The criminalization of poverty

I didn't used to see tents when I moved to Koreatown two years ago, but when the city of Los Angeles revealed that there's been an 85 percent increase in people living in such makeshift shelters during that time I thought: Yup, I've seen it -- first there was one, then there was three, then there were entire tent cities. That spurred me to write a story about the problem and the city's approach to it, which -- the occasionally liberal rhetoric of the mayor aside -- can be summed up as: What if we just made it illegal to be that damn poor? Today The Intercept published that story. It is my personal opinion that you should read it.

Also, for Inter Press Service, I reviewed a new book, Against All Odds: Voices of Popular Struggle in Iraq. I'd read that too -- the book and the review.

The market finds a way to make the job search more terrible

The only thing that sucks more than having a job is not having but needing one -- and as I note in my latest piece for The Baffler, there are more people looking for work than there is work to offer, a fact those with the power to hire and fire have exploited to make the job search an even more degrading process that is statistically more likely to entrench self-loathing than lead to gainful employment. Read the piece and maybe give me a job.

Oh, and for LAist I wrote about efforts to legalize street vendors in Los Angeles and critics who say taco trucks attract sex workers. Check that out.