Group Skirts Orlando Homeless Feeding Ban On Technicality

[The Straight Story]

Group Skirts Orlando Homeless Feeding Ban On Technicality

POSTED: 2:18 pm EDT July 27, 2006
UPDATED: 3:05 pm EDT July 27, 2006
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ORLANDO, Fla. -- A charity skirted the city's new ordinance against feeding the homeless in downtown public parks by serving food out of a van on a nearby street.

Joined by a local American Civil Liberties Union representative, Food Not Bombs distributed vegetarian meals to the homeless Wednesday just as it has for more than a year.

But this time, with police officers there to monitor, volunteers scooped the items from containers in a parked van nearby. That could be a loophole in an ordinance passed Monday that prevents serving large groups in parks and other public property within 2 miles of City Hall. Such feedings would be legal only with a one-time use permit.

"Wherever they go after we feed them, well, that's their own business," volunteer John Hughes said.

http://www.local6.com/news/9586135/detail.html

[Monkeyman]

1. Good for them!!!

[EFerrari]

2. Excellent

:kick:

[Not Me]

3. Unfortunately, the park is only 1/2 mile from city hall

I can't see how this will skirt the law.
I work a stone's throw from Lake Eola park, and this whole thing reeks. There is a big and growing homeless problem in this city that too many people wish would just go away. The city offered no REAL alternatives to what these young people are doing.

[ret5hd]

4. It skirts the law because they arent in the park...

they're on the street.

[Not Me]

5. But the law states

My take is that they consider the sidewalk to be public property.

[ret5hd]

6. maybe "public" is the key word there.