Posted on 11/29/2005 4:39:00 AM PST by Flyer
With Christmas around the corner, a group of Katrina evacuees worry they can't give the holiday to their kids.
Hauling home a Christmas tree is at least a $30 cab ride.
For Sheryl Lee whose New Orleans home was destroyed, her brand new house is a "dream come true," she said as she wiped tears from her eyes.
Yet for all that it offers, it is also a trap.
"No way to get to a shopping or nothing," Lee said.
The Clarke Springs subdivision, with its neat rows of humble homes, sits outside the beltway. The nearest Metro bus stop is a 30-minute walk.
Sheryl and her neighbors, all Katrina evacuees placed by the city of Houston, do not own cars.
"It's not close by too many things. So far out," said Colette Montgomery, Katrina evacuee.
Neighbors believe at least 40 Katrina families live in the Clarke Springs subdivision. What they're worried about now is whether they can provide Christmas for their kids.
Like all kids, Sheryl's 9-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son love Christmas, but look around and you won't find a single decoration because hauling home a tree is at least a $30 cab ride.
"And that kind of money I don't have right now," Lee said.
With no car, not only is a job hard to come by, so is Christmas.
"Although they [children] lost everything they had once before, but I could try to get them just a little of it. Might not be all, but it's a little," said Lee.
I have to include here that I saw a few of the New Orleans relocated in my neighborhood and I could tell who they were immediately because a few individuals seemed to be following the same route on foot loaded down with immense numbers of department store shopping bags, full of things...exiting the local nail and hair salon with their goods.
I realize they needed things but you can buy a whole lot of necessities from KMart/Target - all the fresh undies and toiletries you could ever need/want - for a mere tad of the money that the few I saw had to have spent on those department store things. Not to mention the salon, the nails, hair...buy your own shampoo, get a hair dryer and some brushes, combs, use the rest for groceries and rent and crafts to make your own Christmas things.
All my tree decorations, I've made myself, starting from when I was working on an hourly wage and had nothing to spend otherwise for things like that. So, I bought some ribbons and sparkly things and made ornaments and now every year I add to it and now have some beautiful handmade things. Anyone can do likewise, and even buy one of those tiny trees at a local market for a couple of dollars. You don't need to waste money to share the love of Christmas.
But, what this woman indicates is that there's never enough money to solve her problem/s. What's ailing her is character and emotional problems...and she won't have that nice "new home" for long if she keeps up the self pitying helplessness.
Heck, I buy used work clothes at the Salvation Army store.
I wasn't talking about just shopping for Christmas. I meant shopping for groceries and whatever. And I didn't mean for the $ to cover the entire cost. Obviously it wouldn't, but a few dollars from each would help defray the cost a little, and not be giving a total handout, and it doesn't seem like such a big thing for the city to do.
Excuse me?
Are you serious?
How about these folks who have been given new homes through the kindness of others actually WORK to improve their plights?
Saturday is their bingo day!
It's the Oprah Syndrome. They're expecting three MORE truckloads of free designer clothing and diamond rings and giant plush toys. At least, that's my best guess.
I was just thinking over how many years me and my family went without even so much as a tree due to costs, inorder to share one gift each. And a nice Christmas turkey.
Cute doggie :>)
California went through the same thing after the 94 Northridge quake.
But we didn't have Looter Guy so I guess what we went through didn't matter...
Darn straight! If these folks put away the drug paraphernalia, stay home, don't invite any boyfriends over, and spend time with the kids, the kids'll remember it as the best Christmas ever. String some popcorn, light a candle and sing--and they'll think they died and went to heaven.
Thanks.
But I can't buy him any Christmas presents.
I'm calling the TV stations to whine!
Oh woe, will the victimization of these poor oppressed folks ever end?
Yes, I'm serious. Of course they'll have to "work to improve their plights"
But I don't see what the big deal is to use an unused bus for a weekly bus trip into the city.
You can bet there will be a bus at her door when Nagin and Landreu needs her vote.
.
You should call any Department of Transportation local/nearby Transit Authority and ask them what running a shuttle service actually costs...for even one day.
There's the vehicle itself. Plus diesel fuel. Insurance. Hire a driver. Hire a scheduling staff. Intall a scheduling software on scheduling computers. Organize all of that (more staff). Identify and qualify applicants for scheduling (more staff, many legal requirements, requires legal talent [more money] [more time]) and so much more.
THEN you have to go pick each and every qualified one up and transport them safely and on a schedule. And, say, you have twenty (at most) passengers on one vehicle, one day. At $2.00 each, that's a total of FORTY DOLLARS collected for one day.
That does not even touch the costs to establish and maintain a shopping shuttle. Even for a van, the most that can be transported is seven, maybe eight passengers.
It's not a simple thing, not like someone getting a van and piling in the neighbors, at least on short notice.
What this woman needs to do is organize her neighbors, get some one of them to rent a vehicle and then the few combined families to share in the costs and use for one, two days. There ARE solutions available to anyone with some motivation.
Or get a bicycle. Or pay the thirty bucks one time for a taxi and get over it. Or do without. She could make her own decorations, buy a potted tree, just decorate the house without a tree...there are so many options!
I am not taking issue with anything you've written. I'm just saying you are not in touch with what is involved withh a taxpayer funded shuttle service and it's not a simple thing for any city/town to "just" throw together. Maybe a church might be able to (privately) or some individual, but cities/towns are restricted by huge financial limitations and requirements (they have to observe Dept. of Trans. regulations and be licensed to even have a shuttle service before they can even begin to start organizing one).
The best idea would be for some private group to offer a truck/van with an insured driver to assist a neighborhood of people. And then this woman or others like her could start campaigning for a shopper shuttle for their neighborhood for next year through a city council but it's not something that can be "just" thrown together when using public funds, organizations (such as locales, cities/towns).
The big deal is that freebies are a good way to ensure that personal responsibility never takes root. They've already received massive, generous doses of charity--the least they can do is arrange to get their own asses to the store.
What MillerCreek said.
Flash forward to yesterday, when our friends lost their cherished Lake home in Hot Springs when a Tornado blew it apart. They are in shock, and until they can get their insurance company to get there, and until Huckabee can tour the area today, they are in limbo wondering what their insurance or Disaster funds will help out with. They are homeless.
So we gave them our lake cabin to live in for as long as they want and it's just a couple of miles from their own home. They didn't ASK us for help BUT appreciate anything that's done for them, unlike some of these whiners who expect a free ride for the rest of their sorry lives.
sw
L0L thats the spirit!
Yep, but it difficult for retrain those who have a B.S. in Victimology.
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