Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner The Homeless in Los Angeles

So I'm transferring between trains at Union Station in LA, just trying to get home from West LA. In the station, next to the historic old waiting room is a small Yamaha upright. The sign says don't put a money jar out and 20 minutes is the limit. I have a few minutes to kill so I play Gnossienne #1. Kind of butchered it, really.

I get up and head for the Gold Line. Leaning against a nearby pillar is a homeless dude. Not many teeth, and what are left are just stumps. He's dressed in rags, his hair is a tangled mess, h's a wreck and been out there a long time.

As I pass by he says, "I really liked the Satie, man!"

And I assume you smiled and said, "Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it."

Great story that silences any assumptions that homeless people are not educated!

I did!

One meets some very witty people.

I was in mid-town Manhattan two weeks ago, coming back to the hotel from a jazz piano club, and a very cheerful young man asked me if I wanted to make a small donation to the United Negro Pizza Fund.

Thanks for bringing that piece to my attention. Didn't know it.

Beautiful conflicting emotions going on.

I'm sure the homeless problem isn't as bad where you are. You might feel differently after passing by the encampment on a daily basis.

I don't get the connection. Is there a way of knowing how educated or not educated the individuals in such encampments are?

That is my point. There are some who make assumptions and pass unfair judgement on homeless people, but you never can tell what their lives have been like, what circumstances put them there and what choices were out of their hands.

When homeless people are bullied and mistreated in our cities it makes regular news. In the streets of Paris including major thoroughfares, people are robbed every day in broad daylight.The situation there is out of control and we don't hear about them.

And why is that a surprise? The homeless are already on just about the lowest rung. When they are kicked further down, people's sense of justice, fairness, and empathy kick in. It is much less significant for me in my life to have my wallet pick-pocketed (it happened once in a foreign capital about 20 years ago where I had $1-2K lifted from a breast pocket in a subway station) than for someone who already has almost nothing to get reduced to less than nothing. (I'd say this would be "tone deaf", but since this is a musical forum, people would think I was trying too hard )

In my case above, I didn't even report it as I was not fluent in the local language and the thought of trying to explain the situation and having a long dialogue with the local police was too off-putting - my language teacher had never covered this scenario!

I think many homeless also don't report the crimes against them, but for a different reason - because historically police haven't taken crimes against them as seriously.

BTW, there are many cities in the US with higher crime rates than Paris, including my home city.

“I think many homeless also don't report the crimes against them, but for a different reason - because historically police haven't taken crimes against them as seriously.”


Interesting assertion, I wonder where you get this information? Is this one of those things that “everybody knows” or is there some actual data backing this up? Just curious.

This is very sad and quite true!

Underreporting of homeless crimes
Washington Post

May be this was Diogenes of our days:)?

By the way, I was in a school recently and a guy looking like homeless entered it. There was na old upright piano standing near the entrance, so, he stepped to it and began playing "Fur Elize". But school the guard shouted at him "Hey, get out of here!" so he had to leave.
Frankly speaking, in Russia, especially in 90's, such a sitiuation like you described wouldn't be realy surprising...In times of wide-spread poverty and crisis it happend that even people having doctor's degree became homeless. Educated, specialist in science, knowing classical masterpieces... but in times of swindlers and gangsters who needs that?

Also see video at 2:10. This is not a new phenomenon and its recognition is also not new. Here is a line taken from a study from over a decade ago: "Police tend to stress maintaining order in [districts the homeless occupy] rather than responding to specific complaints."


Is this true? Because the US State Department might disagree.

In my US city with higher levels of crime than Paris, there is to my knowledge only one local newspaper that publishes a crime blotter with highlights of various reported crimes. These days, it seems that if a crime is not sensationalistic, it is relegated to being reported in specialized ways. I'm guessing this is not only a US trend, but would apply to Paris as well.


I bet this happens even more often that we don't hear about. In many areas of Russia, music and art schools for children are almost free of charge and one could achieve a level of competency in music if one's parents were desired that for their children. Most homeless don't start out that way.


This is anecdotal, but when I worked in Moscow in the late 90's, I had a full-time driver with a Candidates degree (equivalent of a PhD in the West) who was paid a few hundred USD a month. Although he was probably happy for the income considering the alternatives, I did feel guilty. It's one thing to hear about physicians selling apples for a penny on street corners during the US Great Depression in the 1930's, it's another thing to be employing a doctor to sell those apples. His story was that he had been employed at a research institute, but because of the falling value of the ruble, he found he couldn't support his family any more on his state salary and took up driving. (This particular story probably has less of an impact these days that it seems everyone one is driving for Uber. )

They robbed the interstate bus luggage on the streets of Paris, France

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbql7jM5PzE

Recent comments from a similar YT video:

"Today I saw two girls on Metro platform. They don't speak French. My French friends told me in low voice they are pickpockets"

"I live in Paris for twenty years. Just now a friend of mine got robbed in the 19th arrondissement. They broke his head. I myself was robbed two years ago in front of where I live in 94th district"

"Thieves and robbers don't get punished, But if you resist and fight with them, then you get arrested and get long prison sentences"

"It's not just now, I got robbed twenty years ago for my takeout outside of Mcdonalds"

Anecdotal, like my pickpocketing incident in Moscow in 1998 and my driver with a PhD. To see real trends, we have to look to data-driven metrics. Paris is 96 on the crime index out of 338 surveyed. The US city I live and work is 69 out of 338. This makes Paris bad of course, but better than 18 other US cities, including mine. Why pick on Paris versus, for example, Albuquerque?

Because it's trending ... and I wonder why?