Some customers walked out of West Hollywood trader Joe's face was irritated, which had nothing to do with rising groceries prices.
The source of the thrill is a small blue box installed in a stairwell leading to the market, the latest strategy the property owner uses to stop unwelcome people from camping in the area.
As people pass by the mall, the sports-activated devices chatted like a loud, anxious cricket.
“It’s so annoying,” Jeffrey Howard said as he left the market with groceries. “It’s like an alarm from a smoke detector, you’re just waiting for someone to turn off.”
Another shopper, Travis Adam Wright, said he thought the device was a bad reaction to West Hollywood's homelessness problems and bad looks.
“It shows the first response of a bastard to people living on the street,” he said.
Blue Box joins an ever-increasing list of deterrents deployed by Southern California business owners and property managers who take things into their own hands to resolve the homeless crisis.
In downtown Los Angeles, a property owner exploded the monotonous children's song “Baby Shark” last month to camp in DeTer. In 2023, La Metro began to blow loud classical music as part of a pilot program aimed at ejecting homeless people from subway stations.
Bluechirper, a $400 device invented out of frustration, has bothered some passersby at the West Hollywood Mall. The website's real estate management company said it is testing the device and so far the results appear to be positive.
(David Bhutto/Times)
However, the blue box is called the Blue Echirper, emitting a rhythmless racket. Regardless of their intentions, anyone's delivery will trigger the sound of the sound.
A West Hollywood spokesman said plan law enforcement officers plan to visit the stairwell to see if the device complies with local noise regulations. If there is a violation, the city will recommend an alternative.
West Hollywood spokesman Joshua Schare said the chir device was inconsistent with the city’s response to homelessness, including allowing nonprofits to provide outreach services.
The mall’s property management company learned about the device through other news reports and installed it a few weeks ago. The company said it was testing the device, but so far the results seem to be positive.
“We all recognize the care of our homeless population,” Robert Warren III, president of Investor Real Estate Services, said via email. “On the other hand, it’s our responsibility to provide clean, secure access throughout the mall.”
Criminal is one of the ways in which property owners and others make public places unpopular.
Esther Margulies, a professor at the School of Space Sciences at USC Architecture and Dornsife, said the handrail protruding from the middle of a bus bench or park bench is a low-key approach that prevents people from lying down.
Margulies said she understands the frustrations that frustrated owners encounter when people try to find shelter around buildings. But devices like the stinger represent the private sector trying to solve problems local governments should solve.
“By creating such hostile elements that keep people away from shelter or just move them around, we won’t treat the root cause,” Margulies said. “We are reducing and devaluing the quality of the public environment because we deal with this social and economic problem without treating the cause.”
The latest data shows that in January 2024, there were 75,312 homeless people in Los Angeles County, about 200 fewer than last year, but 6,100 more than in 2023.
In March, Los Angeles County supervisors approved a $90,000 homeless services budget, including the first rollout of funds under the measure to address the city’s homelessness.
The Bluechirper device retails for $400 and was invented out of frustration.
Stephen McMahon invented and first deployed the device outside his Santa Monica apartment complex storage area, and after breaking in, a neighbor with the baby's daughter was beaten by two men.
McMahon initially proposed a solution to his board of directors of the Homeowners Association to stop the intruders. Now, a retired photography director is giving commands to the bluesmith after he teaches himself how to make a circuit board that can make an annoying sound and flash blue light.
He said the device operates as intended by his apartment complex.
McMahon said most sales come from women under the age of 40 and she likes the “non-aggressive aspect” of the device.
He hopes he doesn't have to adopt this strategy, but feels that he has hardly solved the homeless crisis in Los Angeles County.
“I don't want to punish anyone. I just want them to go somewhere else,” he said.
In West Hollywood, local businessmen say the device has managed to stop people from camping in the stairwell that leads to Santa Monica Avenue and several restaurants.
At a nearby pizza restaurant, the door is closed and almost inconspicuous. But at four Waxology Weho's business, employee Roxanne Moreno, said she could hear the sound and found it was the solution to the homelessness problem in the area.
“These people are also customers, and this is another step in criminalizing the homeless,” Moreno said. “What is the ultimate goal of all this?”
