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To the Mayor of Chula Vista and City Council members JAN 15 2024 I am Kwon Kim, the owner of Palomar Toys, who has been in the toy business for over 25 years at 669 Palomar St # F chula vista. My store is bordered by Oxford St and faces Harborside Park and Walmart.
I lived in the United States for a considerable period of time and have American citizenship, but I am not good at English, so I couldn' t explain it in conversation, so I had to write a letter. This letter was also written in Korean and translated using Google Translate, so I can' t understand the contents of this letter well. You may not understand, but in that case, if you ask me directly, I will definitely be able to provide evidence, and I will only write what I can provide.
Last Friday, a man who lives near Harborside Park came to my store and said that there would be a meeting regarding the reopening of Harborside Park at Chula Vista City Hall this Tuesday, January 16th at 5 PM and asked me to attend if possible. So I hurriedly started writing this letter. Because I know that I cannot properly convey my thoughts to you in English.
When I first opened a business here in November 1998, Costco was located where Walmart is now, and the current harborside park and county building were empty.
At that time, the problem of homeless people that we are all suffering from now was not a problem here at all, but a problem that only existed in San Diego or downtown LA.
Truly homeless people were rarely seen. I think everyone was very peaceful and happy. I have lived and done business only in Chula Vista for 40 years, from the moment I came to the United States from Korea.
I love Chula Vista more than any other place in America and am content to call it my second home. This is because, as an Asian, I feel most comfortable living in a place where people of similar economic power and various races mix. Even now, that thought has not changed at all, but there is only one thing that is very uncomfortable now. It' s because of homeless people.
25 years ago, we couldn' t see even one homeless person a day, but now we have If the mayor and several city council members have visited this controversial area, you would know the extent of it. In this peaceful and safe area, first the county building was built, and soon after, Harborside Park was built next to it, and then Walmart was built, after Walmart open the homeless people coming start everyday because Walmart selling cheap and poor homeless people easy buying there necessaries and sleeping harborside park.
This match makingit a Wn Tor the homeless. It is only natural that more homeless people are flocking to this easy - to - live paradise. It is good for them to become heaven, but if their heavenly life turns the lives of other good people into I
hell, the city government, which must pursue a safe and comfortable life for its citizens, must take responsibility. Heaven for the homeless too. A paradise for ordinary citizens as well. How great would it be then?
The mayor and city managers know this. once a week, a city truck comes to the homeless tent village on Palomar St and the small road next to the railroad to remove and clean the homeless tents. I always saw it because my store is nearby.
After the garbage truck leaves, They immediately set up the tent again and 4 hours later it' s the same. After repeating this countless times, they ended up putting up a double fence to prevent entry, so you can' t see any more homeless tents there, but they are still there on the other side of the railroad tracks. only the location has changed. Now the lives of ordinary residents there will become hell. If the mayor asks the person responsible for cleaning, you will find out that what I am saying is correct.
In the end, I don' t think it' s a problem that can be solved by driving homeless people out of an area. However, it will not be easy to provide a small shelter to every homeless person. It takes a lot of time and money... and I don' t think it' s easy. It is not an easy task, so many people are asking the city government for a solution, but it has not been solved yet.
I sincerely hope that people and business operators who live near homeless people will solve the problem of homelessness now, not in a month, six months, or a year.
I have had the idea that we could solve the homeless problem for quite some time, but I have never shared my opinion with others yet. I' m telling you my thoughts.
If you think my idea is right, try it, and if you have a better idea using my idea, of course follow that idea as soon as possible so that the homeless, the general public, and those who run businesses in the area are all satisfied as soon as possible. I hope you come.
For all homeless people, if there is a place that is warmer, more comfortable, and better than where they are currently living on the streets, they will try to go there themselves. The problem would be easily solved if the city government provided a place where they could be well- fed, warm, and treated better than living on the streets, hungry, cold, chased, despised, and looked down upon.
The problem is that it takes a lot of money and time and you will always run out of it.
The public and business owners want to distance themselves from the homeless as much as possible. If we contract a hotel or build a shelter in a residential or business area to house the homeless, their tents will disappear, but the homeless will still live in the area and families with young students will always feel anxious.
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So what I am proposing is to have the homeless live in vacant land that is quite far away from civilian residences and business areas, but the homeless will not want to go to a place that is far from civilian residences. This is because if you are near the general public, you can use nearby stores to buy food and pick up cans to make money to buy the items you need for daily life.
So, I provide three meals from the city or charity to the homeless people who enter the new homeless park, provide shared portable toilets and portable shower rooms with warm water, and open a car convenience store using the idea of a lunch truck in the city operates to enable homeless people to purchase all the necessary items at half the price of Walmart.
And twice or three times a day for $ 15? at 11 a. m.? $ 20 at 2pm? At 4 p. m., $ 20? is paid only to people who are at the homeless park at that time, and people who are not there at that time are not paid. Giving money every 2- 3 hours like this could be a way to prevent people from leaving the place easily.
Of course, you can leave the park freely, but since you cannot receive money, you will try to stay in the park as much as possible unless it is extremely necessary.
In addition, we allow them to see the city as they wish by using the free shuttle van ( small size car is better for they can stay more in the park and less maintenant fee) operated by the city, which allows them to go to their park and downtown several times a day. And we make electricity available for free. Of course, there are electrical safety laws, so it may not work out as I think. My idea is to use an extention cord that can be used outdoors so they can freely connect the wires so they can use the electric heater and watch TV while lying down comfortably. Because their lives are so simple, it is thought that injuries or deaths from careless fires are rare. If the tent catches fire, you' re out right away.
In other words, the homeless people currently living here are cold, hungry, and driven from place to place, but in the new homeless park, they are given food, money, TV, electricity, warm electric heaters, shared portable toilets and shared portable shower rooms, and many other facilities. The car convenience truck that travels to local homeless parks sells everything homeless people need at half the price of Walmart, preventing them from using stores outside the park that are twice as expensive. Ultimately, they will spend more time in the park because life inside the park is more convenient and better than life outside the park. ( Because it is operated by the city and does not seek profit, it would be possible to sell the same items at half the price of Walmart.) Also, they can use the free shuttle bus operated by the city to go out and into the city whenever they want. If you want, you can pitch a tent on the side of the road without having to go back to the park.
So would they want to live outside when they have no money, are cold, hungry, 0 have no electricity or TV? All of this should never be done by force. In the end, if life in a homeless park is easier and better, they will go there on their own and not bother to come out.
And it might be better if the homeless park had minimal rules or no rules at all. If they want it, wouldn' t it be better to do it that way? And it would be better to encourage them to make the rules themselves. I think no rule is better to stay in the park. When homeless stay harborside park it wasn' t rule, that' s why they loved harborside park. Making strong rules is like a concentration camp, and in the end, people who don' t like it will come back to near Harborside Park, where life is cold and hungry but free.
And another thing is to use scrap cars. Purchase discarded SUV vans and small trucks in the city, park them in vacant land away from the general public, and lend them to homeless people for free. If you recline the chair, it becomes a bed.
Wouldn' t sleeping there be much softer and warmer than sleeping on the ground? It might be warmer and safer from the elements than the tent they live in, and they might like it better. Check with them. They rent junk cars for free, use electricity for free, provide small TVs and electric heaters for free, and provide free meals 3 times a day. There are no rules that you have to follow, and if you don' t like it, you can come back here at any time. Then, you can go to the homeless park. Are you willing to go?
And even when the value of the scrapped car has not been used up and is no longer needed 10 or 20 years from now, the price of the scrapped car may not change, or it may actually benefit more from the rise in scrap metal prices.
These days, sometimes, when I go out to take out the trash at night, I tell my wife, " You' re cold!" I almost always say, " It' s this cold, how cold must it be for the homeless who sleep outside on the ground?" They must be living a really difficult life that ordinary people can' t imagine. There may be a way that is good for them and for the general public, and we are meeting now to find it.
If you look at the photo accompanying this letter, it is the back door of my store.
There is a CC camera in the upper right corner of the photo, and a slightly longer black area is painted in the lower left corner. Please see the photo next page.
What do you think this is? Now it has dried and turned a bit black, but what I saw that morning was yellow human feces.
What kind of person brings this same watery poop to this spot every few months? It was heavy water poop, and I cleaned it up on the floor below, but there were still marks, so I covered it with paper. The store next to us poops on the wall like this every few months. CCTV cameras have been installed and warning signs have been put up, but there is no need for homeless people who have nothing. Still, I' m ti
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