Monday I wrote about LA County's decision to brush off Gov. Newsom's executive order asking cities to start cleaning up homeless camps. Here's what ABC reported last weekend:

"We can't arrest our way out of what's going on in the streets," said L.A. Board Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who is one of five board members who unanimously voted this week against Newsom's executive order on dismantling homeless encampments across the state...

Showing a united front with the board of supervisors, L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said during the meeting Tuesday, "Being homeless is not a crime, and we will maintain our focus on criminal behavior rather than an individual's status."

Given that LA County is home to about 1/4 of the state's entire population and about 40% of its homeless population, that definitely threatened to put a crimp in Newsom's plans. 

So yesterday he decided to show up unannounced in LA to make a point that he would not be ignored. Without notifying anyone in the county or city that he was coming, he simply showed up at a couple of homeless camps and started slinging trash and criticism of local officials.

Since July 25, when the governor urged California cities to dismantle the street camps that have come to define the state’s homelessness crisis, leaders in Los Angeles have been particularly resistant to Mr. Newsom, making clear that they plan to deal with the issue in their own way and on their own timetable.

On Thursday, Mr. Newsom, in sunglasses, jeans and a black ball cap, visited two homeless encampments on their turf without directly informing city or county leaders. The only advance notice seemed to be state placards that warned people days ago they were facing citation or arrest if they continued to stay there. His office said state officials also called local homeless providers to ask for help in finding shelter.

“People are done. If we don’t deal with this, we don’t deserve to be in office,” Mr. Newsom said, tearing into a rancid, garbage-strewn campsite on state property under Interstate 10 in Los Angeles, alongside a crew of state workers in orange vests...

“We need partners, not sparring partners,” Mr. Newsom said. “If we can’t move Los Angeles County, we’re not going to move the state.”

Lord knows I am no fan of Gavin Newsom but in this instance he's right. People are done with the shrug of elected leaders who are content to let their cities be overrun by drug addicts and people with mental problems. And if the largest county in the state won't show a little more urgency and initiative then nothing is really going to change.

That's not to say there is a perfect solution for these problems. Realistically, there never will be. But at least leaders in other cities, even far left San Francisco, are trying to do something. They are clearing camps and making it clear that tent camps will no longer be the norm.

The homeless men who huddled in tents on a wide sidewalk near Golden Gate Park in San Francisco knew that city crews were coming to clear them out. But they did not budge.

They dozed. They bantered. One strummed a guitar. Fifteen times this year, the city has cleared the sidewalks near the local Department of Motor Vehicles office — and 15 times, the homeless campers have quickly returned.

But attempt No. 16 would be different, Mayor London Breed vowed. No longer would San Francisco allow homeless people to stay on the sidewalks if there was another place to sleep. The individuals camping around the D.M.V. branch had collectively turned down 89 offers of shelter this year, according to the mayor’s office, and Ms. Breed had had enough.

“We need some tough love on the streets of our city,” Ms. Breed said at a re-election campaign rally held four days before the Monday clear-out.

Meanwhile if you live in LA County it's just business as usual which means leaving sick and addicted people who choose to be on the streets where they remain until their limbs are covered in scabs and they overdose. No one will admit that's the plan but that is the defacto plan. 

So, really, listen to Gov. Newsom fighting with members of the media who are offering all the usual leftist talking points about how nothing can be done because we don't want to criminalize homelessness. And his response is the right one. No one is trying to criminalize them but you still have to clean up the streets. Either get on board with doing something to improve this problem or expect to see the state money dry up very soon.

Will it work? I have no idea if any of the new plans will make a real dent in California homelessness. I do know that sitting back and letting the tent camps continue will never solve the problem.