What a difference: Sunset Blvd. in the 60s vs. Today

I used to go into LA and environs….Burbank, Hollywood, Paramount, Manhattan Beach…..but no more. This trashing of our cities and beaches started long ago, maybe as much as a decade or more, but it’s over-the-top crazy now. The closest I get these days is San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, and not very often. Most of the commercial areas even there have been closed and abandoned since March 2020. Only some old town attractions have held on. Even in my own inland small town, I don’t go anywhere near Starbucks anymore b/c they allow homeless to use their restrooms. I can sympathize, but I have a group that meets in a “meet-in the middle” Starbucks once-a month for convenience, and the homeless go into the 2 available restrooms and stay in there for hours….our meeting usually breaks up at the point where we all have to go home b/c we need to use the restroom, it’s not available. Likewise, here in my own area, we have a very pretty local recreation area that no one can use anymore except the homeless. We don’t use a nearby National Park b/c it’s full of crime, the homeless, illegals, and pot-growers. I feel that my world, and my freedoms have steadily shrunk over the years & I am somewhat a “prisoner’ to the restrictions imposed on me by my state, local, and Federal governments that can not or will not enforce existing laws that were enacted to provide safety to citizens and communities, to which they swore an oath.

This certainly dating me, but in 7-8th grade I had a major crush on Kookie from the tv program 77 Sunset Strip. You couldn’t make anyone want to be on Sunset Strip now. What a flamin’ shit hole.