Speaker 1: When you're ready to ride Metro, we want you to
Speaker 1: know we're ready for you. Here are just a few
Speaker 1: of the people at Metro to tell you how we're
Speaker 1: doing our part to keep riders safe. We're cleaning like
Speaker 1: never before greatly. You've found half sant, no mask, no
Speaker 1: Metro need one. We have a few extras at Metro.
Speaker 1: We're doing our part to keep the DC area moving.
Speaker 1: Find out more at well mata dot com slash doing
Speaker 1: our part. So a lot of homeless problems and stories
Speaker 1: that are getting national intention all across the nations to
Speaker 1: a lot of different areas of the country are dealing
Speaker 1: with this problem right now. Definitely most acute worst on
Speaker 1: the West Coast. We're city after city up and down
Speaker 1: the coast is just inundated with bums and junkies, and
Speaker 1: more and more are showing up every day. Bumping around Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. For several days. How many homeless people do
Speaker 1: you see? How How common was it there? You know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't really least oh you know, a handful, pretty
Speaker 1: good handful typical through the years, big city collection of beggars.
Speaker 1: And there's so many tourists in d C that there
Speaker 1: are a fair number of beggars there. Um, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't nearly as bad as it was helpful. If you're
Speaker 1: if you're in San Francisco or Los Angeles, you'd have
Speaker 1: a you'd have a handful at the one coffee shop
Speaker 1: you're you're at. Oh yeah, yeah. Like I said, it's
Speaker 1: it's pretty typical the way it's always been, um, you know,
Speaker 1: through the years. It's not exploding like it is on
Speaker 1: the West Coast. Speaking of which you may have seen
Speaker 1: or heard or read about Steve Sylvester last week. He's
Speaker 1: an antique shop owner in the Capitol City, California, Sacramento,
Speaker 1: and had a mostly naked guy bust into his his
Speaker 1: business the other day and cause of Frankas and Steve
Speaker 1: got interviewed. You know, honestly, I think it mostly got
Speaker 1: attention because the dude was mostly naked, and that's kind
Speaker 1: of the hook for the dumb, dumb media. It's a
Speaker 1: big part of it. Interesting, that's that's part of it.
Speaker 1: It also comes in the wake of Liz Novak, who
Speaker 1: we talked to, who is a shop owner in the
Speaker 1: same area, who said she's closing her up a business
Speaker 1: and moving it because of the incursion of bombs and junkies.
Speaker 1: Steve Sylvester joins us now to talk about the situation
Speaker 1: in his part of the world and the you know
Speaker 1: what he thinks is causing it is a guy who
Speaker 1: observes it every day. Steve, how are you, sir? Hi? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thank you for having me on the show. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's our pleasure. We appreciate you taking the time. Um.
Speaker 1: I assume you're taking the time because you care about
Speaker 1: the neighborhood where you live and work. I'm in the
Speaker 1: center Sacramento. There's a big freeway that cuts through it
Speaker 1: for the w X Freeway, and underneath each of the
Speaker 1: roads there is camp City, right and it's I assume
Speaker 1: a hell of a lot of junkies there there is. Um.
Speaker 1: The problem is there's four types Congress and as the
Speaker 1: people who are genuinely homeless, and I think the city
Speaker 1: should spend every penny on getting them rehouse. Then we
Speaker 1: have a lot of mentally ill around here. If we
Speaker 1: call them the monster shouters, that they're like the Stephen
Speaker 1: King Norvel. There's a couple that we know who actually
Speaker 1: want to be on the streets. They don't want to
Speaker 1: be part of society. They love the the nomad life.
Speaker 1: But the biggest problem for our area, and that's happened
Speaker 1: in the last year, is it's all drug related. It's
Speaker 1: street drugs. How do you know that? Because the crowd
Speaker 1: that are hanging around now are much younger, and what
Speaker 1: happens is that they'll suddenly become absolutely crazy. And that's
Speaker 1: because they've just taken something that's nice and cheap and cheerful,
Speaker 1: and then they're going around, usually causing chaos in the
Speaker 1: local area. And do you think here, I know you've
Speaker 1: said in the past that there's been an increase in
Speaker 1: the number of people are menacing your business and making
Speaker 1: it tough to do business and the rest of it.
Speaker 1: What's your sense of why it's increasing so quickly? Um,
Speaker 1: A couple of reasons really. I mean, we've got I
Speaker 1: think it's five thousand, six hundred homeless in Sacramento and that, apparently,
Speaker 1: according to the rules, is increase over the last couple
Speaker 1: of years. There's there's two things that are happening that's
Speaker 1: making Sacramento a little busier with the home's population. One
Speaker 1: is what they call Greyhounds therapy. The local newspaper reported
Speaker 1: that in Nevada they actually give one way tickets to
Speaker 1: get out of the state and come to Sacramento, that
Speaker 1: it's a much better place to get benefits. And then
Speaker 1: another piece of news that I found out was that
Speaker 1: a hospital, a mental hospital in Vegas, over a five
Speaker 1: year period, bust out fifteen hundred people out of Nevada,
Speaker 1: of which a third came to California. And that's what
Speaker 1: we have a lot around in the failure. Wow, that
Speaker 1: is something. Yeah, that's amazing. Steve Sylvester is a Sacramento
Speaker 1: business owner. He was on the news last week when
Speaker 1: I drugged up maniacs smashed a bunch of stuff in
Speaker 1: his antique shop. You're either a city or a state
Speaker 1: that spends your money on shipping homeless out, or you're
Speaker 1: a city or a state that spends money on attracting
Speaker 1: homeless more or less. Yeah, uh, Steve, how often do
Speaker 1: you have to say clean up in front of your store?
Speaker 1: Human waste and that sort of thing. Well, it's Tuesday morning,
Speaker 1: and it's habit. It was a fairly clean day to day,
Speaker 1: so I could open the san Tour without a problem.
Speaker 1: But it can be a needle sitting outside which you
Speaker 1: have to go and pick up um and that's not
Speaker 1: too bad. I hate to say the worst thing is
Speaker 1: is the human waste, and that it really is the waste,
Speaker 1: the worst part of the day. How often does that
Speaker 1: actually happen? Or you've got human poop on the sidewalk
Speaker 1: or wherever you gotta deal with um? Probably about four
Speaker 1: times a week. I've noticed it's cut I know it's
Speaker 1: it's cut down a little bit because we used to
Speaker 1: have a mentally ill homeless guy and he used to
Speaker 1: drag around these two waist in containers and he had
Speaker 1: this thing that he had to poop on top of
Speaker 1: the car. Oh boy, yeah, that's a thing. That's an
Speaker 1: interesting thing, like the hood and the top of the car.
Speaker 1: He would he would squat on the top of the
Speaker 1: car and then threw his business down the windshield. And then,
Speaker 1: of course in the hot Sacramento weather, when you go
Speaker 1: there seven o'clock and out to pick your car up,
Speaker 1: it's the last thing you want to do. You're gonna
Speaker 1: have to get that detailed, is literally the last thing
Speaker 1: I want to do. So, Steve, would you when you
Speaker 1: appeal to the police for help with this sort of thing? Um,
Speaker 1: what happens? What are you told? Well, here's the problem
Speaker 1: is that the police are in their own set handcuffs
Speaker 1: because there really is nothing that they can do. Their
Speaker 1: hands are tied. I mean, if someone on the street
Speaker 1: does something that's technically eagle like vandalism when we had
Speaker 1: our shot windows broken, um, then they're going to raish
Speaker 1: someone for vandalism. But if they're just walking around parking
Speaker 1: at the moon, I mean, there's nowhere for them to go,
Speaker 1: so really they just have to move them on and
Speaker 1: make sure they're not ill. And that's it. Your thoughts
Speaker 1: on folks who give to panhandlers, Oh yeah, Well, here
Speaker 1: in Sacramento, as I said, down very near the freeway
Speaker 1: that cuts through the center of the city, but on
Speaker 1: the other side of the store, there's a very long
Speaker 1: road called Broadway. And I mean, I love Sacramento, and
Speaker 1: I love Broadway because it's all of about thirty cyberous restaurants.
Speaker 1: But outside most of the restaurants there will be people
Speaker 1: taking for money, and I do wish people would not
Speaker 1: give them money because the money is not going to
Speaker 1: be used by themselves food. It's going to be used
Speaker 1: to get a quick fix. So I s cct from
Speaker 1: outside restaurants, give them some food. They'll probably say no
Speaker 1: because they really want the money. You know, the police
Speaker 1: in a lot of areas say the same thing, don't
Speaker 1: give them money. And when the Governor of California, Gavin
Speaker 1: Newsom was the mayor of San Francisco, I know that
Speaker 1: was a campaign he was into do not give money
Speaker 1: to beggars. So I don't know how that. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's a lefty, he's the compassionate lefty. I don't know
Speaker 1: how word is not gotten around everybody. Stop giving money
Speaker 1: to beggars. Right, why are you doing that? Right? Beggars
Speaker 1: are not quote unquote the homeless, necessary and necessarily they're beggars. So,
Speaker 1: Steve Um, how long do you plan on sticking it
Speaker 1: out if it gets significantly worse? Are you thinking you're
Speaker 1: relocating or are you committed to where you are? Oh? No,
Speaker 1: I'm committed. I mean we've been here nineteen years, almost
Speaker 1: as long as you've been on the radio. But we
Speaker 1: have a big store, and we do have lots of
Speaker 1: compassion and we know what the problem is now, so
Speaker 1: we'll stick through it. There's there's got to be an answer. Well,
Speaker 1: you're you're Oh yeah, I'm a total optimist. My big
Speaker 1: problem is the city's got a bucket load of money
Speaker 1: to deal with the homeless problem. And um, what they're
Speaker 1: doing at the moment is such a short term quick fix.
Speaker 1: It's not going to work right, well, said, well, we
Speaker 1: need to stay in touch on this, Stephen. And one
Speaker 1: final note, Jack and I began are well. It was
Speaker 1: early in our radio career that we worked in downtown Sacramento,
Speaker 1: not far from where you are, and uh, and ate
Speaker 1: breakfast most days there at the Pancakes Circus, which I
Speaker 1: think is very near your business. And I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: I gained ten to fifteen pounds in a year eating
Speaker 1: breakfast there. It's still there and pounds can still be
Speaker 1: put on right on the end of the same block
Speaker 1: pancakes the size of a man hole. All right, Steve,
Speaker 1: great to talk to you, and let's stay in touch. Okay,
Speaker 1: thanks for yout you got it. How do you How
Speaker 1: do you get up on the car? You climb up
Speaker 1: on the bumper, You climb up on crawl up on
Speaker 1: the right. It's a very ritual, the thing he's got
Speaker 1: going on there, because you've got to like start on
Speaker 1: the top and move down the windshield. I wonder if
Speaker 1: he has any interest in like what model it is
Speaker 1: or anything like, look at that Alexis. I've never pooped
Speaker 1: on Alexis before. I don't know. Maybe he's like belligerently
Speaker 1: pro American cars, all Japanese cars, super patriotic, you know. Anyway,
Speaker 1: that's really not the point of the conversation, not really
Speaker 1: say yeah, it's it's it's unvolivable. Yeah, it's incredible. Well,
Speaker 1: and listen to you were mentioning that story earlier where
Speaker 1: there's a state park where the bums have taken over
Speaker 1: in the junkies and and the guys are like, you know,
Speaker 1: we can be uh leaninging on some stuff like the
Speaker 1: littering if you just cooperate a little bit. Why are
Speaker 1: we taxpayers, abiding citizens, begging for please don't hurt us.
Speaker 1: We won't ask much of you. Just you know, keep
Speaker 1: crapping on the streets and stealing and breaking windows and
Speaker 1: doing drugs. And it's your park now, just don't damage
Speaker 1: it too much. I tell you what. And this is
Speaker 1: why Trump got elected and why he might get re elected,
Speaker 1: he says, making about about Trump slightly the Ninth Circuit
Speaker 1: Court with their bizarrow reeling ruling. Rather, I'm sorry, I'm
Speaker 1: reading and talking at the same time their bizarro ruling
Speaker 1: where you can't boot somebody out of a park unless
Speaker 1: you can prove the government has provided a bed for them.
Speaker 1: They're a junkie, they like doing drugs, they have no
Speaker 1: interest in working like the rest of us. What if
Speaker 1: three more guys decided to become junkies today, that means
Speaker 1: the government has to get three more beds. Ninth Circuit
Speaker 1: Court of Appeals. You're letting the junkies in the bums
Speaker 1: run society. It's not how it works. Life, liberty and
Speaker 1: suit of happiness is the only thing government's supposed to
Speaker 1: provide that didn't guarantee you a place to live. No,
Speaker 1: they're supposed to protect your liberties, period, and it certainly
Speaker 1: doesn't guarantee you a place to live in super expensive
Speaker 1: areas of the country. Wha could do judges? Man, that's
Speaker 1: at the root of a lot. Yeah, our text lines
Speaker 1: four five to nine five kft, you know, And I'd
Speaker 1: like to do to some of these judges, like to
Speaker 1: climb up on their car where you parked? All right,
Speaker 1: when you're ready to ride metro, we want you to
Speaker 1: know we're ready for you. Here are just a few
Speaker 1: of the people at Metro to tell you how we're
Speaker 1: doing our part to keep riders safe. We're cleaning like
Speaker 1: Neville before greatly. You've found half out of no mask,
Speaker 1: no Metro need one. We have a few extras at Metro.
Speaker 1: We're doing our part to keep the DC area moving.
Speaker 1: Find out more at well mata dot com, slash doing
Speaker 1: our part even