It would give our city parks some much needed TLC and also have a side-effect that anyone you see still panhandling is someone that doesn't want to work. Hopefully that would lead to less people giving money and less people standing on medians.
I can't believe I actually agree with Grandpasmucker - panhandling is universally considered a nuisance and a blight on the areas it occurs in. It also has seemingly grown majorly over the last 4 years. Stothert's inaction on this issue is incredibly visible and Mello would be wise to pounce.
I don't know -- they come up with $100k but only 20K goes to the actually people who need the money.
It could be better, but hiring MPA level human services people means you are getting a scrub for $25-30K, or you have to pay this much. How excited would you be about a job working with chronically mentally ill and substance abusers all day long for $30K? By paying more, you get the kind of people who think of this as a career move and who are likely to build the program over time (this year it's 20 people, next its more and this person will be available to be a homeless shelter contact person and become a policy advisor for the city for these issues.)
Garrett wrote: Wed Apr 05, 2017 1:26 am
I see a certain someone is running for city council in the 3rd district...
I did. Despite having a felony trial, the day before the election, I far exceeded the local political "experts" expectations. I was told by people in the Democrat party that I would have to spend at least $10,000 to even get 2-4 percent of the vote total IF I made it through the primary. After going through the primary to the general election the news was at my house knocking on my door asking for comments not about the campaign but my trial. It was an exceedingly difficult time but things with my mother have improved, and I've taken responsibility for my actions and moved on with life. And as a big |expletive| you to the experts I probably only spent $200 as a generous estimate and got around 20% in the general election against a heavily favored incumbent. And although the media capitalized on the sensationalism I provided, the charges I was facing were equally overhyped. They were dropped to a misdemeanor, and I was sentenced to time served for the nearly 3 weeks I was incarcerated in Iowa and Nebraska.
