Dallas law cracks down on feeding the homeless

[Judi Lynn]

Aug. 7, 2005, 12:41AM

Dallas law cracks down on feeding the homeless
Mobile units won't be parked outside City Hall or they'll face fine
By THOMAS KOROSEC
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

DALLAS - In the words of millionaire restaurateur Phil Romano, his Hunger Busters charity feeds the homeless "wherever they are."
(snip)

"I love these people because they love me," said Enrique Martinez, 57, one of about 120 homeless men and women who lined up for the last of four stops the Hunger Busters' van made on its tour of freeway underpasses and glass-strewn back lots.
(snip)

Starting Sept. 1, Dallas will begin regulating such mobile feedings, setting up a clash between a city policy and those who want to feed the poor. Under a new ordinance, charities, churches and individuals will be allowed to serve food only at approved locations. Violations will be punishable by fines of $200 to $2,000.
(snip)

"Maybe we'll get arrested for getting tickets and not doing what they want us to do and see what the public says about that," said Romano, founder of several national restaurant chains, including Romano's Macaroni Grill, Cozymel's and Fuddruckers. "It's all a matter of public opinion."
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3299402

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.ilmulinodallas.com/meet%20the%20hosts.htm

This a step toward daylight for the man who may have gotten overwhelmed by the "fog of war" and started selling "Freedom Fries" from Fuddruckers near the start of the Neocon War on Iraq!

[Melodybe]

1. Cause that's what Jesus would want, cause Jesus hated the poor and hungry

[texanwitch]

2. Wasn't there a story about Jesus feeding lots of people with loafs and

fishes, I quess times have changed.

[Theres-a]

21. This is my exact argument with the God hates gays crowd

I think there are pages and pages of references to feed the poor,worded many ways.What is christian about the GOPs values?They organize huge antichoice rallies that could have been huge food drives to feed the poor children that are already born and strarving to death.Who would Jesus starve,morans.Times have changed.

[daleo]

45. They would throw Jesus in jail these days for that

Nothing has changed as far as that goes, I guess.

[texanwitch]

50. The city officals would demand to see his permit first.

[DiverDave]

3. Lunch trucks

go to job sites and factory's all day long.
Whats the difference?
Riiiiight, they feed the poor and downtrodden...
CANT HAVE THAT, now can we??:sarcasm:

[dbt]

4. Memo to the "Christians" at City Hall:

Who commanded his followers to:

Feed the hungry
Clothe the naked
Visit the sick
Comfort the dying and
Bury the dead?

BONUS QUESTION: Why was "feed the hungry" first in line?

[Solly Mack]

5. You're supposed to go to where the needy are....not make them come to you

and you're not supposed to herd them out of sight....

Some people in this country think the problem goes away if you just hide the evidence....sweep it under the carpet.

[wellst0nev0ter]

6. And To Think, Texas (Republicans) Wants To Be A "Christian Nation"

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040613-123020-8252r.htm">LINK

Oh well, when it concerns the death penalty they have always been casting the first stones.

[Vinca]

15. A RICH Christian nation. nt

[VegasWolf]

41. ... and no unsightly poor people, or immigrants, or non-white, or ... nt

[jobycom]

22. No this is Dallas, not Texas. What are these assumptions about Christians?

Dallas doesn't want to be Christian, it wants to be rich, yuppie, and Los Angeles, with pretty streets. Dallas has long had an identity crisis.

[tabasco]

48. Dallas is having a humanity crisis now. n/t

[jobycom]

57. That, too! nt.

[Deja Q]

54. Their version of Christianity must come from a parallel universe, if not

Satan itself.

[no_hypocrisy]

7. MEMO from Joe Hill:

Preacher and the Slave

Long haired preachers come out ev'ry night,
Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right;
But when asked, how 'bout something to eat, (Let us eat)
They will answer with voices so sweet; (Oh so sweet)

You will eat, (You will eat)
Bye and bye, (Bye and bye) in that glorious land above the sky;
(way up high)
work and pray, (work and pray) live on hay, (Live on hay)
you'll get pie in the sky when you die. (That's a lie)

And the starvation army they play,
And they sing and they clap and they pray.
Till they get all your coin on the drum,
Then they'll tell you when you're on the bum:

-Chorus-

Holy Rollers and Jumpers come out,
And they holler, they jump and they shout
"Give your money to Jesus," they say,
"He will cure all diseases today."

-Chorus-

If you fight hard for children and wife-
Try to get something good in this life-
You're a sinner and bad man, they tell,
When you die you will sure go to hell.

-Chorus-

Workingmen of all countries unite,
Side by side we for freedom will fight!
When the world and its wealth we have gained,
To the grafters we'll sing this refrain:

-Final Chorus-

You will eat, bye and bye,
When you've learned how to cook and to fry.
Chop some wood, 'twill do you good,
And you'll eat in the sweet bye and bye.

Real Audio version:

http://video.pbs.org:8080/ramgen/joehill/UPThePreacherAndTheSlave.rm?alt

FUCK YOU MARVIN OLASKY AND YOUR "COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM"

[watrwefitinfor]

13. I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night... n/t

[Mairead]

17. Alive as you and me (nt)

[bobbieinok]

51. great... someone who's heard of Marvin Olasky....

[anarchy1999]

8. I can't wait to go and meet with these people and find out how many are

Veterans. It is going to be an eye-opening event. I think I may have found my call.

[oscar111]

9. Disabled, elderly hmlss shd not be made to walk a distance to lunches: shd

come to them.

many are homeless due to age and disablity, or illness.

such folks can not be expected to walk a distance to meet with these lunch trucks.

Trucks should keep on 'going where the homeless are". Period.

Trying to force them away from City Hall appeared the goal of the law.

Shameful.

I have seen them shoved around in other towns, too. Many ways used.

A great deal of praise is due to the restraunteur, for creating the lunch trucks.
Bravo!

See the Poverty Forum for a post, "homeless facts: intro for newbies" by me.

Just 4 billion would end all homelessness. Taxcuts for the rich were 350 billion.

[oscar111]

10. RECOMMEND FOR GREATEST PAGE butt at bott of OP

zzz

[lostnfound]

18. Good point. Also,

if you aren't able to shower, isn't it less degrading to be served in the great outdoors than for a whole crowd of people in similar straits to be crammed in close quarters to eat?

[Daphne08]

11. I imagine you'll find many vets.

Most of the homeless are not going to go to "approved locations" for food.

How are they supposed to even get there? People don't stop to think!

[rodeodance]

12. regulation translates into making them invisible.

[rodeodance]

14. Let us know what happens please with some follow-up.

[Horse with no Name]

32. I think you would be correct

many of the homeless we saw at Baylor (trauma) were veterans.
Many had been beaten while they slept.

[Bob3]

16. I seem to remember Jesus saying something like

"as you do to the least of them, you do to me"

I'm so glad to see those good Church going Dallas city father's are keeping those words in mind.

[Demeter]

19. These Are People, Not Pigeons!

Give Texas back to Mexico!

[HeeBGBz]

20. Now there's a millionaire I admire

One with a social conscience.

[donco6]

36. Macaroni Grill sure sounds good right now. eom

[jobycom]

23. 100+ degree temperatures during the summer and they want to make

the homeless WALK to some central location to get food?

It's not even about tax dollars, notice. These are private efforts to feed the poor. It will cost more public money to enforce the law.

[Rose Siding]

26. They say the trash is a problem

If that's so, bet it would cost way less to have one daily pickup than to police the restriction and face the PR.

[kestrel91316]

35. Since when do cities care about trash??

Here in Lost Angeles if you call the city to complain about trash building up on CITY STREETS, in CITY ALLEYS, and in CITY PEDESTRIAN TUNNELS they will either ignore the complaint altogether, or not do anything for up to 3 months.

Our street sweepers barrel down the streets racing off to somewhere, but I NEVER see them actually sweeping streets.

They care about trash in Dallas?

[elehhhhna]

24. Dallas law cracks down on feeding the homeless. YES, You read that right.

Aug. 7, 2005, 12:41AM
Dallas law cracks down on feeding the homeless
Mobile units won't be parked outside City Hall or they'll face fine
By THOMAS KOROSEC
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

DALLAS - In the words of millionaire restaurateur Phil Romano, his Hunger Busters charity feeds the homeless "wherever they are."

On a recent Thursday, around 7 p.m., that happened to be the sweeping plaza in front of Dallas City Hall.
...
Starting Sept. 1, Dallas will begin regulating such mobile feedings, setting up a clash between a city policy and those who want to feed the poor.


MORE ON THIS COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM IN THE BIBLE BELT, HERE;
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3299402

[Raiden]

25. WWJD?

This is absolutely appaling!

[H5N1]

44. only under Bush could we see such a headline as that

[atommom]

27. And I like the hypocritical closing comment...

"They don't care about the side effects," he said. "They feel they are doing the Lord's work and nothing is more powerful than that. That is their truth."

Those damned homeless-feeding zealots...

[ananda]

28. only in Dallas..

Texas has some crazee cities, each crazee in its own special way.. with the wildwest legislature leading the way.

Sue

[gratuitous]

39. Now, if they were assassinating doctors

Many of the good folks of Dallas would come and cheer for such a righteous worker in the Lord's vineyards, savin' 'em babies from bein' aborted. As Jesus said, "Thou shalt go for the clean kill and therefore useth thou the high-powered rifle with the night vision scope."

[Judi Lynn]

40. Verily! n/t

[bobbieinok]

52. just have to get rid of people doing the lord's work!?!?!?!?!?!

[William Bloode]

29. I would do it anyway.

I would just feed them anyway and then make a huge stink in the papers/press about how cruel and inhumane it was to refuse people food.

It's truly disgusting.

[elehhhhna]

30. Bible Belt Beats Homeless With Buckle...

wth kind of world are we living in? We put the mentally ill on the street and they don't have the darned decency to HIDE? Not that they're busy scrounging for food or shelter or anything...

THIS IS COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM?

I am ashamed to be a Texan (by choice, yet.)

[Not_Giving_Up]

31. Houston doesn't like visible homeless people either

I remember when I was in high school, there was some big event here, don't remember what it was, but George the First was King. All homeless people anywhere near the event were relocated so that they wouldn't be visible.

Now, a lot of underpasses have signs up stating that it's illegal to ask for contributions, donations, a ride, etc in that location. You can be homeless, but you can't ask for help, not here.

[Horse with no Name]

33. So how are they going to go about "notifying"

the homeless where these "approved" locations are?
Many of the homeless are mentally ill--and many will just assume it is some type of conspiracy to round them up.
Say a prayer for the hungry tonight. Dallas just ensured many will be just that when they didn't have to be.:cry:

[bemildred]

34. "The War On Homelessness".

We must stay the course, support the fight against homelessness.
The homeless are on the run, they are losing steam, says Rice.
Blah blah blah ...
:puke:

[6000eliot]

47. Changed the name

It's now "the struggle against people without homes."

[bemildred]

56. War, war. war. war. war. war.

What is this "struggle" stuff?
Why do you hate America?
:hi:

[Eloriel]

37. The wrong side of the tracks

Have you ever wondered about that phrase, or driven through some of this country's cities and smaller towns and witnessed the reality of the physical, georgraphical divide between the Have's and the Have Not's? Often if not most of the time, the railroad tracks WERE that dividing line.

One of the things the wealthy have always spent their money on is making sure there is a physical separation between them and those who are significantly less well off. If you don't have to FACE the reality of your greed, your selfishness, your exploitiveness, it's a lot easier to live with yourself. "Out of sight, out of mind" and all that.

Obvioiusly, where the geographical dividing line of railroad tracks fails or for some other reason doesn't apply, another method of physically isolating and making them (relatively) invisible has to be implemented.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

59. Yes, why do you think they started building freeways through cities?

The original plan was to have all freeways bypass cities.

[Autobot77]

72. The new dividing lines

Are the suburbs, and increasingly, gated communities. With malls and shopping centers, one does not have to set foot in the city.

[ooglymoogly]

38. religious right and hypocrisy are becoming synonymous

kick n nom

[Ilsa]

42. I say we bus the Homeless to Highland Park and feed them at

the churches and residents there. How about right next to The Mansion at Turtle Creek? That would be a lovely sight, wouldn't it, to have the homeless eating out of a hunger buster wagon in front of Dick Cheney's mansion (or did he sell it)? God forbid we actually go to them and feed them.

I'm glad I'm out of Dallas. Too many superficial people there.

[Reciprocity]

43. Would this affect Meals on Wheels?

[Chicago Democrat]

46. Hunger Busters are heros!

Keep on! Keeping on! I dare them to arrest them!

[rainbow4321]

49. Dallas needs to spend more time on finding 10,000 LOST probationers...

and less time attacking people who are feeding the homeless...

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/080705dnmetprob.2dfdd60.html

County losing track of crooks: Dallas County can't account for 10,000 probationers

It's 10 p.m. Do we know where our criminals are?

Dallas County probation officials increasingly don't. They lost track last year of more than 10,000 people they were supposed to be supervising, according to a new study obtained by The Dallas Morning News. Half of them had committed felonies.

The number of probationers who are unaccounted for is up 65 percent since 2000. It also represents roughly a quarter of all people in the county who were on probation in 2004 – one of the worst rates in Texas, although other big counties have nothing to brag about.

Managing probationers is key to preventing more crime, experts say. About one-third of all people arrested in Texas are on probation at the time police detain them, according to the most recent numbers a study co-author was familiar with.

[WhiteTara]

53. the people who run Dallas are very mean

When I lived there, the designed these beautiful down town seating areas and then baracaded them off so that homeless people couldn't use them.
They also change name of streets in the intersection and have the same street name for several streets that all intersect in the same spot and indeed it is built on a circle. The place was a nightmare if you weren't one of the old timers and/or drove a Mercedes or BMW or better.

[Robeson]

55. Another great example of Compassionate Conservatism.

[oscar111]

60. TX busses patients to NY, drops in crime areas. Bus returns. True?

another poster on DU said
"therapy busses" in TX are used to take the mentally ill from TX asylums to places like NYC and there, drops them off in

risky parts of town. Just leaves them. Bus returns to TX.

Is that true?

[sintax]

58. Food not Bombs- Nominated

800 billion a year for murder and mayhem.

[barb162]

61. this is so lowly of the city managers

but then again who voted the bozos in.

[merh]

62. Whatsoever you do to the lest of my brothers, that you do unto me.

On the last day, Jesus will say to those on His right hand,

"Come, enter the Kingdom. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was sick and you visited me." Then Jesus will turn to those on His left hand and say, "Depart from me because I was hungry and you did not feed me, I was thirsty and you did not give me drink, I was sick and you did not visit me." These will ask Him, "When did we see You hungry, or thirsty or sick and did not come to Your help?" And Jesus will answer them,

"Whatever you neglected to do unto one of the least of these, you neglected to do unto me!"

[Elidor]

63. Having lived in Dallas (and Texas), I can honestly say

If I owned Dallas and Hell, I'd live in Hell and rent out Dallas.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

64. So they can't stand to see Ronald Reagan's legacy?

Interestingly, Romano's Macaroni Grill supports rethugs pretty heavily. I hope this makes him reconsider. http://www.buyblue.org/categories.php?parent_id=11&start=60

[Oerdin]

65. The unfortunate truth is...

That most cities want the homeless confined to a certain part of skid row where they won't bother "normal" people. As someone who has volunteered to work at a soap kitchen here in San Diego I can confirm that most of these people are homeless for a reason and are not simply down on their luck; the majority had either substance abuse problems or had mental health issues which rendered them unemployable without treatment and they couldn't get treatment because they were unemployed. That means there is at least a thin veneer for why they want the homeless confined to certain areas where they will be out of sight and out of mind.

That said, I can't help but feel that if these people spent as much energy trying to end homelessness that they do attempting to hide the homeless then most of the homeless wouldn't be homeless. Alcohol & drug abuse treatment is what is needed along with free mental health treatment. If the homeless got this then we'd see big drops in the numbers of people on the streets.

[Triana]

66. Well. I like Macaroni Grill even MORE now...

...God bless Phil Romano.

[moondust]

67. Oh the compassion...

Oh the compassion...Oh the compassion...Oh the compassion...Oh the compassion...Oh the compassion...Oh the compassion...Oh the compassion...Oh the compassion...Oh the compassion...

[Lone_Star_Dem]

68. Yes, let's collect all our dirty secrets in localized areas

It's so much easier to keep the "good" people from having to see them that way. Why just last week I was on my way to bible study with my best friend Mary Beth, (we both had our impressionable little children with us, too), when we saw a homeless man with a sign asking for work standing on the side of the road in OUR part of town. I was so shocked I couldn't say a thing, luckily Mary Beth thought to tell the children to turn their heads the other direction so as not to have to look at his filth.

I did do my civic duty, however. I called the police and reported the man for vagrancy. Do you know what it would do to our property values if we let "his" sort hang out around here?





The sad reality is I've known people like my fictional Mary Beth and her friend before.

[DanCa]

69. Unbelivable ......Privatizing charity now?

What the hell is this world coming too.

[fleabert]

70. that Romano is awesome...

he had a great business model at the first Macaroni's in Boerne TX (san antonio). when first starting out, he'd randomly pick an evening, like a tuesday and comp every meal in the house. People would show up for dinner hoping they picked the 'free' night. Several times he would have every car in the parking lot on a busy Friday or Sat. washed and dried by the time patrons finished eating.

that man knows how to take care of people, ones that can pay him, and ones that can't.

[sintax]

71. ....