Flooding and Hazards around Santa Barbara

By the way, it was a rhetorical question to the Edhat audience.

My rainwater tanks, attached to gutters, were open at the bottom and overflowed at the top.

Pugluvr, indeed. I saw your post about the recent memorial and I'm very sorry for your loss.

@Kid, definitely not "a little rain." Many of the rainfall totals we have received today in the span of 15-30 minutes met or exceeded the threshold for debris flows, which is stuck in our recent memories like glue. People are aware and checking in. Don't be a douche.

don't be rude. people are nervous because of the disaster three years ago.

How could I leave out the one most germane to this argume--discussion?!
New Beginnings!

I have paid a month's rent or move costs for some people. I accept your argument -- that I won't go from living alone to with someone.

Why so snarky?!

To complete his metaphorical plan, it would also be necessary to outlaw poverty.

Chem, that is exactly what I've told some of my activist friends who will go on for hours about their compassion for the homeless and scolding those who are not deemed empathetic enough. But they have never actually done a thing to help the homeless themselves. The idea seems to be to get credit for their kind words, but leave the details for others to deal with---very small details such as having to clean up feces and contaminants that could be harmful to others, having to be in fear of fires, and so on. It is easy to be compassionate at a distance. Your comment was clearly not meant to be an exact blue print of a plan of action, but if one is capable of understanding some degree of metaphoric speech it was spot on.

I don't have any homeless solutions any more. The homeless are all lumped together because few people want to be seen as judgemental to any of the multiple subsets..
The newly homeless due to job losses, death of a spouse, financial calamity get lumped with the criminal homeless who refuse to live under any type of structure and those homeless whose life plan amounts to dying from addiction and/or a bludgeoning under a crappy piece of plastic next to the freeway.

I've also cleaned up encampments on private properties.
Big fat wet flies in your eyes and mouth. Sights and smells that make your retch. Rats. I remember wondering: why not just burn it all?
People protested us. Called us heartless and all kinds of names even though it was actually nicer to make them move to a cleaner site and let this area recover and detoxify

Most certainly yes. It does come into play. I have a small creek, right across from my office, full of tents and garbage from the bums and druggies that took up residence down the street from my place of business. It happens every time it rains enough to get the creek flowing. I have called the authorities numerous times and no one cares.

Hey, Sail380, again, thank you for your question (I certainly picked up on the sarcasm, but if it leads to something positive, hey, no big deal) Personally, I prefer to put my resources towards young people, I think that pays greater benefits for society than trying to deal with people who are so far down the road. I did some research and was impressed by Youthwell, a local non-profit dedicated to providing mental health services to young people. I made a donation to them just now as well.

Sail 380, not entirely local but; my church, Planed Parenthood, Direct Relief International, Surfrider, Wilderness Youth Project, Unity Shop, Organic Soup Kitchen, local kids' sports programs.

On reflection, I could and will do a better job of giving to mental health related non-profits. Who do you like and why?

Excellent Idea. What local organization's get your donations to help lower your substantial tax liability?

Ah-ha, and here we agree. That would be a great start. You know what else would be a great start? Using our vast wealth as a nation to house, treat and work train people who are capable of achieving independence and productivity. But, the FACT, as is clearly demonstrated by POLICY in this country is that people don't want to make a small contribution to lift assist their fellow human beings and citizens, wether they be homeless, disabled, mentally ill, children or seniors. Personally, I would love to be able to choose where to allocate my taxes so that I could stop supporting an insanely overpowered US military and spend my money on people here in my town who need help now, not at some point in the future.

Hi, scientist Superfreak, in rhetoric that's called a false choice. Either you open your home to the homeless or you do nothing. In adult life people generally understand that the choices before us are not all or nothing propositions.

You're super brilliant.

I bet some of the mentally ill homeless people would prefer living in a safe, pleasant sheltered environment (an institution). Others wouldn’t, and we could allow them their freedom. We’d still have some of the current problem, but at least there would be an option for those who don’t want to live rough. No reason it has to be all or nothing. Of course, we’d have to make sure the institutions were truly decent and pleasant.

My thought is to repeal the Lanterman–Petris–Short Act. Commit the homeless that have mental illness and/or drug addiction to mental healthcare facilities. They are clearly incapable of caring for themselves and are a danger to society. That's would be a great start.

Aw, don't be sore Superfreak. The downvotes are because there must be some middle ground between the issue going unchecked and taking homeless people into our homes, as you suggest. Neither are reasonable options. Offer a critically-thought out solution, and we are all ears.

With all the upvotes for Oceandrew, and all the downvotes towards me, it's no wonder we have a homeless problem. People are so sympathetic towards criminal behavior, and care less about the pollution of our water or the fires that add to the greenhouse gases affecting the environment.

As a scuba diver, I'm disgusted by the amount of trash in our oceans. I've personally retrieved garbage from our local beaches and islands for disposal. I routinely remove garbage when I hike our local trails. I've personally witnessed, photographed, and passed on to the local authorities homeless campsites where they litter garbage all over the beaches in Goleta. It's disgusting.

I have had the experience cleaning up a few on private property. When there located in the river bottom guess where it goes? After the storms over go look at your favorite creek bed. It will be scrubbed clean. Bushes, small trees, grass and weeds along with trash will be gone.

SAIL380 - from your experience, you know, as a volunteer trash picker upper and all, how much refuse from homeless camps is going out there?

OCEANDREW did volunteer to help clean up the sites before a storm!! If you have never been to one trying to help don't underestimate the amount of refuse going out to sea.

So what's YOUR solution, BASIC? Round them all up and ship 'em off to ... what? concentration camps? And will you wish them the same end as other victims of fascist regimes in the past? How about a bit of basic compassion for your fellow humans who are in much worse shape than you could ever imagine.

Please take a few of those wonderful homeless in to your own home and spare us.

Homeless people: the number one cause of storm flooding. I wasn't sure how people like you would link this problem to the homeless but you pulled it off. Congratulations.

That's rich...just blame everything on the homeless. A hallmark of a bully... to pick on people weaker and unable to defend themselves. Hope that made you feel superior.