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# Letter: Reader praises April Fool's issue and suggests fixes for Main Street vagrancy
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/040504-story-20040405/
- Published: 2004-04-05T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:11:11.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Main St, #archive-import

*By Marilyn Brennan*

Another letter on your Santa Monica Daily Planet April Fool’s Issue. It was fine. Very amusing, especially the use of the phrase “residentially challenged.”

I think that a lot of the people who were fooled, however briefly, knew on some level that some of the stories had the merit of possibility. And after the laughs, I had to wonder how long before some of these articles become at least partially true? Oh, all except the mom and pop stores forcing out the big chains. That will never ever happen — not in Greedytown, Calif. Whoops, I meant Santa Monica.

On another note, Bill Bauer made some good points in his “My Write” column (SMDP, April 2, page 6) regarding the tourists being turned off by the “large, inhospitable vagrant population” and went on to point out the wall on Main Street that is excessively used as a toilet by this population and is a major health hazard due to the huge amount of human excrement. Some possible solutions: Round up the people in the same area lining up for their free meals and have them become a cleaning crew at their toilet areas; spend some of the money allocated for the vast transient population for port-a-potties on every corner and the maintenance thereof; or have the city council and/or the city directors and board members of the organizations this city gives millions to in order to help (acerbate) the transient population, and have them follow their clients around with doggie pick-up bags available at your nearest pet store or grocery chain.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 5, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/040504.pdf?ref=smdp.com)