Robert StGenis Voice empowered

  Market Lofts Condominiums. This is Part Two in a mini-series: Los Angeles. Love/Hate Relationship. A Tale of Two Cities in my series Los Angeles. Love/Hate Relationship .  At a minimum, be sure to read:  Tale of Two Cities. Part One  before reading this post. When you have a chance read the entire series starting at:  Los Angeles. Love/Hate Relationship. Part One. I entered the building and there was Ricardo, our security guard, who had just recently "turned me in" to our management for creating a nuisance violation for use of words of offensive language. He sat with his somehow perfectly naturally sparkling white teeth and smiled at me with such a "shit eating grin" it took everything to avoid what I wanted to say to someone I had previously considered a great member of our staff as I looked at him stare at me  with his bleached teeth and smug smile. The pandemic has made life challenging for everyone, day-to-day at the Market Lofts being no exceptio...

Please read:  Someone homeless in your house ,  Tony's first days back... ,  Tony Incognito #1 ,  Tony Incognito #2  prior to this one to follow the story and gain the most insight. Transparency is paramount. Privacy and respect are also important so I travel a fine line. I want to continue to explain our relationship with Tony as it has been a learning experience for us. I believe it's important for others to at least try and comprehend the thousands of Tony's that are left in despair throughout our city and county of Angels, let alone elsewhere in the state and across the country. People most often try to categorize the homeless as a "group" with perceived "problems" that led them to their situation. In reality, our homeless pandemic is caused due to many neglects on our part as a society. We don't have the mental health facilities to house and help those who just can't handle being apart of "everyday life" and thus end up on the s...

I got ahead of myself with posts about communication with Tony after our November trip before telling about what occurred during the trip. The story of our time with Tony begins with  Someone homeless in your house . Continue following with  Tony in WEHO   prior to this entry.  Tony Incognito #1  and  Tony Incognito #2   and any others in the "Tony Incognito" series are best read following this post. After only knowing Tony for weeks and not a perfect track record, we'd given him a chance and let him stay at our place and care for our cats (we have 2) while we were away on a trip to Tennessee and Georgia. Perhaps I have some reservation of being judged. It's easy for many, especially those closest to us, to call us "idiots", "dumb shits" or whatever else. At least, that would be their justifiable first reaction. But most of those same people would have said the same of our helping him in the first place. It was a bit of a gamble, but my attitude...

We had given him a $50 gift card and sent him out to buy some things. He then went out for a few hours to a clinic appointment, if I recall, initially, with some $32 or so dollars left on the card. I had told him to put $10 on his TAP card for Metro (transit). Once before, I had given him a gift card and said this was a "lottery gift"; find out what's left and it's yours. He ended up with some $24 or so dollars. In this case, it was not a gift, rather something he could use to get us things or we could tell him or agree to allow him to use for himself. For me, it was a trust building exercise with a gift card that we were given for going to our vacation ownership presentation. He had an appointment at a clinic and is over on the edges of West Hollywood.  I am not sure he didn't even suggest that he might say he might head over to "Boystown" before coming back but we knew he wasn't returning right after his appointment, which actually made sense to m...

The weekend after Tony had left our place he sent me a text message saying he needed to come by in the next "day or two" to pick up some "important document" he needed for something. I wasn't really sure what he did or did not have at our place. I know that he had very limited possessions in general. He seems to have had things stolen constantly, and people whom he stays with ultimately lock him out and keep his property. I have read and heard of many stories of problems with theft for those on the streets. While I could see some 'one' being vindictive enough to hold or discard his property I can't imagine why people would want his things. Canned tuna? Ragged jeans and tee shirts? Is there some gratification in throwing away another's belongings that I don't appreciate? He was at the library in Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) and he would only have access to the internet until 1 pm. He would then have "spotty" access and let me know ...

My Father used to say this when I was growing up. Mind you, he hated his parents and hated his childhood. My Mother, brother and I would go visit my Grandparents outside Philadelphia and all and all have a fine time until my Father would show up separately most often from somewhere else on business. It would take an hour before he and my Grandmother were yelling and screaming at one another about something. I wouldn't be so certain if the local neighborhood watch didn't issue alerts when they saw my Father arriving. My Grandparents didn't have central air conditioning and we were a damn good loud screaming group of Italians (later to find out we are acutally 59% Greek who went to Italy, whether that is my Grandmother or Grandfather I still do not know. Both families came to America from the same village in Italy). But my Father is a 1st generation American. My Grandfather's 1st memory of America is peeing in his pants at Ellis Island at 5 years old because he did not k...