Posted on 05/19/2023 12:17:45 PM PDT by Scott from the Left Coast
I took my weekly trip to San Diego this week. This is something I have done for more than a decade, just to get a change of scenery, look at the ocean take in a ballgame and just relax for a short spell…it’s a manageable drive from where I live, in a state without an ocean.
I have, over the years, noticed a degradation in San Diego, mostly downtown, but the obvious destruction and malaise in California, while present, was actually somewhat muted in the once fair and relatively conservative city of San Diego.
But this week I witnessed things that are beyond anything I can imagine in a society that even has a modest chance at survival. This is beyond economic decay and poverty, beyond the lack of infrastructure maintenance, beyond environmental concerns (which seems, in tremendous irony, to be the only thing the people there care about). But the environment there is one of human destruction at a level that is simply unimaginable to someone born in mid-20th century America. It is human hopelessness everywhere you cast your eyes.
My experiences included watching people - on city streets, on the walkway to the ballpark, on the corner by the gas station, on the beach - openly smoking drugs (meth or heroin, I guess) out of glass pipes, once in the sight of police that did nothing (on orders from the city, I presume). Marijuana could be whiffed on the beach (expected) as well as inside Petco Park (not expected).
But really, the rampant drug culture was the least of it. Homeless encampments stretched on downtown streets as far as you could see in every direction. Even in tourist districts like Mission, homeless encampments lined the streets and parks. Garbage and drug refuse were littered everywhere…even on the beach walk. But that wasn’t even the worst of it.
While driving to a store we saw an obviously mentally ill man ranting and raving and kicking a bag of something on the sidewalk, screaming at the top of his lungs. He grabbed the bag and chucked it at my car (I suppose he saw me looking at him), it hit with a thunk (no damage)…knowing there was no recourse, I drove on. In the parking lot of the store there was blaring announcement that lot was monitored by security…well, that’s supposed to relive you but one look at the one really scrawny female security guard pretty much put the lie to that.
Later, asI parked in the Tailgate Lot next to Petco Park, there were obviously mentally ill people camping there. One had a broad knife and was whacking away at the shrubbery near his squatting place as we walked past. Not ten steps later we saw a young man sleeping as if dead on the sidewalk, all his belongings piled around him. He actually looked decently dressed, though the many people walking past him, inches away, heading to the ballpark, didn’t rouse him at all from his death-like sleep. Across the street were more drugpipe smokers “partying” it up before they went comatose. The police and security did nothing. And even that wasn’t the worst of it.
The worst was when leaving the beach being held up by police cordons and fire trucks…the police actually shied up! That was when I saw two bodies laying covered right at an entrance to Mission Bay park.
All this in just a few day’s time in a place that had none of it, or at least none noticeable everywhere you turned, 10 years ago. All of these various people I witnessed were white people in their 20s and 30s, male and female, the people that some years ago would be getting careers and families started. It isn’t that these things were just witnessed once or twice - it was everywhere in unimaginable numbers. It was noticeably more than four years ago - a LOT more.
This is a dying society, and from everything I witnessed I’d say it needs to die - the sooner the better.
That makes me sad. I lived in San Dog from 1994-1997. It was a beautiful city then.
It describes what you saw from the bigger picture point of view. You both came to the conclusion "we are done for."
Vote in an all democrat govt and end up with death and destruction, while they steal all the money. It’s everywhere that democrats rule. But of course the pig headed zombies that vote democrat will never learn.
Heck, or even Pete Wilson.
The worst was when leaving the beach being held up by police cordons and fire trucks…the police actually shied showed up!
Regards,
San Diego was nice 35+ years ago. For everyone else who is not wealthy, who are not able to financially isolate themselves, that place went to hell long ago.
One of their biggest suburbs, El Cajon, is now called, “Little Baghdad”.
I’m on the opposite side of the country, in a rather small sleepy city in eastern NC, population around 30,000.
But I see a lot of the same here. A wooded area adjacent to a WalMart has been turned into an encampment for lowlifes.
Abandoned shopping carts, trash, mattresses, litter the roadway beside the encampment.
It’s not the town I grew up in anymore.
I’m on the opposite side of the country, in a rather small sleepy city in eastern NC, population around 30,000.
But I see a lot of the same here. A wooded area adjacent to a WalMart has been turned into an encampment for lowlifes.
Abandoned shopping carts, trash, mattresses, litter the roadway beside the encampment.
It’s not the town I grew up in anymore.
One of the major priorities for this country is the re-opening of the mental hospitals the libs got shuttered in the ‘70s and ‘80s for “humanitarian reasons.”
What you're seeing is primarily the result of closing restaurants and other conveniences we used to enjoy due to the Covid lockdowns.
All these young people lost their jobs and were handed cash to cope with the situation and turned to drugs for whatever reason, don't care.
Now these druggies are a waste of skin that contribute nothing to society while they slowly fade away towards their inevitable early deaths. I've seen them all over this county. They keep attempting to set up shop permanently in the “suburbs”, but we keep moving them along and repairing the damage they leave behind.
Downtown is a joke nowadays. Homeless drug addicts that just gave up on life in general. They refuse any help that will get them off the streets.
Round them up and toss them into the ocean for all I care. They're nothing more than a burden to society at this point and the sooner they kill themselves via OD, the better, IMO.
What were once cities are now Urban Reservations for those who will not or can not function in society.
Sounds like you took a wrong turn at Albuquerque, and wound up in San Francisco.........................
I left San Diego in 1977. It was dying even then.
With 7M illegals entering into the country by the time O’Biden finishes his first (and hopefully last) term, things may get a lot worse before they get better.
In today's culture, conservative patriots would be marked for these hospitals.
I spent a beautiful year in SD, navy, 1979-80…even then, though, Otay Mesa was filled with illegals, certain parts were to be avoided at any cost; graffiti on the underpasses, ‘cholos’ & gang-bangers at the flea market, etc. etc. just a foretaste of what was to come,apparently. I think Pete Wilson was mayor then iirc
You go weekly? And all of what you described happened while you were gone a week?
No, what you see is SD has devolved into LA South, and that didn't happen suddenly. The only difference is there are pockets of SD that are still livable but the barbarians are at the gate.
Kalifornia is finished, and I know a lot of California Freepers are having extended cognitive dissonance about that, but it's a fact.
My experience was much like yours. Bums and druggies everywhere. Even worse, I spent a day at Oceanside Beach, which was my favorite spot to hang out at when off duty. There were broken down vans all down the strip with people living in filth. The stink was terrible and you could tell these people haven't had a proper shower (with soap) in about a year.
Some experiences were good however. I went to Oldtown (just outside Oldtown) for some excellent authentic Mexican food. Also took a tour on the Midway (one of the sponsors of the golf tournament) and ended up spending the entire day there.
But otherwise, this area has gone really downhill.
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