Garbage from homeless population clogs storm drains, floods San Diego County homes
Here in San Diego, we get very little rain. But when we do get it, it's a torrent. Even it isn't a torrent by, say, Florida standards, it's a torrent to us, enough to create disruptions.
Here's a pretty intolerable one:
ЁЯЪи Urgent Reality Check. The undeniable link between our homelessness crisis & floods in San Diego hits hard. Tents, sleeping bags, trash, shopping carts in the canals clogged the drains. The call is crystal clear: MORE shelter beds NOW & strict canal maintenance enforcement. pic.twitter.com/FKuMEjXBFR
— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) January 27, 2024
So they've been tolerating homeless tent encampments for years, despite laws against illegal camping, and instead of ensure that those messes made are cleaned up, city officials let them clog the storm drains, which creates flooding conditions for tax-paying residents who paid for the drains, and whose lives don't revolve around obtaining illegal drugs.
That's what the bum encampments are about. And as far as the City goes, apparently nobody's in charge, nobody regulates that big chunks of litter and garbage from these homeless encampments might affect the flood control in place to save homes.
Amy Reichert, a local pol associated with the Republicans who wasn't elected Supervisor when she ran in the last election (I wish she was) says she's seen this firsthand, and the local press has been reporting it since 2017:
Last year, I went into the flood canals with a search team to find a missing teenager. Everything I have tweeted is a firsthand account. Also the local media documented the encampments blocking storm drains as far back as 2017.
— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) January 27, 2024
The creepy thing is that residents out in the back boonies of the county (the ones who vote red) are suffering mightily from this kind of neglect.
Look at this failure by blue city officials to listen to any of their concerns:
Flood impacted resident received embarrassingly bad email response from District 4 San Diego County Supervisor’s office. Despite concerns about a blocked, bacteria-filled storm canal, the county's reply was about providing access to dumpsters. People need more than dumpsters! pic.twitter.com/zuchG2BHLV
— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) January 26, 2024
Residents in District 4 feel like they are being ignored by the County after the flooding. The new Supervisor says she has plenty of dumpsters. pic.twitter.com/ogtgMw0wWX
— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) January 26, 2024
Apparently, they want the residents to clean out the storm drains, even though some inspector would be right there with the handcuffs or a citation to write if they dared do it.
They won't even get Joe Biden to pay for it, seeking declaration of a federal disaster area, even though clearly it is a disaster area.
Residents in District 4 feel like they are being ignored by the County after the flooding. The new Supervisor says she has plenty of dumpsters. pic.twitter.com/ogtgMw0wWX
— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) January 26, 2024
Might draw attention to those flotsam-filled storm drains ....
What they won't do is clean out the tent cities, which is where the problem is coming from.
Despite a billion-dollar budget shortfall, the City has lots of money for migrants rolling in from foreign countries:
Just remember. The County of San Diego gave $6 million to migrants (debit cards, airfare, shelter) with a 14% of being granted asylum. Now telling people who are San Diego residents who lost their homes to floods to basically “go pound sand”
— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) January 26, 2024
What they don't have is money for her:
“I feel betrayed by my government. I work. I pay taxes. I never ask for anything.” ~Patricia Sanchez, flood victim & District 4 resident unincorporated Spring Valley pic.twitter.com/O7eYvek1uu
— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) January 26, 2024
They tolerate this crap going on, too, insult to injury:
ЁЯЪиBeware of scammers & price gougers after the San Diego flooding.
— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) January 25, 2024
ЁЯЪЩ A blue car stranded in flooded chaos - a symbol of the wreckage of our failed infrastructure in San Diego.
ЁЯдм Heartless tow truck driver swoops in, tows it just ONE block, and demands $200 from the distressed… pic.twitter.com/JwGJ5CitCA
It's just incredible what is going on as residents find themselves on the bad end of a rain disaster and City officials are worse than useless -- they actually aid and abet the conditions that create mayhem.
Their priority is the convenience of bums rather than the well-being of law-abiding taxpayers who own homes.
One hopes that San Diego's residents will change their voting habits, but the blue zones in the County call the shots, not the struggling rural desert and mountain areas in the east, so the prospect is remote.
One can only cross one's fingers then that exposure to the issue will finally shame them into cleaning up the homeless situation or that residents find a way to sue them. All by herself, Amy Reichert is doing a hell of a job (that the press should be doing) getting that information out there.
Image: Twitter screen shot