TALK BACK - Ms. Martin's article (in CityWatch – “Downtown’s Grand Park”) is incredibly elitist. It is full of references to the poor, the houseless and to protesters (Occupy LA) as undesirable elements who should be kept out of Grand Park, and downtown in general.
She seems to think that since "good people" like her are moving into downtown, then "bad people" need to be pushed out, never once considering that the poor have just as much right to inhabit public spaces as she does.
If seeing a man or woman lying on a bench makes her uncomfortable, instead of calling for more police repression to drive them away (where should they go?), she should start asking why people are houseless in the first place.
And as for her concern that "Protesters could move in and make the park a place of confrontation," CityWatch is "published to encourage grassroots civic engagement." Protesters such as Occupy LA, besides being protected by the US constitution, are the epitome of grassroots civic engagement.
They also have the right to use public spaces, and they are using them to challenge City Hall and the LAPD to treat the poor and houseless like human beings instead of like criminals. They are also challenging the very social structure that allows the Central City Association to buy the City Council and drive development that benefits big corporations, instead of benefiting the people--all of the people.
I hope that if Ms. Martin is assigned a client charged with offenses related to loitering or protesting, she recuses herself for bias.
(Diana Barahona lives in Los Angeles.)
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 61
Pub: July 31, 2012