Skid row still struggling

Re “Skid row in rehab,” Opinion, Nov. 18

Apparently, Heather Mac Donald missed the point of studies on the Safer City Initiative: Skid row’s not in rehab, it’s in jail. Try as she might, Mac Donald fails to show that what’s going on downtown is anything but a criminalization of poverty. She does, however, seem to get a kick out of dehumanizing the “wizened vagrants” who are “reeking of beer” and can’t stay away from the “lure of the streets.”

Bald assertions that the Safer City Initiative is preventing serious crime wither before UCLA professor Gary Blasi’s systematic and detailed study showing that we’ve decided to spend our money citing, arresting and jailing people for jaywalking and minor drug offenses.

There’s a much cheaper, effective and moral solution: supportive housing.

Jackie Prange

Los Angeles

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The bus bench sleeper, sleeping despite iron dividers, is in front of a high-class apartment. If the sleepers depart, the developer can better sell or rent his apartments. That is what the continuing hue and cry about downtown derelicts is all about.

Daniel N. Fox

Pomona