RECYCLING CENTERS CLOSE

WHEN HOMELESS HURT THE POOR -

BSC, CA – In the City of Los Angeles, there are 36,300 homeless people, and the county has a total of 58,936 for a total of 95,236 people. Though there are not as many homeless living in Riverside, those living here have managed to drive out a business that helps poor people get by; recycling CRVs, plastic, and glass. RePlanet closed all their remaining locations early in August all over California. The company, which laid off all their employees, stated economic reasons like the rising minimum wage and insurance, but was that really all of it?

When I first moved to Riverside and took cans and bottles in for recycling, I could take a five minute bus ride down to the nearby Staters Supermarket. Depending on when you went, the line was usually a few people with loads of bottles. At first the people in line tended to be families, probably Christian who collect their congregation's empties from church gatherings. Over the months however, I noticed a change in those recycling. Also the supply side to keep the site printers working started getting sketchy. People with cars found more reliable sites, leaving the dregs.

The people in line the last few times at the nearby Staters were homeless, meth heads, druggies, sprinkled with just people who turn in their CRVs. The nearby supermarket quit taking the printouts of tickets, so the RePlanet site started issuing a cash refund. This required an extra person to be onsite as security. The people there now had tons of turn-ins, which always surprised me since you could sometimes tell a hookup, and you knew it wasn't pot that they were looking for.

UCR NORTH DISTRICT PROJECT ADVANCES

GONE LIKE ORIGINAL STAR WARS -

BSC, CA – The sound of earth moving equipment and dirt hauling trucks, many double bottoms, can be heard through the neighborhoods, though there is less now since most of the WWII buildings used for UCR's married couple complex are gone. The project called North District was unveiled a couple of years back. Meetings listed as soundings for the neighbors who live in the north side of UCR's campus were basically one-sided; as the University told the local folks how things were to be.

The last meeting which took place with the Measure O Oversight Committee included the lawyer who wrote the measure, a 'Measure writer' akin to someone who writes grants, or a person who knows the measure in and out because they are the person [lawyer] who wrote it. He was there of his own 'free' will but the local people there were not buying his explanation. Plus this guy from Northern Cali, a lawyer, looked more like a traveling medicine show barker, with his big handlebar mustache and fancy suit. He seemed there to gently steer the Oversight Committee in the direction best suited for the written measure.

The tie-in between Measure O, which is RUSD and was sold to voters as school upgrades, is the North District Project, and features some needed campus additions as our lead-in shot depicts. More on the before and after, following the jump. Meanwhile, Chancellor Wolde-Ab Isaac, Ph.D. has issued a slick bulletin to announce a similar Measure to upgrade RCC, Norco, and MoVal since Riverside residents swallowed Measure O. This proposed measure from RCCD would also have a Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee. No confirmation on whether the same lawyer from up north is writing this bond measure, as yet.

EASTMAN HONORED IN LA

MY LOS ANGELES WEEKEND, PT 1 –

BSC, CA - LA is a magic town. You don't have to be that way, but it helps a lot. A case in point is my latest assignment for BSC, the city honoring Richard Eastman for his contribution to the illness of HIV/AIDS. This honor is also a declaration and tip o' the hat to Mary Jane Green, aka, marijuana or 'cannabis', in the curing of the disease. The sign below is for all the people who weren't at City Hall to witness and hear the official declaration made to Richard Eastman, resident of West Hollywood.

In this country and all over the world even, there is a huge market in just treating people for their medical symptoms related to various illnesses. Now imagine a world without all that crap. Imagine seeing happy people because they have their health, instead of dragging around looking dismal. Richard Eastman represents a person who should be dead, or at least depressed. Instead, he is the opposite. This is all due to cannabis, or Mary Jane, what cannabis was called back in the '30's, according to the WEEDMAPS Museum of Weed, but I'm skipping ahead.

Knowing where Richard is going to be isn't the same thing as being where he is. This time I at least had advance notice of where he was going to be for a minute. I had a narrow window to get the story and my personal copy of #WOW2019 signed by Richard, the author [reviewed here]. By the time I found the correct spot [after getting turned around, a common occurrence in LA], the council meeting was under way with different cancer victims.

RUBIDOUX ROUGHNECKS

IS CANNABIS MAGIC? -

BSC, CA – First off, I hope you had a happy Labor Day. Here is my Labor Day tale. It starts out like any other quest for me, I am looking for weed. Lately around my neck of the woods, the sesh I usually go to, is gone. No web presence and no tickets to get in. I can read the writing on the wall, it's been shut down. The replacement sesh was a Christian open mike music session the night I went, so there I was, down to my last dab of wax. And a little dab won't do ya.

Remembering the last time I went through the little burg of Rubidoux and some recent small talk with an acquaintance led me to believe that little Rubidoux, being primarily Mexican, was going its merry little way, not getting much notice from the man. The picture below which shows a vacant lot, used to be a dispensary. The Rubidoux Roughnecks [my nickname] tore the place down after robbing and cleaning it out.

“The local gang are the ones who sell pot around here and they don't like outsiders coming in because then their sales drop. They shot two people at a shop [about a mile north down Rubidoux Blvd] just three or four days ago. With the city asking for 5-15 thousand for a license to operate, no gang is going to pay that. The cops shut down all the other places.” This was the word I got from someone who knows the local scene. So I waited for the bus ride back to Riverside.