Yes, I'm aware, and my the hairs are still raised on my neck from when we were expected to accept that a "curfew" for the park was in our-- the public's-- best interest. I haven't been back to the park in 4-5 years, since the last time I went out for a day with friends on a trip that culminated with a visit to the Observatory out beyond the golf course, since the reports started coming out about how much worse it has gotten, so I am disheartened to hear that all of those side pathways have been populated by the homeless.
Not sure if you ever went disc golfing at Dog Island in RB, but a friend of mine recently surprised the police when he heard on his CB radio they were cleaning up the park. He often takes his dog out there to fish, so he showed up to volunteer. It really threw the cops at first, but when they heard him out, they said, "Fine, knock yourself out." He personally found 172 used hypodermic needles in the 90 minutes he spent helping out pick up trash from the ground and the brush.
Generally, this is a very real problem that strikes very close to home with yours truly, and it's all valid, I've witnessed so much of this firsthand in parks around Chico and Redding, so I have nothing to say against it. I'm well past fed up with hearing about female joggers getting raped on the river trails, too.
But I urge you to remind yourself that this is not the primary source of the pollution for our State. This isn't what is making the river run black. Furthermore, in these areas, we've done virtually nothing to help the homeless. We keep ignoring the problem, refusing to build shelters, and yet the lack of incentive is doing nothing to drive the homeless population down or away. Good weather overrides lesser challenges for these people. Every measure to help them and relieve the problem for ourselves that gets put up the voters strike down.