We have 70,000 homeless, and half are mentally or physically disabled by some counts. So there are real costs, when we've decided not to deal with it. There is no cause, as yet, on this fire.

The Skirball fire and the Glendora fire of a few years ago, were indeed from homeless encampments. The fire about a month ago, first blamed on a homeless encampment in Eagle Rocak, turned out to be two useless spoiled thugs, setting fire to the encampment, who've since been charged with arson and attempted murder (I was kind of hoping that would get rid of one or two of our trolls, but alas, not...). At least it wasn't an "evil" train that set the fire as part of the vast conspiracy, right?

When I was working with my buddy Doug was District Director over at Caltrans 7, we were talking, one day at lunch, about how to solve the graffiti problem along the 110 north of Downtown LA. And, my buddy Barry suggested planting bougainvillea to keep folks off of bridges and signs, without all of that ugly and expensive razor wire… Which Doug thought was a great idea. He planted it first at a couple of "access points" where folks got up on the bridges to paint graffiti, and the effects, after the first winters rains, were truly "miraculous"... CT and other public agencies are actually using things like "cactus", and low and behold, it makes hanging out and screwing around in places like that much less "fun".... There are some segments of LRT that have received some similar trespasser and vandal "proof" landscaping "treatments".

"Treatment" and housing of thirty or forty thousand homeless mentally ill on our streets probably would help just a wee bit with fire risks and train delays, too.

Now, the trolls can flame away with their usual pus loads...