Day 145

March 28, 2020

First weekend since the closing of the beaches, parks, hiking trails, and beach parking. I walked over to the entrance of the pier and chatted with the police officer that was stationed there. There were some people, a lot less than last weekend, walking and running. A lot of homeless folks milling about. I asked what the rules were since clearly everyone was breaking them, including myself. He said they were about to start pushing everyone out. They hadn’t done anything yet since people were being pretty good about keeping their distance from each other. But it was time they started trying to clear out the park for the evening. He mentioned the plan for Santa Monica was to allow residents to use Palisades Park to exercise but only as long as people followed to the distancing rules. I think that’s fair and I am glad we can at least use the park.

I was able to get this rare photo of a completely deserted pier. Sadly, a few minutes after, as I was walking away, a fight broke out between two homeless men. Mostly words but it looked as if it was about escalate to a physical altercation. The same officer I had been chatting with earlier walked over to break it up. I didn’t hang out to see how it turned out but it got me thinking about the nearly impossible task of keeping the homeless safe from this virus. I know the county has been working on finding temporary housing for everyone but the homeless population in California is so large I just don’t see how they’ll manage. But I really hope they do. And a permanent solution would be even better.