watch it: “Tent cities spring up in LA”

by MaryAnn Johanson

Sun, Mar 30, 2008

4 comments

We shouldn’t have to watch BBC News to get the scoop on what’s happening in the United States:

via a commenter at Eschaton

(Technorati tags: Tent cities spring up in LA)

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4 Comments

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Laura F

Sun, Mar 30, 2008 12:15pm

From what I’ve read elsewhere, this is actually in Ontario, CA, which is east of LA.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tents18mar18,1,5139391.story?page=1

MaryAnn

Mon, Mar 31, 2008 3:46am

The point still stands, does it not? Why are we not hearing about this on the news in the United States? Why isn’t this HUGE news?

Laura F

Mon, Mar 31, 2008 10:06am

Because there have always been homeless people, and probably always will be. And a lot of them don’t deserve to be homeless–they had bad luck, or lost their jobs, or things that. This isn’t really “unusual” in the eyes of the mass media, and therefore it isn’t big news. People don’t care. People are stupid.

I didn’t mean to sound cavalier or dismissive in my last comment–I was just pointing to more information I thought you might find interesting. I think the homeless situation sucks, and always has. The point is that this isn’t really a new thing–it’s been around for a long time. The Tent City didn’t really “spring up” outside of LA–it was established by the city of Ontario to give a place to homeless people who had already been there for a long time. It was a brave thing and I’m glad they did it.

But it isn’t really new.