In April, I wrote about the many dilapidated RVs with homeless people living inside them that plague neighborhoods in Los Angeles and bring crime and filth to the surrounding streets. I told the story of how one RV exploded in a fiery ball (powered by propane tanks that were presumably used to make meth) barely two blocks from my residence.
As bad as that situation is, it’s nothing compared to what residents in Marin County, California wake up to each morning—both the NY Post and the Daily Mail reported Friday on the massive, two-mile-long homeless camp with dozens of RVs parked alongside Binford Road in the pricey neighborhood of Novato:
A two-mile strip of road in posh Marin County, California – which George Lucas, Tony Bennett and Robin Williams have all called home – has been overrun by a vagrant camp that has brought drugs and devastation to the area.
Binford Road in the city of Novato has devolved into a makeshift neighborhood of “tweakers” with hordes of people living apparently rent-free in a shabby collection of broken-down RVs and trailers parked at the side of the street.
The Post counted 71 vehicles in the area at the time, but local officials put the number at 135 in the neighborhood where the average home price is over $1,000,000. Take a look:
Said Kathy, a resident in the area for 40 years:
I can’t park and move into a city street. Why are they letting them do that?
It appears to us this is just the easy way out – and California is making it really easy for them and very hard on us, the people who live here.
Daily Mail brings you another view of the huge encampment:
The camp for the unhoused has predictably brought increased crime, fentanyl, methamphetamine, drug addiction, and overdoses. Here’s just one example:
Authorities investigating a convicted sex offender who lived along Binford Road in March instead discovered the dead body of a man who had overdosed on fentanyl, according to a report from MarinLocalNews.com.
Agents with the Marin County Specialized Investigative Unit discovered that Daniel Worthen was allegedly with the unidentified man when he overdosed on the lethal drug.
The victim was discovered dead in his own trailer stationed along Binford Road, according to the report.
Investigators executed a search warrant on Worthen’s trailer and his other vehicles and recovered a ghost gun and large amounts of methamphetamine, fentanyl and marijuana, the report alleged. Worthen was also allegedly found with stolen property.
Are authorities doing anything to discourage the blight? Nope:
Meanwhile, a sign posted along the strip warned residents about the gradual installation of cement barriers – but reassured them they would not be forced to relocate.
“This is being done to prevent illegal parking that obstructs the safe use of Binford Road,” states the letter, signed by Marin County Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Thompson.
“If your vehicle is currently parked on Binford Road, you WILL NOT be required to move or leave,” it adds.
One Binford Road camper, Shelly G., said: “My life here … it’s OK to me. It’s really relaxing. There’s no harassment.” She’s right—it actually sounds not too bad at all:
Every month they are given free groceries, assistance with their housing case management, medical assistance and much more.
I will conclude with what I wrote In my post about the homeless RV encampments in my neighborhood:
As reporters, we often pick our lane, and one of mine has been the devastation that our cities have suffered from the “defund the police” movement, the lowering of many crimes in some states from felonies to misdemeanors, and the removal of cash bail requirements that have turned the justice system in many blue cities into revolving doors of criminality.
– Homeless Encampments Overtake Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, Workers Say ‘None of Us Feel Safe’
Am I exaggerating, trying to create controversy just so I can get a few clicks? Nope. An RV just exploded down the street, and meth dealers are wandering around unfettered in a neighborhood where the median home price is $852K.
‘Nuff said.
If you wonder why I would focus on such things, it’s because I care about some of the amazing cities I’ve been lucky enough to have lived in—Boston, NYC, Chicago, and Los Angeles—and am sad to see their decline.
It’s also because progressives’ designed chaos is happening literally right outside my freaking door.
Many people will tell you that you’re “cruel” if you think that homelessness is a serious issue and that you don’t care about other people. Look at this Twitter user for instance:
New York Post stirs hate against the homeless for daring to live in a posh section of CA. https://t.co/FHMu2Js4eJ
— Solidarity Not Unity (@RonInCMH) May 5, 2023
But it’s cruel that we’re allowing the decline of neighborhoods and even entire cities nationwide, while people are literally left to die on the streets as overdoses reach record highs.
When you continually allow people to take over neighborhoods, you get more of them doing it. It’s not that complicated.
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