Posted on 06/04/2012 3:36:04 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
LA County Finds Health Code Violations in Skid Row
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The city of Los Angeles is violating the county health code for hazardous conditions on Skid Row, including nearly 90 rats' nests, a dozen hypodermic needles and piles of human excrement and trash on sidewalks, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has found.
The notice of violation stems from an extensive Health Department inspection last month of the 10-block area of downtown Los Angeles that houses the nation's densest population of homeless people, most of them mentally ill and substance abusers.
Health officials ordered the city to fix the problems by this week and made other recommendations to help keep the neighborhood sanitary on an ongoing basis.
The inspection was made at the request of the city attorney's office as it gathers evidence in a bid to overturn a federal judge's order last year prohibiting the seizure of homeless people's property from sidewalks.
The city says the order is making it difficult to clean up the area as sanitation workers are not sure what is personal property and what is trash. Meanwhile, nearby businesses and residents have complained about the proliferation of furniture and shopping carts and people living in tents.
"The deposits on sidewalks have reached a crisis point," said Jane Usher, special assistant city attorney.
Sanitation workers have been intensely cleaning the neighborhood to remedy the violations, she said.
The May 21 report to the city attorney's office contained little news to Skid Row community advocates, but highlighted the precarious conditions in the neighborhood, where some 800 people bed down on sidewalks nightly and 3,000 others cram into shelters and special housing.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted2.ap.org ...
Wow ... how long did it take for county public health officials to find health code violations against LA city's Skid Row?
Isn't this like finding health code violations at the city dump?
Oops sorry, wrong thread...
Well, you let it happen, did you not?
Oh No! The poor bums!
It’s never a local, state or federal commissar’s fault.
There’s a healthy living code for cardboard boxen? Who knew?
Well, gotta give props to that telephone pole with the USA on it....
They fight over taking credit for fixing the problem however.
Must not be a real big problem, as it took an *EXTENSIVE* inspection to find $hit on the sidewalk. I can only assume that if it was just a *ROUTINE* inspection, they wouldn't even have noticed if there was a Battleship on the sidewalk.
That “USA” stands for “Underground Service Alert”. There are wires or pipes undergound.
That “USA” stands for “Underground Service Alert”. There are wires or pipes undergound.
And here I thought we had some patriotic bums!!
My cats are clean! 
I would see that around town occasionally and wonder what it was. I asked someone and they said that it had to do with underground stuff. I looked it up in Wiki.
The bums sleeping on the streets have special status with the LAPD just like the illegal aliens. The laws do not apply to them. In the good old days the LAPD would make a tactical sweep with their billy clubs and kick some ass.
Is it really called Skid Row?
ten blocks, you say? Last time I powered thru LA I saw a whole lot more than ten blocks that I wouldn’t live in. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that health inspector person is a lazy bleep hole who just isn’t trying. And wot kept the underperforming bureaurat from getting there in, oh, say 1970?
uh-huh...and guess who is going to pay for that cleanup?
(here's a hint, its not the taxpaying residents of skid row).
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/asylums/special/excerpt.html
For a substantial minority, however, deinstitutionalization has been a psychiatric Titanic. Their lives are virtually devoid of “dignity” or “integrity of body, mind, and spirit.” “Self-determination” often means merely that the person has a choice of soup kitchens. The “least restrictive setting” frequently turns out to be a cardboard box, a jail cell, or a terror-filled existence plagued by both real and imaginary enemies.
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