Posted on 08/13/2016 6:00:36 PM PDT by Hojczyk
Republican Mayor Richard Berry was driving around Albuquerque last year when he saw a man on a street corner holding a sign that read: Want a Job. Anything Helps.
Throughout his administration, as part of a push to connect the homeless population to services, Berry had taken to driving through the city to talk to panhandlers about their lives. His citys poorest residents told him they didnt want to be on the streets begging for money, but they didnt know where else to go.
Seeing that sign gave Berry an idea. Instead of asking them, many of whom feel dispirited, to go out looking for work, the city could bring the work to them.
Next month will be the first anniversary of Albuquerques Theres a Better Way program, which hires panhandlers for day jobs beautifying the city. In partnership with a local nonprofit that serves the homeless population, a van is dispatched around the city to pick up panhandlers who are interested in working. The job pays $9 an hour, which is above minimum wage, and provides a lunch. At the end of the shift, the participants are offered overnight shelter as needed.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
You HAD TO put that idea into my head.
Bro...
I suppose you’d want a cut...
Of course i’m kidding, but one beating when not paying the 25 percent would be all it takes to keep them all in line.
You’re evil :)
You're overcharging.
My dad travelled to New Orleans during WW2 for some reason or another with my mom, and he related this story quite often (too often as he got older and every time he would see a bum on the streets).
He said when they went down there, there were NO bums, anywhere, and he was used to seeing them in Chicago. They found out that the mayor or whoever, had an edict, that you either packed up and left town, joined the Army, or the city would find work for you, and that was usually working next to chain gangs, and you would be put up in a parish church for the night.
He said the bums just left the city, they wanted nothing to do with that.
The deal was, if you were a bum and you got caught being a bum and begging for money or whatever, they would sentence you to the labor gang, or drag you in for a draft (he said many of the bums of the time were just cowards hiding from the draft, and with most the men gone overseas, no one wanted the male bums around, they posed a danger to the women back home).
So the choice was clear.. volunteer for cemetery duty (I’m not sure what that entails for sure, but my dad said it had to do with draining swamp water from the cemeteries and digging ditches), leave town, or get arrested and PUT on a chain gang for a few weeks.
My how New Orleans has changed. Imagine the outcry if that happened now.
That was a joke and a widely used one. He campaigned on 'No New Taxes' but once elected he prove that what he really meant was 'Know New Taxes'.
He further added insult to injury by denying that he'd broken his campaign promise to fight the raising of taxes and instead called it a 'Revenue Enhancement'
That must have been at the end of the corrupt Maestri administration, which the new Mayor Morrison pledged to clean up.
could be, I’m not a historian of sorts
but every time my dad saw a bum, he’d relay that story
it impressed him to ends, even into his twilight
It was coined for Gov Brown of California in the 70s
I suppose youd want a cut...
Nah, in deference to debilitating head injuries. I have sufficient for my needs and then some. I am greatly blessed, and especially not having to live in a big city.
You're right. I stand corrected.
The nickname was coined by Mike Royko, the famed Chicago columnist, who in 1976 said that Mr. Brown appeared to be attracting the moonbeam vote, which in Chicago political parlance meant young, idealistic and nontraditional.
...
I long ago gave up trying to figure out what Gov. Moonbeam stands for or believes in, Mr. Royko wrote in April 1979, besides getting his pretty mug on TV and confusing people into voting for him. He added that Mr. Brown was an intellectual hustler, who can jabber so nimbly that no one can figure what hes talking about.
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