I've got a few ideas for ending chronic homelessness (besides building them a home on the web).
Pay anyone with a job a livable wage.
If private industry is unable to employ people willing and able to work have the government do it.
Set up government programs to train people who need training to become employable.
Roll back the Reagan era programs that took away hospitals and other care facilities for people with mental disease that prevents them from working and having their own homes.
Revamp our zoning laws to allow and encourage affordable housing to be built in cities. This could be as simple as allowing mother in law apartments in peoples back yards to discouraging box store spawl and bringing back mom and pop operations that have apartments above the store (when was the last time you saw a 7-11 with an apartment on top).
We can scratch up the money by eliminating the subsidies we pay large Corporations (see links below).
Public Citizen Corporate Welfare - Corporate Welfare
Sprawl Costs Us All - Sprawl - Sierra Club
AlterNet: HIGHTOWER: Corporate Pledge of Allegiance
Jim Hightower
The Austin Chronicle Politics: The Hightower Lowdown
A couple of things come to mind for me related to homelessness that have occurred where I live.
The first was my experience with building a new garage. I wanted to tear down a 60 year old dilapitated garage and replace it with a new garage....maybe with a second story living space. Due to zoning laws where I live that prevent more than a certain amount of your property being devoted to living space the second story apartment was out.
My dealings with the city planning office in getting a building permit to just build the simple replacement structure was interesting in that it showed their priorities.
I spent an inordinant amount of time with the planners convincing them why it would be okay to put a new garage in the exact same location as my old one. Why? City code requires a 5 foot set back from your neighbors property line. My old garage was right next to the neighbors property line and that was fine for the last 60 years. I wanted to put my new garage up with a 3 foot setback, otherwise it would have been nearly impossible to drive into it straight. My neighbor was all for the plan of either the 3 foot setback or no setback or whatever I wanted to do as long as I tore down the eyesore I was calling a garage.
I spent hours and hours at the library and in the planning office showing them old insurance maps (proving my garage was where it was)....found the original permit in the old garage (they accused me of maybe forging it...it was really old and yellowed).
Any hoo the point of this diatribe is although city planning has lots of time to screw around with me about a garage, they don't seem to be able to find the time to think through the advisability of building new housing developments on some of the last remaining timbered land in the city. And building those houses nowhere near schools, churches or stores. At least they put in some sidewalks. Not that anyone would be walking 3 or 4 miles to the store, library, church or school.
The other thing that happened where I live was a debate over a homeless tent city that was being forced to move from it's current location. No one wanted those poor homeless people in their backyard. Particularly the homeowners with big dough invested in their piece of real estate. They ended up putting the tents up in some property owned by a church, that was adjacent to the church. Interestingly enough some of those churchgoers didn't like the idea of having the unwashed that close to their place of worship either, but that's another story.
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I've had a heck of a week at work. We are lean and mean where I work. Or as I like to say in my case anyway, at least mean.
About 30,000 jobs have been eliminated from the company I work for in the last several years. The effect of that downsizing was of course devastating to those left unemployed. Suffice it to say, it has had it's impact on those still employed as well, in that we have to do as much work or sometimes more with a lot less workers.
Lucky for us we still have more than ample people in supervisory and management positions to think up ideas like selling off a piece of the company in a slow and painful year long process (painful for the people who's jobs were at stake).
The end result of that exercise was that the intellectual capital (people who knew how to do the work) all left for new jobs since they didn't know if they would have a job with NewCo or a pension. We ended up selling a shell. Sort of like selling you a building with a bunch of machines inside that make something (you aren't sure what)...but no one know's how to run them and the available documentation/instructions for their use is spotty or non-existent.
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Now that I've solved the world's problems what can I do?
Maybe I'll go on a tuna fishing trip in September.
I hope so anyway. I received a brochure in the mail about albacore tuna fishing available in September.
It sounds great!
You get to use live bait (always fun), fish up near the top of the water (not a lot of reeling up), the tuna are in the 20-30 pound range, they would put up a heck of a fight when you catch them near the surface, no license required and there's no limit.
The boat leaves between midnight and 4 am depending on how far out the tuna are. It's 300 bucks per person.
In my fishermanly optimism I figure I can end up making money on the deal. I'll probably catch at least ten of those 30 pounders, so I'll only be paying a buck a pound for nice fresh tuna. Or maybe I'll hook one of those 400 pound bluefins and sell it to the sushi dealers for a couple of grand....
yeahhhhh that's the ticket.
More than likely I'll hopefully catch a tuna and have fun. I hope I can find some people to go with me. The boat holds six. It goes out on September 3, 10, 13, 15, 18, 20, 22 and 25th.
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It's been hotter than old Billy around here lately. I heard it was 98 somewhere on the radio. Maybe in the Puget Sound area where I live. That's downright hot for here. I like it since I don't have a job that involves standing on a roof with a bucket of hot tar or using a shovel or something like that. I imagine some of the people who have those jobs don't mind either since they tend to have a lot less natural insulation than us desk jockeys.
I was watching something on the weather channel about general warming causing changes in Alaska. Just a few degrees increase in the average temperature had made the life cycle of a beetle a one year deal instead of two. The net result was these critters were munching on a lot more trees.
I see the definition of severe drought in the west is getting closer to the last big one that brought on the dustbowl in the 30's. Man I hope for my kids and their kids that this is just a cycle.
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Just heard on the radio that Lance Armstrong is set to seal his 6th straight Tour title. What a great story that guy is considering his health problems and where he is today. I wish I had a tenth of his intestinal fortitude. Maybe I'll ride my bike to Safeway today.
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Speaking of health problems and people's ability to cope...
There was a long article in the NY Times last week about Adult Attention Deficit Disorder The New York Times > Magazine > Office Messes.
If you don't care to read the whole thing I'll cut to the chase, (a) some people aren't wired to work in offices, and would be better off as salesman or preachers or dancers or piano tuners or any number of other occupations and (b) a lot of people who are diagnosed with attention deficit disorder are very successful in what they do because they use their "syndrome" / "disorder" to their advantage(that tidbit is on the very last page of the article).
I think I get obsessed with this topic a bit because I have a touch of that ADHD and I've worked with people who have more than a touch. I just can't get on the bus that it's a disease that we necessarily need to treat with pharmaceuticals. Maybe drugs are the answer for some but I can't help but wonder if we are trying to force some square pegs in round holes.
The other health issue that I am getting a kick out of is the obesity issue. Since I like to be in on popular culture and being fat is in vogue now..I'm fat. I might start to try and buck the trend though just to feel better and have more energy and be around to see some grandkids if they happen to show up. Or at least see my kids become adults.
I get a kick out of the idea that there is something new about being fat. Studies showing that we inherited a gene from our root and berry gathering ancestors that makes it darn near impossible to not eat a whole bag of Cheetos. We are programmed to feast to prepare for the famine. Okay.....I guess I'm not responsible for my weight. Good I'll go back to the chips and dip now.
I'm not sure but I think the deal is really you are what you eat and if you eat more calories than you burn you gain weight. I think I'll try (a) eating less or (b) being more active...or maybe a little of both and see how that works.
I guess if that fails I'll never run out of infomercials that tell me how I can lose weight while I shower or sleep or how to develop rock hard abs in 5 minutes a day. Maybe a pill or surgery. There has to be some easy/easier way than exercising and a little self discipline.
I'll get off my high horse..we all have vices. Better fat than mean to people. Better a smoker than a liar. etc.
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Have a great weekend wherever you are. Remember to breathe, relax, stop and smell the flowers...have some laughs and share some love.
