Encinitas, California, a model of co-existence and brotherhood.
You don’t gotta get me started on the righteousness of the Jewish people or their gorgeous little sovereign nation, forged in the fires of the Holocaust, endless war and the indifference and hostility of the rest of the world.
If there’s a problem, tech, health, yo, the Jews got it.
Therefore, it came as little surprise when the WSL commentator Chris Coté shared a lovely story of Jewish generosity and ingenuity that was taking place in the surf town of Encinitas, just north of San Diego.
The Leichtag Foundation has taken a novel approach to dealing with California’s catastrophic homelessness problem which is partly due to the hard right’s contempt of the weak and the hard left’s infantilisation of the same people.
What our Jewish brothers have done is open up parking lots for people sleeping in their cars to exist safely until they can get back in the game, under a roof that doesn’t have four wheels.
A simple, elegant, and cheapish solution.
Have a little taste of the story by Babs Henry of the San Diego Trib.
Early on a chilly Monday night, the first of what would become eight clients of a newly opened overnight parking area for homeless people brought his vehicle to a stop at the back entrance to the Leichtag Foundation property.
The middle-aged man, who drove a sport utility vehicle and holds a job in the retail industry, checked in with the security guard at the gate. The guard looked his name up on a list, then opened the big metal barrier that had blocked off access to the Leichtag Foundation’s 67-acre farmland property and directed the man to drive up a paved, private roadway toward the 25-spot parking area. Just over the crest of a hill near some night-lit greenhouses glowing softly in the darkening evening sky, two caseworkers waited to greet the man.
He spoke to them briefly after he parked his vehicle near the portable restroom building, then climbed back in the vehicle, eased his seat back and closed his eyes, looking like a weary dad waiting for his kids to finish an evening soccer or softball game.
“He’s tired, I can see,” Lea Bush, the senior director of family and community services for Jewish Family Service, said as she watched from the shadows.
And, here, my last holiday to Israel, with Ozzie Wright (listen to Oz sing Jesus was the King of the Jews, here) and Otis Carey.
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This story is so far from the truth. There is nothing eneerous about what the Leightag foundation is doing. They received a grant and took it. They spent over 90% of the money on salaries and barely any of it goes to the homeless. What is worse is that tehir ultimate agenda is to close the lot once people have “lived” there. The land is currently agricultural and this will enable them to conbvert agricultural land to residential, which will immediately increase the value of the land. The foundation is paying huge salaries, increasing their bottom line and barely doing anything for the homeless.
Peddle your politics somewhere else Derek.
Where?
On your website?
Also, Derek R., please explain what you mean by “the left’s infantilisation of the same people.”
I can see it now “for the price of just one Surf Ranch session you could….”
Or a Ranch for homeless?
“forged in the fires of the Holocaust”
funniest thing ive read all day!!! haha
Merica. First world country heading to third.
Gold, Silver, AND Bronze, BABY!
Don’t Walmart offer similar free overnight parking at their joints?
It’s classic neo-liberalism whereby the absence of government support for the lower classes is expected to be shouldered by the rest of society. See also: tipping
Pay a decent minimum wage and offer a basic welfare network and you could avoid this stuff. But I guess that’s communism.
America been fucked up.
Sounds like you’re proposing socialism surfads, suggesting we should provide some kind of safety net for people who haven’t been as lucky as others. Next thing you’ll go full raving lefty and suggest healthcare should be provided free of charge to all rather than only those who can afford it.
Jesus healed and fed everyone for free. Also had brown skin.
I got brown skin. Am I Jesus?
The kingdom of heaven resides within.
Or just a naughty boy?
That’s burnt white skin.
Close to 100% of the homeless crew in CA are drug addicts. They’re homeless because they want to do drugs, all day long. Not work, do drugs. Hence no $. Homeless by choice. Some are temporarily homeless due to life circumstances, but they avail themselves of private\public help and get back on their feet. They are the minority. You probably are for a universal basic income which would basically be giving these people $ to buy more drugs. Not good.
Its the weekend so general apathy and a need to relax after getting flogged by a cyclone swell beat my need to have an argument on the internet. But, people who are ravaged by drug addiction may end up there due to shitty childhoods filled with trauma.I’m also not a massive proponent of a UBI, more decent welfare safeguards for the less fortunate. Anyway – lets go back to arguing surf. Have Beachgrit and Vissla proved conclusively that fins are overrated? I say yes.
That is the most ignorant rant I have heard in a very long time and not true. Do you work for Fox News? Educate yourself before you spew hateful speech and misinformation. The homeless have so many issues it would make your head spin. Volunteer at a shelter and enlighten yourself.
The only place that guy is volunteering is in a truck stop men’s room. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that. lol.)
https://californiaglobe.com/
https://www.city-journal.or…
homelessness-west-coast
https://www.sandiegouniontr…
https://www.latimes.com/cal…
https://www.google.com/amp/…
We do have welfare, SSI, Medicare, medicaid and a lot of other social services. Certainly more can be done to help the less fortunate but the common theme from the left and right is to hammer the working class to pay for it. The left have lost me as they seem more concerned with handouts to illegal immigrants than the needs of its own citizens. Not one candidate from either side has even mentioned the homeless problems.
Btw, what’s the minimum wage in Australia? Do you have homeless camps along the riverbanks and canyons? Can we draw parallels when one country has 330 million people compared to 30 million?
SSD
keeping it real.!!
Wasnt there a aussie “surfer dole”…back in the 70s 80s. ?
More or less
I used to argue with my dad about the postwar economy, where a decent job, even low paying would get you a house, put you kids through school etc. I think the problems we see now are a result the shifting of a “producing” economy, to a “consuming” one. The stock system, encouraging manufacturers to shift to cheaper labor overseas is a big factor in the gutting of the middle class. Stockholders pressing for short term profits at the expense of srategic long term. I dunno. Makes my brain hurt. I just sponge off the rich and try to not get clipped by some event…put me on the streets too.
Totally. The high cost of living in California isn’t helping either. A bad chain of events and things could get rough in a hurry. I’m all for safety nets and helping people that fall on hard times, it just that the money they tax us for that is often misused or goes to line pockets of developers, contractors and people that contributed to politicians campaigns.
Mick Fanning and the right wing surfing brotherhood of Australia isn’t going be impressed
Mikey Wright just vomited in his weetbix
Haifa holding a couple spots..
Are Chas and Ashton going to spend a night there sharing a night in brotherhood, atoning for past sins and praising Yaweh?
If this were.to somehow miraculously happen, what would Chas and Ashton spend the night in together?
My guess: 1968 Volkswagen Type 181 Thing.
The one that greenday frontman was selling a while back. Comes with matching band shirts and a log to share the morning after with
What? He shat in the van?
Machado’s kidnapping van.
There’s gotta be an angle there somewhere.
I’ve got a couple spare cases of vintage ‘Fizzy Bubbler’ to swap for a sackful of the greenhouses prime produce if they’re keen…