Nature Boy
July 12, 2023, 8:21 am
8.6k Views
20 Comments
By Nature Boy
I haven’t seen any news of it, but this morning [Wednesday] around 9am there was a death on the sidewalk at 1025 State Street, in front of Crossroads Trading Co.
I saw a body covered with a yellow body-sheet, caution-tape cordoning off the area, an empty wheelchair near the body, and multiple emergency vehicles on State Street. Is there any news on this death, or will it just fall through the cracks because it was possibly a homeless person?
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3 in San Roque fell thru the cracks and they weren’t even homeless.
When was this?
Good point. I guess deaths don’t warrant a news report unless there are unusual circumstances. I just thought that such a visible death (a body in downtown State Street right on the sidewalk) would be newsworthy.
This is SOBERING…….. Seeing dead bodies on the streets ?!!!
Last week as I drove down the Carrillo offramp, there was a ‘body’ on the ground near a light post. As we stopped at the light, everyone was looking at it probably hoping to see some movement. Fingers seemed colorless and stiff. No movement. It was awful to see but traffic continued once the light turned. I asked myself “Did I just see a dead body?” Is this what we have become in SB. Lifeless body on the sidewalk and everyone, myself included, just kept going. Please SB get the homeless off the sidewalks and into some kind of protected shelter.
And then you called 911… Right?????
Dead body at the harbor yesterday too
and as for news about deaths in town, they rarely if ever report on it. that stuff stopped in the 80s when the put a freeze on those reports. Not conductive to their tourist industry….not my words….nor do i agree with it. This city doesn’t even have a police blotter thats handy and available. In the 80s and 90s, the Horror hotel (Virginia on Haley), had deaths weekly. Never reported. OD’s, stabbings, a few shootings, all over drugs. Now it’s a fancy schmancy hotel….if they only knew what went on in there…
@Doulie – they do not have that access. Reporters have to request info from the PIO of the department but can be fully ignored. Only a FOIA request will grant the info but that can could be kicked down the road for weeks or months if the Dept. wants.
Zero – The old Virginia and SB Inn plus others that had been on lower State or in the area back in the day, now renovated, likely have some unruly ghosts walking through their buildings. I’m surprised today’s “reporters” don’t push the cops to start a clipboard containing a copy of their reports. In the past it was always interesting to read articles by Brantingham and Dalton of the former SBNP that likely received some of their information from police reports. Easy for the the cops PIO to review a report and block out any information they consider PD relevant and then release it to the press. Anyone know if “reporters” have access to their reports?
That doesn’t happen today. The phrase “It if bleeds it leads” is around for a reason. Deaths will get 10x more traffic than any other story and the media will publish it like crazy for the clicks. Most deaths are not reported because of confidentiality, respect for families, etc. If someone is living on the street and dies from an overdose or natural causes, the police aren’t going to blast that to the media just like they wouldn’t advertise a similar death inside a private home.
Zero – A doorman at the ‘ol Virginia? Who would have guessed? Talking with a friend, they reminded me what I referred to as the SB Inn on lower State was the Barbara Hotel at Cota and State. In its latter days there was a liquor store right at the corner nearest the front doors to the hotel. A lot of Ripple and Thunderbird went out those doors. Heard the hotel was a real nice place until taken over by winos and low cost rooms. Tony’s Log Cabin restaurant was across the street and I believe it later moved south, mid-block, name changed to Joe’s. The “sally” thrift shop was on a corner down at Haley & State, a liquor store on the southwest corner and Pep Boys on the northwest corner. Not positive but I believe there was a Signal Gas Station at the southeast corner. Last I heard there was a tattoo shop above the old station. This area is not near as bad as most of State Street. Going to take a ride down there some day. Closest I got to the Masonic building was driving by west towards the Greyhound station. If possible, I’d take “old SB” against what we have now.
09:53 – I don’t know much about an ink blotter much less the definition of a police blotter. I don’t know if a police blotter must be kept, but if there is one it is a “public record as to information that is expressly stated to be subject to disclosure in the statute,” Gov’t Code 6254(f)(1), (2) and (3). Taking a quick glance at the Code there are exemptions. I doubt the cops would be keeping information required to be released and make us use FOIA unnecessarily. I’ll guess I’m not interpreting this code correctly otherwise reporters would not be having a problem getting information.
Doulie-
The doorman is at the old Virginia which is now a Holiday Inn i think. Cota and State where the Cruisery is located was once the Pep Boys shop you mentioned. Prior to that it was Western Auto Supply, then prior to that, The new Morris Hotel, and prior to that, it was the Shaw House (hotel, three stories high-earthquake brought most of it down). After Pep Boys, it was the SB Humane Society Thrift store, then in 1995 SB Brew Co owned by John (Longboards, Harrys, Tee Off and Harbor rest. The Mason building was errected by the current Mayor, a Master Mason, in 1924. 6 years before the Lobero was built. Not sure how i got onto this historic tangent, sorry to hijack the thread. Doulie- Do you rememeber the old YMCA building that is where Ralphs is now? Right next to the giant pine tree. As teens in the 80s we used to scale the fence there and sneak in. four stories of abandon rooms and halls. Super creepy and cool too. The house that was there prior was moved to Castillo and Cliff. The family planted that giant pine tree when their daughter was born. Tree still standing, loaded with lights at Xmas time. Thanks 🙂
ZERO – Swam in the basement pool at the YMCA building on Carrillo a few times. Lucky the firefighter’s weren’t out waxing their trucks to make them look pretty, they might have seen you:)
Doulie-
Yes! I could imagine some of those old places are full of ghosts. Last Thanksgiving, i was with my daughter walking by the Virginia. I was telling her, quietly i thought, about the place in the 80s. The doorman heard some of it as I passed and stopped me. He asked some questions, he was younger, in his mid 20s i guess. He was very surprised to know the history. I didn’t get into many details that I knew, just the basic facts. He did note that many guests there have commented on strange noises, creaking sounds, weird gasps, and strange hushed voices late at night in the halls. I knew someone that died in that building in the upper right corner facing Haley. I know the one on the other side of Haley is pretty bad, i think that is the SB inn? The one that faces the 99C store parking lot. There are a lot of old haunts in SB. The Mason building is one as well. VERY old, one of the first large buildings in town. I’m a master mason and have been inside and it’s one of the most amazing buildings in town and so richly decorated inside and out. There is a deep basement….which leads to another topic for another time…the old halls and tunnels below State Street.
yes, i work on State near Carrillo. When i arrived, SBPD wake up truck was parked at Figueroa. The guys drive up and down State in the early morning waking up the homeless. I locked up my bike and walked a few feet when a ladder truck and EMT drove past me quickly. I went inside and opened up the office, walked back outside and walked down the street towards Figueroa. They were doing chest compressions on him and had the defib out and ready. I walked back to the office, flipped on the lights and walked back out. At that time, they stopped CPR and pulled out the blanket. He was an older houseless man. Wheelchair bound. I’ve seen him downtown for years, never bothered anyone. Mostly kept to himself. That really messed me up for the day. RIP dude. So sorry you died alone and on the street. I’m sure you deserved better than that ending. 🙁
There must be police files that show pictures of our houseless people. I would like to see these pictures dug up and published after street deaths. A lot of these people are very familiar to us and supported to some extent by us, and some sort of obituary with at least a picture could be provided by the city or county? The wheelchair people are distinctive, surely, in files. One sees the police talking to houseless people, aren’t files or photographs assembled somewhere?
Some criminal activity statistics are also not being made public here. Crime is bad for tourism and business!
11:23 – Looking back at my 02:17 comment. Could it be reporters are not going to the agencies and asking specific questions when there is more time for discussion? This would enable them to report “criminal activity statistics” in total and other items of interests. Or, are reporters only questioning a PIO at news conferences?