“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.” - Anatole France
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Looks like the main force behind this ordinance was the Democratic mayor, Jack Seiler. If the local branch of the Republican party is smart they’ll use this as an opportunity to back up that “compassionate conservative / freedom of religion” stuff they’re always going on about and take him to task for this nonsense.
Of course they might alienate their “fuck the poor(er than me)” base in the process, but it seems like a worthwhile risk.
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Nah, people who hate poor people mostly love it when other people are kind to poor people, it shows why we don’t need to, as a society, be kind to poor people.
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“LITTERING! Open fire!”
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*Points to BBQ
“Open fire; Open Fire!”
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Since moving to the US I’ve found the homelessness issue staggering (most noticeably on a trip to SF) - it’s orders of magnitude worse than in the UK, and that’s not somewhere I’d consider to be a caring society. Our local park is basically completely taken over by homeless people - as is the library next door - I have no wish to dehumanize homeless people and I recognize their right to be there - hell, if I were homeless I’d hang out there too.
Doesn’t change the fact that it doesn’t make for a very welcoming environment or encourage me to take my son to that park.
There’s a related issue with people living in camper vans parked around the neighbourhood, and it all comes from the same root of not enough real help; which means taxes.
This provides a decent description of the issue - but the comments are (inevitably) toxic. Old links, but I wouldn’t say anything has changed.
http://www.myballard.com/the-homeless-neighbor/
http://www.ballardnewstribune.com/2012/10/31/news/moving-forward-homelessness-ballard
I really think that there needs to be more halfway houses and state support for the homeless, simply complaining about it and moving them on/arresting them doesn’t solve anything, just makes it someone else’s problem. I’d rather local taxes were raised to pay for better solutions.
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If you would like to help Mr. Abbott in his legal fight against the City of Ft. Lauderdale, please donate to the following fundraiser:
http://funds.gofundme.com/dashboard/ArnoldAbottDefense
Please also share via your social media and email as the more people who read and donate the more we can all help this man.
Damon Wells
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Homeless people are not a homogenous group that can all be represented by a spokesperson, any more than any other class of people. If we were talking about almost any other social category, this would be intuitively obvious. Task forces like the one you describe include certain homeless people to lend legitimacy. It allows them to imply that since their plans have the approval of particular homeless people, that therefore they’re supported by “the homeless”. Apparently a lot of people fall for it.
I think selling tacos to urbanites with disposable income is pretty different from meeting the basic needs of the poorest people. I dunno what else to say about that, I guess we just disagree.
The city is trying to make homelessness invisible by removing all services from public space, especially downtown. It is a pattern in city after city. Move all homeless services to one area and prohibit services elsewhere. If people can’t easily get to that area because of their job or life complications, too bad. Also, if the area where services is concentrated becomes valuable real estate, relocate all the services to the fringes of the city where other poor people live.
It’s established urban planning gospel that you don’t concentrate poverty, you spread it out through communities so that poor people can associate with wealthier neighbors. And yet when it comes to the homeless, we seem to want exactly the opposite approach. We want all homeless people concentrated in one area, coincidentally far away from the areas everyone else likes to frequent.
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This should be a dream come true for the right wing narrative that Christians are being persecuted for exercising their faith.
But it’s the “you aren’t saved through works” crowd that created this law and is going to put this man in jail in the first place.
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THen you’d have to get a food cart permit, which they could not give you at their discretion.
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“We’re not a city that lacks compassion or lack kindness,” said Mayor Seiler. “We just feel that if someone is homeless on the streets of Fort Lauderdale, we need to get them off the street and in the right places where they can improve their position, their situation.”
And that’s happening, is it?
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Can someone call Spain and see if they will take it back!
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Is the climate where you live now better than that of the UK?
Homeless people in North America have the option of slowly* making their way to places like… Florida. Where the weather isn’t quite so grey as Old Blighty. So those places tend to have higher homeless populations, and the locals tend to be less tolerant of them.
*Pro tip: cops and mayors in many places further north will buy you a (nonrefundable) bus ticket!
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Oh, I know that the weather makes a difference, hence the issue in places like SF.
But I live in Seattle. Yes, the weather is better than the UK, but not by that much.
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Again Boing boing sensationalizes the headline… This is a local ordnance in Fort Lauderdale Florida only, NOT a Florida law.
This could be said of many of the court-mandated “help” services which have become so lucrative over the years. It’s quite a racket when organizations are subsidized to provide their version of help to those who (often) don’t want it.
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Probably get nailed to a 4’x8’ piece of sheetrock, then pushed off the end of a pier. Y’know, like last time.
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this is really sad and messed up.
This isn’t a recent thing for FL. Here’s a similar story from Orlando from 2011
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