Democratic Underground - I'm glad you asked that (rant)

I was meaning to rejoin this thread last night and give you a real ear full. I've got a few minutes now.

Universal Health Care Insurance
Universal drug plan
Universal child care
Government run/supervised low-income housing
mobile health/social services clinics

That's similar to the way things are run in Canada now, but I'd beef it up. I'd also allow for-profit implementation of all of the above, but with strict government regulation (eg. to prevent fundies from turning facilities into Bible-mobiles or Jesus schools).

I live in a fairly nasty part of town (by Canadian standards)(footnote 1). I've had used needles in my garbage and used condoms in my front yard. I live two blocks from a hooker strip one direction and four blocks another direction. There's always disreputable looking vehicles driving up and down the alley, people on bicycles with carts towed behind going through my garbage looking for bottles. I've had my garage broken into twice and my house once. Directly across the alley there's a group home for wayward kids and they cause a certain amount of disruption. When I've got my windows open I can hear the neighbours screaming and fighting.
Nevertheless, the area is becoming "gentrified" by people buying fix-er-up-ers and fixing them up. I first twigged onto the idea visiting friends of mine who live a few blocks over. They bought a wreck, spent two years and about CAN $10,000 renovating their place and now they've got a really nice place. Same with a guy across the alley (next to the group home) at the end of the block on that side. . One realtor actually has a show-home 2nd from the end the other side showing how it can be done.

The problem for some existing residents is that property taxes are going to go up as new owners spruce the place up. As a result, rents are going to up to the point where some people can't afford it, and they have to move to other places.

The end result is that the so-called "slums" are going to become compacted. I don't want to see this develop into the kind of housing nightmares you see in "the projects" in the states. I don't have an overall master plan, but here's a few examples.

I work downtown in an area of large office buildings combined with large apartment blocks. There's one building in particular that comes to mind. It's about 5 storeys tall and seems to be occupied exclusively by older, single men kind of down in their luck. The parking lot's full of beaters and there's a front foyer where men just seem to congregate and sit. The building is well-maintained. There's an up-to-date security system on the door and cameras on the parking lots and entrances. Directly across the street is the Worker's Compensation office and there's a social security office down the next block. I suspect these men are fixed-income pensioners on a support program.

The city uses a system of "community based policing". There are four or five large "cop shops" but there are also many small two-three man community store-fronts as well. There's one down the block from me going one direction and four blocks the other direction. There are also routine patrols in either a two-man car or on bicycles (depending on the weather). The city recently bought a police helicopter and it spends a fair bit of time flying over my neighbourhood. I'm often in my back yard late (I've got a firepit) and wave as they go past. In addition the city sponsors block parents, block patrols, a tips line and the Community Police Radio Network (I used to be a member). The police here are not considered "enemies" except by a very small group of hard-core criminals. I've been on several "drivealongs" with the police. Their function is primarily "peacekeeping". When they respond to domestic violence calls, the end result is usually sorting out which social service agency to involve rather than an arrest.

There is one section town that could possibly be considered a "slum". It's called the Boyle Street area. The houses are fairly run down and a few are boarded up because of health concerns. In this area, however, are two interesting places. The Boyle Street co-op and the Mustard Seed church. The Boyle Street co-op is a drop-in area for down-in-their-luck and homeless people where they can get in out of the snow and get help. I drive by in the morning just before they open and there's usually an orderly line of about 30 people waiting to get in. I'm not entirely sure how it's all funded (I know the city and province and a multi-disciplinary church group are involved) or organized, but it's well spoken of in all circles. The Mustard Seed church serves a similar function but is specifically church led. I know a few people who have worked there. In the same neck of the woods there's also a large Salvation Army setup and a few other church-led drop-in places (footnote 2). Social services has a drive-around van that gives out needles and condoms and checks up on the hookers (free medical) and at least one of the church groups has a "get out of the cold warmup" van. Social services also has a 24-hour on call troubled youth centre that will send a team out (I had to use them one time when my son went off his meds). The drug store down the street is open from 8 a.m. to midnight. There's a special program set up where people being treated for drug addiction come in and get their daily methadone shot. There's usually a line at the door at 8 a.m. of people waiting for their shot.

My church sponsors a residence for recovering alcoholics. They have 40 beds and a complete program of addictions counseling. The church runs it, but the city and province provide most of the funding. Qualifying for this funding takes a significant amount of effort and documentation. You have to prove that your program is working and that it's doing what you say it's doing (eg. not a glorified church).

Now I'm certainly not saying there are no "bums". Just north of me is 118th ave. It's a stretch of strip malls, failed businesses, a boarded up hotel (health department shut them down), hookers, shady car dealerships and pawn shops. There's plenty of "strange" people on the street begging for money, staggering drunk (or drugged) or raving incoherently, shabbily dressed sleeping on benches or camped out in cardboard boxes in the alley. Nevertheless, social services very likely knows exactly who they are, where they are and has a file on them. They've even got a hooker task force (started when a freeper went on a hooker killing spree) keeping tabs on them.

Anybody below a certain income qualifies for welfare. Welfare pays your health care insurance, a minimum "wage" and you're assigned a social worker. You WILL check in with your social worker or there's hell to pay.

Here's an example of how it all works. You're walking down the street and there's somebody passed out in the middle of the sidewalk. You walk to a phone booth and call the police. A few minutes later the community police station (which is right down the block) two-man car shows up. Very like they know who it is and what his problem is. They'll either get him medical attention or take him home. First however, they will confirm that he's got some sort of support system. If not, he'll be taken to a 24-hour social services office, registered and some sort of help will be set up.

The problem with many social services schemes is NIMBY (footnote 3). When I first moved to my house I was concerned about the group home across the alley. There's often kids hanging around out back having a cigarette or walking back and forth to the convenience store down the block. However, I've gotten to know them and I guess I've gotten a "rep" as an OK guy because I'm willing to give them a light and let them occasionally come over to the firepit. The only problem I've had is with one autistic kid who figured because I gave him a light at 4 p.m. it was OK to bang on my door at 3 a.m. for one. We got it sorted out. The thing is, it's a small group home. They've got about 8 kids max and a social worker on-site 24 hours a day. These group homes are all over the place. Nobody can say NIMBY because everybody's got one already.

How does it all work? Taxes. I've had many people say "I could never live in Canada because of the high taxes". Well guess what? What do you think is paying for the clean streets, well-maintained sidewalks, the group homes, the needle van and all the other stuff. That's the cost.

Here's one of the benefits. It's been found that good infrastructure reduces crime. I was in NY city in the 70's. The subway cars were covered with graffiti. The stations were a mess. There was a high crime rate. NY cleaned up the cars so they were nice and shiny, cleaned up the stations and the crime rate went waaaay down.

Canadian politics is always fun to watch - and downright inscrutable to many people(footnote 4). We recently had a conference of Premiers that was all over the papers billed as a huge controversy. The topic of discussion - you guessed it - infrastructure. Premiers wanted more money for cities and highways. Gay marriage got about five minutes. The premier most against it basically said "whatever". The ruling party (Liberals) runs on a platform of basically Keynesian economics (one Prime Minister actually studied with Keynes) and left-wing social issues. There's a fair bit of uproar every time they threaten to lower - that's right lower taxes. People like their infrastructure and their health care system and have no qualms paying for it.

I'd better summarize.

Basically, there needs to be a grass-roots, community based, in-your-face infrastructure of social services paid for with high taxes (with a bit of help from non-profit groups), centrally coordinated at the city level following federal standards.

Cities need to encourage "gentrification" of their slums and provide pockets of low-cost-housing in all areas of town. Social services and police offices need to be radically de-centralized to the point of one every few blocks as well as needle, hooker-health and warmup vans staffed by social services personnel. Cities need to clean up their streets, pave their roads, enforce their health codes and get their act together.

Footnotes:

We had visitors from the United States and they commented on our clean streets, well-maintained sidewalks and asphalt and a distinct lack of "bums". They asked to be driven to see our slums so we drove to pretty much where I live now and I announced, "OK here's our slum". They were kind of speechless for a moment, then said "this isn't a slum. Where we come from this is considered middle class residential. Where's your area of burned out buildings, drugs openly sold on the street etc." to which I kinda looked blank and said "um...we don't really have one."
I do have specific issues with this mixture of church and state but it seems to work in these cases. Primarily I don't have a problem with a church-run drop-in centre as long as its primary purpose is caring for the homeless etc. I would certainly object if there was a religious requirement (eg. change religion, or be forcibly baptized) to getting assistance.
Not In My Back Yard - the politician's nightmare.
Canada has a federal parliament containing factions of political parties (there's even a Marijuana Party but they don't have any seats - yet). The head of the winning political party automatically becomes Prime Minister. The individual provinces have individual political parties. The head of the winning party becomes the Premier of the province.

Reply #98: I'm glad you asked that (rant) [View All]