A Personal Visit to the Santa Ana Riverbed Homeless Encampment
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COMMUNITY Fullerton bsCeALErNDAvR Peage 1r 2-15 O EAR FULLERTON’S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS • Est.1978 (printed on 20% recycled paper) • Y 39 #16 • EARLY OCTOBER 2017 Submissions: [email protected] • Contact: (714) 525-6402 • Read Online at : www.fullertonobserver.com Grand Inn Case Ruling by Sinh Dang A ruling has been made in the City of Fullerton case against the Grand Inn on Euclid Avenue, declaring it a public nui - sance. The Grand Inn owner and managers were accused of creating an environment in which crimes (primarily related to drug use and sales) thrived, based on Fullerton Police Department testimony and crime statistics showing excessive calls and arrests at the location. The owner was presented with an order to comply with restrictions or face a pub - lic nuisance case brought by the city in a “Notice of Violation - Order of Abatement” issued on December 1, 2014. The city subsequently filed a Public Nuisance case against the Grand Inn on March 28, 2016, after it said the hotel owner and management failed to remedy the issues. Over 400 homeless people currently live in tents and homemade structures along a bike path section of the Santa Ana Riverbed from The hearing began June 22, 2016 and Chapman to Ball Road according to a recent census done by CityNet. PHOTO BY JESSE LA TOUR lasted through July 26, 2017 in a series of eleven day-long sessions held at city hall. At the Public Nuisance Hearing, evidence from both the city and the Grand Inn was A Personal Visit to the Santa Ana Riverbed presented to Hearing Officer Matthew R. Silver. Homeless Encampment by Jesse La Tour continued on page 5 Anyone who drives in Orange County Curtis brings along a stack of photo - riverbed encampment and she says that it (which is most people because, let’s face it, copied sheets of The List to pass out to is a place where people go to give up—to this place was not built for public transit) homeless people we encounter along the not improve themselves, to be long-term is at least visually aware that there is a riverbed. homeless. She doesn’t want to go back 7 . A 7 S large homeless encampment along the We get off the bus at Katella in Orange D . there. 5 C I D 1 U A Santa Ana riverbed, stretching from (at E . and walk toward our next transfer. En Our next bus stop is near a Jack in the N P T D O O E least) Angel Stadium to Orange. R route, we run into a homeless couple on R Box and other businesses that are basical - N T G A O R It’s a constant daily reminder to com - T A S bicycles whom Curtis knows. I learn that ly across the street from a riverbed D I E T E L N S muters that in a county that boasts one of M R they have five kids, used to live along the entrance. At Jack in the Box, I buy 10 L A O P R T U the highest per capita incomes in the P E riverbed, and are now looking to find cheeseburgers to give out to homeless peo - S F P nation, in a place where houses regularly more stable housing. ple we encounter. Something tells me I’ll sell for a million plus dollars, less than a I ask the woman what she thinks of the need more. continued on page 18 mile from the Happiest Place on Earth, there is a tent city, a massive homeless encampment, Orange County’s very own Hooverville. Save Coyote Hills is Working Out of a desire to understand this situ - tion first-hand, beyond rumors, stereo - by Angela Lindstrom This was despite Chevron’s whopping types, and oversimplifications, I decide to $1.3 million campaign budget which T go see the encampment for myself, not This may be surprising considering the N probably set a record for a Fullerton elec - E L whizzing by in a car on the freeway, but Friends of Coyote Hills is locked in a law - tion. L D A up close. I want to walk, on foot, through suit with the City of Fullerton and I As a result of the successful referendum, C S 2 E the Santa Ana Riverbed. Chevron-Pacific Coast Homes to uphold Chevron-PCH set aside one parcel on the S E 0 R I E 4 I’ll admit, I’m wary and afraid at first. the public’s 2012 Measure W vote which R T east side of Coyote Hills for open space as V 6 R - I’ve heard horror stories of drug abuse, should have overturned the City Council’s R T E a concession. The houses they would have E 5 V S violence, angry dogs, etc. So I ask my approval of the Coyote Hills develop - N 2 built on this parcel were shifted to west D B E 5 friend Curtis, who was himself homeless ment. But hear me out. A - side of the site instead. Progress! R O 4 for eight years and lived, for a time, along It’s been 16 years since Chevron-PCH O R In 2015, three years after our vote, the E 1 T 7 began its latest development approval U the riverbed, to accompany me. We catch H Fullerton City Council finally weighed in T C the bus at the Fullerton Transportation application. Back then critics scoffed at on the effect of Measure W … nothing. N I R Center, home of Kelly’s Corner (the our mission to save all 510-acres of Legally, a developer can reapply for O memorial to Kelly Thomas, the local Coyote Hills as a park and preserve, say - approvals one year after a referendum but homeless man who was beaten to death by ing “it’s a done deal”. We persisted to edu - those approvals Fullerton police in 2011) and head cate the community on the impacts of this continued on page 5 toward the river. Curtis, who was an massive development…and hired a OCTA bus driver for 14 years, knows the lawyer. RESUBSCRIBE NOW OC bus system and its drivers very well. In 2010 the Fullerton City Council TO REMAIN ON A homeless advocate now, Curtis brings denied Chevron-PCH’s development pro - along his satchel containing printed-out posal. Victory was short-lived, however, OUR MAILING LIST ! articles and municipal codes relating to when Chevron-PCH sued the City. The October is subscription renewal homelessness. City caved and handed Chevron-PCH the month. If you would like to continue 4 3 But, perhaps most importantly, Curtis approvals in 2011. receiving your Fullerton Observer 8 N 2 brings several copies of The List. Over the Around this time, we stopped hearing R through the US Mail please renew 9 1 O 5 E A past several years, he has compiled a com - “it’s a done deal”. Now the objection was your annual subscription by sending 0 T V 7 C “there’s no money to buy the land”. We R prehensive (and accurate) list of churches, in your mailing label and a check for R X N E E O O shelters, and food pantries that provide kept looking (we were awarded a $1 mil - $25/in town or $35/out of town. L S B T R L homeless services. It’s not city-specific. It’s lion matching grant in 2015). B Fullerton Observer O E P U L a regional list that, for many of Orange In 2012, the Friends sponsored a suc - O PO Box 7051 L F U County’s homeless, is a lifeline to regular cessful referendum called Measure W that Fullerton CA 92832 F meals, clothes, showers, and shelter. overturned the Development Agreement. Page 2FULLERTON OBSERVER COMMUNITY OPINIONS CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 EARLY OCT 2017 respond conventionally or with nukes? Fullerton OUT OF MY MIND We don’t know. Kim Jong Un could by Jon Dobrer © 2017 indeed carry out his threat and try to bserver shoot down our bombers currently flying O near the north. What then? Game on? It’s not a game. The Fullerton Observer Community AR UT IRST A ISTRACTION Newspaper, founded by Ralph and Natalie W !!!! B F - D Kim could fire a missile over Japan that fails, raining debris down on Japan, or we Kennedy and a group of friends in 1978, is There’s a pretty good chance of blun - The Republicans wanted to keep their staffed by local citizen volunteers who create, could blow up our own missile over Japan dering into war with North Korea. No, it’s promise of voting to repeal ObamaCare publish, and distribute the paper throughout and replay the Gulf of Tonkin. I have no not the name-calling by Trump. Calling but didn’t like their own bills. They want - our community. question that the American people would This venture is a not-for-profit one with all Kim Jong Un “Rocket Man” may be an ed to be on record but didn’t want to pass support the President and the war effort ad and subscription revenues plowed back into insult to Elton John, but it gives Kim Jong the legislation. Sen. John McCain didn’t for up to three months and then support maintaining and improving our independent, Un status. The real danger of war in the betray his party. He saved it. The non-partisan, non-sectarian community news - would quickly fade.