Absolutley Disgusting: Oh, The Inhumanity!

Santa Barbara seeks to turn the tables on the homeless

Using $50,000 in redevelopment funds, the city is planning to turn 14 benches perpendicular to the State Street storefronts they now face. The idea is to make it more difficult for beggars to establish contact with passersby, officials said. "They'll be sitting with their backs to half the people coming and going on the sidewalk," said Marck Aguilar, a supervisor for the city's redevelopment agency. "They'll have half the potential contacts with the public. It might not be financially beneficial for them."

there was $50,000 to spare for this "slap in the face to the homeless".

why is there always money for wars, scanners,bailouts [when dogs are much better ,like in Israel]special projects and other crap, but never any money to help the homeless, for the benefit of the taxpayers or create jobs [I know. rhetorical question]

$50,000 to turn 14 benches around and give the finger to homeless people.
this same mentality will eventually devolve into outright/overtly violent solutions, for now it's still covert violence.

reply to post by DerepentLEstranger


gotta agree with you mate, it's sad when you think that a lot of homeless are either mentally ill, or come from broken homes etc, they should be using that 50k to help them get some form of life back instead of kicking them in the guts again. That money would go along way towards a soup van etc.
The government did a similar thing here I heard during the olympics in sydney when they rounded up a lot of the homeless and shipped them out of the city for the duration of the event, I used to live in sydney city and a lot of the older homeless where ex vietnam vets...makes you think don't it.

reply to post by DerepentLEstranger


I personally would like to know why it takes $50,000 to turn around 14 benches. I will do it. I am unemployed and this could support me for more than a year. Oh wait, I am sure somebody's friend already has the contract.

Huh,
Santa Barbara......
Spends $50,000 to reduce panhandlers incomes by an estimated 50%.

I think I just peed my pants laughing.

This is petty arrogance on a grand scale.

Wow,
didn't make any money begging today.

Why not?

Everybody was on the other side of the bench.

California......priceless logic.

You can tell a lot about society by how we treat the homeless and less fortunate. 99.9% of people are not on the street because they choose to be. Disgusted too.

reply to post by DerepentLEstranger




Hey, I was in Fresno up to 08. I made a suggestion to my bosses that if they are ever called on any plans for construction, to ask for the plans for the homeless shelters the city built in Fresno. If the city can build structures that do not fit the current building codes, anyone can. It is the precedent and equal under the law component of our jurisprudence.

We have become a feudal system, where some animals are more equal than others. ALA unions getting waivers alongside the corporatist cronies of the system.

I be that if you split that $50,000 up between all the bums that have sat on those 14 benches asking for money in the last year on the condition that they go away then you would reduce the panhandling in that area by close to 100%...same money - better results.

oh the pore beggars!
I just wish I could tell them to go around the other side of the bench!
maybe just maybe they will figure this out by them serfs.


oh come on! no way they could just give them the money.
they would have to pay some one to do it $75k

HAHAHA funniest thing I have read all day.


Thats $3571.43 PER BENCH, not for a spanking new one, not to relocate, but spin it around.

Isnt california in a fiscal crisis right now? You might wonder, shouldnt a pre-requisite to being a governor, or even a decision maker should have played SIM-CITY???

Not only are they saying homeless people are less then their hoatey-toatey citizens, but it is worth spinning these benches around for crazy amounts of money so their citizens dont have to deal with horriable sight of a homeless pan-handler,

Why not pay a homless person to spin these benches around!?!

From a formerly homeless person's point of view: I was homeless for a long time, but I never panhandled. I would be too afraid to do that. But I did not need to, because there was always a church to go to, which had the overnight shelter in it called PADS. They always had a big hot meals waiting, full of meat, bread, fruits, vegetables, pastas, etc. During the day, I would go into a 'rec center' which is just as good as those expensive healthclubs, and I would shower and change clothes. Maybe go run on their outdoor track around a beautiful pond. This helped me to keep obtaining employments, (but which I would not hold onto, due to undiagnosed things.) Thank god for the VA. I would approach them for help, and then one day, I decided to take my own life, and I told someone at a soup kitchen. I wound up at the VA hospital, which on that day, was beginning a program designed specifically for someone in my circumstance, to fix my problem once and for all. It makes me think of that 1990 song 'hold on' by those girls called Wilson Phillips: "Things will go your way if you hold on for one more day....."
Boy, did that ever turn out to be true for me.

reply to post by k0mbination


to the best of my knowledge getting rid of the homeless is SOP when hosting the olympics, heavans forbid that one measly coin not fall into the fatcats bank accounts

reply to post by ExPostFacto


who knows dude, my maternal grandfather might have been able to explain [Sicilian: y'know pay for 10 bags of cement receive only 9]

Typical logic of the majority of those in power around the world today. Why actually try and solve a problem, when it's 10x cheaper to just partially gloss over it? Homeless people are the scum of the earth to these individuals- they don't pay any taxes. Not a problem any of these powerful individuals need to worry about, they'll never be homeless, they're sorted for life. Same goes for everyone they love or care about- ignorance truly is bliss, apparently.

badgerprints and willie9696: i agree, who knows how many were foreclosed on or were in the following group:

Four of Santa Barbara's homeless people have died since Jan. 1, and 32 died last year.

The idea, which originated with the Santa Barbara Downtown Organization, a business group, has again focused attention on Santa Barbara's efforts to deal with its sizable homeless population. "This is the kind of step that people who want to do something about the problem have been forced to in desperation," said City Council member Dale Francisco

desperation?!?!!? dirtbag doesn't know the meaning of the word IMO.

this is the "I've got mine" mentality that should have been left behind in the 80's writ large.

reply to post by saltheart foamfollower


$50,000 would no doubt have gotten those shelters built along with some of these to boot

reply to post by DerepentLEstranger


lol I love the benches with the dividers so nobody can sleep on them.
Just like san fran there is a homeless problem. Maybe the locals voted for it maybe not

Lol.

They could fund a soup kitchen or 3 for $50,000 a year... it could pay for transport costs for delivery of unwanted food from supermarkets, bakeries, etc and turn it into perfectly good food for people doing it tough... actually do something constructive and give people a helping hand. It won't solve panhandling but if the community teaches itself how to better look after ALL it's people it might change attitudes.

Originally posted by k0mbination
reply to post by DerepentLEstranger

 

gotta agree with you mate, it's sad when you think that a lot of homeless are either mentally ill, or come from broken homes etc, they should be using that 50k to help them get some form of life back instead of kicking them in the guts again. That money would go along way towards a soup van etc.
The government did a similar thing here I heard during the olympics in sydney when they rounded up a lot of the homeless and shipped them out of the city for the duration of the event, I used to live in sydney city and a lot of the older homeless where ex vietnam vets...makes you think don't it.

Sorry - most of homeless people are just guys/girls who do not cope with current society well. In many cases society just can not handle "lunatic" world view. I know few academics who are totally disrespected ... and often going to be homeless ... "Free thinking" and "free will" ... just propaganda/PR stunt in our society.