Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2013 23:30:57 -0700
Subject: Stop Santa Cruz County Jail Expansion
From: tashhnguyen@gmail.com
To:
—
Attachment(s) from Robert Norse
1 of 1 File(s)
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2013 23:30:57 -0700
Subject: Stop Santa Cruz County Jail Expansion
From: tashhnguyen@gmail.com
To:
—
Attachment(s) from Robert Norse
1 of 1 File(s)
Santa Cruz “Hostility” worker account from Oct 6, 2013 during a street demonstration on Pacific Avenue. Includes a link to a 41 sec youtube video documenting the encounter.
While chatchat and sunnyside advertising is being pushed for the Sanctuary Camp and the “Justify the Anti-Homeless Hysteria” Task Force on Public Safety is continuing its “Make Santa Cruz More Unwelcome to the Poor” agenda, the abusive attacks–both official and vigilante continue against the Santa Cruz homeless. Those who make it to the Sanctuary Camp Public Forum on Thursday (7 PM at 415 Walnut St at Santa Cruz High School) and Mayor Bryant’s Task Farce meeting 6-9 PM on Wednesday (10-9 at the Branciforte School Cafeteria at 315 Poplar St) should be raising these far more immediate real public safety and human dignity issues.
When a “Hospitality” worker verbally assaulted an activist Sunday at the Funday Frolics protest and the head of the Hospitality crew refused to release her name, Officer Albert refused to take a Citizen’s Arrest. I will be posting an account of this shortly on www.indybay.org/santacruz.
OUTRAGEOUS
While conducting our monthly outreach yesterday Pauline, a RRH [Recycled Resources for the Homeles] volunteer and RN, ran into John at the Eagle Rock library. What she discovered was horrifying. I followed up with John and worked with him today. Though he is strong, he is hurt by all this. It is unimaginable.
Last Sunday, John, a homeless Iraqi veteran and an Eagle Rock native was asleep in his wheelchair in front of the Eagle Rock library when men approached from behind him. He didn’t know who they were and was unable to react in time as he was doused in some type of flammable liquid and set on fire. He was able to get out of his chair and fell to the ground, removing his clothing as it burned. He had layers of clothing on and a leather jacket that assisted him in fighting the flames however his back was left badly burned. The fire was so strong that the vinyl seat in his wheelchair completely melted and his belongings are all a loss.
When I met with him today he told me when he heard the men and felt the liquid being thrown on him he didn’t understand what was going on. He informed me that before the men, at least three, ran from the scene they stood and laughed at him as he fought off the flames. He didn’t understand why, nor do I. He described the men as around 18-25 with shaved heads. Today after encouraging John, he agreed to file a police report. What I do not understand is that someone called 911 reporting the incident however when fire and paramedics arrived and put the fire out they did not notify LAPD. No crime was reported and therefore this incident went unnoticed.
John is a survivor. He saw 8 years of combat defending our country, survived 4 gun shot wounds and his leg remains badly damaged from a bomb that exploded near his humvee. He is strong. After we filed the report today with NELA PD, I explored why he didn’t file a report. ‘People don’t care, it doesn’t matter, I don’t understand people and why they do what they do I. I was sleeping in my wheelchair when they tried to kill me. They laughed, who does that? I wasn’t doing anything to anyone’. I wonder the same thing. There are several chronically homeless individuals living in Eagle Rock and they are our neighbors. This was a hate crime. If you have information about this incident you are encouraged to call NELA PD.
-Rebecca Prine
Director, Recycled Resources for the Homeless
Please repost or share this with anyone who may be able to help.
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CLASSLESS AND CLASSIST
Story by Pete Shaw
Since Right 2 Dream Too (R2DToo) and the City of Portland came to an agreement in July to move the rest area for people without housing to a spot in the Pearl District, those opposed to the move have been trying to walk a tightrope. On the one hand the opposition is worried about falling rents, diminished property values, and safety and on the other they want to avoid the NIMBY label and being perceived as soulless creatures who do not care about the plight of those not so fortunate as themselves. But in case anyone thought the breast beating of the business community and the leaders of the Pearl District Neighborhood Association (PDNA) had some measure of authenticity to it, that misguided notion should have been put to rest at City Hall around 7:15 pm, on October 3rd.
The 91st person to give testimony before the City Council regarding R2DToo’s move asked for a moment of silence in memory of people without housing who have recently died. Most people in the chamber rose and bowed their heads in respect. Approximately 12 people who had already testified against the move remained in their seats against the back wall. In that moment–when even a shred of common decency would have gone a long way–their farce was exposed.
On this October 3rd, during the course of over four hours of testimony, about 100 people spoke in favor of or in opposition to the move. The difference in the language between the two sides was striking. The business and Pearl people spoke the language of fear, as well as the callously indifferent language of bottom lines and lost profit opportunities. They were cold and bloodless, expressing compassion only for themselves.
The first six speakers were from Station Place Tower, which stands near where R2DToo will move, and they all sounded the safety alarm, warning of the Mongrel Hordes at the gates. “How long before someone sneaks into a warm building or steals a purse?” “Now walking to the Amtrak or the Greyhound will be more daunting.” “Those of us on limited income cannot afford to keep moving just so we can find a safe place to live.”
A few opponents tried out the human angle. One woman trotted out information about “pigeon guano” and its dangers, inclusive of CDC handouts for the commissioners regarding how to properly clean it. The fungi within the guano would be dangerous to the people of R2DToo, she said, as it accumulates under the bridge. In what seemed an attempt to embarrass Commissioner Amanda Fritz and cast aspersions on her competence, the woman asked–since she was formerly a nurse–if Friz could properly pronounce the name of the fungi. The commissioner gracefully replied, “I was a psychiatric nurse.”
Some other people tried the health card, but the pigeon guano was about the last appeal opponents made on grounds that had a slight veneer of humanity. It was fascinating to witness people expressing so much interest in making sure bird crap is treated properly, but have no problem treating their fellow humans like shit. That point was hammered home by Tequilam, who has not had housing for almost two years, when he chastised opponents of R2DToo’s move. “For people to say they are worried about health concerns,” he said, “when you were walking over me, did you care then? You should be goddamned ashamed of yourselves.”
Shame was hard to find, although it was on occasion placed upon the houseless and their supporters. One member of the business community said, “Their argument is one of class warfare, and I find it offensive.” He also said that calling R2DToo a “community service”–a term of importance to the city code, and one sanctioned by Paul Scarlett, director of BDS–is “intellectually dishonest at best and a bald faced lie at worst.”
Greg Close, president of a real estate firm representing Ziba Design, shared his pain as well. “You have created class warfare…you are making me feel great apprehension in speaking on behalf of my friends economically.” Close later told a story about a chiropractor friend who was going to lose her business if R2DToo moves in nearby. A person in the crowd noted it was no small irony that Close and the other opponents were actually creating business for chiropractors by trying to put their boots on the necks of the houseless, or as Close referred to them, “These people.”
Process and code were constantly called into question. Patricia Gardner, President of the Pearl Neighborhood Associaiton noted that the purpose of the city code is to “create certainty and safety for everyone,” although she failed to elaborate on the certainty and safety in the lives of people who lack housing. At one point developer Homer Williams looked like he was about to burst into tears because he might be unable to use money and its attendant influence to get his way. It may have been the only genuine moment of emotion by anyone opposed to R2DToo’s move.
Finally, there were the outright rude, even cruel. Nothing says hate like telling people their lives are not as valuable as parking spaces, a judgment offered up in both qualitative and quantitative terms. Despite all evidene to the contrary, R2DToo was also called “a failure” and it was implied that all the Dreamers are “ex-convicts and sex offenders”. One speaker compared R2DToo to a nuclear dump and then wandered down some dystopian alley in the Pearl where children, who “pick stuff off the sidewalks,” fall prey to an outbreak of hepatitis.
For the most part, Dreamers and their supporters stuck with more nurturing tones. They spoke of support and friendship, and not just among themselves. They also expressed a desire and willingness to share this with the very people who were trashing them. Melissa, who has recently found housing, showed off her six week old child, James; both are success stories. One woman who was assaulted twice while living on the street, expressed her gratitude for R2DToo. Many said the rest area saved their lives or preventing them from being raped. These and other similar testimonies were greeted with stone faces from opponents.
One Dreamer, who goes by the street name Dikweed, was not as charitable in his words, saying he was disturbed by the bigoted language that had associated him with toxic waste. “I deserve to have a place to sleep,” he said. “I don’t deserve to have rich white people tell me where to sleep.” Addressing the soft pedal bigotry of falling property values, he talked about how people in the Pearl District had a choice. They could keep treating people without housing as sub-human, or they could treat them as they would other neighbors. “It’s your hatred that drops values,” he told them. “If you hate then your property value goes down. And that’s called justice.”
The zoning confirmation required by City Council to seal the R2DToo move was postponed until October 16, in order–according to Mayor Hales–to seek an outcome that’s not a “zero sum game”. During his testimony, Homer Williams, who has made untold sums capitalizing on development in the Pearl, asked that he be given time to provide a solution. In his summation the Mayor expressed interest in finding out more about what Williams has in mind. Commissioner Fritz said that any discussions must include R2DToo, since they had the greatest understanding of their own needs.
During the evening a few R2DToo supporters looked forward to a day when this would not be a fight between “us and them.” That is a worthwhile sentiment, but it requires “them” to see “us” as people. If yesterday’s testimony in opposition to R2DToo’s move represents the feeling of the entire Pearl District and the business community, then that day is still far away.
– See more at: http://www.portlandoccupier.
Process and code were constantly called into question. Patricia Gardner, President of the Pearl Neighborhood Associaiton noted that the purpose of the city code is to “create certainty and safety for everyone,” although she failed to elaborate on the certainty and safety in the lives of people who lack housing. At one point developer Homer Williams looked like he was about to burst into tears because he might be unable to use money and its attendant influence to get his way. It may have been the only genuine moment of emotion by anyone opposed to R2DToo’s move.
The zoning confirmation required by City Council to seal the R2DToo move was postponed until October 16, in order–according to Mayor Hales–to seek an outcome that’s not a “zero sum game”. During his testimony, Homer Williams, who has made untold sums capitalizing on development in the Pearl, asked that he be given time to provide a solution. In his summation the Mayor expressed interest in finding out more about what Williams has in mind. Commissioner Fritz said that any discussions must include R2DToo, since they had the greatest understanding of their own needs.
During the evening a few R2DToo supporters looked forward to a day when this would not be a fight between “us and them.” That is a worthwhile sentiment, but it requires “them” to see “us” as people. If yesterday’s testimony in opposition to R2DToo’s move represents the feeling of the entire Pearl District and the business community, then that day is still far away.
http://streetroots.org/node/21
Process and code were constantly called into question. Patricia Gardner, President of the Pearl Neighborhood Associaiton noted that the purpose of the city code is to “create certainty and safety for everyone,” although she failed to elaborate on the certainty and safety in the lives of people who lack housing. At one point developer Homer Williams looked like he was about to burst into tears because he might be unable to use money and its attendant influence to get his way. It may have been the only genuine moment of emotion by anyone opposed to R2DToo’s move.
The zoning confirmation required by City Council to seal the R2DToo move was postponed until October 16, in order–according to Mayor Hales–to seek an outcome that’s not a “zero sum game”. During his testimony, Homer Williams, who has made untold sums capitalizing on development in the Pearl, asked that he be given time to provide a solution. In his summation the Mayor expressed interest in finding out more about what Williams has in mind. Commissioner Fritz said that any discussions must include R2DToo, since they had the greatest understanding of their own needs.
During the evening a few R2DToo supporters looked forward to a day when this would not be a fight between “us and them.” That is a worthwhile sentiment, but it requires “them” to see “us” as people. If yesterday’s testimony in opposition to R2DToo’s move represents the feeling of the entire Pearl District and the business community, then that day is still far away.
In the hands of politicians like Mike Rotkin and like-minded constitution-clippers like Chair Peter Gelblum, it’s a no-win game for the poor outside. Even abuses roundly condemned by other ACLU’s like the Sleeping Ban & the Downtown Ordinances receive no public criticism and are buried “for study” when they are brought up.
Rotkin was a frequent advocate of the Sleeping Ban when he was Mayor as well as a supporter of the Sitting Ban (even going to San Francisco to push for its version). That he could be such a power in the local ACLU tells the story.
More of a fund-raising machine for national causes (many of which are worthy if often classist), the local ACLU preens itself while police steal homeless property, destroy homeless camps, and harass homeless people all around the town.
Promising activists like Steve Pleich, once enmeshed in the power structure of the ACLU as he struggles to accumulate offices and titles, become silent and accommodating of bigotry pimps like Councilmember Pamela Comstock and Lynn Robinson.
The ACLU won’t even defend the right of its own petitioners in the parking lot next to Trader Joe’s, who’ve been cited or driven away for giving out literature.
Santa Cruz needs a real civil rights organization.
For more details on the sad story see:
“Earlier E-Mails to the ACLU on Denial of Civil Liberties to the Santa Cruz
Homeless” at http://www.indybay.org/
“Local ACLU Rides…er…Hides Again” at
https://www.indybay.org/
“ACLU Chair Closes Monthly Boad of Directors Meeting, Homeless Issues Off
the Agenda” at http://www.indybay.org/
For Pleich’s own copycat censorship of issues on his website, see “Open Letter to Steve Pleich of Citizens for a Better Santa Cruz” at https://www.indybay.org/
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — One of the toniest areas of Portland might soon be home to a tent city.
If this were another town, the owners and developers of high-end homes and condominiums would scream to high heaven about diminished property values.
But this is Portland, where the citizens try their best to be tolerant of everything except intolerance — and gluten.
Opponents of a city plan to put 100 people under a century-old bridge in the Pearl District are carefully choosing their words when complaining about the prospect of new, down-on-their-luck neighbors. Rather than express concern for their financial investments, they have criticized the city’s expedited process and worried for the welfare of those willing to live in a parking lot under the west ramp of the Broadway Bridge.
Tiffany Sweitzer, the president of Hoyt Street Properties, a realty and development firm that — over the course of 15 years — has helped transform a dying industrial area into a sparkling urban neighborhood, said “throwing a bunch of people under a bridge” should not be the city’s solution to helping the estimated 2,000 residents who sleep outside each night.
“It’s embarrassing, because that is not how you would treat anybody,” she said.
Mayor Charlie Hales and city commissioners plan to decide Oct. 16 whether to move the camp to the Pearl District from its current home near the entrance to Chinatown. If approved, a coalition of property owners promises to sue.
The camp known as Right 2 Dream Too was established in October 2011 during the Occupy Portland movement. Four years earlier, the city forced an adult bookstore to close because of code violations. The building was later demolished and the lot remained empty for three years until the aggrieved owner allowed the homeless to lease the property for $1 a year.
Each night for two years, roughly 100 people have slept on prime downtown real estate — in tents shielded from passers-by with a barrier of old, colorful doors fashioned into an artsy wall. During that time, landowner Michael Wright racked up more than $20,000 in fines because of violations associated with operating a campsite without a permit. He responded with a lawsuit.
To extract Portland from this mess, city Commissioner Amanda Fritz brokered a deal in which the fines would be waived, the lawsuit dropped and the homeless campers sent to the Pearl District. It all happened in a matter of weeks, angering homeowners and developers who say the city was so desperate to settle Wright’s lawsuit that it bypassed zoning laws.
Fritz, a former psychiatric nurse, acknowledged that the camp is not the ideal answer to homelessness. She said there is not enough money to provide housing to all, and Right 2 Dream Too has provided a much safer alternative than the street.
“It’s been an option that’s been better than nothing,” she said.
Scores of people spoke for and against the proposal at a recent five-hour hearing. Though some older women testified their safety would be jeopardized, most Pearl District residents completely ignored quality-of-life and financial issues and repeatedly griped that the city did the deal in secret and delegitimized the zoning code. Not everyone in the neighborhood is rich, they added, and the fight has been unfairly cast as the greedy against the homeless, or “us against them.”
“It’s a sad, confrontational, divisive atmosphere because communication was intentionally closed,” said Julie Young, a retired social worker who lives in the Pearl.
Besides condominiums and the low-income apartments for older residents, there are businesses nearby and a Marriott is scheduled to open next year. Those who have spoken to the potential financial impact of Right 2 Dream Too say hotel guests won’t want to stay near a shantytown and commercial rents could fall by more than 15 percent.
Ziba Design spent $20 million to build its headquarters in the Pearl District. Its real estate adviser, Greg Close of Wyse Investment Services, said in a phone interview that his client represents a large Chinese apparel manufacturer that is considering Portland.
“What does my client tell the executive of that manufacturer when it asks: ‘How can we trust you, Ziba, with our brand when we come to Portland and see you invested $20 million next to a homeless camp?'”
Homeless people, meanwhile, ask their prospective neighbors to give them a chance. Right 2 Dream Too (or R2D2) has an excellent safety record, and supporters say the camp — they call it a rest area — has helped people get back on their feet and into permanent housing.
“We’re not there to bring property values down,” said Ibrahim Mubarak, the R2D2 leader. “We’re there to get people from sleeping on your sidewalk. We’re there to stop people from sleeping in the doorways. We’re there to stop the drug dealing. We’re there to stop the drug use by our friends.”
http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/
Santa Cruz “homeless get out of sight, get out of town” groups and their fans at City Council have recently used phony Public Health & Safety pretests to make Santa Cruz a “less welcoming city” for poor, unconventional, and homeless travelers as well as long-time residents. These have included Take Back Santa Cruz’s “positive loitering” events, pressuring convenience stores to remove payphones, & spending city and county money on a $100,000 + security gate at the Homeless (Lack of) Services Center.
The City’s slimey solution to cracking down on panhandling, once it was ruled constitutional in California by a federal judge in the early 90’s in the Blair decision, was to use “time, place, and manner” restrictions. The only valid justification for limiting peaceful beggins is if it becomes truly threatening or obstructive of pedestrian (or vehicular) traffic. Santa Cruz’s “Aggressive Solicitation” ordinance (MC 9.10 See http://www.codepublishing.com/
Recently a disabled woman in a wheelchair (Glenda) was harassed on the sidewalk out near Kosko’s where she had a perfect right to be–even though abiding by the letter of the panhandling prohibitions–with deputies and SCPD thugs colluding to remove her at the request of some anonymous bigot. This followed threats up at a sidewalk near Safeway on the Westside, even though Glenda reported being in a legal place, okayed previously by police authorities–where police responded to a “get out of town” TBSC-type by falsely demanding she move on, though she was legal right where she was. The examples of repression are becoming more flagrant & more numerous. Check my twice-weekly radio show archives at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/
The Santa Cruz ordinances have never been taken to court in their entireity. The only section that was taken to court was thrown out a decade ago as unconstitutional (See “Powdering The Crooked Nose of The City’s Anti-Homeless Panhandling Law ” at https://www.indybay.org/
MORE COMMENTS AT: http://www.latimes.com/nation/
TUCSON — The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona filed suit Tuesday against the city of Flagstaff, accusing municipal leaders of unconstitutionally driving beggars off the streets and criminalizing peaceful panhandling in public places.
“Begging is not a crime,” Arizona ACLU Legal Director Dan Pochoda said in a statement. “To appease local business interests, Flagstaff has sacrificed the fundamental rights of individuals and is throwing people in jail for simply for asking for a dollar or two for food.”
The complaint challenges a policy adopted by the city six years ago to remove people from downtown areas by jailing them early in the day on suspicion of “loitering to beg.” City officials have used a state statute that makes it a crime to beg in all public spaces.
Flagstaff police made 135 such arrests from June 2012 to May 2013, according to the ACLU.
Flagstaff Police Chief Police Kevin Treadway did not return a call for comment.
City Atty. Michelle D’Andrea said Flagstaff officials could not comment until they had reviewed the lawsuit and drafted a response.
“The city typically does not comment on pending litigation and will file a response to the lawsuit in a timely manner,” D’Andrea said in a statement.
The three plaintiffs named in the suit include Marlene Baldwin, a 77-year-old Hopi woman who ACLU officials said is disabled and losing her eyesight. She was arrested in February on suspicion of loitering to beg after asking an undercover police officer if he could spare $1.25 for bus fare, according to the complaint.
Mik Jordahl, a Flagstaff attorney who is serving as co-counsel in the lawsuit, said that although laws against aggressive panhandling and harassing solicitations have been found to be constitutional, states and cities cannot legally outlaw peaceful begging.
“When the most downtrodden among us are arrested and punished for the peaceful content of their speech, then none of our free speech rights are guaranteed,” Jordahl said.
MORE COMMENTS AT http://www.latimes.com/news/
HOMELESS DEPORTATION MASQUERADING AS “SMART COMPASSION”:
Beverly Hills doesn’t have many homeless people — roughly 30, give or take. But the ones it does have are stubbornly inclined to stay right where they are, living in their own minds and on their own terms, practically in the shadow of multimillion-dollar mansions.
Why?
“It’s safe,” said Jim Latta, the city’s human services administrator, who knows every one of the city’s homeless people by name. People living on the streets don’t have to watch their backs the way they would on skid row or in Venice.
Kevin Conner, an outreach worker, offered another explanation as well.
“The residents of Beverly Hills give to the homeless,” Conner said.
Amy backed him up on that. She lives on a bench in the park that runs along Santa Monica Boulevard, and when I asked how she gets by, she pointed to the nearby church.
“I stand against that wall during Sunday Mass,” said Amy, a senior citizen. When Mass lets out, parishioners — lifted by the spirit — reach into their pockets. Amy said she makes enough to hop on a bus and go to the Farmer’s Market at 3rd and Fairfax, where she does her shopping.
But Conner said that only makes his job harder.
“If a parishioner gives her everything she needs, she doesn’t need me,” he said. Which is why he hands donors a card that says, “Positive Change, Not Spare Change,” and, “Please give to a charity, not a panhandler.”
It’s not as if City Hall doesn’t get complaints about homeless people from merchants and residents. But most of the gripes are about panhandlers, many of whom don’t live in Beverly Hills but drift in to tap locals and tourists.
The city banned so-called aggressive panhandling. But five years ago, it hired Step Up On Second, a Santa Monica nonprofit, to help look after homeless people and try to steer them into services. Only four people have been permanently housed in that effort, but many others have been cared for at least temporarily at People Assisting the Homeless, a Hollywood nonprofit that provides six beds nightly for Beverly Hills’ street dwellers.
That might make it sound as though the goal is to push the homeless beyond the borders of Beverly Hills, and I’m not holding my breath waiting for the city to open a Step Up On Rodeo. But after a day of making the rounds with Latta and the Step Up outreach team — Conner and his partner Annie Boyd — it looked to me as though the goal is to make regular contact with a very sick population, earn some trust and jump on any opportunity to offer life-changing help.
Latta said that when he speaks to local groups about his work, he points out that his subjects are a little harder to help than Nick Nolte‘s lovable vagabond character in the movie “Down and Out in Beverly Hills.” That chap ends up sleeping with the maid of a rich, dysfunctional family and enjoying the city’s fine dining. Latta’s people, meanwhile — like many entrenched street dwellers in any community — are fighting severe mental illness and barely hanging on. Some of them tip a bottle to ward off waves of despair, only to sink further into the depths.
Latta, a career mental health and social worker, keeps a photo of a guy named Al in his office. Al was a steady, benign presence near the Gap store on North Beverly. Though he didn’t ask for money, passersby gave him enough to survive despite mental and physical illness, and he resisted efforts by the outreach team to get him treated and housed. By night, he lived behind a dumpster in an alley with the blessing of a merchant, until he became so physically ill that he finally agreed to go to a hospital. A few days after being admitted, he was dead.
“Many want help but struggle to make a change,” Latta wrote in a letter to the editor at the time of Al’s death. “It took more than two years for our gentleman to decide whether to stay with his miserable but known world or try the alternatives provided by the outreach team.”
When we met up with Amy, who is very sick physically and otherwise, Latta was wrestling with memories of Al and wondering whether — if Amy continues to refuse help — the humane option might be an involuntary commitment.
A few blocks away, we met with a man who finally accepted housing recently, only to land back on the streets. “If I can get the church to come up with the money, I’m going to come by and see if I can take you to an apartment,” Latta told the man, who nodded in approval.
Beverly Jermyn, an L.A. resident, told me that this kind of persistence paid off in the case of her brother. John Jermyn, who was homeless for 30 years and would often dance his days away on Robertson Boulevard, moved into an apartment at Step Up On Vine in April.
“He had no hope of getting off the street until this wonderful outreach team worked with him,” Beverly Jermyn said.
John Jermyn, who played minor league baseball in the Dodgers‘ farm system 40 years ago, sleeps in his Hollywood apartment by night but still can’t resist Beverly Hills by day. I met him at Will Rogers Memorial Park on Sunset, where he said he couldn’t talk long because he had lots of dancing to do.
I asked what it was like to live indoors after so many years under the stars.
“It has its benefits,” he said, and then he was lost in motion.
steve.lopez@latimes.com