The Bums Hate It.

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/11/28/Neighborhoodtimes/Tent_city_nearly_read.shtml

Toilets, showers, meals, tents, and security. The bums are pissed and sulking.

 

[angelicminx]

All potential residents will need to pass a background check.

I'm wondering about this statement. While I understand the point of the stipulation, some of the homeless are homeless BECAUSE they couldn't pass a background check in the first place.

And then there's this comment by a reader:

There should be rules: No drugs, alcohol, sex, tobacco. Residents must prove they are seeking employment and apartment. They should have to help clean and maintain the tent city. Only those who truly want help should be allowed in.

I have to agree with the no drugs and alcohol, but no sex or tobacco? Gimme a break! No smoking inside the tent I'd go for. Placing cigarettes in an approved container and not 'flipping', okay. What the hell is the point behind no sex??

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Are you kidding? People fuck in the aisles at WAL-MART. I've seen it. They'll never contain it inside a tent. So you need a reason to toss them out when they put on a show for the kiddies.

 

[togitc]

What the hell is the point behind no sex??

It's a little odd to be the one to tell you this but ok. When one person loves another person or they are really horny or drunk....

 

[R. Richard]

I have to agree with the no drugs and alcohol, but no sex or tobacco? Gimme a break! No smoking inside the tent I'd go for. Placing cigarettes in an approved container and not 'flipping', okay. What the hell is the point behind no sex??

Nothing in this life is free. The people who are behind the government approved tent city are the kind of people who don't like the idea of others having sex. Thus, they place a restriction on other people having sex. It is the golden rule. Those who have the gold make the rules.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

I could really give a shit if the bums are fucking in their tent city. They are fucking on street corners now. This should actually be an improvement. Besides, what is the country going to do? Set up "Fuck Police"?

What bothers me is - Do they really need internet access? Why? So they can email their bum friends and invite them down to Tampa for the fuck fest?

 

[emap]

Richard the designers have not said anything about restrictions, the no sex and such comment was by some nitwit reader.

I guess I live in a pretty nice area of Pheonix, all of the homeless I see are seriously anti social, or showered at least, some shaved, they just sit around looking for handouts. Not that there are many, for some unknown reason. The grocery stores and pizza places will set out left overs that are not fit for sale in the alley and let the homeless or poor have as much as they can walk away with. Will even leave or give out big bags to take alot away. There are two grocery stores and two pizza places within 2 miles of where I am sitting right now. Not to mention the restaurants that will actually do the same thing each night.

I've gotten descriptions of how much is left out, let's just say enough for 50-60 people to eat comfortably for a day or two. Pizza places actually cook up what they have left of dough each night, whatever the crew doesn't take home they leave in the alley in boxes. It's more pizza's than you would think.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

JENNY

If they copulate in their tent, who is to know?

But the bigger question is, can any society make and enforce rules about conduct? The answer, of course, is yes. Otherwise you end up with a Nazi-concentration camp style of anarchism where anything is possible, dependent on who the most powerful person is.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

RICHARD

Yes. That's generally how it works.

We had an odd situation here. Starbucks wanted to open a store outside the mall, in a closed Wendys. The Wendys was already built. Starbucks simply wanted to remodel it and sell coffee-stuff.

The building department said no. The structure is in a flood plain, aint gonna happen Jack. You can raze the building and build a Starbucks on stilts.

Starbucks went elsewhere.

Then "Joe Blow" leased the building and opened Joe's Koffee Klub.

Now! I have no idea what changed the building department's thinking. But if I had to bet I'd wager someone with gold got to a county commissioner or two.

 

[angelicminx]

Are you kidding? People fuck in the aisles at WAL-MART. I've seen it. They'll never contain it inside a tent. So you need a reason to toss them out when they put on a show for the kiddies.

Indecent exposure isn't reason enough?

 

[angelicminx]

Nothing in this life is free. The people who are behind the government approved tent city are the kind of people who don't like the idea of others having sex. Thus, they place a restriction on other people having sex. It is the golden rule. Those who have the gold make the rules.

Well there you go, lol.

I'm in agreement with the homeless in their fears. If they don't go to 'tent city', they'll likely be arrested. I don't give a shit what the official statement is, it'll happen.

 

[angelicminx]

Richard the designers have not said anything about restrictions, the no sex and such comment was by some nitwit reader.

I guess I live in a pretty nice area of Pheonix, all of the homeless I see are seriously anti social, or showered at least, some shaved, they just sit around looking for handouts. Not that there are many, for some unknown reason. The grocery stores and pizza places will set out left overs that are not fit for sale in the alley and let the homeless or poor have as much as they can walk away with. Will even leave or give out big bags to take alot away. There are two grocery stores and two pizza places within 2 miles of where I am sitting right now. Not to mention the restaurants that will actually do the same thing each night.

I've gotten descriptions of how much is left out, let's just say enough for 50-60 people to eat comfortably for a day or two. Pizza places actually cook up what they have left of dough each night, whatever the crew doesn't take home they leave in the alley in boxes. It's more pizza's than you would think.

I don't know about any other place, but they've made it illegal for restraunts and grocery stores here to do that, claiming health violations. They've also made it illegal for people to get inside the dumpster and take out the carefully wrapped 'old' food, claiming it still belongs to the store, so it's considered stealing. When it's picked up by the garbage company it then belongs to them, and still stealing. When it gets to the dump, it belongs to them, and still stealing. How stupid is that?

 

[angelicminx]

JENNY

If they copulate in their tent, who is to know?

But the bigger question is, can any society make and enforce rules about conduct? The answer, of course, is yes. Otherwise you end up with a Nazi-concentration camp style of anarchism where anything is possible, dependent on who the most powerful person is.

I don't understand this comment, but maybe I'm just dense? If 'society' makes and enforces rules as 'society' sees fit, how is that different than 'the most powerful person' deciding how things should be?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Naaah. Cops dont like to arrest bums. When they bring them to jail the jail makes them take the bum to the ER to fix all the medical problems, and that pisses off the sergeant because of the overtime. Bums are not very healthy, because of the chronic drinking, and most of them need detox first.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

angelicminx

One is the myth we buy, the other is the reality.

 

[angelicminx]

angelicminx

One is the myth we buy, the other is the reality.

The question then becomes: Which is which?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

ANGELICMINX

Democracy is always a myth. It's merely a herd of animals the powerful frighten and stir into motion.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Wait a second - free lodging in Florida in the winter, sanitary conditions, bathrooms, showers - the heck with the homeless, I'm going to check in!

 

[emap]

I beleive it is similar here. Trash from a restaurant fast food place or grocery store must be placed into a trash receptacle, except boxes, those have to be broken down then placed into said receptacle. They are also supposed to be locked.

The cops don't really bother to enforce it though. It is a health violation, but these people usually don't have any other foods so a blind eye type thing. Besides, the cops aren't the ones enforcing that, when your company gets a health inspection, they look and if say there is alot of food scattered behind the place they can mark you down.

The cops check on trash divers, if there is stuff scattered all over around the receptacle they bust you. If your in the receptacle they yell at you, sit there until you leave then drive away.

Not that I have ever done that, let's just say I have had some pretty darn unsavory roommates for far longer than I would have liked.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Here in my neck of the woods, the bums camp by the post office and panhandle cars coming and going. But the dense woods hide them pretty well. You can see their fires at night. But theyre not sleeping on the sidewalks downtown or in the parks. So the cops dont hassle them.

A reporter spent a week with them, and stayed drunk most of the time. He liked the life, and I havent seen him in the paper since then. People drop off food and stuff or money.