More gratuitous coddling of the worthless poor

[seebs]

The story is nice; the comments are hilarious.

Mentioned because a couple of the commenters seem suspiciously like socks for AML, and the artist is a friend of mine.

I blogged about it, too.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

That's fantastic! The comments made me want to slam my head against the desk, though.

[seebs]

The thing is, all the things in the world could go wrong with it, and I'd still be a lot more impressed by the person who even tried to do something than by the people who insist that nothing needs to be done.

[Qingdai]

The artist lives, works in my hometown. The land of poverty and homelessness. Where it's a landlord's market and an apartment goes for $1,000 a month.
Of course wages are more like $1200 a month (before taxes) so whee!

[seebs]

I have slept with the artist!

... Although, strictly speaking, "puppy pile of fully dressed artists in a hotel room at a convention" probably doesn't really count, huh.

[Dingfod]

I shot an artist in Reno just to watch him dye.

[fragment]

My town is suffering a severe housing crisis. That's what happens when earthquakes destroy lots of homes and the only government solution is to let the market sort it out. We escaped homelessness by the skin of our teeth at the start of the year. Seems like a pretty cool idea for those who weren't so lucky.

[AynMisesLibertarian]

Ok, ok, I promised to stop posting,but this is so fucking hilarious i can't control myself

Basically you """freeethoughters"""" are discovering that you are posting in a left-wing bubble and REAL PEOPLE(conservatives/libertarians) on internet are less and less willing to support all sort of moral and economic defects

We escaped homelessness by the skin of our teeth at the start of the year.

Here in Italy a terrible earthquake hit L'Acquila 2 years ago...and guess what?? people are still living on the tents because these idiots do nothing expect waiting for the goverment

[BrotherMan]

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

[Clutch Munny]

[ChuckF]

JEROLL needs to poast something about FEMA concentration camps.

[seebs]

AML, what makes you think we're at all surprised that some people are upset about stuff like this?

The point is that they're factually wrong as to the costs to society and effects of policy, and that they are taking their positions out of spite, not out of economic benefit.

[Stephen Maturin]

Originally Posted by AynMisesLibertarian

Ok, ok, I promised to stop posting

It's okay, cupcake. a promise from a liar is no promise at all.

Originally Posted by AynMisesLibertarian

i can't control myself

We own you now, Cochise.

show spoiler

....

Originally Posted by AynMisesLibertarian

REAL PEOPLE . . . on internet

Originally Posted by AynMisesLibertarian

moral . . . defects

At long last, an idiot mouth-breathing wingnut willing to discuss the moral defects of the homeless! You should have a talk with this weeping pustule on the anus of humanity, who seems to think that philosophy is useless.

[seebs]

Yeah, we could discuss their moral defects like their lack of self-control.

Why, I bet those homeless people couldn't even stop posting on an Internet forum, even if they swore to. Despicable, no doubt.

[But]

Originally Posted by AynMisesLibertarian

Ok, ok, I promised to stop posting,but this is so fucking hilarious i can't control myself

Basically you """freeethoughters"""" are discovering that you are posting in a left-wing bubble and REAL PEOPLE(conservatives/libertarians) on internet are less and less willing to support all sort of moral and economic defects

Here in Italy a terrible earthquake hit L'Acquila 2 years ago...and guess what?? people are still living on the tents because these idiots do nothing expect waiting for the goverment

They sound like real idiots if they do nothing but support defects, live on tents and expect waiting. Why don't you start building trailers like those in the article and then sell them or rent them out to the idiots? And if they don't have enough money, they can work for your company! Go ahead and start a business like real people on internet!

[seebs]

What AML has:

• Rich parents with plenty of money.
• An observed pool of people who need a product or service desperately.
• Free information on how to provide that product or service very cheaply.

What AML lacks:

• Any clue how demand for a product or service that can be provided cheaply could be of use.
• Any ability to go do something.

It really is amazing. A person with the kind of drive and focus we associate with the average house cat could make a large amount of money in this circumstance. AML can very nearly, but not quite, post insulting remarks on the Internet in response to this circumstance. Why, all AML would need would be a skilled editor and we could see a sentence or two which was comprehensibly an insult!

[Waluigi]

Originally Posted by AynMisesLibertarian

Basically you """freeethoughters"""" are discovering that you are posting in a left-wing bubble and REAL PEOPLE(conservatives/libertarians) on internet are less and less willing to support all sort of moral and economic defects

Although it's a very long read, and it's only a microcosm example, Gladwell's article on what Denver tried to do for the chronic homeless is worth digesting.

gladwell dot com - million-dollar murray

[Sock Puppet]

We're Triple-Quote """freethoughters""", no less. Single quotes are for your garden-variety sarcasm . Double quotes would be for Extra Withering sarcasm . Triple quotes are for sarcasm that goes beyond what your petty mortal hearts can bear.

[Waluigi]

I thought maybe he was a Python programmer.

[seebs]

Originally Posted by Waluigi

Although it's a very long read, and it's only a microcosm example, Gladwell's article on what Denver tried to do for the chronic homeless is worth digesting.

gladwell dot com - million-dollar murray

Yeah. Attempts to "save" money are frequently ill-advised.

[The Lone Ranger]

Originally Posted by Waluigi

I thought maybe he was a Python programmer.

Even at their zaniest, Monty Python has never come up with anything half so crazy as what AML regularly does. It's a real talent he has.







(I know that's not what "Python programmer" means ....)

[Waluigi]

Just another liberal, know-it-all, ivory tower college professor trying to stomp out speech he doesn't agree with!!! Where's erimir's Crying Lady Liberty avatar when you need it!

[chunksmediocrites]

There is a lot of context to be aware of when it comes to homelessness in Portland, and on commentary on OregonLive.

Homelessness is an ongoing serious problem in Portland. Portland in the 1970's and early 80's figured out that Seattle was playing a game that has been played across the US: Seattle police would offer homeless people a choice of being arrested for vagrancy or other charges, or a free bus ride to Portland, at least until Portland figured it out and raised a stink about it; of course this practice has not ended and St. Petersburg and Fort Lauderdale in Florida have been offering one-ways out of town recently, as did New York a few years ago.

Portland also decided it had too much low-income residential hotels and decided to fix the homeless problem in the 1990's by tearing down the last city-run homeless shelter, while getting rid of many of the residential hotels. Problem solved! Of course, since this did not make things better or deal with the issue of homelessness, the city had to eventually reopen a number of shelters; the low-income housing issue was "solved" by giving tax breaks to the construction and property companies that were building new housing- they simply had to say they would build and designate a certain small percentage of their units for lower income housing. They happily took the tax break, and then often and conveniently 'forgot' to build or supply any low-income housing.

There have been new initiatives to address homelessness in Portland, but much of the impetus still often is about the business community frustrated by panhandling, which is why Portland kept passing "sit-lie" laws about sidewalk use, that would then go through the courts and be declared against the state constitution, only to have the city change a few words or rewrite pretty much the same law and put it back on the books; this happened three times.

Tying in with this has been an attempt to work with other agencies to respond to homeless issues as they relate to mental illness, so most businesses have a number they can call to attempt to have an agency with personnel trained in mental illness issues and response to come out when there are semi-aggressive or confused homeless people impacting businesses or acting in a way that suggests a risk to themselves or others (imminent risk of course is instead handled by the police, who after beating to death or shooting and killing a number of mentally ill people, are undergoing more training regarding mental illness and appropriate responses).

In 1998 Street Roots started up, a newspaper published and sold on the street by homeless people, as a means of giving homeless people a voice and a means of selling the paper instead of panhandling; the paper costs $1 and the vendor gets $0.75 of it.
Dignity Village came out of homeless protesting their constant rousting and being "moved on" by Portland Police; and has been operating now for more than a decade. Right 2 Dream Too is a more recent homeless camp attempting to establish on vacant property in the downtown area, and is still struggling.

In recent years Portland has set up public bathrooms in the downtown area to address the fact that there were no open bathrooms at night; there has been a recent program (since 2010) where homeless can keep their personal belongings/ cart/ etc. at a lock-up that they can access. Portland is also looking at some of the models Seattle has been using more recently, involving housing for homeless: in the past, the rule has been that a person has to be clean and sober to get housing, often. Seattle activists figured out that obviously, your ability to stay clean and sober can be hugely impacted by the fact that homelessness puts massive strains on your coping mechanisms, so they set up new programs that didn't require this- they said let's make stable housing priority one, and then work on substance abuse, while still enforcing safety concerns and the like; last I heard these programs were showing better success rates.

As to Oregon demographics and OregonLive: Portland is the most to the Left politically of the entire state, and has the largest population center, and is where all the serious medical care can be found. So Portland is the hub. If you are a veteran in Oregon and need VA care, you come here; if you have mental illness, you come here, if you are a runaway, you come here, if you survive by panhandling, you come here. Veterans in Portland are about 9% of the total population, and about 12% of the homeless population, for example. Stats on the homeless population in Portland can be found here, it was also linked by one of the posters in the comments section on the article in the OP.

Most of the rural counties in Oregon are (not surprisingly) much farther to the Right, politically. Many resent Portland's power politically and their allocation of resources, the lion's share of which goes to Portland, where the majority of services are located. Many of the rural areas have been in decline since the end of the Oregon timber industry's heydays. The Oregonian is the paper of record in Oregon (though generally reknowned for a history of being scooped on major Oregon scandals by smaller local papers or the Washington Post, for example. It started up its online presence as OregonLive, and the comments section is a place for every Right-wing fantasist, and a lot of rural Oregonians with an opinion to voice their position in the comments section. Often they are quick to rant about socialism and giving handouts and Obama, though the whole of the 2000's has been the Federal payment of money to these dying timber towns through the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, in the hopes that these towns wouldn't dry up and blow away, and instead use that time to diversify away from timber and find a means to prosper; they mostly haven't and are now feeling the pinch as that subsidy dries up, unless Senator Wyden's one-year extension bill that passed the Senate also passes the House.

So yeah, unsurprisingly there are a lot of Oregonians who like to hate on the homeless, and attempt to discourage even stop-gap attempts to help, like the one portrayed in the article.

[Qingdai]

As the housing market heated up, plenty of landlords that had 20 year contracts to provide section 8 housing, turned their buildings into condos. Which also impacted homelessness.
I thought San Francisco was the city that offered to ship people out of town. Seattle too?

[Sauron]

Originally Posted by AynMisesLibertarian

Ok, ok, I promised to stop posting,but this is so fucking hilarious i can't control myself

Translation: I'm so immature that I can't resist putting my two cents' worth into the discussion, even though I've sworn three times to leave and never come back.

Basically you """freeethoughters"""" are discovering that you are posting in a left-wing bubble and REAL PEOPLE(conservatives/libertarians) on internet are less and less willing to support all sort of moral and economic defects

Except none of the commenters has any answers to the kinds of questions we are raising, either. In that respect, they're just like you: empty-handed, and empty-headed.

Here in Italy a terrible earthquake hit L'Acquila 2 years ago...and guess what?? people are still living on the tents because these idiots do nothing expect waiting for the goverment

You're right. Too bad they don't have rich parents who pay for all their needs and let them live in their basement. What the fuck is wrong with those people anyhow?