I have to agree that Glendale should not cater to the homeless, nor
cater to the homeowners associations, the auto dealers, the developers,
tourists from Iowa, Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck.
Sometimes I get the notion that too many good burghers can't seem to
distinguish between catering and simple human values and the
responsibilities attendant to not being in the dire straits that afflict
far, far too many people in this country.
Councilman Gomez was 110% correct in his saying that the council has a
responsibility to everyone in Glendale -- because that is the very raison
d'etre of having city councils and electing people to sit on them.
No, sheltering the homeless is not a business we should be in. There's
no profit to it and as profit is what drives an apparent majority,
foisting off the homeless and the shelter problem on some other city
would seem to be what the strident voices of Glendale most desire.
Then of course Glendale would have to erect a wall around the city to
be sure that the exported problem is not revisited upon the city. I would
think that the stuff used in the wall around Staples Center could be
bought at a discount to put up around Glendale, buy up the unused stock
of rubber bullets, beanbag projectiles, tear gas, etc, left over from the
recent DNC, and hire Dick Riordan and Bernie Parks to advise the Glendale
Police Department how best to repel boarders at the Great Wall of
Glendale to keep out the homeless and anyone else unacceptable to
Glendale's good residents. While we are at it, dig a moat around the
Great Wall of Glendale and stock it with underfed piranhas.
Yeah, the citizens of the present and of the past have indeed worked
hard and long to make Glendale what it is today. Unfortunately, that
seems to be the real problem -- it is what it is today -- a collection of
good burghers who would just as soon have their very own planet made as
utterly antiseptic as possible to make of it. OK, fine, how about having
Glendale secede from the United States and hire unemployed Russians and
fellows from the Taliban to be the border guards for the island Grand
Dutchy of Glendale to deal with whomever getting across the moat and over
the Great Wall. Print our own money and postage stamps and sell some of
it to collectors surfing the Internet.
As it is the city promotes lots of stuff -- but it still does not bear
fruit in clean streets, attractive parks and libraries, etc. as the
constant bottom line in Glendale is everybody wants everything, but
