Obese woman with 10 “carts” at Pharmaca has been ignored and allowed to squat there for many months with a crumpled cardboard sign saying “please help”. I actually asked her once if I could help her to find treatment and a shelter and she blew me off. Sometime she’s not even there and her carts just sit there looking abandoned. They are full of absolute junk. Ask the employees at Pharmaca. They are disgusted too but they cannot speak to the issue. Is this how we want our town to be? Growing up here in the 50s and 60s and 70s we never had anyone like this. I don’t call them “homeless” because they do NOT want to go into a shelter or a home. They just want money. They are either addicts, mentally disturbed, or lazy. We need to enforce our vagrancy, panhandling and loitering laws to really help these people by making them enter a treatment place long term. Or one way bus ticket to LA. Seattle’s television station WOMO aired an incredible exposé special called “Seattle is Dying “and it’s on YouTube. I suggest you folks watch that. Very enlightening and eye-opening. At the very end you will see how Rhode Island has solve this problem 100%. They finally got tough. We need to follow their example. First we had one and then we had two and now we have six bums especially egregious is the “fake” fellow at Draeger‘s with his little table and his supposed lock box collecting money for women and children. That is total nonsense. The police have been called four times (per manager at Draegers) but he continues to squat and then he shows a “permit” issued from City of Menlo Park to “solicit” money for “women and children”. It does NOT go to women and children it goes to HIM. What he’s doing is fully illegal. He readily admits this when pressed. It’s a racket and an illegal scam. There must be a law on the books to prevent scammers from scamming the public. The problem is that the City Council does not allow the police to enforce our laws. Another example: Two teens today almost ran me over today at the Guild Theatre riding bicycles on the sidewalk. When I said “bicycles are not allowed on the sidewalk “they said so what and kept on riding . I am not the only one who is sick and tired of let Menlo Park is becoming. Years ago when Kinko’s was next to Gaia’s plumbing on El Camino as a little print shop I walked out with a arm full of copies and was struck by an adult speeding on the sidewalk with a very fancy bike. He knocked me to the ground. He immediately got back up on his bike and took off. I am very lucky I only had bruises and scrapes. My friend Mrs. O’Hearn even sold her house on Valparaiso Avenue and is moving out of the state. She can’t take it anymore here in Menlo Park after 48 years. Bruce good from oriental market has complained about the bumps behind his store for years but it falls on deaf ears. They make a terrible mess that he hast to clean up. Village stationers has had enough as well. Businesses are leaving. I dread shopping downtown Menlo Park anymore because the parking is so poor and they are very aggressive with giving out tickets. It’s just a mean spirited environment. So now I shop At the Ace Hardware on Woodside Road in Redwood City in the large parking lot and then Stanford Shoppin g Center for the rest of my needs. Another panhandler stashes his PERMANENT bedroll and stuff wrapped in a brown tarp next to the sidewalk at Starbucks on Santa Cruz Ave. That’s been there for over a year !!! The Safeway on El Camino at middle Avenue is rampant with weird bums and thieves. It’s very scary to go in there after dark. I guess Menlo Park should be renamed “San Francisco South”. Nobody cares in your city government and nobody enforces the laws and gets these people off the street and into real shelters and institutions where they can get help. Tricia Young Sent from my iPhone Received on Wed Jul 10 2019 - 23:31:17 PDT
