New York Post's War On Homeless Is Bizarre

The New York Post reported devoted up to 16 reporters
 to follow this mentally ill homeless person last summer.  

The New York Post has a weird obsession with homeless people.

They really, really want them to go away.

The obsession is particularly weird because they tend to zero in on one particular homeless person from time to time, splash them on the front pages of the tabloid, and humiliate them as thoroughly as possible.

It's unclear what they're trying to accomplish.

The latest case involved a homeless woman who dragged along a series of carts with her belongings in Hell's Kitchen.

The publicity prompted the NYPD to come in and throw many of the women's possessions out.

Homelessness, even one particular case, is rarely easy to solve. But I'm not sure what the benefit is of making one person's bad situation worse. Especially by highlighting them in a bad but widely read tabloid.

The woman in question might have been a hoarder, might have had other problems, and maybe someone should have helped her deal with all this. But apparently, the city just went in and threw her stuff out because of the bad publicity from the Post.

Now that they've done that, is anyone trying to help this woman? She's out of the headlines, so probably not. I'm sure there are people at the Post that now hope she just goes away and dies or something.

I think the goal of the New York Post is to make the homeless disappear. OK, but where do they go?

It seems every once in awhile, the Post singles out a homeless person because some editor finds that particular person annoying or something. Last summer, it was a homeless, mentally ill man who peed on a street that felt the front page wrath of the New York Post. 

The Post's editor,  Col Allan, apparently thought it was appropriate to devote 16 reporters to cover this homeless people, who annoyed this editor.

New York is one of the biggest, most exciting, newsiest cities in the world. You'd think something more important than some homeless guy peeing in a street happens on any given day in the Big Apple.

Maybe I can prompt the New York Post with some idea. Did any bigger crimes happen? Check with your friends at the NYPD.  What's Wall Street up to? The UN? Did Mayor DeBlasio say something you don't like? He often does.

Did any of the zillions of famous people living in the city do interesting in the city today?  Did the NYFD rescue a toddler from a dramatic fire in The Bronx?

Inquiring minds want to know, but not many of those inquring  want to know more about the Post editor's obsession with homeless people.

Do us all a favor, Col, and just work with whatever neighborhood association you deal with and shut the hell up. Go find some real news to cover.

New Orleans Civil Disobedience: The Homeless Guy Keeps His Christmas Tree, Dammit!

Good Samaritans decorate a Christmas tree
for Philly, a homeless guy living beneath a freeway
in New Orleans. The city took away Philly's earlier
Christmas tree, claiming a "code violation." 

There's a homeless guy named Philly who lives beneath the Pontchartrain Expressway in New Orleans.

Desperate for some holiday cheer, he got himself a Christmas tree, decorated it and set it up next to his tent. (He used some money a passerby donated to him to get the tree.)

The city was not amused. They removed it - twice. Code violation the New Orleans sanitation department said, without additional explanation.

The first time it was taken away, Philly managed to retrieve it from the sanitation truck and set it back up.

The second time, no luck. The city hauled the Christmas tree away and destroyed it.

In a city swamped with crime, poverty and other problems, I'm not sure why removing Philly's Christmas tree took such priority. But many of New Orleans' fine citizens didn't buy the New Orleans sanitation department's Grinchiness.

Television station WDSU reported on the city taking Philly's Christmas tree, and viewers were NOT happy.

"The city that stole Christmas from the homeless," was a typical comment on WDSU's Facebook page.

Residents sprung into action. Several ducked under the Ponchartrain Expressway and gave Philly replacement trees. Several. So Philly kept one and donated others to those in need.

WDSU said one of the people who came to the underpass was Kelly Caruso, who donated Christmas decorations to Philly. "We need to be New Orleanians and band together. With the city taking the tree, was i word I don't use often--shameful....... I don't care what code violation it is, it's the holidays. These people need everything that can unlift them as much as we can," Caruso said.

So far the city hasn't responded to the mass "code violations" the people who brought Christmas trees committed.

Of course, it would be much better if Philly wasn't homeless and could just put up a Christmas tree in his own living room under a solid roof, but this will have to do for now.

It's a start, anyway.

Update: Awesome Homeless Piano Player In Rehab, Reconnects With Son

Before and after picture of Donald Gould
subject of a viral video of him playing a
piano in Sarasota, Florida.  

Remember that awesome homeless piano player I talked about a little while back, the one that became the subject of a viral video?

Well, as expected,  life continues to improve for that piano player, named Donald Gould. Some of the GoFundMe money that went to him paid for him to go into rehab to deal with his substance abuse problems.

He got a makeover.  Gould said of his new look, "No more caveman."

Even better, he reconnected with his long lost son, says television station WFLA.

Father and son talked via FaceTime, set up by WFLA and a sister television station in Michigan, where the son lives.

He lost custody of the son when the kid was three years old, due to his long running substance abuse.

Gould said he hopes this turn of luck his just the ticket to help him restore his self respect and keep clean and sober.

Let's hope things continue to improve for Donald Gould.

Homeless Guy NAILS Styx Song; He's Now Suddenly Famous

Donald Gould at the piano in Sarasota, Florida. 

I've seen this kind of thing before, but I always like it when it happens.

A homeless guy, the kind of person a lot of us go out of our way to ignore, does something brilliant.

Here, Donald Gould finds a piano in the street in Sarasota, Florida and starts playing the Styx classic "Come Sail Away." He's brilliant.

The video, just uploaded on June 30,  has gone viral, with nearly 6 million views as of Monday morning.

Everybody's talking about him now. He's been all over social and mainstream media over the past few days.

A star is born!

The pianos, like the one Gould found were placed in various areas around Sarasota by the Art and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County.

A follow up video features an interview with Gould, who says he plays the piano on the street every day to collect tips. He used to play the clarinet in the Marine Corps.

Gould says he has been homeless for six or seven years, when the economy tanked and he got laid off. Unemployment benefits kept him afloat for a couple years, but that ended. He says he has a construction background and can do that, but I agree with the woman in the follow up video that maybe a career in music would be better.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for Gould, and that has raised about $29,000 as of Monday morning. So that will at least get a roof over his head.

Here's the video of Gould playing "Come Sail Away."

Sorry, But This "Mean Tweets" Episode Isn't Funny Like The Others. But It's Important

A couple of the homeless people after
 reading mean tweets about the homeless
for a PSA to encourage looking looking at all
people as part of humanity.  

I'm a big fan of Jimmy Kimmel's "Mean Tweets" segments, in which  celebrities read the horrible things people say about them on Twitter.

The celebrities have a good sense of humor about it, and it's pretty funny. I've featured a few of them on this here blog thingy.

I don't mean to be Debbie Downer here, but there's another "Mean Tweets" episode circulating, and Jimmy Kimmel and his humor were not involved.

The organization, Raising The Roof Canada,  has homeless people read mean Tweets about themselves.

It turns out, Surprise! lots of idiots on Twitter say idiotic, mean things. Among the awful things they say are insults about homeless people, how they are supposedly subhuman, not something we shold see, and it's all their fault, blah, blah, blah.

The Canadian broadcaster CBC has the deets:

"The goal? To get people to see that these people who have nowhere to live are human beings, too.

'Only when this happens will people stop saying nasty things, stop assuming the stereotypes are true,' said Carolann Barr, executive director of Raisiing the Roof. 'Then we can work together to prevent and end homelessness.

Barr and Raising the Roof wanted to create a campaign that would help people look past stereotypes about homelessness and see the real folks who live their lives without a place to cal home."

I'm sure the heartbreaking PSA you'll see in the video below won't change the behavior of the Twitter twits who make sport of skewing homeless people. (And in the process making themselves far less dignified than said homeless people.)

Homelessness is often a product of bad luck. Sometimes it's a product of a bad decision, but we're all guilty of bad decisions. Usually we recover quickly, but occasionally, the recovery is hard to come by.

Maybe the mean Twitterers should become homeless for awhile. Just to see what it's like.  I'd also like to see the idiot people who Tweeted such nonsense to say it face to face to the people featured in the video.

How would they react to the fact they made some of these people cry, and many of us viewers cry?

I'd like to think there's some humanity hidden somewhere inside the mean Tweeters, but I have mh doubts.

For the rest of us, the video you'll see below is a useful reminder that everybody, including the homeless, are humans with hopes and feelings and worthiness.

Pastors, 90 Year Old Guy Arrested For Despicable Crime: They Fed Homeless People.

Arnold Abbott, 90, being arrested for the terrible crime
of feeding homeless people.  

Fort Lauderdale, Florida sure doesn't like homeless people all that much.  

Nor does it like people who try to help them.

Case in point: Fort Lauderdale Police arrested two pastors and a 90 year old man who defied a new city ordinance against feeding homeless people. The trio belong to a homeless advocacy group called Love Thy Neighbor.

Not only does Fort Lauderdale appear cruel to the homeless, they are So Bad at public relations. I mean really.

A 90 year old guy tries to feed homeless people and he gets arrested for his efforts?

Homeless advocate Jeff Weinberger gives the following account in the Broward Palm Beach Times:

"At least four police cruisers and a half dozen uniformed cops were ready and waiting for Love Thy Neighbor --not exactly the Clanton Gang-- when the group showed up at its spot adjacent to Stranahan Park as it does every sSunday at 1 p.m. in a white van armed with trays of food. The group's 90-year-old founder, Arnold Abbot, previously had announced that the new ordinance would not deter him from sharing food as he's done for the past 23 years."

Probably the saddest, oddest moment of the arrests when one of the cops allegedly yelled "Drop that plate!" as if the dinner for some homeless person was a gun.

Granted, homelessness is a sticky, complicated, practically impossible problem for cities, or anyone else for that matter, to solve.

I get the concerns some cities where a lot of charities have that  feed the homeless might attract more homeless people to their communities, straining services. But I'm not so sure a blanket ban on helping the homeless is effective.

Besides, don't you just feel a little, teensy, weensy bit bad for these people? They've been dealt a bad hand. Maybe they can't find a job. Or they have mental health issues. Or substance abuse problems. Or they're fleeing an abusive spouse. You never know what made any particular homeless person homeless.

They're not going to disappear off the face of the Earth if you try to drive them out of town and pretend they don't exist.

Some people are trying anyway.

According to NBC News, citing the National Coalition for the Homeless, at least 33 American cities have bans, or are considering bans on sharing food with the homeless, as those guys in Fort Lauderdale did.

What works better, says Robert Marbut, a national homeless consultant quoted by NBC is more nuanced. He said cities and charities should have comprehensive programs to deal with the three major causes of homelessness: a lack of jobs, mental illnesses and chronic substance abuse.

Granted, that's not easy. And not always effective with everyone. But Marbut says these programs reduce homeless populations by 80 percent.

That means cities save money in the long run because they cities don't have to devote so many resources of dealing with people in crisis on the street.  Or arresting people trying to feed the homeless.

A few cities do a hybrid law that doesn't ban feeding or otherwise helping the homeless, but combines restrictions with aid to people without homes.  In these cities charities must get permits to feed the homeless, and are restricted in the number of days and hours they can operate.

That helps prevent locations where the homeless are fed to become too overwhelmed by the activities.

According to an article in The Atlantic, feeding the homeless doesn't necessarily offer an incentive for people to stay on the streets, but Marbut says it does.

Who knows?  Like I said, it's complicated. Which means a simple solution, like just banning charitable members of the public from feeding homeless people, is the ultimate in stupidity. Yeah, everyone loves the sound of simple solutions, but they don't work.

Plus, you get the sad spectacle of police arresting some 90 year old guy for handing a plate of food to some homeless person. As if the 90 year guy was opening fire with an AK-47.  People, it's just a plate of food. Relax.

The 90 year old guy who's been committing the High Crime of feeding the homeless, Arnold Abbott, seems like an incredibly nice guy.

Says the Associated Press:

"Abbott, a World War II vetern and civil rights activist, told the Associated Press that he has been serving the homeless for more than two decades in honor of his late wife. He has several programs, including a culinary school to train the homeless and help find them jobs in local kitchens."

Maybe the fine leaders of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, could drop their guns and opposition to feeding the homeless. Maybe they could pick up a plate, and a spoon and serve a hungry guy or gal.

It's called paying it forward.

"Mean" Magician Rips Up Homeless Veteran's Sign. Watch What Happens Next

Watch what happens after a guy rips
up this homeless veteran's sign.  

The stunt depicted in the video in this post could have gone wrong, and certainly appears to start off on a mean note.  

A young guy named Rob Anderson comes up and takes the sign away from a homeless veteran, a guy by the name of Alan McKracken, on a street corner.

The young guy rips up the sign, which isn't exactly helpful to the veteran trying to collect a bit of coin.

This seems especially cruel because people in the area say McKracken is a nice guy and tries to make people smile, even the ones who don't give him any cash.

But things take a turn as the stunt progresses.

Also, Anderson started a GoFundMe campaign for McKracken. The video went viral, so a lot of people donated, and at last check, more than $35,000 had been raised for McKracken.

Pretty cool!  Here's the video:

"Homeless Studs" Cropping Up To Get Rid Of People Sleeping In Doorways.

This does seem rather harsh.  

Anti-homeless studs in a British doorway.
A public outcry led to their removal.  

As the Guardian newspaper reported, some building owners and property maintenance workers are putting in these things called "homeless studs" to keep people from sleeping in doorways and such.

The studs are very much like those spikes you see on window ledges to keep pigeons away. It is a tasteless thought: The spikes seem, to equate homeless people with annoying pigeons.

Yes, I get it, people are unnerved when homeless people sleep in their doorway, or nearby ATM vestibule.

But the whole thing to me seems too easy. Put in the pigeon/homeless studs, and the homeless magically disappear.

Of course, they don't disappear off the face of the Earth, but never mind.

As if to demonstrate that you can't just magically make the problem of homelessness go away with just a few metal studs embedded in concrete, a big outcry followed some of these anti-homeless stud installations.

An activist group recently poured concrete over the studs over a supermarket entryway in Britain. The supermarket chain, Tesco, said the studs were mostly to keep away cigarette smokers and people with antisocial behavior away.

And in any event, Tesco would rethink the studs and come up with another solution.

A London luxury apartment building where the "homeless studs" were installed also removed them after a public outcry.

So, it's beginning to look like pigeons are still not welcome on or near buildings, but in a small, welcome sign that the public in general has some mercy, we're not going to treat the homeless like annoying pigeons.

Any small sign of humanity is better than nothing.

April Fool "Prank" That Wasn't: More Fine Dining With The Homeless

A couple weeks ago,  I featured an Internet prankster who "pranked" homeless people by pretending to be a waiter in a decent restaurant and served them nice meals.    

Homeless people are served filet mignon
by professional waiters in Glendale, Calif.  

Today, I found an even better one along those lines. Greg Benson, a comedian known on line as pulling off cell phone prank videos, decided to do something a little different.

He went to the Ascencia Shelter, a place for the homeless in Glendale, California. He and his team converted the institutional style lunch room into something close to a 5-star restaurant.

Benson got chef Jesse Brune and his staff to come in and make a very tasty, high end meal.  Some musicians set up in a corner and played some nice classical music.

Benson dressed up in a tuxedo, and as homeless people arrived expecting the usual donated meal, he welcomed them as if he were a maitre d greeting valued customers who had reserved a table for the evening.

Brune whipped up a top shelf filet mignon and a dessert that was to die for.

What I like about this "prank" is that it was about respect. When we go out to a decent restaurant, the staff (hopefully!) treats us with respect. Why not be deferential to the homeless who come in for a meal?

I honestly don't think most homeless people choose to be in their situation, and maybe if you offer a little respect, it'll give them hope they can get out of circumstances they're in. And if they do, we're all better off, right?

Yeah, that's a little pollyanish, but what the hell, it's still plausible.

I was actually quite moved by the video of this "prank" and you this might warrant a Kleenex alert for you. Watch:

"Suspended Coffee" To Treat Needy People Bad Idea, Says Consumerist

One of the latest crazes on Facebook is a story about "Suspended Coffee:"

How that works is, people go into a coffee shop and order maybe two coffees, "one for me, one suspended."

Nice idea, but some say the "suspended
coffee" movement is misguided

The customer pays for both coffees, and later, a person without money theoretically comes in to get their free coffee.

The customer feels good for being charitable, the coffee shop personnel feel good about helping others with free coffee and the needy person feels good for getting free coffee.

I can't criticize the idea behind Suspended Coffees. It's a really nice gesture.

However, Consumerist throws cold coffee water on this seemingly nice, giving idea, however.

It all goes to prove that being nice to strangers, to anybody, is more complicated than we want it to be, or even think about.

First of all, says Consumerist, "suspended coffee" is mostly a creature of Facebook. Many homeless or low income people aren't on Facebook. So the people who aren't on social media get left out of all the help, because many of these people don't even know to ask for their "suspended coffee"

Second, Consumerist asks, is this idea means tested? What's to stop somebody who can well afford a whole coffee plantation, much less one cup of coffee, from coming in and asking for a free "suspended coffee"?

Consumerists also points out coffee isn't particularly nutritious. Plus, they ask, isn't it nicer to just show up at a food pantry or something to volunteer and have actual contact with the people seeking help?

A British coffee shop owner also blogged about suspended coffee being a bad idea.

First of all, if somebody staggered into a coffee shop desperately poor, freezing cold and starving, the owner would give away a warm drink to that person whether or not somebody already paid for a suspended coffee.

Small, independent local coffee shops often already give back to the community without well meaning but flashy campaigns like suspended coffee.

And, says the blogger, there's a chance an unscrupulous coffee shop owner could take money from people buying "suspended coffee" then just pocket the money without giving anything away.

So, if you want to help a poor person out in the street, you're just going to have to deal with him or her directly.