The first time I visited California was over 30 years ago. My wife and I went before kids. Used to be my favour place on the planet. The weather was always beautiful. the mountains and redwoods are beautiful. There were miles and miles of beautiful beaches. You can sail year round. Hot Rods and bikes are useable year round and the state seemed to be so far advanced in may ways;
The movie industry started there over 100 years ago. They were first in computers, first in alternative energy, first in silicone breast implants (lol). First in so many ways. It used to be the playground of the rich and famous.
Today, this is what California has come to….
“The Blue Chirper”
It’s a device to deter the homeless from settling in an area. Although I dunno why crickets chirping would be a deterrent, the inventor also mentions that the flashing blue light makes it hard for drug addicts to find a vein to shoot up.
The device is not an answer but rather a bandaid. It does not address the root cause of the problem.
The problem is one of great social and economic scope. It’s a balancing act between compassion and commercial enterprise which keeps economies going.
I can relate to the homeless / vagrancy problem
I can see both sides of the problem. While I don’t agree with spikes on areas where vagrants usually try to sleep, I also see that vagrants are a deterrent to business, to the point where they can actually cause businesses to go broke. That’s not helping either the vagrant or the business. So having them near commercial businesses is a lose-lose proposition. Nobody wins.
My Personal Nightmare
I’ve had lots of such nightmares. Here, I share just one;
Back in the day, I used to own a retail, commercial building. A beautiful boutique like building with 5 commercial tenants in including my own office. My anchor tenant was a finance company. Triple A tenant!
When buying the building I examined the leases and found that the finance co. had a clause in their lease saying they could bail on 6 months notice if the area deteriorated. I thought it was an odd clause but didn’t think much of it because they had been there for 10 years already and everything was looking good.
Next door to my building was a small soup kitchen, aka “feed the needy” which had been there for years. It was in the basement of the neighbouring building but you wouldn’t even know it existed if you didn’t know about it. Just a door in the building with no advertising, no signage, nothing. You had to know it was there. Again, I thought not a big problem since the whole deal was so good.
I was pretty young at the time, not even 30. Without going into details, I was able to buy the building and have my bank give me money back in my pocket over and above the purchase price and the building still “carried” itself with its own income! I was like the wiz kid or real estate back then! The deal was better than getting a free building with triple A tenants, the bank would even “pay me” to buy it! (that in itself is a long story and not within the scope of this post).
But later, that little soup kitchen grew out of control. There was a 2nd soup kitchen near by that closed and the one beside me absorbed the overflow. The little kitchen beside me ended up feeding over 300 people per day. People would line up every day and the line stretched out in front of my building, all the way down the block, waiting to get into the kitchen. You’d swear people were lining up for half price Britney Spears tickets! The vagrants would block all my retail tenant’s front doors! Thus customers would not want to break the line to to come in to shop and my tenants were also afraid to leave the building because they would have to break the line to leave! Are you starting to get the picture? What kind of business could survive under those circumstances!? NONE!
The kitchen was in a basement, which was a fire hazard as it was… if you or I wanted to build a restaurant in a basement, it would not be allowed due to fire and zoning bylaws but somehow the City let this kitchen slide because it was all about “feed the needy” you know?
So there was a fire issue but also a capacity issue. The small kitchen should not have had more than 50-75 person capacity but they were constantly well over capacity and the City still let this slide.
Worse, it wasn’t always the “needy” that would use the service. I once heard these guys joking about how they felt bad using the service so they’d park their brand new pick up trucks around the corner so no one would see them getting out of them. (A new pick up truck back in those days was like $50,000.00 equivalent of over 100k today! These people, some of them, were not poor!)
The daily line up of these people in front of my building blocked customers from coming into my building. We had a cafe in the building and all the good customers stopped coming. I ran into one of the women that used to always come for lunch who worked in another office building nearby. She said since the soup kitchen came (they didn’t even know it was there before it grew out of proportion) they would take the time to walk a block away to get to where their cars were parked! They said they wouldn’t even walk down my street anymore due to the vagrants. They felt unsafe and I can’t say I blame them walking amongst drug addicts with nothing to lose. They rob, even kill people for money to buy their drugs with.
I used to have to get to my building at like 0700hrs before the stores would open. I’d arrive in a suit, go get my bucket of water and start to wash off the puke from my parking lot where the druggies would eat at the kitchen, then puke it up on my property! Then I’d have to go round back and pick up the discarded NEEDLES!
This went on for 7 years! 7 days a week since I had to maintain the property for the other tenants! In the meantime my mother was dying of cancer although 7 “doctors” gave her 7 different diagnosis! My wife and I just had our first born at that time as well.
Eventually EVERY ONE of my Tenants LEFT! Some did not renew their leases, others just walked from their lease! I couldn’t sell the building or lease it! I was stuck with a vacant building paying the realty taxes that were went for 5 tenants!
I built and started the cafe in the building out of panic! I thought I could start it, then sell the business to someone and end up with a tenant or at least have some income from the cafe. This turned out to be another nightmare.
I ran the business, as well as my other business, then sold the cafe to a woman who, long story short STOLE equipment, SOLD MY EQUIPMENT to vendors although she had not paid for the cafe! The agreement was that she would put a deposit down, then pay me monthly for the balance from the income! But she sold stuff, like coolers and irreplaceable autographed pictures of movie stars and oh, I don’t even want to remember! Then she got a lawyer to threaten me saying the AC was not sufficient and “my client” is losing money! Although I ran the cafe without any problems without the current AC unit, I used her deposit, $15,000.00 (based on $150,000.00 sale) to buy a 5 ton AC unit! The unit was so big it required a crane to put it on the roof! It was the size of a Toyota! Previous unit was 2 Ton and it was more than adequate for a 2000sf space. None the less, with the bigger AC unit, the lawyer had no case.
One day I showed up in my office. There was an envelope with the keys to the cafe and a note saying “sorry it didn’t work out”.
The staff expected me to keep it open but I couldn’t. I closed the cafe, sold the rest of the stuff off at 10c on the dollar. Cost more to keep it open as most were afraid to come in the afternoon for lunch because of the lineups but after-hours, many we’re afraid of the type of clientele.
One day someone got stabbed just outside the cafe. My staff held towels on the victims guts to hold the blood in until ambulance arrived. So ya, I closed it.
I even got in to a fight there! I was in my suit as usual, I had kicked out a bunch of undesirables from the cafe. They would hang out buy one cant of pop and share it between 9 of them taking up several tables! One day they waited for me, jumped me as I left. I had some training so I was able to defend myself. Though there was a crowd of 10-15 punks, only a few actually had the balls to attack me and out of them, you’re usually only fighting one at a time. If they can get you down then you have more problems because more than one can kick you or stomp you, so I knew enough to stay up and beat one at a time, then the rest are less likely to attack because their scared. In training, you don’t stop until the threat it contained. That is you don’t just hit, then admire your work, you have to keep going until you are certain that the attacker is not getting back up.
The next day I was eating lunch at the cafe with some colleagues when this lady pulls up in a Mercedes wearing a fur coat. She asked for me by name. I answered, “depends who’s askin”. She announced herself as a lawyer and MOTHER of one of the punks I beat up! I told her the story about what her lovely son would do at the cafe and told her to get the fuck off my property before I call the cops. She left. I never heard from her again. These young men came from good families. What happened to them!? They were not young. They were all in the 20s, all dressed like “ganstas” or punk rockers. They can afford the clothes but they don’t have jobs. One walked around with a cat’s tail attached to a chain around his waist. I heard from my employees that the psycho killed the cat and cut off it’s the tail as a “souvenir” This is what we’re up against! Thus I didn’t want them in my cafe. So they were upset that I kicked them out.
It was a fucking nightmare that wouldn’t go away! I try to go to sleep but the nightmare would still be there day time, night time, all time.
Of course all this affected my own business as well!
I offered to help move the soup kitchen at my own cost. I found a near by church that was way bigger and would offer the kitchen an opportunity to amalgamated several other parent associations which they were all leasing other spaces to house. Under my proposal, they would have amalgamated all these “services” saving them some 15,000.00 PER MONTH! Meanwhile this “non profit” organization was constantly in the newspapers saying “give us money”! They could have saved 15k/ month, I had a buyer for their building where the kitchen was so the proceeds of that would have paid for the church so wouldn’t have cost them a CENT and they would have saved all that money PLUS they would have gained ample parking for their employees and the church was in an area where the users would not impact on commercial business!
But the kitchen did not accept my offer!
STUPID ME! Coming from a capitalistic background where one BUILDS things, CREATES VALUE or BENEFIT to be compensated for, I never in my widest dreams could conceive that NON-PROFIT Organization who RELY on HANDOUTS have to be able to PROVE their expenses! In other words, it was BENEFICIAL to the NP’s to lease spaces, SPEND MONEY in order to show their funding sources details of their expenses [probably the spaces they lease were owned by them personally but the NP organization became their tenant! This is how the NPs launder money from private and corporate sources! All the time, NOT PAYING ANY TAXES!] This is why, when a normal thinking person (me) proposed how they could save 1000s per month with this amalgamation, they said NO! They want to show that they need MORE money NOT LESS! This is completely backwards to that of capitalistic thinking and revolves more around communist thinking. Money for nothing! I had no idea this is how they worked! Showing that they SAVED money was NOT in their best interest! They had to show MORE expenses NOT LESS! What kind of a brain would one have to have to come up with this! Parasitic commie, leftist, which is founded in Satanism!
It's no different thats the WEF saying they are doing well for the world, the soup kitchen saying they are helping the homeless but in reality they are only appealing to 10% of the people using their service, meanwhile there is money coming back to the those that set up the NPs! *
I appealed to the mayor who said “what do you want me to do about it”? I said ENFORCE THE ZONING! Such a use should not be permitted in a commercial area! should have a specific zoning! Like day care facilities have to meet a bunch of requirements and the kitchen was not helping anyone!
Earlier, the mayor (a woman) decided she didn’t like the strippers in this establishment in her town. There was only one licensed strip joint in the whole city. It had been there for at least 30 years that I know of but this new woman mayor changed the zoning and the strippers were gone the next day! So she could damn well help if she wanted to. The strippers were not anywhere near anything. They were on the end of town. A destination location. They were not near schools or residential or commercial areas! They were in a remote industrial area!
To my concern, they mayor said she could not more the kitchen because (quote) “That would be bad for votes!”
I was the only idiot employing people, paying taxes, providing services, whereas the kitchen paid no employees, they were all volunteers. They didn’t buy the food, it was all handouts and they don’t pay taxes! But my building, my tenants should all suffer ebcuase of this!
To add insult to injury the local paper picked up on this story and I was FRONT LINE NEWS for MONTHS! Like they had nothing better to write about! I won’t mention names but the headlines read “MY BUSINESS WANTS SOUP KITCHEN OUT OF TOWN!”
Of course I had to defend myself so I wrote back to the paper and detailed about how the patrons destroyed my building and how I would have to wash the puke from my building and pick up needles.
A City councillor, a woman wrote in saying how my letter made her sick and how unthoughtful I was about those less fortunate!
Then people would follow the council lady’s letter saying how I should be more compassionate and how I lived in a “Ivory Tower”. This was all further detrimental to my business.
Sure lady, until this happens in YOUR backyard! Fucking councillors do nothing, stay home, get paid like leeches living off the host. All they have to do it vote on issues once in a while! Nice work if you can get it! They even get pensioned off after a few years of doing nothing! Not to mention the bribes, kickbacks and perks they enjoy for doing nothing.
This nightmare went on for 7 years. I talked to lawyers, other business people, real estates, anyone who might be able to help but the nightmare would not go away.
The “Ah Ha Moment”
(as Oprah would call it)
Finally I had a conversation with someone. Won’t go into details about who this person was or how I found them, it’s too long but let’s just say he was one smart fucker! He kept telling me, “You’re not talking to the right people” I’m like “What do you mean? Im dealing with the Executive Director the soup kitchen! He’s as high as you can go! “Nope!” the man said, “Dig deeper!”
Come to think of it, this may have been one of the reasons I learned to question everything and try to get to the bottom of the issue. Most just accept what the news says you know? I don’t accept that. I want to know the truth, hence the name of this platform.
Come to think of if, watching Scooby Doo every Saturday as a kid may well have impacted on this way of thinking as well. These are things that shaped my life! What would Scooby Doo!???
I dug alright! I dug and dug for weeks, ignoring what I had been “taught” or “lead to believe” (lied to about) in past! Finally found out the story behind the kitchen! The kitchen was nothing. Just some people who begged a catholic church for money which was granted to them! Thus, they named the kitchen after the Church who granted them the money!
Once I learned this, I went to the same church, told them my problems. They said they needed more space in the area. They ended up buying the building from me at about a 150,000.00 LOSS but I was finally free!
Icing on the cake..
The Silver Lining, the Karma..
The city kept badgering me for a year after saying I owed them taxes! They’d send me registered letters saying they would take me to court! I said;
“You don’t understand! I don’t own the building anymore and the people who bought it are non profit! They DON’T PAY TAXES! AND YOU WILL NEVER RECEIVE ANOTHER CENT OF REALTY (OR BUSINESS) TAXES FROM THAT BUILDING EVER! NOT A COPPER!”
Churches don’t pay taxes!
Ironically, 30 years later, the same little kitchen bought a building on a main street in the same city, had the building demolished and built a brand new facility with a large kitchen in the back and lots of seating for their people in the front. They are on the main street of the city and the project was worth millions! Pretty good for a little kitchen that brings in no money, doesn’t pay their employees, or any taxes! Yet they were constantly in the paper asking for money! Where’d they come up with millions to build a brand new facility like this!????
As for my commercial business, closed ever since!
The kick in the the teeth on my way out, the director of the downtown board of management of the city said “congratulations, you helped yourself but nobody else”
Really? The Director has a successful business on the other side of town, 2nd generation business, handed down to him from his father. Never privy to what went on with me. My mother died in this time. I was left with no building, no business, no mother and in debt. I lost 7 or 8 years of my life there that I can never get back but ya, “I only helped myself” and I’m totally immoral without conscience!
So ya, I can see the benefit and reasoning behind “the Blue Chirper” I think you will now see devices like this gaining popularity all over the world!
Side story *
Related; I once owned a piece of property I wanted to build a commercial building on. It was a corner property. The rest of the corner was owned by a church.
After years of trying, it was obvious the city did not want me to build on the corner (or I wasn’t willing to bribe people like the successful developers)
Its another shit show that lasted for years. Without details, I eventually sold to the church completing their corner.
The pastor of the church I sold to told me about how they developed 1200 town homes along the waterfront! My jaw dropped! I said “OMG! I wouldn’t want to see YOUR tax bill! The pastor laughed. I said “what’s so funny?” The pastor said “we’re a church! We don’t pay taxes!” This was my first experience with NP’s!
The liberals argue about Trump’s tax report. I know from my own business that his buildings, his employees, his payroll etc, his enterprise provides more tax dollars to the cities he’s in, on par with some small countries!
Yet we get some blue hard liberal saying Trump doesn’t pay taxes. You know what? Maybe he doesn’t pay personal income taxes or very little but his buildings, tenants, employees etc are generating huge taxes! More than most could fathom! If he’s smart enough to figure out how business A is making money but business B is loosing and A loans to B to reduce their income, then more power to him! He’s only playing within the rules. Just because the pink haired liberals only used to hand outs have no idea of this, thats their problem not his.
And personal income tax only represents a small portion of his taxes! Most people with a job, its simple, they make dollars, a percentage of that goes to the government but when you are a business person, a capitalist, one who ventures and puts themselves, their money, their FAMLY at RISK to BUILD, to FIX things, to offer SERVICES, thats capitalism. Every step along the way is generating taxes! From the driver who drives the cement truck to the gas, which is mostly taxes, the shop that keeps the truck running, they are all generating taxes, the concrete sale there are taxes on it and on and on and on, I can’t even!
So ya, Trump is generating more taxes to pay the parasitical “governments” more than some small countries generate!
And as president, he didn’t even take the presidential salary! Unlike Obama and Clintons who walked in millionaires but LEFT Billionaires! Those are parasites! They TAKE! They do not create or build or fix things!
Those are people who can be bought by the satanists at the top of the pyramid above the government. Trump has his own money, same as Putin. These guysCANNOT be BOUGHT! Therefore they are NOBODY’S BITCH. They cannot be told what to do! And they run their countries like businesses! Not like the parasites who suck the life out of the working class and produce NOTHING!
This short video only scrapes the surface of the iceberg that is “taxes”. Just to give you a small idea of how many various tax scams there are well beyond “income tax”
https://x.com/BlendrNews/status/1837265485760729327
I guess you could say I’ve had some personal experience with this. I hope the Blue Chirper might help for the interim.
