What will it take to clean up skid row?
Re “Drug Offenders to Be Banned From Skid Row,” Sept. 27
Hasn’t anyone been reading The Times? The jails and prisons are full. We have been criminalizing drug use for generations, and people still use drugs. Those with homes use them at home. Those who are homeless use them on the street. Why would we believe that law enforcement strategies to end drug use would work on skid row when those strategies have never worked anywhere else?
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is right. We need permanent, supportive housing for people who have mental illness and substance abuse problems. With more housing options, the people who are on the street can get off the street, which is what the residents and business owners want -- and what service providers and the police really want too. A show of force is a costly bluff. Housing for the homeless is the answer.
MARSHA TEMPLE
President, Board of Directors
Homeless Healthcare Los Angeles
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The Times reports that Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley has come up with an ingenious plan to get rid of the drug trade on skid row: Prohibit drug dealers and buyers from returning to the area.
As with many other solutions to the homeless problem, this is a shell game. It may dramatically reduce drug dealing within the boundaries defined in the ordinance, but the plan seems to be implemented without any thought as to where the drug dealers will go once they are pushed out of skid row.
It seems unlikely this plan would have any affect on the supply or demand for drugs, so the deals would simply be moved elsewhere. Would they crop up along the border of the no-drug zone or perhaps in some other part of the city?
MONICA WAGGONER
West Hollywood
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Re “A real skid row fix,” Opinion, Sept. 27
This Op-Ed article describes how Hong Kong solved the problem of homelessness by spending nearly half a billion dollars to provide affordable housing for squatters. It also reveals the gross failure of the media in informing the public on how other nations and communities deal with major social and political problems compared to the United States. The Times should provide a model for correcting this media failure.
NICHOLAS V. SEIDITA
Northridge
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Re “Certainly Not Child’s Play,” Sept. 26
In the hair-raising article about drug use in skid row and its effect on the ABC Toys company, co-owner Jack Woo said: “In 25 years (downtown), I never called the police once. But it’s getting out of hand. When you cut off my mail, what’s left?”
I live a few yards from what was one of the worst corners in one of the worst areas in San Francisco. That is what it was when I moved here. The change began when we started calling the police. If it meant calling every half-hour, we called every time we saw a violation of the law. “Calls for service” is what they call it, and eventually the police department took notice.
It wasn’t just me. Other new neighbors began talking to people who lived here a long time, and soon everyone was calling. Now our neighborhood is considered very “in.”
JOANNE MINSKY
San Francisco
