong. I was doing drugs,” said rehabilitation participant Sharon Johnson. “I just couldn’t function out there.”
“You look bright-eyed to me,” Bush said, smiling.
“My life had no benefits. I was using alcohol and drugs and needed help,” said a man named Anthony. “Through the Lord I have found it.”
“I’m so glad, so glad,” Bush said.
About five minutes later the First Lady stood behind the computer table of a man named Sir Jim Richardson, in gray slacks and a navy Los Angeles Mission jacket.
Bush watched as Sir Jim learned to read, sounding out words displayed on a computer monitor, part of the mission’s $250,000 computer training center.
Later, he said he wished that he could have told her “that quality education doesn’t come cheap. People in this country need skills to get work.”
After her motorcade whisked away, taking with it the Secret Service agents and police keeping balcony and rooftop watches, the wave of Skid Row homeless people surged back to claim the sidewalks. It was nearing lunch hour at the mission.
“Oh yeah, she was here visiting?” asked Billy Austin, who sat waiting for the lunch call, reading newspaper comics he had just fetched out of a trash can. “Tell her to tell her husband he needs to do more for the homeless. Stop spending all the money all over the world. “
But not all were Skid Row cynics.
One woman, enrolled in a drug rehabilitation program for a week, graciously hugged Bush, thanking her for the visit.
Out on the street, a homeless woman stood a block away to catch a glimpse of the motorcade.
“I believe Barbara Bush cares because she came down here to Skid Row,” said Minda Potts, 39, who sleeps on the street when money for hotels dries up. “Most people in this city are afraid to come here. They just look the other way when they see you on the street.”
Ron Brown, whose daily shower at the mission was delayed by the visit, seemed less interested in the First Lady than in the First Dog, Millie, star of Barbara Bush’s bestseller that generated $789,176 in royalties. The proceeds from the book were donated to a literacy foundation.
“Can you imagine making $800,000 off a dog?” Brown, 34, quipped. “Those Republicans really know how to transfer their money to other members of the family.”
Most on the street, Brown said, did not even seem to notice that the wife of the President of the United States had crossed their paths.
“You know, nobody really seemed to care. They know nothing is going to change,” Brown said. “Look now, people are walking back to the liquor stores, still dealing drugs. People out here are losing hope.”
But 20 miles north in Malibu, a world away from Skid Row, Bush found resounding approval for a message of hope and family values when she spoke to 500 graduates at Pepperdine University.
With verdant hills and the Pacific Ocean as a backdrop, Bush told graduates that love of family and children are life’s most important goals.
Students, many cradling bouquets, rose to their feet in applause as the First Lady imparted this wish: “Congratulations and go out there and be a huge success.”
