LA Hospitals dumping patients out on Skid Row
 

I was scrolling through BoingBoing between classes, and found this troubling bit of news.

Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center busted for dumping 5 patients onto Skid Row, one of whom was definitely not homeless.

Here's a link to the LA times article.

I wonder if this is an outcome of the increased LAPD presence at Skid Row...

Meanwhile - back in Long Beach, it appears the policecar next to our house has stopped to arrest the man who was stealing our recyclable trash. I feel better knowing my trash is safe.

Skid Row? Did they also drop them off in the 1930s?

Not sure if that is serious or not, but in Los Angeles, Skid Row is an unofficially official neighborhood (it is technically Central City East but the fire department trucks say Skid Row). I think it is the only city other than Seattle to have such an official designation (Seattle's was first but was renamed to Pioneer Square in the '70s)

Be it as it may, whilst recuperating at a hospital in New York City, I was grabbed by two orderlies and unceremoniously dumped in Tin Pan Alley. I even wrote a song about it.

Downtown - where the cabs don't stop
Downtown - where the food is slop
Downtown - where the hopheads flop in the snow
Home to Skid Rooooow!

Meh - I guess what worries me is that this appears to be a regular practice, not only with that hospital, but with others. I understand that the hospitals are understaffed, underfunded - but where's the humanity? It's only highlighted by the fact that they didn't even know who they were dumping off... some poor guy who had a family and a home (not to imply that it's right to do that to ANYONE, with home or without).