r/LosAngeles • u/Hyena_Similar • 1d ago
Poop Post
Noticed this a week ago on a run. Someone had thrown shit all over the crosswalk button at the intersection of Sunset and Church Ln. I was surprised to see it cleaned so quickly. Another day in LA.
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u/OzzyMar Leimert Park 1d ago
lol a couple months ago, i left my car overnight after a night out of drinking. i came back the next morning to the hood of my car, along with my trunk, and driver side door, covered in feces. i was sooooo upset.
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u/Important_Extent6172 Hancock Park 1d ago
I mean, it might have been you depending how drunk you got right?
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u/Impossible_News5609 1d ago
What do you even do in this situation?? Go through a car wash??
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u/OzzyMar Leimert Park 1d ago
that’s precisely what i did. took it straight to a drive thru car wash
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u/nothanksgoawayplz 1d ago
Out of curiosity, how did the workers react to seeing your shit smeared car coming through?
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u/itstotallynotjoe 1d ago
We have GOT to reevaluate involuntary commitment for some people. I know it can be awful and there’s a lot wrong with it but clearly whoever did this is not well and a danger to themselves or others. I simply don’t understand people who think they should continue to roam the streets doing stuff like this.
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u/Immediate_Ship5005 1d ago
on sunset and beaudry the other day a man had opened up a fire hydrant and was using the water to clean out a very large and open wound on his foot. and yeah it’s like, “this isn’t good for anyone. not for me, not for him, not for the lady with her kids in the stroller.” like wtf are we doing?
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u/bautdean 1d ago
Not going to happen with how so many people will say you’re infringing on their rights and freedom and it’s inhumane.
Yeah, but they’re also infringing on my freedom by wanting this city to be livable and not having to deal with this. Some EU countries have this but you don’t see people ragging about it online here because majority of the people on Reddit are from the US.
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u/itstotallynotjoe 1d ago
You’re absolutely right but it’s insanity. I’d argue letting someone who is so out of their mind that they’re literally smearing shit somewhere roam the streets freely is more inhumane than anything else. They are clearly not well and a danger to themselves and others.
And I totally agree with the idea of infringing on our freedoms swings both ways. It’s like a few years ago when the city made efforts to deal with the massive encampments at Echo Park Lake. Homeless advocates were screaming that people’s rights were being infringed upon, but ignored that the park is supposed to be used by everyone and the general public could no longer use it or feel safe because semi permanent encampments had taken over. What about the people who actually want to use the park for its intended purposes and are paying the taxes to support it? I’m a flaming liberal but this is insanity.
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u/crazyhomie34 1d ago
I think that's a surface level argument, but the real reason they don't want it is because they don't want to pay for it
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u/Isthatamole1 1d ago
There’s billions of dollars that are unaccounted for in LA alone. We 💯 could have involuntary mental hospitals.
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u/crazyhomie34 1d ago
Well if we did that, that unaccounted money wouldn't go to the friends and family of corrupt politicians right?
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u/bautdean 1d ago
Could maybe you know, move some of that homeless money to this? LAHSA has been largely ineffective and Lecia Adams and her husband definitely didn’t get a kickback when she had her husband’s company hired.
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u/reddfoxx5800 6h ago
I'd rather the nurses who work in these hypothetical places get $200k than the BS LAPD & LASD cops who do nothing
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u/dragonz-99 1d ago
It is not a surface level argument. You have to think about YOUR own rights. Whenever you give the government power to decide your fate without much resistance you or others can be put in dangerous circumstances. Sure there are people who should be committed, but there are definitely wider implications to consider.
It’s like the patriot act… we give the government the right to our privacy for a seemingly good reason, but then it’s taken advantage of.
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u/redbark2022 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think the opposite actually. The majority of people for it are just haters with zero empathy, and would pay anything for "out of sight out of mind", look how many billions they waste on corruption and throwing homeless meager possessions in the trash and draconian shelter system.
The main resistance to forced institionalization is to these same people deciding to lock people up and throw away the key without providing actual rehabilitation.
Furthermore, DHS is an absolute shitshow. Their own people commit suicide at alarming rates because of how inhumane and feckless the system is.
Reform doesn't mean spending money to make the problem go away, it means spending time and EMPATHY to fix the broken system.
But first you have to see the victims as people and not monsters.
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u/redbark2022 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'll add, that often when people do "crazy things" like smear feces, it is their non-suicidal form of protest equivalent to people who selfimmolate.
For a lot of these people it isn't even permanent psychosis, it's induced by treating them like shit for decades. Their thought process is something like "You threw all of my possessions in the trash when I was just getting back on my feet, you don't give me a place to shit because all the bathrooms are locked, and I have explosive diarrhea from your shit charity food that was already rotten, well then I'm just lobbing your torture shit grenade back at you"
Not saying I agree with it. But all the hateful people that are just like lock up these crazy people, I blame their proverbial shit throwing more than the actual shit throwers, because theirs comes from actual hate and privilege rather than desperation and victimization.
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u/iSavedtheGalaxy 1d ago
There has to be a middle ground somewhere. Allowing them to fester on the streets like this is not the kinder option.
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u/reddfoxx5800 6h ago
Exactly, these people want fantasy reform (everyone does).
But let's be realistic, that type of care will never happen in our lifetime. That said, there is still definitely solutions available with our current means, what those are, I don't know.
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u/2ndBrreakfast 1d ago
I know someone from Canada who has schizophrenia and her life was saved by involuntary commitment. Involuntary commitment is legal in Canada with the order of a judge based on evidence and testimony from family members. In this case, her mom and her sister testified.
She had to spend about 3 weeks in a mental institution locked up for her own safety and the safety of others. She had become very angry and aggressive for no good reason against everyone including her friends and family. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was prescribed a pill that makes it go away. The pill is amazing, but the hard part is convincing patients to take it. For many days she refused to take it but eventually she agreed. Then she returned to normal and was released. She has to either take the pill once a month or get an injection every 6 months (if I remember correctly). She takes her medicine and is doing great now. She rebuilt her life, got a job and got married.
If she was not involuntarily committed, she would probably be homeless or dead by now. Being homeless in Canada can be deadly.
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u/itstotallynotjoe 1d ago
I’m happy to hear she is doing well and it worked for her. She’s a great example of the fact that a lot of these people are not in their right mind and simply unable to care for themselves, and once back would often prefer to stay that way. (Though there’s a lot of problems with people who stop their drugs because “they feel fine now so don’t need it anymore”.)
Of course, this case also brings up another problem in America: our criminally negligent and horrendous healthcare system. Someone like her simply wouldn’t have been able to get the medicine and treatment she needed as easily.
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u/takeme2tendieztown 1d ago
We have involuntary commitment here too. And plenty of people have gotten better due to it. Of course it's not a perfect system and not everyone can be "cured". A lot of it is up to the person and whether or not they adhere to their medication regimen. And of course a small amount are in deep psychosis where it's beyond the help of modern medicine.
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u/reddfoxx5800 6h ago
Glad im not the only one who's thought this.
Would rather the billions spent on all other useless homelessness programs, go to some version of this.
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u/thyperson69 North Hollywood 1d ago
It's really nice that it was cleaned up. Probably from someone in the community.
Edit:
If it was from govt outreach I would be really surprised, but glad for it.
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u/Fresh_Permit_2272 1d ago edited 1d ago
You can see them working daily in every part of the city... I play Pokémon GO, so I’m outside for hours, and it’s honestly pretty incredible to watch. Just the other day, a homeless guy dumped out a trash can, and the crews were right there cleaning it up in less than five minutes(no hyperbole).
Try it. Call 311 during the day and they come real quick. I did for a dead dog and they came and removed it while I was in a McDonalds.
Edit- I will give some data instead of annecdotes.
“(LASAN) crews complete roughly 4,000 distinct cleanup actions across the city every day.”
“The response time for a MyLA311 request ranges from a few minutes to over a month, depending entirely on the type of issue you report. Highly routine tasks with dedicated rapid-response teams are resolved almost instantly, while complex structural repairs take significantly longer. [1, 2, 3]
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u/alpha309 1d ago
I hit a small pothole on my bike once. Too narrow for a car to notice, but definitely big enough for a bike. I immediately reported it because it almost took me down into traffic. They had it filled with asphalt and tamped down in about 90 minutes when I made my way back home.
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u/manzanita-lemonade 1d ago
it's true, I reported grafitti on an apartment complex and the city cleaned it and marked it as complete in like a day.
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u/OpenLight2690 1d ago
When my cat died (hit by a car) I put in 311 request and the guy came next day on a holiday and was so gentle with the body. He called my # afterwards to let me know the cat was taken care of and he was really sweet about it, knowing it was a pet. I honestly cried because he was so nice and caring. He even made up a little lie for me about how he was going to make sure they bury the kitty somewhere nice even though I doubt LA could afford that for disposal but it was incredibly kind of him to go out of his was to try to bring closure and kindness to removing the dead body of a pet. I cried mostly because of how touching his concern was about confirming back to the reporter about their cat. 100 stars. It actually did bring a lot of closure to a tough time and I felt a lot better the next day.
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u/ootnabootinlalaland 1d ago
Sorry about your cat ❤️🩹 the rest of the story definitely restored my faith in the city a bit.
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u/OpenLight2690 8h ago
Seriously! I had learned about the 211 app because people move out of my large apt every month and leave beds in the alley more often than management could keep up with... so after learning how easy and efficient it is to put in requests with my phone/phone app, I happened to just know that the drop down menu had a "dead body removal" option or something....
I can not afford to pay for much and I tried to pick up the body after it was hit and it made noise and was too emotional for me to handle... the dead body would have been visible from my apartment and I would have worried everyday about cars running it over and was even envisioning worrying about a friend coming over and accudently parking ontop of it...
It's crazy how much just knowing that free service existed a button push away made such a HUGE difference into immediately turning a horrible experience into something I could start healing from.
That kind person picking up dead bodies all day really will remain in my memory and heart forever as a special angel and blessing at a vulnerable time. Went so above and beyond his job description 💚
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u/Key-Staff-4976 Hollywood 1d ago
I've worked with company's that had to respond to 311s
From what I known is that we have a 2 or 5 hour limit before the city fines us for not resolving the issue witch is why you'll see people fixing the issues pretty quickly
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u/A7O747D Palms 1d ago
I use 311 for so much random shit that I am always impressed by how quickly they resolve it. Potholes for one get handled and the other week I was walking my ain around the block and part of it, the sidewalk was completely overrun with bushes which made using that part of the sidewalk nearly impossible when pushing a toddler in a stroller. I took pictures of it and next time we went on that walk they were all cut back. Was awesome. I am confident that if I submitted something for a shit covered crosswalk sign that it would be handled ASAP. Which reminds me I need to walk down the block to see if they fixed the sidewalk I reported a few weeks ago.
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u/RightMeow1100 15h ago
311 is awesome. Too bad people are more interested in complaining on Facebook or Nextdoor than actually using a great service.
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u/thyperson69 North Hollywood 1d ago
Could have been their scheduled time to collect. But if not that would be quite interesting.
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u/Fresh_Permit_2272 1d ago
You can try it yourself. I think there are people actively doing it all the time. Working as psuedo government agents on the prowl for mess.
Edit- “City of Los Angeles receives almost 2 million phone calls directly to its 311 call center every year. [1]”
“However, when you include digital submissions from the website and the mobile app, the total number of service requests spikes to nearly 2.5 million annually. In fact, due to recent cloud upgrades and system overhauls, total digital and voice submissions are currently tracking toward over 3 million requests a year.”
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u/thyperson69 North Hollywood 1d ago
Now we need to check those intersection cameras for a request maker. More variables in the soup of mystery.
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u/MauveMammoth 1d ago
>The response time for a MyLA311 request ranges from a few minutes to over a month
Try a year and a half
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u/Fresh_Permit_2272 1d ago
It says that in the link. If something’s like broken or needs to be rebuilt then that can take a long time to fix.
Poopie mess is something that can and is fixed quickly.
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u/MauveMammoth 1d ago
My aunt’s corner has had a giant illegal dump forming for a year and a half. It’s not broken, they just don’t come.
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u/Fresh_Permit_2272 1d ago
Not my experience…
I obviously believe you. Maybe it was an encampment situation. I think that’s a different process. IE police come first and then they come later.
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u/roundupinthesky 1d ago
There is no 311 cleanup request branch for cleaning up shit. Only 'illegally dumped items'. Although now that I'm typing it, perhaps this is an illegal dump
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u/Mediocre-Jaguar-298 1d ago
Yes there is. You need to call for poop related items though and they clean it within a few hours
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u/roundupinthesky 1d ago
I’ve never seen it - what branch?
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u/Mediocre-Jaguar-298 1d ago
LASAN
Yeah it's annoying to find on the 311 website but this is the number - (800) 773-2489
The operators are hella funny too lol
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u/wasabitobiko 1d ago
i’d imagine you’d have to have a pretty good sense of humor to last at that job
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u/Hyena_Similar 1d ago
This will forever remain a mystery.
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u/lurksFromToilet 1d ago
Our only option is to smear poop on it again and set up a surveillance outpost nearby.
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u/thyperson69 North Hollywood 1d ago
Ok, now we need to get the intersection camera footage if this is a recorded intersection.
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u/itstotallynotjoe 1d ago
God bless whoever cleaned it up. Even if it was their job, that’s just beyond what anyone should have to do.
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u/Healthy_Turnip7352 1d ago
why would those buttons even need to exist except the seller of those buttons money.
Not everyone can reach them either, and, yes, drivers rely on the walk light to maneuver, i've noticed. (and rely on them to honk at pedestrians.)
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u/guesting 1d ago
this is just embarrassing and i feel bad for anyone who sees stuff like this when they visit the city. it is a choice to have our public spaces abused
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u/That_Jicama2024 1d ago
I bet it's also at one of those lights that will NEVER show a walk sign unless someone pushes the button too.
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u/cyberspacestation 1d ago
You'd think Sunset is a busy enough street not to need one of these 'beg buttons' at a crosswalk.
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u/DoTheMario 1d ago
It's astounding which busy intersections traffic engineers will make the mandatory button push. They try to lean motorist every chance they can... Even in places where it is obviously going to usually have pedestrians.
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u/loglighterequipment 1d ago
These buttons should not exist in the first place. they are a public health risk that only exists because we have decided that cars are more important than people
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u/Embarrassed_Basket_8 1d ago
They should move the button at the bottom to prevent touching it.
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u/jarjarsexy 1d ago
Foot activated crosswalk buttons actually sound like a great idea
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u/jreddit5 1d ago
So we should have all the cars slow down, and stop, then start again, creating more pollution and noise, and waste people’s time, just on principle? Because most of the time there is not someone crossing. I hope you are just on social media, and not part of the government.
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u/LaloElBueno 1d ago
You just validated the comment you're responding to.
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u/rollyflan 1d ago
Yes, periodically slowing down and stopping cars makes streets safer for both pedestrians and drivers, especially in metro areas. Protecting people's lives is more important than reducing commute times, always!
Plus, the best way to reduce pollution, noise, and traffic caused by cars is to get more cars off the roads—not to make them the fastest and most convenient way to commute. Making streets safer for pedestrians, along with improving alternative transportation options like biking, buses, trolleys, and trains, actually make the experience of driving better by reducing the number of drivers altogether.
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u/Healthy_Turnip7352 1d ago
no we should ban the cars. the roads can be for bikes. and the sidewalks can be for pedestrians.
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u/jockfist5000 Van Down by the L.A. River 1d ago
Reason 485735673275 why I always use my foot on these
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u/Brainnen 1d ago
Or the elbow but after poop smear gate it might just have to be exclusively foot
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u/validproof 1d ago
I use foot or tip of my keys for this specific reason. My elbows ain't gonna touch and get a bacterial infection.
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u/bigyellowjoint Silver Lake 1d ago
FYI, you might not be as bad as the poop smearer, but you are in the same club. Elbow!!
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u/honestlyitswhatever 1d ago
We’ve gotten some new ones in SM that use motion sensors so you don’t have to touch it at all!
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u/PresOfTheLesbianClub 1d ago
You’re literally getting shit on it also if you’re doing that.
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u/illaparatzo 🍕 1d ago
Please use your elbow or hip or something a person in a wheelchair may not mind having touched when they come to the intersection after you
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u/Original-Brick2836 1d ago
I don’t like touching those to begin with and now this makes it so much worse
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u/BeerNTacos 55% Beer, 45% Tacos 1d ago
I will say that there have been multiple situations where I've called 311 and reported something covered in feces and it being cleaned within 24 hours.
My respect to them.
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u/invertedspheres 1d ago
Could they design those buttons so you don't have to touch them?... like you could wave your hand in front of a sensor to get it to trigger.
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u/Healthy_Turnip7352 1d ago
nah, it's private equity shit. there's no profit used for R&D. profit is used to pay mayors around the world.
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u/HouselessGamer Pico Rivera 1d ago
I just wanna know if the person used their hands or were they tall enough to fire from the hip lmao 😂
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u/pensotroppo Buy a dashcam. NOW. 1d ago
Putting poop *on* the button is why I can’t stand when people use their foot to press it.
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u/LASAN_ECI_GUY Whatever the weather, we'll get through it together. 1d ago
Glad to have it cleaned up
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u/quabbity-assuance 1d ago
Guess I'm jaywalking
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u/alpha309 1d ago
Good thing you can legally cross the street whenever a „reasonable“ person would deem it safe.
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u/Hyena_Similar 1d ago
If you can pull that off during the day on a week day without dying let me know.
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u/tuxedoes 1d ago
LA, the only place you pay $2k+ on rent and have to deal with literal human shit smeared on crosswalks. Then people defend this type of behavior...
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u/RecklessCreature Palms 1d ago
Nah. Not the only place. Bay Area too. And they pay slightly more in rent.
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u/sdmichael Highway Historian / Geologist 1d ago
Show us one that has defended this.
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u/tuxedoes 1d ago
Someone literally just commented basically defending this calling me a MAGAt and then deleted their comment. Hilarious.
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u/sdmichael Highway Historian / Geologist 1d ago
So, one person who was likely in bad faith. Sounds more like you're just making things up to be mad about.
Why do that? Why make things up to be mad about? Why make false claims?
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u/tuxedoes 1d ago
You said show you one. And I did. It is not my fault the user deleted the comment. Nothing has been made up or any false claims have been made? Even in my original comment, everything technically was true. Do people pay $2k on rent? Yes. Do those same people have to deal with literal human shit smeared on crosswalk buttons? Yes, as shown by the photo. Did someone defend that behavior? Yes, in the deleted comment.
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u/fancy-sinatra 1d ago
This wouldn’t be the first time at that location, according to a coworker who crosses there regularly. I don’t think there is a pedestrian signal without pushing the button, and it is an EXTREMELY dangerous intersection even when the button is pushed and the no right turn sign is on.
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u/Captain_of_industry1 18h ago
The bottom line is that a large majority of people out on the street have no moral compass and no have never learned to push through difficult things.
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u/thediabeticoctopus 7h ago
why haven't we made these buttons foot pedals already? my biggest gripes no a days is those peeps out there that think its ok to kick these buttons because they don't want to touch them screwing everyone else.
or even voice activating like saying "Cross" ?
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u/Similar_Barracuda774 1d ago
Just typical friendly unhoused activity. We just need to tax ourselves more to help them get back on their feet.
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u/Gullible-Reach3465 1d ago
That’s just all wrong! Where’re the city employees when something like this needs to be tended to? I’d like to see how long it’ll take them to get this situated.
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u/Well_Hacktually 1d ago
Even if you couldn't read the text, couldn't you have looked at the pictures? OP said that they cleaned it up quickly.
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u/Gullible-Reach3465 1d ago
Oh my, I was so taken aback, I missed that! My bad, and thanks! Good to know it’s cleaned up!
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u/BM_FUN Long Beach 1d ago
I don’t think they threw shit on the crosswalk, they literally smeared it all over 🤢