Back in about 2013, it was much more socially acceptable to
discriminate against the homeless, anyone who looked homeless, or
just about anyone who could be implicated as an affiliate of the
homeless, whether or not such implication was accurate. Anyone
getting off a bus with a backpack might have learned how quickly
sheriff deputies responded to ‘multiple reports’ of someone
suspicious. How contrary to our formerly idyllic culture!
The animosity of a mere few for the homeless and their affiliates
is what justified the removal of all the barbecues and one of the
picnic tables from Felton Covered Bridge Park, and is why barbecuing
is now illegal there. Those who do not drink alcohol were often
accused of inebriation or worse. There were false accusations that
some homeless lived in tents in the riparian zone of the San Lorenzo
River within Felton Covered Bridge Park.
2013 was a long time ago. Not many remember the major hostility of
a minor group at that time. To the contrary, we remember the
remarkable and consistent generosity and civility of our Community.
After all, it is our Community that has always provided so much of
whatever we need, and for many of us, provided employment and homes.
The Community is why homelessness is much less of a problem than it
was six years ago in 2013.
Tomorrow will be Memorial Day. Yesterday was the annual Memorial Day celebration; Felton Remembers Parade and Covered Bridge Festival. Not many remember what should be memorialize on Memorial Day, but it was an excellent celebration nonetheless. Beer was sold from that navy blue tent amongst all those other tents. Freshly cooked and grilled food was sold next to the parking lot, out of view to the left of this picture. Beer, tents, grilled food and irony.
This article from the Press Banner is the best ever about this particular topic, which was an issue that concerned Felton League back in the summer of 2015. The main text is pasted below, but without the excellent picture or the interesting comments. The chronology of the comments can be difficult to follow, but each comment is outfitted with the date and time at which it was posted. Of course, some of the comments were deleted.
July 30, 2015 – Press Banner – Suellene Petersen
It would have been nice if a table had been available for the food, but Jonney Hughes explained that the maintenance people from the Santa Cruz County Department of Parks had removed the one that used to be in that spot.
“They
said they were going to fix the table and bring it back, but we could
not see that anything was wrong with it,” explained Hughes.
The
picnic was spread on a cement area under the trees and the hosts sat in
canvas folding chairs around a spread of sandwiches, salads, fruit and
desserts. “Those of us who can, pool our money and food so we can share
with others,” said Hughes.
Asked
what it was like to be homeless, Teresa Fitzpatrick said “I am not
homeless and not all of us are. Some of us have jobs, but don’t earn
much –– not enough for rent and food,” said Fitzpatrick. “We all have
different stories. Some of us are retired and get social security but
it’s not enough for everything so we get stuck in this wilderness,” she
said.
“We are people who have raised
families. We are good people who have fallen on hard times. It happens,”
said Fitzpatrick. “The picnic table that used to be here was like a
social center where we met to eat, sew, and visit,” said Hughes. She
said “we have even held memorial services here for friends who have
passed away.”
The New Life Church in
Santa Cruz provides some help to these folks. Richard Franconi
distributes food to people that has been donated by the New Life Church.
He walks around the park and hands out burritos. He said “I have been
doing this for 15 years. I used to give about 30 and now it is only
about 10.” He gives the food to hungry people even if they are not
homeless.
The
people at the picnic were all wearing neat, clean clothes. Lise
Lafontaine said that she was one of the homeless. She is a licensed hair
stylist who cannot find work. “I cut hair for these people for free,”
she said as she gestured at the circled of people. “I never thought that
I would become homeless because I am a professional haircutter,” said
Lafontaine. “Sometimes we get to shower at the Presbyterian Church,” she
said. Otherwise, they have no access to water in order to stay clean.
They
told their stories and when it was time for lunch, the circle of people
bowed their heads while Hughes led the group in a thank you prayer.
Lunch was good. It would have been nicer if the picnic table had been
there.
The good news is that Alan
Galran from Santa Cruz County Department of Parks said that the table
will be replaced within two weeks.
I am truly very sorry that I have not been able to write for this blog since establishing it a few days ago. I really thought that there would be more time before visitors started arriving. I feel badly that there has already been some degree of traffic here, but nothing interesting to read. For now, I will post another article from another blog on May 19. The other blog happens to be a gardening blog, which is why this says more about the trees than about the campsite below them. This is the article below:
There happen to be quite a few campgrounds in the region, with one
about a quarter of a mile upstream from where this picture was taken,
and another less than three miles past that. Both are primarily used
by school age children. The vast redwood forests with creeks flowing
through are ideal for such campgrounds.
This is a campground too. I know it does not look like it. It is
located between a creek and an industrial building, the eave of which
is visible in the top right corner of the picture. The herd of
dumpsters that is barely visible at the bottom of the picture might
include a dozen dumpsters at at time. (I tried to get both the eave
and the dumpsters in one picture.) There really are two rows of
barbed wire on top of that fence behind the dumpsters.
Nonetheless, it is a campground. You see, individuals who lack
adequate shelter occasionally camp on a flat spot next to the creek,
right below the big cottonwood tree in the middle of the picture. It
is not a big space, so can only accommodate one or maybe two people
at a time. No one has been there for quite a while. Yet, on rainy
days like today, it is saddening to imagine someone camping there, so
close to inaccessible buildings.
Because the area is outside of landscaped areas, I do nothing to
make it any more comfortable as a campground. I only cut away the
limbs that fall onto the fence.
The trees are a mix of mostly box elders, with a few cottonwoods
and willows, and even fewer alders, with one deteriorating old
bigleaf maple. They concern me. Box elders, cottonwoods and willows
are innately unstable. All but bigleaf maple are innately
structurally deficient. Although bigleaf maple should innately be
both stable and structurally sound, the particular specimen in this
situation is in the process of rotting and collapsing.
I really do not mind if limbs or entire trees fall into the
forested riparian zone. If they fall outward, they do not damage the
dumpsters. Only the fence needs to be repaired. What worries me are
the potential residents of the campground. Part of my work is to
inspect trees for health, stability and structural integrity, and if
necessary, prescribe arboricultural procedures to make them safe. I
just can not do that here.
UPDATE: Just after this article posted at midnight, a very big box
elder off to the right of those in the picture fell with a loud but
quick crash. It was probably the biggest and most deteriorated of the
box elders in this area, and pulled completely out of the ground to
reveal that the roots were so decayed, that none stayed attached to
the stump. Seriously, you should see the pictures when they get
posted next Sunday.
Apologies for not explaining what this blog is about earlier. I did not expect visitors so immediately after posting the first article. It will be several days before I am able to develop the basics of the blog, and write something for the ‘ABOUT’ section. Until then, I will post this article below, which is actually from my gardening blog. It briefly explains what I will be doing here.
When I started posting my weekly gardening articles here, along with a few other odds and ends, I reserved the right to occasionally post articles or information that is not directly related to horticulture. I do not do it often, but I will do it now, in order to briefly explain another blog that I started today. Felton League It will feature articles and insight about the distinguished small group of displaced or socially marginalized people and their friends in Felton in California. In other words, it will be about our homeless Community. In about 2013, at a time when the homeless were more openly persecuted and assaulted, and evenly violently attacked, Felton League began as an informational forum on Facebook. We had been discouraged by the portrayal of the homeless in other so-called ‘community’ groups. Disparaging pictures, often contrived, were shared openly for the amusement of haters. This is common on the pages of our local law enforcement agencies. Well, that seemed like a good idea. We started sharing pictures of those taking pictures of us, and describing how they stalked us for the sake of taking such pictures. They did not like that, and accused us of stalking, harassment, and all sorts of nonsense. They were also much more careful about how they stalked us. In fact, the stalking subsided so much shortly after the establishment of Felton League, that the page was almost deleted. Instead, it remained as a Community forum for topics that were of interest to our segment of the Community. It was designed to appeal to less than one percent of the populace, most of whom do not use Facebook, but gained quite a following. There were nearly a hundred followers, but less than a dozen homeless. That seemed rather odd, especially since a local hate group that specializes in the derision of the homeless, and claiming to represent ‘everyone’ in town, had only about three dozen followers when an associate checked in on them about a month ago. It became obvious that others beyond our Community appreciate the insight. It is now time to expand Felton League. I hope that this blog makes it more available to a broader audience. I will not post daily. Nor will I discuss certain local events and news that are not directly related to our distinguished small group. As unpleasant as homelessness is, I hope that readers find Felton League to be insightful and perhaps, in some ways, encouraging. The three men in the pictures above and below are three old friends and members of our Community who have passed away since the establishment of Felton League, and are three of the reasons why I continue to write.
Fake environmentalism is a HUGE topic, so for now, will be limited
to fake environmentalism as justification for the eviction of
homeless encampments.
The yellow triangle in the picture above was the site of the
Hero’s Camp, which was more commonly known as Ross Camp, and located
behind Ross Dress For Less in Gateway Plaza in Santa Cruz. It is gone
now. This satellite image was taken by Google Maps prior to the
development of the Camp. I did not get pictures of the camp while
inhabited, but you have likely seen enough other camps in the news to
imagine what it looked like.
It really was as big as it looks, and really did exhibit all the
problems that you hear about in the news, although not to such an
exaggerated degree. Not everyone there used syringes to inject
illicit narcotics. Not everyone there was an alcoholic. Not everyone
was violent, from somewhere else, or a criminal. This is not about
such issues anyway. It is about how the two hundred or so unhoused
people who lived here affected the environment.
Was there trash? Of course there was. Was it more than what two
hundred people who live in homes generate? No. Houseless people do
not generate as much trash as the housed, simply because they lack
resources to purchase the commodities from which so much trash is
generated. The houseless certainly do not waste as much as the
housed. Their trash just happens to be more visible for outsiders who
do not know any better to see.
Furthermore, what is so typically described and perceived as trash
is actually the belongings of those who live in such camps. Without
closets, cabinets or furniture, our belongings would look about the
same, except much more voluminous. When we take just some of the
belongings that we don’t want or need and put them out in front of
our homes, it is a garage sale, and likely amounts to much more than
individual homeless people own.
The satellite image from Google Maps below shows the neighborhood
where my grandparents lived in Felton, less than seven miles north of
where the picture above was taken. Their old home is right in the
middle of the picture. There were not so many other homes there when
they arrived, just as World War II was ending. They lived a
relatively modest lifestyle, on a small suburban parcel. They were
not concerned about the environment.
Why should they have been? Even now, the people who live in homes
here can generate as much trash as they want to, and no one will
complain about it. They can fill their homes with their belongings,
and put them neatly away in closets, cabinets and drawers. There are
alcoholics in this neighborhood, as well as a few who are addicted to
illicit narcotics. Some are criminals. Some are violent. Few are
native. Again, this is off the main topic.
None of that is visible in this satellite image anyway. What it
shows instead is how the lifestyles of those who live in homes are
more detrimental to the environment than the lifestyles of those who
lack homes. This picture is the same scale as the picture above, so
you can see that only a few homes would fit into an area comparable
to that in which about two hundred unhoused people lived. Only a few
people live in each of these few homes.
What that means is that two hundred people like those who lived at
the Hero’s Camp live dispersed over a much larger area, on land from
which trees and vegetation needed to be removed. They all live in
homes that are made of wood derived from trees that grew in forests.
These homes are furnished with synthetic plaster, carpet, paint,
glass, vinyl, metals and all sorts of materials that needed to be
quarried, processed or manufactured.
It doesn’t end there. These homes consume energy for heating,
lighting and whatever else that gas and electricity are used for.
Cars driven by those who live in homes are also constructed from raw
materials, and then need fuel to function. Water is consumed as if it
were not a very limited resource. Much of it gets mixed with soaps
and detergents before going back into the environment. Chlorine
volatilizes from chlorinated swimming pools.
Then there are the landscapes and gardens, the parts of domestic lifestyles that we actually believe to be beneficial to the environment. They contain exotic (non-native) plants that compete with native species, and interfere with natural ecological processes. Irrigation of the landscapes stimulates growth of redwoods, and accelerates decay of oaks. Soil amendments, fertilizers and some of the pesticides change the chemistry of the soil and ground water.
Just compare these two pictures. As bad as the mess at Hero’s Camp
was, the two hundred people who lived there were less detrimental to
the environment and the local ecosystem than those who live in just a
few of the homes visible in the picture below. Those who claim to be
concerned about the environment should be more concerned about the
ecologically detrimental lifestyles of those who live in homes than
those who lack homes.
(Incidentally, the title was changed slightly from the original post [in another blog] to conform to the meme of ‘Hypocrisy’.)
Felton League 