Santa Ana River Trail-Less safe now ?
 

I have had some riders tell me that SART is becoming "physical" again........anybody with updates on the uptick in confrontations/robberies ?

I ride SART on a very regular basis. While I haven't heard of any recent confrontations, I can say that the homeless camps are growing out of control. This growth is mainly in the Anaheim area. I would tend to believe that this could increase the risks to riders on that trail.


ETA: Quite a few of these camps are absolutely stacked with bike frames and parts. From what I've seen, I would imagine bike theft in these areas is quite high.

Thanks Snidely.................I was VERY uncomfortable last Wed riding from ARTIC to HB and back, 6pm ish.
I did see the "parts" at most large homeless encampments. Af few of the "residence" road in front of me and behind me for a mile or two. Not a good feeling. I don't think I will be riding through Anaheim any time soon. The Katella area is a great jumping off place to go north or south. This is a bummer.

Has there been an uptick? Do tell. I'm not seeing it.

There are more encampments, no doubt about it, including the one that looks like a bicycle kitchen near Angel Stadium but I personally have never experienced anything that would make me uncomfortable to ride there.

Just to clarify, I don't feel particularly uncomfortable riding the SART. But most of my riding there is early weekend mornings. I personally stay away from it in the evenings (dusk to dawn).

A friend of mine that rides it mostly during the week in the early morning was saying he been seeing sharp objects near the bridge near Edna Park (coincidentally the homeless guys there on the east side patch flats). Also during the week the guys will park their bikes on the path under the overpass at 1st Street causing a potential hazard.

It seems like things creep up along the path here and there once in a while, overall it's pretty safe, but certain areas I'm pretty wary especially when riding solo.

SoCal really needs to get it's act together and move these homeless folks out of here, it's getting to the point of lunacy to allow these vagrants to live the way they do, much of the time by choice. You can tolerate a handful but beyond that there's too much potential for some serious problems. You want to live off the grid fine, go out in the boonies or desert.

Homeless have to stay near the food banks and other places to get the basics and begging for money. That's where we come into the equation.

@Garfield Cat, if you feed a stray cat, you get more stray cats. Notice how how the population has been growing even though we're throwing tons of money at it. It doesn't work, stop feeding the stray cats and they magically go away.

From the Orange County Register: As homeless encampments swell, Orange County to close 2 miles of road along Santa Ana River

The OC Register article describes the 'problem area' as being from Hesperian Ave up to Katella, and on the EAST side of the river; the paved MUP is on the west side. None-the-less, there are a lot of tents & stuff visible across the river when you're riding on the west side. I usually ride up to Orangewood (the gate just south of the Anaheim Fire Dept's training center, across Orangewood from Angel Stadium) and haven't seen any encampments on the west side. Usually don't go to Katella due to the volume of homeless that have been hanging out in that area for many years.

FWIW: There are a lot of homeless who live in the crawl spaces under the overpasses south of the Anaheim area - the Slater Ave and Talbert/MacArthur bridges (Santa Ana/Fountain Valley area) have a lot of homeless living under them, especially visible in the early morning (6AM-ish) as they are waking up and 'moving out' for the day. Never had a problem with them myself.

From the article: "“Unfortunately, we have a growing homeless population. They have nowhere else to go and we understand,” Widor said."

We have a growing homeless population because we don't enforce the laws that are designed to keep this type of behavior to a minimum. They have somewhere else to go, and that is-- SOMEWHERE ELSE! Notice how all the mucky mucks that tell us to tolerate this live in nice mansions in gated communities far from the problem, they like to saddle others (often the poor) with their worldviews and idealogy, but shield themselves from the realities of their decisions.

It's insane to welcome and grow a population that is not mentally healthy intermixed with the general population. Unless you can change the laws and put them away, against their will, to get them the help they need, there is no solution. That's not the average taxpaying citizen's problem and I'm tired of people in our communities having to deal with these often dangerous folks, especially women and children. Assaulting people because they don't give them money, pissing and ****ting all over the place. WTH. Stop feeding them and move them along. Somewhere, anywhere.

Justice and Mercy.

You don't see a homeless problem in San Marino do you? It's the city that lets it go on.

They had an expanding homeless population in the Arroyo next to the 110 freeway in South Pasadena....and they let it go on for about a year. Until... one day one of the bums pulled a knife on somebody because they wouldn't give them a cigarette. Next thing ya know, cops and city workers are down there with trucks and hazmat suits on cleaning the place out and pushing them down the river into Los Angeles.

Beverly Hills Doctor on Venice Attack, Being Left for Dead | Hollywood Reporter

Serendipity?

Read this just before hitting this thread.

We once had functioning state mental hospital system.

Now we ban them to living under bridges.

I had to check to see if I was in the LCF forum...

Dr. Bruce Lee? I can just imagine what was going through his mind during the attack: "Do I let this go on and let the world go on believing I'm dead? Or do I beat this punk like Chuck Norris and reveal I'm still alive?"

Say what did happen to this alleged state mental hospital system anyway...?

https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/shri...NWRkZTM4MA.jpg

Back in the 1960's there was a political conjunction from both sides of the spectrum that led to its dismantling in California.


From the left there was the delusional notion that taking care of someone that could not (or would not) take care of themselves was depriving them of their right to be crazy.


The right jumped on the bandwagon because it was an excuse to quit funding the system.


That and the arrival of psychiatric drugs changed the treatment paradigm to give 'em a pill and send them on their way.

I see the same type of tarp encampment with a huge pile of pike parts near the bike path in Van Nuys. I don't know if they are selling stuff or just hoarding. It's never been a problem for me, but it's weird.

Kinda like a gazelle running past the lion pride's watering hole and seeing the bones of earlier gazelles. :D

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...d7eb7d2638.jpg

There's a ton of them near San Bernardino / Riverside in the River wooded area, which is weird, because if you're homeless the one benefit is you can live anywhere, why be here when you can go to the coast.

It could be that the homeless have a connection with that certain area. And then it could be that they're recent homeless and its their transition period. Do some of them travel in packs? They might become nomadic.

Danger in the underpass
 

Sometimes people stand their bikes upside down on the handlebars underneath the overpass. Got to watch out for it especially going downhill and from sun into shade. It can be very dangerous.

Its dangerous , don't do it. I been trying to fight this for the last year, even took a city council on a tour from PCh all the way to Artic station he was terrified of the things we saw, but like someone else here said they keep feeding them and allowing it so they will be there, I have placed one transient in prison for attacking me w a knife he was caught and he thought I wasn't gonna show up to the court hearing to press charges, well I did you should have seen his face. he's still in prison 4 years later. but now its completely out of control I rode there last Saturday and that will be my last time until its safer.

The problems fout years ago were the gang members stealing bicycles up near Spurgeon Middle School; the Santa Ana Police caught those perps (Kudos to the SAPD!). I haven't been all the way up from the coastline to the Stadium area, but there has been a notable increase in the numbers living on the levee from the Talbert/MacArthur bridge up to the Edinger bridge; a lot between Talbert/MacArthur and Slater/Segerstrom. They're on the west side, the SART path is on the east side. I usually ride it once on the weekends, I haven't had any problems with those that wander over to the east side, or those living under the bridges on the east side; there have been homeless living under the bridges for over a decade from what I can remember.