As the previous post indicates, Los Angeles seems to have lost its purpose and focus. Coincidentally, it has some of the best weather for "living rough" as being homeless is sometimes described. With a hat tip to Jonathan Swift, might I suggest a latter-day modest proposal.
Convert Los Angeles into the nation's homeless shelter, set up bullet-proof public restrooms, distribute free drugs and food, and invite one and all to come hang out there. Make it a sanctuary or coventry for the nation's idle, addicted and insane, enforce no laws, fight no fires, and let the inmates run the asylum. Perhaps even provide free one-way transportation for all who wish to come.
But please, make entry easy and leaving the opposite, the gates need to swing largely one-way. Then, we can reinstitute vagrancy laws in the rest of the country and generally clean up the mess in places like SF and Portland that aren't nearly so gifted by nature with climate suitable for outdoor living.
We could fund some of the cost by televising the more entertaining antics of the inhabitants. I'm imagining Mad Max reality video.
And just to be very clear, for those who don't "get" the Swift reference, this is mostly satire. That is, except for the parts that are already operational - informally arranged, as it were.
Afterthought: I can imagine judges offering lifer convicts a choice, go to prison or be shipped to LA.
