By LYNN BRONSENTHAL Daily Pest Staff Writer
Those were the words of more than 20 bums who came before the City Council during its meeting on Tuesday to demand that they be allowed to officially secede from the city’s homeless population.
“We’re lazy and proud.” — THE BACK ALLEY
There are more than 2,000 people in Santa Monica who are classified by City Hall as being “homeless,” as in people who technically don’t have a place to live. Of those 2,000 “homeless” people, 980 are “bums,” according to David Itburns, a Santa Monica bum veteran of more than 30 years.
In the petition, the bums are demanding that the city designate Reed Park as a place where they can frolic together. Along with the designation, the bums would like the installation of table cloth stick bag racks, cauldrons for cooking their Hobo stew and a renovated box car for impromptu howling at the moon sessions.
“Just like how there are differences between Orientals, like Japanese and Chinese, there are differences between the homeless and bums,” a very supportive Councilman Kevan McKeown said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 1, 2007. Read the original PDF.