“I’m not easy to talk to,” Steve says. “You have to ask me a lot of questions so I can give you good answers.”
He was born in Venice and moved to Pacific Beach in San Diego County when he was four. He remembers growing up in a house full of people, with step-brothers, a sister, his mother and his step-father. It was pretty hectic.
He was a good athlete in grammar school and had a lot of friends. He was voted best citizen of the class one year. In his 20s, he got into sales, selling Xerox machines. He liked that, largely because the operation was very organized. Management did a lot for him, and the work kept him going. It pushed him.
Then he started his own company: business management for professional athletes. For 6 to 8 months, years ago he really tried hard, but it didn’t work out. So he let it go. But he still has hopes to get it done, and when he expresses such hope, a smile lights at the corners of his mouth.
He’s on parole and lives with four other parolees in Torrance in a three-bedroom apartment. It’s okay, he says. “Parole” pays his rent. He’s been living there two months.
One of his roommates goes to school. Management provides a box of food each week. Everybody who lives there is on parole. Everyone who lives there is a convicted sex offender. Steve, also, is a convicted sex offender.
He was changing clothes in the park and some lady saw him and claimed that he was playing with himself in public. He wasn’t. But he was convicted.
He has to register each year on his birthday, with a photo of himself taken at the police department.
There’s not much to do there during the day, so he goes out and recycles, which is good. It’s something to do.
He makes $8-9 dollars a day, working three to four hours.
Though Steve doesn’t sleep outside these days, he has in the past. He draws social security and sometimes used to spend it all.
He says he enjoys his days, but sometimes he has bad days. He doesn’t feel very good about himself sometimes.
People who see him picking cans and bottles out of the trash don’t usually pay him much attention. Bus drivers aren’t too happy when he brings his big bag of bottles and cans aboard because it takes up too much space. He takes the bottles and cans to a recycling center on Western Avenue.
Recycling is his favorite thing to do. He also likes the beach and walking up and down The Strand. And he’s fond of golf, roots for the St. Louis Rams, and likes soft rock and roll, like the Eagles and Beatles.
Steve smokes cigarettes and says he’s heard it helps with depression.
He admits to having been married a couple of times but has no kids. As for family contact, he notes he keeps in touch with his half brother and his sister.
Asked if he has any comment on society that he would like to impart, he says, “I think the police are overly intrusive, overly helpful.”
— Ed Pilolla
In his own words
I get up, take a shower, have a few cups of coffee, a few cigarettes. And then I catch the bus, two buses, the Gardena bus and the airport bus. I start on Pier Avenue and work my way down to The Strand and then to Manhattan. Usually by then I’ve got enough. [In the evening], I just sit around, have dinner and watch TV sometimes, and go to bed early.
