Garfield Cat

Maybe he was getting ready for a job interview. Clean shaven and all. Or since it was a Sunday, church.

skidder

Thanks for the reply. Strange you've seen them but I haven't. I was also expecting to see some in the pre-7AM hours, but nothing; a few surfers heading to the beach, joggers and dog walkers, but no homeless campsites or cops. Now I'm wondering if they have any patrols in the evening or at night to force rogue campers off of the levees. I also wonder what they'll do in the summer when there's easily enough light at 5:30AM to ride it without headlights/taillights on a bicycle, and it doesn't get dark until 8:30PM-9PM.

The Angel stadium bridge is the section north of where you have to cross over the SART to keep on the trail? That's Katella Ave. I haven't been any farther north than the 22 freeway since early October. The southern end of the campment starts at about Memory Lane/22 freeway; south of Memory Lane is residential and the cops are probably keeping that area cleaned up to avoid complaints from the homeowners/apt dwellers who's homes are right along the river (north of Memory Lane are commercial/industrial buildings and the Stadiums).

jimincalif

An update from the OC Register:

https://www.ocregister.com/2018/01/0...officials-say/

A few excerpts:

Within three weeks, Orange County officials plan to clear the county’s largest homeless encampment, an entrenched tent city along the Santa Ana River in Anaheim and Orange where several hundred people now live and sleep, the Register has learned.....

County spokeswoman Carrie Braun, who wouldn’t confirm the timing of the encampment removal, said the county needs to close the area for an “environmental remediation project” and because the flood control channel wasn’t safe for human habitation.....

The area’s closure also will reroute a portion of the Santa Ana Bike Trail, which will remain closed for nearly three months. County CEO Frank Kim wrote in an internal memo that homeless people won’t be allowed to camp there again when it reopens.

trailangel

The latest... they will clean out the area around the Big A on Jan 22.
https://www.ocregister.com/2018/01/0...officials-say/

skidder

Amazing, I saw three Santa Ana cops out there this morning between 9AM - 10AM. One was in a car driving on the bottom of the concrete riverbed at about McFadden while I was riding north, the other was two motorcycle cops cruising slowly on the trail at about Spurgeon School/Fairview Road when I was coming back down about 1/2 hour later.

Its encouraging that the County is finally planning to move the homeless off of the River later this month, but it sucks they plan to close the SART for a few months while doing maintenance work.

TakingMyTime

I think it's great that we're seeing some action on the part of the city. I'm looking forward to the day when my wife and I can start enjoying that bike path again.

skidder

Its pretty much cleaned up south of the Angel Stadium/Honda Center area. Plenty of folks out-and-about riding bicycles, walking, jogging . . . and no tents. I've been riding up from the beach to the footbridge just north of 17th street in Santa Ana (about 10 miles one-way) at least once per week and haven't seen any homeless campers since they were cleared out of the Fountain Valley area a few months ago - a few random folks that look like they might be homeless, but nothing else. I was glad to see a few Santa Ana cops out there yesterday.

Jon T

"Environmental Remediation Project" eqates to a haz-mat clean up of the human waste, needles and other toxic waste left behind. That's what's gonna' take 3 months to clean up.
Jon

jimincalif

Exactly right.

mwalsh5757

CalTrans-type digital signs out as I rode today - trail closed on Monday the 22nd. Now I don't know if that means the whole trail or just the affected areas. I saw this one SB just before the Taft/Ball Rd. bridge.

jimincalif

there are still a few days left for someone to get an injunction against the clearing out. Will believe it when I see it.

skidder

Today (Monday, MLK Day)I rode up from the beach to the pedestrian bridge at about 17th street in Santa Ana (about 3/4 mile south of the south end of the homeless camp). No signs or message boards up to that point, so I'm pretty sure it'll be open with the exception of the 22frwy-to-Ball Road section. Hopefully the whole thing will be open in three months (if not sooner) as the Orange County govt has mentioned in the press releases.

FWIW: No homeless camping anywhere, no security guards or LEOs out on the trail. I was out there from about 7:30AM-9AM.

TakingMyTime

Thank you for the update

mwalsh5757

Signs modified today to read "Trail closed Taft to Memory Lane 1/22-4/30".

Jon T

That's at least encouraging. Hopefully the campers won't be let back in.
Jon

skidder

Yeah, I could see that happening; spare 400 homeless people having to move but delay maintenance/repairs to the river levees that protect 2 million people from flooding. Makes perfect sense to me.

TakingMyTime

Today I rode from El Dorado Park via Ball Road (that's a traffic adventure unto itself) to the SART in order to take a look at how things are shaping up. I was on the Eastbound side of Ball Road looking South towards Angel Stadium. All I can say is WOW! There is an encampment as far as the eye can see on the East side of the river. I use the word encampment lightly since this looked more like a city. I knew it was going to be bad from all the reports and posts throughout this thread, but... WOW!

It appears that the city has put up some kind of fence and diverted the bike riders away from the encampments in this area. Although I could see that the bike path did go through the encampment, I saw 3 or 4 riders passing by and they all were taking the alternate path that was fenced off from the encampment. I did not see any signs, or any sign of police presence.

On my way towards the SART I was considering extending my ride going South on the SART to HB and then cruise home, but from what I saw I would not have felt safe riding that stretch between Ball and Katella.

Garfield Cat

It would be a great over view if a drone with a camera were to fly over those areas.

Jon T

Are you talking about the SART or SGRT. SART runs by Angel Stadium. SGRT is quite a ways west of the SART. Also, SGRT ends at Seal Beach. SART ends at HB.
Jon

Nooner

I ride the northern part of SART, and steer clear of all the crap south of me.
Calm, quiet, and homeless-free.

furiousferret

Much like urban sprawl, the tents are here. Its gotten worse over the past 2 months, but not close to the OC.

TakingMyTime

Yes, I just caught that and corrected my post. I live close to the SGRT and I'm use to using that abbreviation.

I will add that North of Ball looked like clear sailing. I couldn't see 1 tent.

skidder

Same thing on Monday south of Memory Lane - clear of tents all the way down to the beach. I think there are a few folks sneaking in at night, but nothing like what was there in the recent past.

If it doesn't rain this weekend I'll probably take a ride up on either Saturday or Sunday and see what its like before Monday's deadline.

mwalsh5757

They cleared them out north of Ball Rd. about six months ago and have had a County-funded security patrol to keep them from coming back. I'm not sure the guy is the friendliest of people (though he'll occasionally give a wave), but I suppose that's the point.

Garfield Cat

Latest Article in Los Angeles Times about the Santa Ana River and the Homeless

https://www.latimes.com/la-me-ln-sant...htmlstory.html