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# Paul Gulino Santa Monica Homeless issue ignored by City Hall
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/paul-gulino-santa-monica-homeless-issue-ignored-by-city-hall-editor/
- Published: 2003-06-09T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:17:51.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Promenade, #archive-import, Homeless

*By Mark Sanderson*

I agree totally with Bill Bauer's column, “Dealing with the vagrant not a high priority,” (SMDP, June 6). Do any of the city council members live in the same city the rest of us do? I just walked up my alley tonight and encountered three homeless, one sleeping in a carport, one picking through trash, and another urinating while I walked past as if I wasn’t even there. Yes, the alleys of Santa Monica are your toilet, young man. A few weeks ago one of our trash cans in the alley was on fire from someone’s cigarette.

Last week I was getting on the Santa Monica Freeway from Lincoln Boulevard and saw four homeless sitting on the other side of the freeway fence (the side you aren’t supposed to be on) in a circle drinking beers. Where’s the cops? Where’s the enforcement? If you ever walk down to our “beautiful” Promenade make sure you pass by the homeless youth with their dogs sitting around all day doing absolutely nothing. What a fine city we live in. Now, they raise the parcel tax and just had the bill approved to increase Santa Monica sales taxes — was it because they didn’t manage the budget properly or is too much money going to the homeless problem and not the solution?

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 9, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/060903.pdf?ref=smdp.com)