Newest articles and comments on The Sacramento Press written by Top Cat 2808

Top Cat 2808 on "Changes to The Sacramento Press contributor guidelines: Citizen journalism, marketing and everything in between "

2013-03-02T01:34:27Z

Oops. Yeah. The ten at the top. You're a TEN Jared. It doesn't carry quite the same powerful meaning as with Bo Derek in the movie "10" [ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078721/ I know, I know. Decades before your time. ], but it is a GREAT GOOD thing (that I conveniently overlooked) and it is unanimous. So, OK. But you STILL should not let the journalism that takes place here get corrupted by PR vultures. I'm just sayin'.

Top Cat 2808 on "Changes to The Sacramento Press contributor guidelines: Citizen journalism, marketing and everything in between "

2013-02-22T22:30:29Z

Ooo, Sports fans. It's late in the 4th quarter; this story will soon be past its expiration date. Let us look at the stats: Jared 0 - 3 Ooo, tough one, there, Mr. Ed. and GM You're getting shut out. T.Cat 9 - 3 Yowza! Amazing. Dale 3 - 0 Way to go, Mr. Kooyman. You are a star. Aaron 2 - 0 Very nice! Clearly, the public is demanding reform! Since leadership at the SacPress graciously bows to the wishes (and whims) of the all-powerful public, a Tea Party take-over of SacPress will be combatted! Public Relations personnel and their Tom Foolery will be SMASHED, CRUSHED and JETTISONED INTO THE SUN! The good, the true and the beautiful win!! Hooray, Hurrah!

Top Cat 2808 on "Changes to The Sacramento Press contributor guidelines: Citizen journalism, marketing and everything in between "

2013-02-22T16:32:13Z

A journalistic enterprise -- even one that is journalism-light -- should regale truth in contrast to lies and promote honest opinion over outright deception. In the world of today, one of the two major political parties shamelessly uses deception in order to get its way. The latest news is that Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert is saying that Americans need guns to protect the nation from Sharia law. That is fear-mongering disguised as opinion. It is "successful" because a great many Americans are out of touch with reality to an extent that has never been the case before. Chevron has TV commercials purporting to show how much good they are doing in the world. Of course they can well afford to do some good since they have bribed congress such they they don't have to pay corporate taxes. All that masquerades as "opinion" is not equal. Sac Press should be judicious about what it allows.

Top Cat 2808 on "Changes to The Sacramento Press contributor guidelines: Citizen journalism, marketing and everything in between "

2013-02-21T03:05:01Z

"If an organization or a business has news to share, then it will be all the more powerful if that story is told with an independent voice and perspective." <-- Whoever said/wrote this is Right On. NO PR-written articles or -- in particular -- op-ed pieces!!

Top Cat 2808 on "Changes to The Sacramento Press contributor guidelines: Citizen journalism, marketing and everything in between "

2013-02-21T00:34:48Z

Jared, Thy synonym for PR professional is Professional Liar. Or, it would be if PR professionals weren't also heavily into obfuscation. Their very job is to deceive. Name me one legitimate journalistic enterprise that doesn't rightly, properly reject 'professional deceivers of the public' from posting/publishing in their publication You shouldn't let poisonous snakes in the door.

Top Cat 2808 on "Changes to The Sacramento Press contributor guidelines: Citizen journalism, marketing and everything in between "

2013-02-20T19:17:33Z

Great points, Dale Kooyman. There should be some sort of metrics system that measures success! The efforts of Charity Navigator and Guidstar and other charity evaluators are laudable, but they are mostly in service to the charities, and NOT looking out for contributors to the charities and the people who are meant to be helped. What would be ideal is for the homeless themselves to help draft a document of what would best be done for them for specific charities. Here in Sacramento -- like anywhere, probably -- charities take on certain roles. The mission, for example, has a role in providing a bed for newly homeless solo men; feeding adults an evening meal; providing showers and clothes to men on weekdays; and helping men overcome addictions; et al. It would be NICE for all this to be evaluated by those receiving the services, but it is unlikely in the extreme that the mission would put up with the judgment of non-administrators. Likewise, but in a different way, Loaves & Fishes is authoritarian and actively obstructs legitimate objective evaluation. In L&F's case it is because the public might find out about the horrors.

Top Cat 2808 on "Changes to The Sacramento Press contributor guidelines: Citizen journalism, marketing and everything in between "

2013-02-20T04:36:10Z

Not all non-profits are angelic enterprises. Many will produce very little in the way of BANG for any BUCK they are given. While there is something that seems altogether nice about giving to swell-sounding charities that claim to address important arenas where there is need and pain [Cure cancer! House the homeless!], many charities are spectacularly inept and unmotivated to work very hard. One large charity I know rather recently ditched what work they were committed to do for a day and the staff near-spontaneously leaped into cars and went bowling for the day. [ http://sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com/2012/11/more-on-loaves-fishes-unreliable-service.html ] This is something no capitalist organization could or would ever do; the competition would roll over them. Don't make any special provision for charities. The charities are in there hustling for dough and throwing sharp elbows just like Monsanto and Chevron and Enron and other non-charitable businesses.

Top Cat 2808 on "Local libraries to face budget cuts"

2011-06-09T03:30:12Z

I think the public library is very much escaping the ax that is coming down on other public services in our county. A 2% cut is unlikely to impact library services at all. What is likely to happen is that all services will be provided with attempts made to provide them in a way that is just a tad more economical. This can be healthy for the library, or any organization, to see what it can do more efficiently. I have one suggestion where money can be saved [and, btw, I hate offering this up because I take advantage of this "flaw" in their system]: Right now, printing documents from their catalog computers is free if the document is 5 pages or less. Because it is easy to print any long document by a series of five-page print jobs, I never have to pay for catalog computer print jobs. And some documents I print can be long, if they are magazine articles or academic essays. I haven't felt bad about my "immoral" conduct because the Central library, unconscionably, makes it difficult NOT to overpay for use of their copier or printing pages using their microfiche machines. [There are long explanations for this, which I won't go into here -- but, hey, Ms. Sass: post a reply to this comment and I'll give YOU the skinny.]

Top Cat 2808 on "Local libraries to face budget cuts"

2011-06-06T04:47:12Z

C'mon, y'all! It's a cut of something just over 2%. Two percent! Right now, the library is refusing the help of volunteers in an effort to keep jobs. That is understandable. But next year, volunteers can do much of the work reshelving books and otherwise helping out to keep things running. Volunteers can easily keep the library functioning as it has been, until the economy bounces back. Also, it is not unjust to press the library to find efficiencies to perform better. Sacramento will continue to have a public library system that is remarkable and loved in a county that greatly supports the many branches of the Sacramento Public Library.

Top Cat 2808 on "Mark Merin's battle with City Hall"

2011-05-31T20:34:14Z

Rhys02, I think I'm right in saying that Merin passed a part of his fee for the suit against the county to Loaves & Fishes, which got its own bundle of money out of the county suit, and, then, all that was received disappeared into the L&F black hole. Certainly, nothing was forthcoming for the homeless during the recent very cold and wet winter in the way of shelter -- which is, supposedly half of L&F's mission. SHOC also got $100,000 relating to administrative responsibilities, which is a joke. There is only one person identified as responsible for SHOC, and that person is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, if you catch my meaning. While it is excellent and appropriate that the homeless are compensated for city police/employee misadventures with people's property, how the money disappears and is distributed is, in large part,, a moral black hole. But some percentage will get to victims who deserve compensation.

Top Cat 2808 on " Weeks, Recker power River Cats past Tucson"

2011-04-28T23:11:03Z

Maybe if Anaheim steals our Kings, we could find a billionaire to buy the Angels, disband the team, and insert the River Cats into the American League. Tit for tat. Or, tit for Cat.

Top Cat 2808 on " Weeks, Recker power River Cats past Tucson"

2011-04-25T05:18:42Z

I had the pleasure of being in attendance for this game, my first at Raley Field. It was great fun. I cannot wait to go again to root on the home team. Nice article & pics, guys!

Top Cat 2808 on "Data: Homelessness declines in Sacramento County "

2011-04-23T16:18:46Z

I think the count is highly inaccurate -- it explicitly counts the majority of the homeless, then supposes it can extrapolate the count to those areas where no one was sent to find homeless people. The Los Angeles County count from 2009 showed a huge surge in the homeless population that has to have been significantly bogus. SSF could give us some kind of slightly cooked figure of what confidence we can take in the final total -- you know, what the standard deviation is, sumpin like that -- but that isn't provided, of course. So, what bothers me the most is they seem to give us a total number they mostly pretend is precise, delivered by Pan, direct from Mt. Olympus. It is a Statistics 101 class calculation to determine what the likelihood is that there were fewer homeless in 2011 than in 2009. It's probably something like an 80% likelihood because of the wiggly figures, but we won't get the numbers to do that kind of a calculation. We are supposed to BELIEVE; have FAITH that what the number is, now, magically, explains the SUCCESS -- IT'S A SUCCESS! -- SSF supposes it has had in its other activities. It may be that I am over sensitized, but in the wide homeless-services industry, which includes some politicians, certainly including Johnson, there is this weasel quality -- this inability to be authentic and fully forthcoming -- that is wearisome and worrisome.

Top Cat 2808 on "Legislation could force Kings to pay"

2011-04-12T21:50:03Z

The agreement that Sacramento had with the Maloofs has to have defined the terms of repayment of the loan. I don't think that a state law can, retroactively, rewrite the agreement. Hopefully, there isn't wording in the loan, as written, that precludes it being repaid appropriately. City/county officials who bind the public in massive loan arrangements are the ones who are supposed to look out for us, at the getgo -- not lawmakers courting voters many years later.

Top Cat 2808 on "Experiences in Homelessness Part 4: Transition to Independant Living"

2011-03-10T23:25:31Z

Sonny, Your series, here, is splendid. I am hopeful that you've achieved more than you intended: Putting in the minds of many what the truth of the circumstance of being homeless is. The story of each homeless person is unique, but we are each confronted by the boggling homeless-services bureaucracy, which is two parts bad for every good and salvific thing it does. I praise to the skies your Warrior Spirit, courage and perserverence! [And, yowza, your excellence at the writing craft!] Keep it up, O Mighty brother! I know you are no longer homeless, but I hope to meet you out on the streets, or along the avenues in my journey, always in progress. Always, always. It is a great good that you've shone some light of truth in a situation that is darkened by the bathos coming from many charities, and journalistic laziness of the professional scribes who never leave the desk in their office [and, thus, mostly bellow into the echo chamber of homeless myths]. Right on! Oh, and write on, too!! -- Homeless Tom

Top Cat 2808 on "Loaves & Fishes to get new 'welcoming center'"

2011-03-02T16:30:39Z

I'm not sure how you would know, Dr. French, living in Roseville with clientel from there. The Rosevillians, famously, do little for the homeless other than pushing them into Sacramento county. That is, the homeless there are pushed out. While, from my experience, talking to the guys, it is true that some guys move around, going to those places where conditions for them are best, most have connections in the one place where they stay. But I'm not sure why this is always thought to be such a horrible problem. You've been practicing for 40 years, right? That means you're old and probably somewhat stink and aren't so nice to look at. Shouldn't the city and people of Roseville be thinking of ways to sluff you off onto some other community!? If I may speak for Sacramento County, we don't want you. Go die somewhere else.

Top Cat 2808 on "Loaves & Fishes to get new 'welcoming center'"

2011-03-01T18:40:43Z

Charity Navigator believes that nonprofit executives should be paid on a par with corporate executives, which is outrageous. Corporations are [ideally] in competition and there are benefits derived for the corp. and society if creating better products, independently, are derived from incentivizing high executive pay. A part of how a charity gets a higher rating comes from being well capitalized. And having a building [instead of spending money to help homeless people] enlarges the Loaves & Fishes empire. I say to you that charities SHOULD NOT act as corporations. They should be co-operative with other charities and focus on THEIR MISSION and not AN EMPIRE. A recent article in Fast Company magazine, "Why Charities Should Have an Expiration Date" [ http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/151/do-something-why-charities-should-die.html ] makes the case that for-profit companies come and go — they don't live forever … like vampires. Whereas not-for-profit organizations just attach themselves to a new mission when what they are doing turns sour, for one reason or other. Rotted nonprofits, like Loaves & Fishes, forget what they're about and succomb to the "vampire principle": suck blood for the purpose of sucking yet more blood out of people so that it can go on to suck more blood and continue to exist to suck more blood. It's a bloody business. The article concludes thus: The broader principle here is that companies and organizations don't exist simply to exist. A not-for-profit should ideally be not-for-perpetuity. [They] should not be donor-funded jobs programs. People give not because they believe in [charities as places with] employable human beings but because they believe in what nonprofits do. Once [the nonprofit's mission is accomplished, its employees] should wear a termination notice as a badge of honor. In other words, it's time we all invested in wooden stakes.

Top Cat 2808 on "A Kings move is a Sacramento loss"

2011-02-28T08:05:27Z

I am wholly pro economic activity in our metropolis. I do want sports and entertainment venues appropriate for our wonderful metropolis as it is now, and for our triving more populous metropolis as it will be in the future. I'd love it if a deal to keep the Kings can be found, but not if it means further enriching the Maloofs with a fat bribe in a tug-of-war over a basketball team. Sacramento will find its way even if the Kings leave and the blow to state workers is severe and permanent. We need new industries and other attractions to bring conventions and tourists. And we should be poised to bring in some other professional sports team. In the meantime, we can love the River Cats all the more.

Top Cat 2808 on "Do you know how to express your opinion?"

2011-02-27T07:36:44Z

Here the rudist and most straightforward and NECESSARILY non-sugar-coated opinion piece I know of since George Carlin died. http://momocrats.typepad.com/momocrats/2010/11/bill-maher-takes-on-jon-stewart-and-stephen-colbert-and-challenges-them-to-take-a-stand-and-hes-righ.html We need more of this -- and, really, only this. Say what you mean, by locating where the truth is, as best you can. Here some of the criticism Maher delivered, critical of the Jon Stewart rally in DC last November: "Martin Luther King spoke on that Mall in the capital and he didn't say, 'Remember folks, those southern sheriffs with the fire hoses and the German shepherds, they have a point too.' No, he said I have a dream, they have ...a nightmare...Liberals, like the ones on that field, must stand up and be counted and not pretend that we're as mean, or greedy, or short-sighted or just plain bat-shit as they [the Republicans] are. And if that's too polarizing for you, and you still wanna reach across the aisle ... try church" It's brilliant, and could only have been said with brio Would this not pass the Barton test? Of course, Barton is delivering the Stewart message, and Maher is, savagely, showing that Stewart (and Barton; sorry, David) is/are wrong, both with WHAT Maher says AND in the way he says it.

Top Cat 2808 on "Do you know how to express your opinion?"

2011-02-27T06:38:52Z

I'm a huge fan of Bill Maher, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. They are on TV, of course, not in print, but break every rule of uber-politeness, which appears to be the thrust of the instruction that Barton gave in writing opinion pieces (based on this article; I didn't attend the seminar). Sometimes you just have to tell people what you think. I prefer from others that which is uncooked rather than sugar coated. So, at least I'm not a hypocrite.

Top Cat 2808 on "Loaves & Fishes to get new 'welcoming center'"

2011-02-26T22:12:56Z

Loaves & Fishes is building a $1.5 million Welcoming Center. Isn’t that precious. At the homepage of the burgeoning bureaucracy-choked donations-grabbing charity the top-of-the-page banner reads “Sacramento Loaves & Fishes; feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless.” Ha! In these hard economic times, the gang that runs the joint takes money from others [many of whom are themselves suffering economically but want to aid others they perceive to be suffering more], then the money, a small fortune, is used in large part for administrators to have spiffy new digs. It’s an outrage. When the public’s city and county coffers are empty; when a thousand homeless people are unsheltered, living on the streets and under bridges,during a severe winter in our metropolis; when one of our food banks suffers a major fire, Loaves & Fishes builds a stately new building for its administrators. Recently, homeless people seeking a meal at the so-called charity’s soup kitchen were served frozen-meat sandwiches. That’s right; the cold-cuts had just left the freezer and were as hard and icy as the hearts of those on L&F board of directors. Just yesterday morning, the rain was pouring down super heavily, but Loaves & Fishes management wouldn’t open the library in Fiendship Park to let the homeless out of the monsoon rain. They were forced to stay outside and get drenched to the bone until the scheduled opening time of 7:30am, while Libby was in her “inadequate,” soon-to-be-jettisoned office over in the Ivory Tower*. Note that this “welcoming center” is where donations are to come. It’s not the homeless who are welcomed at diabolical Loaves & Fishes, but anything [“Money’s best!” ] the fat, unethical bureaucrats can snag from the unwitting public. It was once a charity, decades ago. Today, Loaves & Fishes is a racket, straight from a Dickens novel [Oliver Twist, I have in mind], with top administrators’ thinking themselves viceroys. If Loaves & Fishes was run by Gandhi and not Gangsters, the entrance to the mall of services would have a sign that read like this [this is LITERALLY what Gandhi said (See http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070425204904AAImDik ), except , to make it more appropriate for today & L&F nomenclature, I’ve substituted “homeless guest” where Gandhi said “customer” and “they” where Gandhi said “he”]: Homeless Guests are the most important visitors on our premises. They are not dependent on us. We are dependent on them. They are not an interruption of our work. They are the purpose of it. They are not an outsider to our organization. They are part of it. We are not doing them a favor by serving them. They are doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity to do so. -- Mahatma Gandhi for Loaves & Fishes Dear citizens of Sacramento. Clutch your purses tight to your side, button the pocket where your wallet is kept. Help the homeless and not those organizations that use us as props for their revenue-greedy enterprize. ----- *a name given by lower-echelon employees to the current second-storey offices of the administration.

Top Cat 2808 on "Rangers to oust campers on American River Parkway"

2011-02-22T05:43:32Z

Joe, I am totally about opposition to the idea of "victimization" and "entitlement" and "enabling" in the realm of homeless help. And it is also important for me to say that I AM NOT AN ADVOCATE FOR THE HOMELESS. I haven't been elected or otherwise chosen by any agregated collection of the Sacramento Homeless. And allow me to add that nobody else is a homeless advocate either. Certainly, Joan Burke of Loaves & Fishes, whose title is Director of Advocacy, IS THE FURTHEST THING FROM BEING AN ADVOCATE FOR THE HOMELESS. In America, we don't let people curl up and die by the side of the road. It is to the benefit of us all if, when we fall, and we need help, we get dusted off, picked up, and put back into society as productive citizens. Humans are pack animals. We are all about each other. But you are right, Joe, individual responsiblity is a vital component to life and is a central element in the success of this nation. That is why what I do advocate for is an end to the "Warehousing the Rabble" philosophy that has been central in Sacramento for decades and a big move to "Pathways of Responsibility." It would be a sea change in the way things are. Homelessness IS NOT a disability, and guys on the street should not be getting SSI checks to fund their addictions. NOBODY writes about THAT more than I do. But we do need to start to take care of the many who are genuinely mentally ill and 'out of it' that NOBODY takes care of. The outreach effort to them ended years ago. They are out on the street lost and confused. A society is not civilized unless it does that.

Top Cat 2808 on "Rangers to oust campers on American River Parkway"

2011-02-21T03:31:20Z

Bubba, Most addicts and mentally ill homeless people suffer mightily. I want them to suffer less. I want them to have access to services that will help them find their way to more-satisfactory and meaningful lives. The process for accomplishing that is probably not more (or much more) expensive than what happens now in Homeless World. Many truly mentally ill people are next to fully overlooked. They need attention and, in a great many cases, they need to not be on the street.. Addicts need to continue to have opportunities to escape their bear trap and find pathways that encourage them at developing a clean, sober, moderate, happy life. If these things are better accomplished, you won't have addicts and mentally ill people hanging around in your neighborhood, Bubba. Indeed, only lovely and handsome movie stars and fashion models, like yourself, will be within spitting distance of your house. Only the nubile and rich will come to your house for parties. And you'll be able to take your jet skis out on the clear and clean American River to play to your heart's content. Bubba. I promise it could be so. The world was made to be your oyster.

Top Cat 2808 on "Rangers to oust campers on American River Parkway"

2011-02-21T03:04:56Z

Since we are more than halfway through the winter, and nothing is going to happen fast, there should be a slow build-up of some sort of mini-Safe Ground to see how it goes. We should not heavily capitalize a camp, but the city/county should allow for something small and then ratchet up. I think that Safe Ground, itself, has the funds and can raise more, if necessary, for a real, starter effort. Rather than "litter removal, park clean up's, graffiti abatement" [Sheriffs' Work Detail jobs] I would suggest that jobs be created: running mall kiosks; food wagons; downtown street corner hot food service, that sort of thing. In addition there is REAL TALENT out on the street, and that can be utilized for people to make money, create a life and be productive. There are a great many homeless people who just don't know how to 'exploit' their talents. People have gifts that are being unused that can be fashioned into the basis for MEANINGFUL, STOLID lives. I am not confident that a safe ground would work, but we should give it a chance to be part of the puzzle to fix the circumstance of homelessness in Sacramento.

Top Cat 2808 on "Rangers to oust campers on American River Parkway"

2011-02-18T00:47:11Z

The circumstance in Sacramento is one of Warehousing the Rabble and putting homeless people on an endless (not-so-)merry-go-round. It is by no means a Pathway to Opportunity, which is the outlook of a focused and truly functioning metropolitan Homeless Plan. The wacky core homeless-services providers in our metropolis are really the core of the problem and we must stop feeding that Cage Full of Beasts. In San Antonio, TX, a metropolis the same size as Sacramento, only with a poorer Middle Class, all the divergent political groups got together, in these tough economic times, and raised $100 million to attack homelessness. In Sacramento, Libby raises $2 million from her little corner of the political spectrum and builds a new empty warehouse. Sacramento homeless-services are the epitome of dysfunction. They whine and empire build while leaving the homeless in a dastardly matrix. And it is THERE that new arrangements need to be made. NEW homeless-services orgs need to arise to meet the challenge of a new directive: Pathways to Opportunity! San Antonio is by no means a perfect template for Sacramento, but the contrast is alarming (and enlightening). Also, we do need to get off this Safe Ground kick. People very wrongly think that Safe Ground is the new center of something. At best, if it matures, it will just be temporary and the corner of something that can be done. For the most part Safe Ground is a fundraising effort and a focus for protest [with unsavory politics that the public mostly doesn't know about]. Meantime, we are all distracted from the Big Picture, that you allude to, Dale.

Top Cat 2808 on "Rangers to oust campers on American River Parkway"

2011-02-18T00:03:47Z

ceg, I greatly wish what you wrote here was fully true, but it is largely contrary to everything I hear out on the street and have seen, firsthand. SafeGround has, at best, a mixed record in the camps it has created and a demonstrated immaturity in the way in proceeds in its effort to accomplish anything. Every organization, certainly including Loaves & Fishes, sprint away from taking legal responsibility for SafeGround because the risks of giving SG what it wants appear to be enormous. Loaves & Fishes has a mission to shelter and feed the homeless and has money it spent on a freaking warehouse instead of making a Safe Ground "Eden" manifest. Let us get real. The leaders in this city, and the police and DA's office, KNOW what has happened at SafeGround camps. The city and county can't take on the liability of allowing a SG-run, ordinance-waived campground. That is the hard reality. Welcome to Hard Times.

Top Cat 2808 on "Rangers to oust campers on American River Parkway"

2011-02-17T23:47:58Z

It is still OK in America to visciously verbally attack (1) gays; (2) muslums; and (3) the homeless. We should try to do better than that. The history is that making it socially unacceptable to hide ones hate mongering behind a skirt of "just opinion" relieves society of categorical tribalism. And that is why, Curmudgeon, the Sacramento Press should disapprove of what you write, take what you've written down, and sanction you if you continue to do what you've done, The homeless have just one thing in that is highly common in the community and that is that everybody is poor, has fallen out of their life, and doesn't have a satisfactory base of operations such that they can get their life up and running, again. Stereotypes from the 1950s probably didn't even make sense in the 1950s. What you write, Curmudgeon, doesn't come from an analysis or knowledge base, it is just hate mongering.

Top Cat 2808 on "Rangers to oust campers on American River Parkway"

2011-02-17T20:42:14Z

Curmudgeon, I have flagged your comment and reply as offensive. This hate-mongering is outrageous, as much as doing it to the homeless remains 'acceptable' in society nowadays. We homeless are the undercaste, and certainly among us are a high ratio of people with numbers of problems, but the variety of people you find among the homeless is very much in sync with the general population. There are more psychopaths, however in banking and on Wall Street. And certainly more narcissists in marketing and in Hollywood. People who really come to know the homeless in Sacramento find them to be, in an overwhelming degree, nice people.

Top Cat 2808 on "Bee announces 32 job cuts"

2011-02-01T16:53:55Z

We absolutely must have a serious, responsible press in order for our society to function. The Bee's mojo is already much diminished from what it was, say, three years ago. It is not now doing a good enough job for our metropolis. I am put off, Isaac, by your "business is business" dismissive wave of the hand. Somehow, the Bee, (or its successor?) must get buffed up and not continue to wither unto death. The Public needs the protection from business (corporations) and government that only a vibrant, legitimate press can provide.

Top Cat 2808 on "American River Parkway advocate: Park is 'no jewel' "

2011-01-25T17:22:03Z

I write the Sacramento Homeless blog and often write articles and comments on homeless matters in SacPress. In general, I find that homeless Sacramentans are a fantastic bunch. The photographs are troubling. Like any thrown-together group of people, the individuals vary, and there is no doubt that there are slobs and people with addictions of all sorts in the Sacramento homeless community. I wish the whole of us were in all ways better people, but the homeless ARE the undercaste. A lot of people have a multitude of personal problems and suffer a loss of meaning in their lives. I would ask that Sacramento Press do a follow-up article, looking in on what's up with the much-vaulted Safe Ground effort in regard to illegal camping. If what is photographed are Safe Ground encampments [or, if it is determined they are not] then it might help with 'the way forward.' Should there be a legal Safe Ground camp? Would proper behaviour be enforced, or would things fall into disarray, as things appear in the photographs. I would be interested to see if answers could be found. I would also want to know if Sacramento Press would be interested in hosting a mini-Forum, inviting a variety of homeless people [and NOT JUST SafeGrounders and the wacky radicals], and American River Parkway advocates to discuss what's going on.

Top Cat 2808 on "Recycling center raises concerns"

2011-01-10T00:01:57Z

cogmeyer, May be it is "too much" to have kids having to get past rowdy homeless people, but "If not there, where should the recycling place be?" I guess I am of a mind that 'things situated where they are' can be improved to accommodate everyone. Homeless people who collect bottles and cans are, in the majority of cases, doing something that is productive. They are scrappy!

Top Cat 2808 on "Recycling center raises concerns"

2011-01-07T16:54:12Z

I am both Buddhist and homeless, blogger of Sacramento Homeless [ sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com ], founder of the Blogisattvas [ blogisattva.org ], team writer for the Progressive Buddhism blog [ progressivebuddhism.blogspot.com ] and I am hugely in favor of recycling, and am a frequent writer for SacPress. I don't really mean to whip out my cred so agressively -- but what the hell. Anyone who is misbehaving should surely be dealt with directly. Efforts should be made such that the recycling center is a good neighbor and the Buddhist Church should be tolerant and helpful at finding solutions. AND people who group people in categories in order to direct their hate should grow up. People are INDIVIDUALS, they are not automatons like ants or Republican congressmen. I don't know the specifics, but my guess is that the Buddhist Church members should want the recycling center to succeed as much as anybody. C'mon, you Buddhists, get you game on! Where's your metta!!? Homeless people who collect cans do good for society. But many are, in Buddhist terms, "Hungry ghosts" who suffer mightily and are awash in their addictions. Have compassion!! Being homeless is a ridiculous circumstance, y'all have no idea! Finding a bathroom when you live on the street is a mighty chore, nowadays. At the same time, I do recognize that a lot of homeless people are fully servants of their ego. BUT, they are people; you do recognize yourself in each of them/us. I submit that the situation can be fixed. But the worst outcome would be to lose the recycling center and for a bunch of Buddhists [who, supposedly care about others' suffering] to push "the problem" of homeless people involved in a gainful activity on to another section of the city.

Top Cat 2808 on "Homeless shelter program seeks $50K"

2010-12-21T22:48:57Z

I disagree with Tracie Rice-Bailey. This Winter Sanctuary effort was **always** necessary -- rising river waters or not! [&, btw, I don't think Tracie would disagree with my "correction."] But WITH the rising waters [and continuing quick or early prison & jail releases] , the Union Gospel Mission is continually overbooked with guys needing beds there. And UGM is, in essence, the "minors' canary" for shelter needs in Sacramento. Right now, the canary is coughing and lying down on the newspaper-carpetted floor of its cage. But even in the absense of unusual factors contributing to crowding and homeless misery, a mild winter would find homeless people in great abundance needing refuge. Indeed, the problem *should be* worse, if it wasn't for the failures at outreach [by VOA and Loaves & Fishes] that might save especially-troubled people from nights of misery, we would still be needing Winter Sanctuary. But all that having been said, it is rotten that the local governments of Sacramento City and Sacramento County have shirked their responsiblities here to PAY for homeless shelter services and to PROVIDE OVERSIGHT. By "begging" for money, Sacramento Steps Forward seeks revenue that it doesn't have to account for! A donor to SSF cannot know how much money has already been collected and cannot expect that SSF will be eagle-eyed at seeking efficiencies. This non-government, no-effective-oversight effort is the Devil's Playground. Warning signs should be posted! Beware! Beware!

Top Cat 2808 on "DSP program works on homeless issues"

2010-12-21T22:28:53Z

I don't disagree with Tim Brown, but Dal Kooyman is right. The article looks at the situation in a positive light, focussing in on the contribution that the downtown outreach program is making, in lieu of the, frankly, grotesque failure of Sacramento homeless-services providers. At Loaves & Fishes they hire Sister Libby's 'favorites' -- Safe Ground people, mostly -- who are wholly untrained to do 5150 referrals instead of trained people, including all those that VOA 'let go' to aid the troubled homeless in Friendship Park. Instead of using donor money to do what is best and most needed for the homeless, a new warehouse, dubbed "Libby's Folly," is being built on the corner of Ahern and No. B Sts. Political-aligned homeless puppets for the "communitarian" [really, Communist] wing are favored in an effort that divides the homeless between those who 'drink L&F's Kool-ade" and the scrappy homeless who include job seekers looking for a return to normalcy. VOA, similarly, being a national organization, didn't have to scrap its successful outreach program, but chose to do so. The homeless-services outfits in Sacramento have become mercenary having dumped the guise of 'compassion' long, long ago.

Top Cat 2808 on "New organization to take over the fight against homelessness"

2010-12-15T17:01:36Z

WHAT and WHO is this nonprofit? The progress of this forthcoming centaurian thing is sort of like being told Christmas is coming, and -- oh, by the way -- democracy is ending and it's going to be replaced by the Ringling Bros. Circus, which you already know about, and -- get ready for this -- A NONPROFIT SURPRISE! Unhappily for us, out behind Door Number Non, that Monty Hall is just about to open, are Stalin, Chairman Mao and Kim Jong-il. Just as it would not be OK for the government to decide that -- oops -- we don't have enough money to pay for elections any more, so we're cancelling the 'democracy' portion of our country, it is not OK for the city (and, more so, the county) to abandon their responsibilites to the poorest of its poor citizens because they prefer helping another class of citizenry that contributes more to the politicians' campaigns. It is also NOT OK to dump problems (that the county has pushed over the cliff) onto religious establishments OR to make the undercaste [ie, homeless folk] wholly subjects of proselytising Christian organizations, some with national political agendas that use homeless people as puppets. One right that homeless people do have, like other citizens, is a right to be part of the democracy and the protections and services that come from government. This Centaur thing -- with the face of benevolence and the body of a jackass -- must be put down!

Top Cat 2808 on "Tips for deterring bicycle thieves"

2010-12-05T21:00:24Z

Excellent information, Brandon. I would add that making recovery of stolen bicycles as likely as possible would also act as a deterrent to theft. Making registration of bicycles w/Friendship Park necessary for them to be parked there would help all bicycle owners [very much including legitimate homeless bike owners] to the detrement of thieves. A year ago, I wrote Libby Fernandez [Loaves & Fishes CEO] and Garren Bratcher [Friendship Park Director], in part, "I think it would be worthwhile to combat bike theft in Homeless World Sacramento. I know that the info kiosk in Friendship Park is becoming computer savvy, putting the lunch ticket list on a laptop. Would Loaves & Fishes / Friendship Park be interested in registering homeless people's bicycles? Might it be possible to get a grant of some kind -- from the Daniel J. Schwinn Foundation or a crime-victim-compensation-interested foundation/grant-giver of some kind -- to pay for such a thing?" Of course, knowing them better now, I got no response. There's no interest in doing something *for* the citizens of Sacramento. Empire building is their all.

Top Cat 2808 on "Facebook page shines light on Midtown bike thefts"

2010-11-30T00:05:29Z

Yeah, thsas. But one of the problems -- and why you can, sort a, lump all homeless folk together -- is the "race to the bottom" that exists in homeless world where having a "criminal mind" is sanctioned, the norm, and acceptable. Combatting the psychopathy and narcissism -- making it fully unacceptable and insisting on civility -- is something that doesn't happen. It sounds weird, but I am crazy about all the splendid suffering homeless people in our community, which includes perhaps every single one. One thing that people lack is MEANING and HOPE and that gets defeated in the ongoing "race to the bottom," where aggression and cheating, somehow, most-always succeeds and is admired. Loaves & Fishes is enabling, and doesn't combat the craziness one bit. The mission fights the bad stuff, but should strive harder to foment AGAPE.

Top Cat 2808 on "Severe Weather Alert: Warming Centers Open for Homeless People in Sacramento"

2010-11-29T22:20:28Z

I had the opportunity [or, should I say, was somewhat forced by circumstances] to stay at both the Salvation Army Warming Center [on the 23rd] and at Union Gospel Mission's [on the 24th]. I certainly thank administrators at both centers for their effort. It was COLD outside and a very welcomed opportunity to escape misery that was provided. At Sallies [Salvation Army], we were at first left sitting upright in chairs in a crowded lobby, but later the women were moved elsewhere while we men were put in an area that was much, much larger, where we could put together several chairs to each get comfortable. At UGM, a TV was set up and a series of movies were played. Also, a lot of food was made available for us and there was room for us to move around and not have some other person sitting too close. What doesn't make sense to me is the somewhat crazy restriction against sleeping. After three nights being in the cold and without a bed, my brain was fried. Certainly, I did catch snatches of naps at both Sallies and at UGM, but not such that I could get really comfortable and sink into the deep sleep that was needed.

Top Cat 2808 on "Facebook page shines light on Midtown bike thefts"

2010-11-29T22:08:41Z

GMTA, bhance. My comment (below) was in the process of being written when you posted yours.

Top Cat 2808 on "Facebook page shines light on Midtown bike thefts"

2010-11-29T22:07:11Z

A year ago, in Sacramento Homeless blog [ http://sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com/2009/11/are-there-ways-to-extend-usefulness-of.html ] I wrote a bit about the "bicycle problem" in homeless world. Frankly, many of the bicycle's stolen in our metropolis are stolen through the homeless network and then sold for, usually, twenty bucks. I then wrote Libby Fernandez, CEO of Loaves & Fishes, hoping that registry there -- homeless central -- could deter theft of homeless peoples' bicycles and theft from the citizenry of Sacramento. I was in contact with the administrator of http://www.stolenbicycleregistry.com/ and was beginning pursuit of a grant to deter theft in Sacramento, but got no support from Fernandez or Loaves & Fishes. I think that the Midtown effort would benefit from hooking up with stolen bicycle registry because it is likely that many bicycles stolen there leave our metropolis, yet can still be recovered, using a national effort at detering theft.

Top Cat 2808 on "Sacramento 9th dirtiest city"

2010-11-22T19:28:08Z

To the somewhat credit of our metropolis, we're an area that ranks *last* of the ten Calif non-coastal cities/metropolises that got ranked. [I'm sure that it is the *interior* communities in the huge Los Angeles metropolis that is where the soiled air is, causing its high ranking. Coastal air is clean.] We get the pollution blowing in from the west of us, which is the Bay Area.

Top Cat 2808 on "Council: Homeless need shelter for winter"

2010-10-27T23:27:21Z

Safe Ground [the organization] must not be part of any solution. They are an objectionable political organization more than anything. I passed out fliers at City Hall prior to the Workshop. Here's a copy of the flier, FYI: See http://sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com/p/ugliness-of-safeground.html

Top Cat 2808 on "Homeless Forum tackles community concerns about homelessness"

2010-10-14T23:58:18Z

Perhaps John Kraintz's mixed-metaphor comment at the end is edifying: "The carrot at the end of the tunnel." Carrots are used, metaphorically, as means of enlisting the good will of others. But, since Kraintz and his pack have been hitting the city council and government workers with sticks, he keeps the *reality* of a homeless encampment unachieved, but forever alive as a donor-gathering issue to raise money for his SafeGround. Not to worry, John, you and your band of merry men can stay at the Hawthorn Suites, again, this winter while homeless people are dying downtown. I'm sure Mayor Johnson can hold a press conference about how brave you all are in agreeing to stay in a hotel. I think Kraintz's tunnel is a slide down the rabbit hole. And the light at the end of the tunnel is the carerpillar's Bic lighting up the hooka.. Which brings me to the second reason a Safe Ground encampment goes unrealized: NOBODY WANTS TO ASSUME THE LIABILITY when things go kaflooey. The elephant in the room for any ADULTs who think about the whole matter is the drama and verbal fighting that goes on at SafeGround NOW, and how that will manifest if EDEN [SG's name for their Tuff Shed village] ever goes live. A second fall of the garden [with carrots] of Eden, anyone? Tent City [from the sping and summer of 2009] was a concentrated area of people [overwhelmingly solo men] who lived in tents because they didn't want to go inside. In huge number, the reason they didn't want to go inside, was so they could enjoy their substance of choice, their addiction. Tent City begat Safe Ground. Homeless addicts don't give up their drinking and drugs easily. Look at the statistics! Ask the folks at Clean & Sober, or with the Rehab program at Union Gospel Mission. As the caterpillar could tell you, a lot of what Safe Ground advocates is a PIPE dream, and it's all SMOKE and mirrors.

Top Cat 2808 on "County budget troubles spur new idea for homeless program "

2010-09-20T18:21:44Z

Yes! We don't need more nonprofits and, thus, more bureaucracy and confusion. A high priority of the county ought to be the social safety net. Abandoning their responsibilities to the county's homeless population is outrageous. Sacramento County has a DIRECT responsibility to run and pay for operations to save people from utter destitution. The county needs to provide oversight to protect homeless people from many of the homeless-services nonprofits that are out there. One right homeless people do have is a right to secular goverance in this country. Homeless people must not be fully put under the thumb of the fumbling, dunderheaded empire-building religious nonprofits that exist in this county.

Top Cat 2808 on "Downtown Plaza gets a facelift"

2010-08-31T18:24:54Z

I have to say that it is hard for me to see where "multimillion"s of dollars were spent. on recent remodelling. I don't dislike the mall, nor the idea of there being one downtown. I wish it well. it would be swell if the enterprise better succeeded, filling the empty storefronts with stores. That's not likely to happen, though, until the economy makes a big turn around in Sacramento

Top Cat 2808 on "Mayor's group, other agencies house 1,168 families"

2010-08-30T17:12:34Z

It certainly *sounds* like a lot of families were aided, but I don't see how the metrics we're given is put forward in a way that is meaningful. The numbers of people aided seems to be wholly a function of the stimulus money that was made available. [The 800 families target, after all, was pulled out of a hat, long ago.] I'm not sure how much credit should be given to the mayor or Sacramento Steps Forward, though they find their way to take credit. As for "One Day to End Homelessness," is it cruel for me to point out IT DIDN'T END HOMELESSNESS. And that the money didn't come in in one day. And that the $400,000 really should have come from county coffers? It sounds meanspirited, but we should recognize the obvious: the city/county passed the buck to the spiritual community because they wanted to use what they had for other purposes. I mean I do understand. The church people wouldn't have had their heart-strings pulled to raise money for a sewer upgrade. I just think that politicians and the local media have AN OBLIGATION TO THE PUBLIC to describe things in terms of THE REALITY of what's going on, and not just pass along the manipulative hype that they are handed. While I am greatly in favor of helping people in trouble, the misrepresentations undermine the disparaged homeless community and poor people in the longrun.

Top Cat 2808 on "City Council Discourages Public Comment"

2010-08-23T21:33:16Z

Metrics are important, as is a comprehensive sense of 'where we are going' and what the goal is, relating to the "homeless problem." One thing it certainly shouldn't be is ever enlarging the empire of certain homeless-help nonprofits who use 'complaint' as a method of getting funding and donations, yet don't have much interest in improving their services -- or, really, seeing the goals they set be achieved, because then they might lose having their complaints, *which* *raise* *cash*. Joan Burke & Justin Wandro's Loaves & Fishes amassed another quarter million dollars in calendar year 2009 to add to their Empire, while SafeGround, in the winter of 2009-2010, stayed in a hotel [Hawthorn Suites near the Richards exit on I-5]. Most ot the public and the rest of the homeless suffered from a bad economy, with one homeless man downtown freezing to death, in December, while SafeGround frolicked. Let us get real. This public comments imbroglio is a fake out, used just to ratchet up complaint and donations, donations, donations.

Top Cat 2808 on "City Council Discourages Public Comment"

2010-08-23T21:09:36Z

I think Joan is absolutely right, that the reason they moved the open-comment period to the end of the session is to discourage comments. But I would say that it was done to discourage *frivolous* comments, specifically those from SafeGround who show up each week, usually with nothing new or interesting to say. Indeed, most often SafeGround comes to goof on the city council. The idea of speaking before the City Council is to say something helpful or enlightening or important. Understand that I am not saying that SafeGround shouldn't speak to the city council, it is just that they mostly now do so in an act of wasting the council's time. If the group has something new to impart, they should come, and have one member say something succinctly and artfully that imparts what's important. It has been SafeGround's strategy to alienate those that disagree with them instead of trying to engage them and find solutions that meet everybody's needs. They should change their strategy, embrace the idea -- for a period of time -- of having the session when the public speaks to the council be later at night, and try being kindly, wise, and thoughtful. But, truly, who is MORE able to attend the whole of a city council meeting and speak at its end than the people from SafeGround!!? They are as obligations-free as anyone anywhere. So the nature of the complaint that Joan Burke -- and that now Justin Wandro puppets for her -- slatters sillyness atop sillyness.

Top Cat 2808 on "City Council to hear public comment later at night "

2010-08-19T19:39:24Z

I think the *reality* of the situation has to do with SafeGround people coming to speak every week without having anything to say. While that certainly hasn't always been the case, it often is that the SafeGround people use wasting the council's time as a form of protest. Mr. Tipper would often come to tell his unfunny jokes that no one would laugh at. By the way, Tracie Rice-Bailey certainly should not be described as an 'advocate for the homeless population.' Pish tosh! Rice-Bailey is an advocate for SafeGround, a group which raises money for itself, which is now a full-tilt generating income center for the far-far Leftist wing of the "homeless-help" industry.

Top Cat 2808 on "Johnson to ask staff to find safe ground sites, anticipates meeting with school board candidates"

2010-08-16T19:10:48Z

Curmudgeon, You reveal in more than a few ways that you are out-of-touch. I think that Thunderbird and Night Train belong to a long, long, long-ago era. Substitute 211 and tweekers, and I think we'd be up-to-date. While people with alcohol and substance issues are *responsible* for their addictions, guys who succomb to them get stuck without realizing it. Addictions are powerful, and they happen to guys who are fleeing overwhelming stress and unhappiness. It's not as "simple as that." The reality of addictions is powerfully sad. You contempt for addicted people, Curmudgeon, is misplaced. You know not of whom you write.

Top Cat 2808 on "Johnson to ask staff to find safe ground sites, anticipates meeting with school board candidates"

2010-08-11T22:58:39Z

The homeless population, in which I have "membership" is NOT an amorphous community, it is very very varied. And of especial note, the group Safe Ground is but a tiny part of the homeless population. SG is, perhaps, those most averse to getting jobs, or improving their lot. But to their credit, they do take on 'cleaning up the environment' tasks -- though for the very apparent purpose of building up their public image, not as "good deeds." Also, my bet is they are pretty much NOT the folks who are litterers or graffiti artists. The term "safe ground" [or, SafeGround] is a thought-terminating cliche. That is, the group behind the group use the term for a dozen different things for propagandistic purposes. [See article Strategies of Confusion: http://sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com/2010/02/strategies-of-confusion-duckspeak-in.html ] It's use here, clearly, is for parcels to be used for a canvas or Tuff Shed village, or where homeless people may camp without risk of being cited by the police. One day, people saying what Curmudgeon wrote - above - will be recognized for displaying extreme prejudice. The good majority of homeless people in Sacramento are splendid folks, by any criteria. I'm not sure what a "self-inflicted pathology" is; perhaps Curmudgeon can tell us, firsthand.

Top Cat 2808 on "WE movement announces official launch "

2010-08-05T18:00:43Z

Rah!, the sentiment of helping people help themselves. HOORAY, especially, to the rare idea, of central importance, of helping people LEARN how to help others. Many of the agencies, government and nonprofit, in Homeless World Sacramento, engage in "warehousing the rabble" methodologies that NEVER truly seek to know what homeless people think THEY need to aright their lives. As Leo's character said in the hot new movie that's out: "True inspiration can never be faked." Unless someone in need of help "buys in" to the plan, feels it's his own, then help is NOT on the way.

Top Cat 2808 on "Mayor Johnson still working on a solution to resolve homelessness "

2010-08-02T19:46:12Z

Yeah. You're right, Cdougherty. I changed my comment.

Top Cat 2808 on "Mayor Johnson still working on a solution to resolve homelessness "

2010-08-02T19:44:39Z

The article reads, "Last year Johnson announced that he has reached an agreement with SafeGround members regarding winter shelters, but due to county budget issues, those winter shelters will not be in place this year." Hilarious! The agreement with SafeGround members was for the thirty of them to stay in a hotel! The Hawthorn Suites at Richards & I-5!! [See http://sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com/2009/12/hey-safe-ground-dont-you-people-know.html ] The "agreement" was a means to '"buy off" SafeGround, leaving the rest of the homeless to fend for themselves for the winter. Indeed, in early December, when nighttime lows plummetted to 27 degrees at least one homeless person DIED FROM THE COLD. Meantime, SafeGround was watching HBO and drinking 211's. And, understand this, SafeGround had absolutely positively NOTHING to do with winter shelter. They were bought off to shut 'em up. KJ wasted a million dollars moving Tent City people [numbering, in total, ~200] into the Cal Expo shelter in 2008-2009. And then, last winter, spends funds housing SafeGround people in luxury in Hawthorn Suites. KJ is a stumblebum when in comes to the homeless, a massive public money waster. And unless you miss this point, here it is, pithily: SafeGround IS NOT the homeless. SafeGround is an organization set up to push the homeless-help industry's far-far-Leftist politics. The homeless people involved are centrally those who are averse to working. While Homeless World Sacramento will be desperate for sleeping places this winter, with no money coming from the city or county, we must take whatever opportunites that come along to get space, but great care must be taken such that a calm, safe, nontoxic encampment is created. That is a mighty challenge.

Top Cat 2808 on "Mayor Johnson still working on a solution to resolve homelessness "

2010-07-29T20:37:47Z

naga, I have written about all that dozens of times. But it is understandable that you, like the vast majority of the public are unaware. Here [ http://sacramentopress.com/headline/21434/Communist_nonprofits_in_Homeless_World_Sacramento ] an article I wrote for Sacramento Press six-months ago. Here [ http://sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com/p/trinity-flier.html ] a flier that was distributed at Trinity Cathedral Church. And here [ http://sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com/search/label/communism ] stuff labeled communism at my blogsite. You don't have to trust me! The links in all of that proves my contentions.

Top Cat 2808 on "Hopeful homeless in search of a 'safe ground'"

2010-07-27T16:22:07Z

Thanks, cogmeyer. It really is a scandal what all is going on and how the public gets duped by The Media -- very much including Sacramento Press, to the marginal extent that it is Media -- into believing that SafeGround IS the homeless and is fully on the side of Good. Kraintz is, rather understandably, enjoying all the attention he gets. His head is fully turned by being a local celebrity, of sorts. Kraintz is certainly talented, but, from all that I see, easily and cheaply manipulated.

Top Cat 2808 on "Hopeful homeless in search of a 'safe ground'"

2010-07-23T21:02:40Z

Since SafeGround has for months refused to cough up public paperwork, perhaps you can reveal his title and the duties of the position, G.P.

Top Cat 2808 on "Hopeful homeless in search of a 'safe ground'"

2010-07-23T20:59:26Z

Risible hogwash. WHAT leaders from around the world!? WHAT accomplishments to take back to their communities?

Top Cat 2808 on "Hopeful homeless in search of a 'safe ground'"

2010-07-23T20:57:38Z

I have requested public paperword that SafeGround is required, as a nonprofit, to provide: The filing papers showing how it is organized. I have not received this public information. But from SHOC's amateur newspaper, we're told that homeless people are relegated to a bit part in this organization. John Kraintz is committed to not working and is, truly, essentially, Loaves & Fishes's poster boy. I commend the ideal, for this coming winter, particularly and perhaps solely, of having whatever encampment can be made safe and legal that the SafeGrounders want. But the public needs to know that SafeGround has as the cornerstone of their movement, coming from the lawyers, an effort to overturn the politics of this country, to make it communist, with guaranteed jobs for all, and forcing an end to advancements in technology. A Soviet America with a huge invasive government is what they want. Much money and effort is being taken up by that. At their rally, Tuesday, I passed out fliers - you can see one here: http://sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com/p/safeground-flier.html The links prove my case regarding the abominable politics at the heart of SafeGround. The "march" on Tuesday was bucked up by Loaves & Fishes closing Friendship Park, with next-to-no warning, and seeing to it that there would be food for the homeless in Chavez Park. The crowd was not all supporters of Safe Ground, but a mass of people, that by carrot and stick, L&F 'manufactured.' Please also understand that, so far as creating a campground is concerned, SafeGround HAS GOTTEN NOWHERE! Their wild guess, pulled out of a hat, after having accomplished NOTHING is that doing everything to create a campground, starting now, will take a year. Other than raising money on false pretenses, SafeGround's 'accomplishment' is to offend the city council and county supervisors, making the possiblity of a legal campground *less* likely. Note, too, that last winter the mayor gave the Safe Ground core people hotel rooms for the winter while the rest of us homeless scampered for shelter space and slept outside. One person died downtown when night temperatures dropped to 27 degrees, while the Safe Ground people watched HBO and drank beer.

Top Cat 2808 on "Hopeful homeless in search of a 'safe ground'"

2010-07-23T19:23:30Z

Regarding Libby Fernandez's comment, quoted in the article: Loaves & Fishes raised a building and has vacant property at the Loaves & Fishes compound. No tents are allowed there. Loaves & Fishes is also flush with cash, raising much more than they spend -- to the sum of $2,000,000 -- over the past four years [including a quarter million that was amassed in 2009]. That Two Million is sitting in cash and temporary investments. During a Recession that makes both the public and the homeless community here suffer all the more, Loaves & Fishes feeds its Empire, and sits on the gold.

Top Cat 2808 on "County sued over cuts in health care"

2010-07-19T20:14:02Z

Loaves & Fishes claim of standing in the lawsuit is because their outreach clinic, staffed by one nurse [Suzi, at the time the lawsuit was filed; she has since resigned and is no longer at L&F], will be overwhelmed if cuts to county services are allowed to go forward, such that contageous disease might spread through the Loaves & Fishes compound. It is extraordinarily unlikely that Loaves & Fishes would be overwhelmed by contageous disease. L&F's standing in the lawsuit is very weak, but it was never, as this article implies, that the organization, or Libby, represent homeless people, and neither do. Loaves & Fishes has been growing its cash assets by millions of dollars in the last few years. It is THEY who have a responsiblity here that is other than filing a lawsuit, for heaven's sake! They can take up a burden! What a concept. The Sacramento Press staff should ask some hard questions and fact check.

Top Cat 2808 on "Sixth annual Operation Backpack campaign under way"

2010-07-13T23:18:13Z

This article is written by the publicist for Volunteers of America, who fails to identify himself. For Barry Wisdom to post this here and not prominently and properly identify himself as VOA's marketting guy demonstrates that he and/or his organization is ethicsly challenged. You will find Barry Wisdom listed here - http://www.voa-sac.org/AboutUs/ContactUs/tabid/2100/Default.aspx - on the contact list of VOA-Sacramento. You will find out about how the VOA CEO is paid an obscene $300,000/yr here: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4701 My experience with VOA and Barry Wisdom, at the - I have to say - *notorious* Winter Shelter VOA ran at Cal Expo during 2008 and long prior to that, was that it served as a day prison for homeless people, gobbling up 12 hours each day for people, greatly interfering with the effort people were engaged in to get back on their feet. VOA has a record, in my experience, of being central to the philosophy of "warehousing the rabble," rather than restoring people to productive lives. This "article" violates rules (a) and (d) in the Sacramento Press Rules of Conduct [ http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/190/Terms_of_Use_Rules_of_Conduct ]. It should be removed, if it is the intent to apply the rules fairly and justly. DISCLOSURE: Barry Wisdom added the "disclosure" at the bottom of his article only after my complaints were made to SacPress officials and my comments were posted. I am disappointed that this free (and unacknowledged) pure advertising that VOA tried to post here [and HAS posted] wasn't removed by SacPress staff. While it can be expected that not all articles at this website are objective, subjecting readers to undisclosed advertising should be forbidden or it will come, I think, at a cost of readership and the willingness of real community "reporters" to post articles at this webspace. Complete abandonment of the ideals of journalism would be unfortunate, losing trust with users of this site.

Top Cat 2808 on "Sixth annual Operation Backpack campaign under way"

2010-07-13T16:36:09Z

Dear Citizens: Help homeless children through your local School District. In this way, your needed gift can be directly, and fully, focussed on the poor child and not diverted to increase the considerable wealth of a greedy nonprofit CEO and his pack of publicists, and VOA's notorious activities as homeless-shelter operators. [Ask any Sacramento homeless person about "Neto," and he will tell you what a bunch of gangsters the VOA operation is.]

Top Cat 2808 on "Cultivating a healthy comment ecosystem"

2010-06-24T18:18:56Z

I find that I am unhappy that Sacramento Press has put bbbmer in a stockade, of sorts. I think that that is a huge mistake, even as I don't know what that contributer to the community has done most wrong. Bbbmer was commenting as a private person, and - to my mind - shouldn't have been disgraced publically. If Sacramento Press wants a more civil community, it must act as the best example of civility.

Top Cat 2808 on "Mapping a Gentler and Smaller Footprint for Sacramento- A Wine Reception at Practical Cycle in Old Sac"

2010-06-05T16:23:24Z

I am sorry, but your maps simply aren't very good. The Street Sheet Guide is overlaid on an old street map. [7th Street doesn't extend past E, for example] and it is very hard to tell what spots on the map the place names refer to. A homeless person would need a map that shows the light-rail lines and stops and shows those places he would most need to find. Your map doesn't accomplish the task of serving homeless people's needs.

Top Cat 2808 on "A life-changing home for homeless, working poor"

2010-05-04T15:53:59Z

The building, its features, and the ideas associated with it are all very interesting, but I very much share Paul Carhartt's concerns. Five years after its built and occupied, what will it be like? Will it be a pleasant place for the residents? or will it be noisy and unsafe? Also, poor people vary. A sense of community cannot be imposed. Some people who would become residents will be private and quiet and others noisy and obnoxious. Making the place where you live (and for many that's where you get away from everything) also the central place for socializing isn't what most people want. That is not the kind of life that most people seek for themselves. For many it's best not to know one's neighbors very well.

Top Cat 2808 on "About 50 people urge City Council to help form Safe Ground"

2010-04-24T19:43:05Z

John Kraintz is both a very able and impressive person who has enormous (and understandable) support in the homeless community. But his words in the article are contrary to other words he speaks in a different forum. I don't fault John: He just needs to settle on what he truly believes. If he believes what he said that is quoted in this article, he needs to repudiate what he said at a rally in San Francisco on January 20, 2010, as follows [text taken from video of the rally] [See http://sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com/2010/01/john-kraintz-at-san-francisco-protest.html ]: Hi, I'm John from Safe Ground Sacramento. I came down here with a simple message, today. [starts screaming] YOU ARE THE LEADERS YOU'VE BEEN LOOKIN FOR. REPEAT AFTER ME. WE ARE THE LEADERS WE'VE BEEN LOOKIN FOR. [Crowd repeats the sentence.] C'MON, THEY'RE HARDLY HEARING DOWN THERE. WE GOTTA BE LOUDER. WE ARE THE LEADERS WE'VE BEEN LOOKIN FOR. [Crowd repeats the sentence.] You know they told us today we couldn't have a permit to go down to the Federal Building. WHO THE HELL DO THEY THINK THEY ARE!? THEY WORK FOR US; WE DON'T WORK FOR THEM. WE ARE GOING TO GO DOWN THERE TODAY AND TELL OUR EMPLOYEES WHAT WE WANT THEM TO DO. AND WE BETTER SPEAK UP BECAUSE THESE PEOPLE they don't hear very well. We've been talkin to 'em for decades, and THEY DON'T GET IT. Maybe they don't hear so good; maybe they're a little slow. So let's say it real simple and real slow. WHAT DO WE WANT? [Crowd screams "housing."] AND WHEN DO WE WANT IT? [Crowd screams "now."] WHAT DO WE WANT? [Crowd screams "housing."] AND WHEN DO WE WANT IT? [Crowd screams "now."] All right, today we've gathered under many different banners from many different places, but we came to speak with one voice. THE PEOPLE. UNITED. CANNOT BE DEFEATED. [Crowd screams along with John as he repeats the mantra.] THE PEOPLE. UNITED. CANNOT BE DEFEATED. THE PEOPLE. UNITED. CANNOT BE DEFEATED. All right, we've been quiet for too long, so we gotta make up for lost time. When we go down and talk to those people, today, let's go down and tell to our employees what they want us, what we want them to do. All right? And let's make sure they hear it. Let's speak up. LET'S GET DOWN THERE, AND TELL THEM WHAT HAS TO HAPPEN BEFORE THIS WHOLE COUNTRY GOES INTO THE TOILET.

Top Cat 2808 on "About 50 people urge City Council to help form Safe Ground"

2010-04-24T19:36:17Z

I abhor the use of Bernice Nickson's death as a means to press any political point-of-view. I must point out that ~ 30 Safe Ground people were given rooms at Hawthorn Suites Hotel, at huge expense, to spend the winter while the rest of us were left to scamper and compete for shelter beds and other means to make it through the winter. As Joan Burke full well knows a disabled man died downtown in the early days of last December when night temperatures dipped into the 20s. Meantime, all the SafeGround people were at Hawthorn Suites. Meantime, Loaves & Fishes had (and still has!) vacant space at their compound that could be used as a safe site for tents. Meantime, Delany Center which belongs to Loaves & Fishes, has a large floorspace that can be used to keep people safe and warm. Meantime, Loaves & Fishes continues to accumulate a hoard of cash year after year which it sits on while homeless people are left to the streets. Meantime, Loaves & Fishes spends money hosting members of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America [formerly the California Communist League] to indoctrinate homeless people into the insane communist ideology at the core of Loaves & Fishes leadership. [ See http://sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com/p/trinity-flier.html for text and links that prove communist connection. ]

Top Cat 2808 on "Stand up, be counted | Census 2010"

2010-02-06T01:00:13Z

On what basis Sr. Libby said what is reported, I cannot imagine. Ms. Fernandez's isn't athorized to speak for homeless people any more than her support of communist groups like the League of Revolutionaries for a New America whom she hosts at Loaves & Fishes is appropriate or indicative of homeless people.

Top Cat 2808 on "River People"

2010-01-22T00:00:00Z

In his highly regarded book FEAR ITSELF, Rush Dozier writes about people put in traumatic life circumstances: "... you tend to feel at the mercy of events that threaten to overwhelm you. This creates intense fears that have a negative effect on the immune system. Studies have placed groups of rats in enclosures that give them mild electrical shocks. One set of enclosures allows the rats to stop the shock by turning a wheel or pushing a lever. The other enclosures give the rats no control whatsoever. The results of such studies invariable show that the rats with no control suffer many more health problems. "Other studies have compared people in high-powered, stressful jobs with lower ranking employees of similar age and health. These have found that despite the pressure of their jobs, top executives tend to have a significantly lower mortality rate than their subordinates. The most important variable between these two groups is the control they have over their environment. "Executives tend to perceive themselves as in charge of their destiny, whereas employees usually feel much more at the mercy of decisions made by others. Greater control appears to mean a more robust immune system and greater protection against stress-related disorders like high blood pressure. "But the sense of control must be subjectively perceived or there is no benefit. ... "If science has uncovered one important technique for managing fear and stress it is this: Try to avoid, whenever possible, circumstances in which you feel helpless and vulnerable. If this cannot be done, then, despite the circumstances, try to maintain a subjective attitude of optimism and reasonable control." Now, consider the homeless, the people at the very very bottom of the totempole with huge obstacles in the way of affecting their destinies. THEY, THEY have the very very least control over their lives and circumstance. They fear more than they should be feared. They are the ones with greatly foreshortened lifespans and that are beset with health difficulties OR have their health difficulties worsened because they resulted in making them homeless.

Top Cat 2808 on "River People"

2010-01-21T21:31:59Z

T, I don't think you have come at things, observing objectively, as your last paragraph implies was your intent. Homelessness is much different than the stereotypes, and has changed greatly in just the last few years. There are people who fit the definitions that you give, but like any group, individuals vary greatly. Life in Homeless World Sacramento is frustrating and time consuming. The social alienation is a burden and while the constellation of worries is different in nature from what the person had when "housed" or from what you have, there are still many worries and stressors that are more immediate and dire. Mental illness is very common in Homeless World because our society, and homeless-help agencies, have abandoned ill people to the streets. Use of alcohol and substances is common among the homeless and addiction very difficult to overcome in this world. It is likely the case that you have family support and don't have the character traits that would make you very suseptible to becoming homeless. People differ. Work on that compassion thing. People in Homeless World would rather be somewhere else.

Top Cat 2808 on "More than 100 winter shelter beds not available"

2009-11-25T22:31:49Z

Mr. Brown, In my first comment in this thread, I referenced a blogpost of mine from August 8 where I suggested solutions to the winter shelter situation. Your claim of 700 at the Homeless Connect 2009 was GIVEN BEFORE the event. See this Bee article from BEFORE THE EVENT: http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/1903947.html The actual number of people there is unknown, but my understanding is that attendance was way down. You have an integrity problem, Mr. Brown. -- Tom Armstrong

Top Cat 2808 on "More than 100 winter shelter beds not available"

2009-11-24T21:32:42Z

It also needs to be pointed out how utterly incompetent it is that the bungalows in Rancho Cordova were never assessed as habitation ready by the Task Force. Rancho Cordova is in this county; it's not on Mars. I cannot understand how the task force, and then the mayor, signed off on what was thought to have been pulled together on Oct 23 with NO determination of what shape the bungalows were in. I mean, WHAT was the task force really DOING!? Pitching horse shoes in Friendship Park? Their bungling has REAL implications. I can tell you that there is misery out there on the streets at night. In this matter, the mayor can be strong, NOW. He can make some adjustment re who's on the floor. It's late in the game, but it's not over. He can put in some fresh players who can make some shots from the outside.

Top Cat 2808 on "More than 100 winter shelter beds not available"

2009-11-24T21:16:46Z

Kathleen, I need first to point out that the goal of having 269 beds wasn't "to have them eventually." They are needed in November when the cold and rain comes. THAT was the promise by the mayor at his October 23 press conference at City Hall, with the Winter Shelter Task Force assembled behind him. The forecast for Sacramento, from weather.com right now, is sub-40-degree night lows for nine of the next ten days. http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/95811?from=36hr_topnav_undeclared I spoke to a mayor's aid, regarding ideas and the progress of the Task Force on August 21. At that time, I presented my ideas, which are pretty much what can be found here: http://sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com/2009/08/winter-of-our-discontent-shelter-or.html It is not true that the task force has had only a month and a half. And, you know, winter comes predictably; it's not a surprise, like an earthquake. What does that MEAN 'they only had a month and a half or that they were overcome by implementation challenges. This was a year that required dilligence and many avenues. Where was Plan B? And Plan C? Meaning no great offence, but Tim Brown is never prepared. The first Homeless Connect in Sacramento that he "organized" failed utterly because of a three-hour wait in the parking lot homeless people had to endure for "triage." The event was only open for five hours, total. At Homeless Connect #2, with Brown still in charge, the event wasn't advertised. So it was little attended. [Of course, too, homeless people remembered the sting of what happened the prior year.]

Top Cat 2808 on "5th and H Cafe to open"

2009-11-12T19:14:42Z

You have to wish the Palombos great good fortune. Soups in the City didn't succeed and has been an empty storefront for quite a long while. A Quiznos next door closed recently. 5th & H is a difficult location, but it is good that the cafe's name will get you there.

Top Cat 2808 on "Safe Ground Now!"

2009-11-02T21:23:27Z

One thing I find very curious is the idea that businesses are going to sponsor the Tuff Sheds and pay to make them habitable. Why would a business do such a thing when Safe Ground is under the wing of Loaves & Fishes and the Safe Ground Movement desires to put an end to private businesses? Many private businesses exist because people are motivated by greed, but you don't end greed by ending the right of people to go into business by themselves. The ability to go into business by yourself, or in conjunction with others, is not just a hallmark of freedom; it is the essence of freedom. While many would thrive under a collectivist stucture in society, others would feel confined and be miserable, unable to pursue happiness by expressing their unique talents. What Green Meme Communitarians, like yourself, Paula, don't appreciate is that making the world into the Utopia that YOU seek, would make most other people especially unhappy. A society has to be stuctured to allow as many people as possible to BREATHE. Sure, corporations need to be reigned in and regulated like they haven't been since Bush took office, but they need to be allowed to exist, too, such that their efficiencies can bring down prices and provide good-paying jobs.

Top Cat 2808 on "Safe Ground Now!"

2009-10-26T21:30:42Z

paulal is, of course, Paula Lomazzi, the committee of one that makes up the Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee and a writer for the communist rag People's Tribune [ peoplestribune.org ]. Costa Mantis took full-meeting video of a couple meetings you sponsored, Paula. I wonder how deep the support from the "business community" would be if they heard the left-of-Trotsky rhetoric from the planning committees. The problem, Paula, is that Safe Ground / SafeGround / safe ground is twelve-faced, giving differing stories dependent on the audience. Very very Orwellian. Ethel Long-Scott and Paul Bogen, the keynote speakers at the Homeless Power Forum you sponsored called for an American revolution to end capitalism and stop technological advancement. THAT meeting was filmed, Paula. What don't you screen THAT at the office of the Sacramento Press. I know full well what I'm talking about. It would be madness to allow Eden to be constructed in Sacramento under the aegis of Loaves & Fishes and teeny weeny SHOC. It is NOT the reputation of homeless people whom I am, somehow, destroying. It is Loaves & Fishes, SHOC and their attorneys who impose radical totalitarian Leftist politics at the base of the "Safe Ground Movement" that undermine and make impossible a legal homeless encampment, which I have always supported. It is you, Paula, who acts to undermine the safety of homeless people in Sacramento. I CHALLENGE you, Paula, to show unedited film of Long-Scott and Bogen's presentations at the office of the Sacramento Press.

Top Cat 2808 on "Mayor changes tune on Westfield Group, praises its work this week"

2009-10-23T01:14:23Z

Are you suggesting, Zen, that the City should threaten to REMOVE its parking garage, resulting in the collapse of the downtown shopping mall into an open pit!?

Top Cat 2808 on "Safe Ground Now!"

2009-10-23T01:07:50Z

Hey there, Ryan. I was the first speaker that day. [Hmmm. You didn't mention me.] MY two-minute message was that the city doesn't have a partner for setting up a legal homeless encampment. As much as I would like, and feel the need for, a legal homeless encampment, there simply is no reliable organization of homeless people nor a homeless-help nonprofit run by grown-ups that can act in concordance with the city to set up a so-called Safe Ground. I am reluctant ever to use the term "Safe Ground" since, in Orwellian terms, it is "duckspeak" [see http://www.orwelltoday.com/duckspeak.shtml ], since it is used to mean both a LEGAL encampment [like so-called "Eden" that Loaves & Fishes has produced plans for (see sacloaves.org ), and the ILLEGAL encampment that existed on C Street, on Mark Merin's property, rather recently.] "Safe Ground Campaign" is the effort to get a legal homeless encampment, whereas the "Safe Ground Movement" means to end capitalism and retard technology to put America back in the Dark Ages to somehow spur a boon in employment. [Whoopee! We'll all be tilling the soil with our fingers!] It's all very interesting, but where oh where are the grown-ups that can come together to get something done!??? I have enormous respect for the people with safe ground who followed me up to the podium, and I know that outside City Hall most of them are very thoughtful, mature and compassionate, but I was not impressed by their rants and accusations on Oct 13. They can do better. As for my message to the City Council, I was extremely nervous and my mouth came disconnected from my brain.

Top Cat 2808 on "Mayor plans to address "safe ground" ideas in October"

2009-09-23T17:02:48Z

trapper, the incentive to move around are much less than they were, and are disappearing. Also, homeless people are more plugged in to their community and family that days-gone-by. Truty, train hopping was easy twenty years ago, if you look at books about homelessness from that time period and before. That doesn't happen now. People used to go from state to state to collect benefits; computerization precludes that, today. Cellphones [that many job-seeking homeless people have] keep homeless folk plugged into family and friends, and ankle monitors keep parolees in restricted areas. When homeless people DO move, it is to chase a better life, NOT to settle in to sponge off a different locality. This fear-mongering that homeless aliens from outerspace will settle in Sacramento and feed off the blood of infants is exaggerated.

Top Cat 2808 on "Mayor Kevin Johnson addresses homelessness"

2009-09-23T16:36:50Z

EXCELLENT report, Jonathan!. I, too, was at the press briefing, representing the Sacramento Homeless blog, and saw you there. I confess my report is far inferior to yours, with a couple errors that I will utilize your article to correct. I have to say for all the optimism that Stepping Stone and a shelter this winter can get done, I am feeling mighty depressed about things after a night's sleep. Stepping Stone *may* happen, but it will require that people 'get realistic' about the drinking, substance use, and mental illness in the homeless community for it to work well. I am enormously worried that there is a great potential that NOTHING will get done to increase shelter this winter. And, so far as I know, the Winter Shelter Task Force doesn't have a fallback position of what can be done just to give cold homeless people an empty hall to go to to keep from getting pneumonia. Forget food and sleeping pads, a spot to keep people from dying on the streets needs to be found.

Top Cat 2808 on "Mayor Kevin Johnson addresses homelessness"

2009-09-23T16:21:03Z

TomRunge: Relax, already. As the pictures for this article show, the porta-potties are supplied by "United Site Services."

Top Cat 2808 on "Mayor Kevin Johnson addresses homelessness"

2009-09-23T16:06:56Z

I am pleased to report, for the benefit of the highly troubled TomRunge, that the porta-potties have been removed from Mark Merin's C Street property. A friend of mine passed by the location early this morning and saw that they weren't there. Now. I hope the discussion can move on to matters more important and interesting.

Top Cat 2808 on "Mayor plans to address "safe ground" ideas in October"

2009-09-17T00:00:45Z

Poppycock! The homeless aren't that mobile, like you suppose, trapper. The days of train-hopping hoboes is gone. Today's homeless are in great majority home-city bound.

Top Cat 2808 on "Sacramento City Police Arrest 17 Homeless Campers"

2009-09-12T23:35:05Z

Many homeless have phones BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO HAVE THEM TO GET SHORTTERM JOBS AND TO TRY TO GET PERMANENT EMPLOYMENT. Do you know how difficult it is to search for work without a telephone!? Thsas, you say you have never had a cellphone, well, homeless people DON'T HAVE ANY PHONE OTHER THAN A CELLPHONE. Expensive phones and services for cellphones are rare in Sacramento, but for some homeless people, understandably, a phone is important and a high priority, to search for work and stay in contact with family.

Top Cat 2808 on "Homeless Advocates Rally At City Hall – Is Anyone Listening?"

2009-09-11T23:25:36Z

I think the effort to secure a legal homeless encampment is being grossly mismanaged by homeless-help industry leadership and their legal team. They have torpedoed Mayor Johnson's compassionate effort to explore creating a beta encampment next spring [Stepping Stone] and have conjoined the, now, "Safe Ground movement" with radical politics. Last I heard It's supposed to be the leading edge in a "a revolution" that will end capitalism and advances in technology, no less, and make way for a democratic, socialist paradise.

Top Cat 2808 on "Sacramento City Police Arrest 17 Homeless Campers"

2009-09-05T15:31:52Z

I happen to know "Tipp," as the article calls him, very well. I can tell you where he can sleep tonight: the mission. This time of a month, getting a bed there is easy. Or, he can get another sleeping bag or tent from Loaves & Fishes; they have roused their donation base, which is perhaps the only thing they're about. The mayor and city council or county supervisors would be insane to further involve themselves with the Safe Ground movement. It's so far left politically it's in the seats on the other side of the foul line. It is extreme-complaint oriented, unable to see itself or appreciate the stance of any position that doesn't toe its line. Indeed, until the crazies who manipulate the homeless people are put out of the boat, people trapped in a homeless circumstance in Sacramento will be having to endure increased suffering. Loaves & Fishes has property in its complex from a recently raised building. It also had $2 million in cash and liquid assets at the end of 2008. It had a donation-getting spree during the Oprah-fueled thing last spring. The path toward helping the homeless is broad, but Sr. Libby prefers to play the part of the martyr. One day, she's gonna get incarcerated, damn it! And get a street or park named after her.

Top Cat 2808 on "Central Library cites survey in decision to remove benches"

2009-09-05T02:58:54Z

The homeless aren't *that* unclean, Markes. Of course, they'd be cleaner if Loaves & Fishes' wash house was open on weekends and if Loaves & Fishes didn't have sudden closures without notice, or if people had access to their lockers after 2:30pm on weekdays or at all on weekends. But, L&F is stockpiling money, rather than spending in on services, having dramatic events to spur donations instead of doing their job. When I say society has "abandoned" them, I mean social services don't help the neediest. We went from instant asylums for the mentally ill, to ignoring them altogether; one end of the sprectum to the other. In more recent history, VOA axed its outreach program first thing. It's most important program was the first thing cut. I'm not putting a guilt trip on you, Markes. What I am is highly critical of how the homeless-help industry misuses money and stockpiles money. I think, and have written often, that the citizens of Sacramento are magnificent! My complaint is that the homeless-help industry in this town is highly unworthy of the citizenry and the mostly wonderful people who are homeless in this metropolis.

Top Cat 2808 on "Central Library cites survey in decision to remove benches"

2009-09-02T18:59:34Z

Marion, It isn't liberal nor progressives that are in charge of Loaves & Fishes' agenda anymore, it is the totalitarians. Oracle was being too delicate; they're beyond the fringe. [That is, those that are policymakers.] And they don't "represent" the homeless, they leach upon them. The homeless, themselves, fly American flags from the back of their bicycles. Loaves & Fishes is headquarters for dehumanizaton. I have to say things have improved in some areas, but you still have parent->child transaction mode; enabling and entrapping policies; lines & queues without end; and the politics of endless whining and seeing everything that L&F wants for the homeless as demand for "a civil right." Too, the homeless-help industry in this city isn't competative, it's united in entrenching itself, collectively.

Top Cat 2808 on "Central Library cites survey in decision to remove benches"

2009-09-02T18:43:07Z

Markes: It is a very very small portion of the homeless that do the things you describe. And those people are the mentally ill or ones purposefully killing themselves with their addictions, that society has abandoned to the streets following a Supreme Court decision on how government/psychiatrists were incarcerating people in asylums inappropriately. The matters that you bring up should be dealt with aggressively, but they should certainly also be dealt with *specifically* and, because this is a matter of people who are in a deathspiral, humanely and compassionately.

Top Cat 2808 on "Central Library cites survey in decision to remove benches"

2009-09-02T15:23:03Z

Oracle! I agree with everything you wrote! NOBODY could possibly starve with all the services for food in Sacramento. The irony is, however, that here in the Central Valley many will have to go without vegetables! But, boy howdy, we homeless get bodacious amounts of pastries and cakes and sugar and other carbs given to us. So, like the metropolis's general population, the homeless are, on average, greatly overweight. [Bakery goods go stale quickly, thus they get passed to Loaves & Fishes in enormous quantities. My effort to get the homeless involved in gleaning vegetables was rejected by Sr. Libby.] Re Loaves & Fishes and looney-tunes politics and our terrible local media, INDEED! The local media helped to report all the misinfomation stemming from Tent City last spring, that has given our city the reputation as being anti-business. THAT is a disgrace. The Bee was once brave and mighty; today it is a rag. The "Safe Ground movement" is led by Cathleen April Williams and others who are keen on the People's Tribune [ peoplestribune.org ] which is a communist publication. I kid you not; they want the overthrow of capitalism as a means to aid the peasant class. It's 1917 all over again at Loaves & Fishes. If it wasn't so overwhelmingly foolish [and igmorant of the central lesson of the 20th Century] it might approach being scary. [See http://sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com/2009/08/common-ground-on-safe-ground-common.html ]

Top Cat 2808 on "Central Library cites survey in decision to remove benches"

2009-09-01T22:36:33Z

To many of the commenters: The homeless in our metropolis do not migrate here in significant numbers; they BECOME homeless, here. Homelessness is a problem for many reasons, certainly including the facts that many 'fall out' of a normal life status [if I can call it that] because of addictions. [& btw, crystal meth is a relatively new drug that is highly, powerfully addicting] Mentally ill people who should be getting help are abandoned on the street and are left to their own devises to survive. An outreach program that VOA had was one of the first to get killed off when the economy tanked. I am extremely critical of Loaves & Fishes, but not because they are somehow the source of homelessness in our metropolis, but because they enable and entrap the homeless and are an obstacle for people trying to climb out of being impoverished. And it is downright scary how very very sure I am becoming that I am right about this.

Top Cat 2808 on "Central Library cites survey in decision to remove benches"

2009-09-01T22:24:26Z

The survey is wholly illegitimate. And by that I mean not done in a way to produce a meaningful, helpful result. Are public benches outside Starbucks only to be sat upon by coffee drinkers, otherwise sitting there is illegitimate!? What does "loitering" mean, in term of the survey? Resting is a purposeful activity, especially in August, in the hot afternoon, when the survey was taken. How was the determination made that a person on a bench used alcohol? Frankly, what the survey reeks of is not Smirnoff's but data created to justify a predetermined action. I am curious what the result "57% somewhat or seriously affected by inadequate or lack of street lighting" means. Was it very, very dark in the middle of the day in late July and early August of 2007? Was the survey taken by use of cameras set up across the street and the film was hard to see? I wonder if the film is still existent.

Top Cat 2808 on "Mayor Johnson Camps With The Homeless People Of Safe Ground"

2009-08-17T18:36:09Z

Excuse me for plugging my blog, but I am beholding to no one or organization or thing other than the truth of things [which I, arrogantly, hope to find.] Safe Ground is a topic these days in the Sacramento Homeless blog. sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com

Top Cat 2808 on "Mayor Johnson Camps With The Homeless People Of Safe Ground"

2009-08-17T18:29:56Z

I am generally in agreement with what you write, savemidtown. But I am dubious on how cost-effective these very very expensive sounding programs can be. A lot of savings can be seen from stopping law enforcement from focussing on 'warehousing the rabble' instead of chasing real crime, including white-collar crime (which is the almost-sole cause of the economic calamity we're in, btw.) I'm on your side in all this, savemidtown, but I would wager a lot could be done far short of the expense of providing housing for everyone. People need pathways out of destitution. We don't have even THAT, yet. Destitute people need places to keep their things; reliable homeless-help organizations that HELP them to "get their day on," need to come into existence in place of those that destoy people's days, at whim. And an Outreach Program [like what VOA had, but was the first to get 86ed in the bad economy] is needed such that there is a Wolf out there [you know, like the Wolf character in Pulp Fiction] who comes on the scene and fixes lives, individually. Some people just need to be reconciled to their families. Some people need legal help that is unavailable. Some people just need a boost, or dream, or some hope, or a job, or a clean pair of underwear. Many people with mental health problems are dumped on the streets rather than society doing its duty to save them.

Top Cat 2808 on "Mayor Johnson Camps With The Homeless People Of Safe Ground"

2009-08-17T18:11:47Z

Somewhat of a good point, Jim. But since 48% were reported, that, alone, disproves your "most anyone" would lie about their problem! I live in Homeless World Sacramento and think that 'about half' is in the realm of the truth on the topic., but I don't know exactly, and people, themselves, don't know 'exactly' when they've crossed the boundry into addiction. BUT the problem I really have with what you're saying, Jim, has to do with this hatred I perceive in your comments, here. YES, addicted people should strive to overcome their addictions. But Homeless World is where you end up when the world has become a horribly unhappy place and one's relationships have fallen apart. The addicted here are knowingly on a path of suicide and need intervention. I GREATLY AGREE WITH YOU THAT THEY DO NOT NEED LOAVES&FISHES ENABLING [or, as I insist it should be called "ENTRAPPING"] POLICIES.

Top Cat 2808 on "Mayor Johnson Camps With The Homeless People Of Safe Ground"

2009-08-15T21:39:23Z

According to Street Count 2009, taken last January, 48% of Sacramento's homeless citizens have substance-abuse issues. That is a great great many of homeless adults, but not the "vast majority" that Jim Knapp wrote. [See: Street Count, 2009 Data: Homelessness up 4.6% in county in past year ] What is especially tragic [to society, to the addicts, to everyone] is that a great, great many of these unhappy people get SSDI checks which are used to feed their bad habit, instead of being used for shelter or to aid in ending the addictions. It is a mostly mistaken notion to suppose, as Jim Knapp seems to, that these homeless addicts are being enabled to party and live a joyous life. They are killing themselves slowly and knowingly with no way out of their sad circumstance. I am very critical of Loaves & Fishes. It is not so much enabling as it is entrapping. People have no way out once they start using L&F's services. The organization refuses to reform itself to make it possible for homeless people who are eager to work to use its services. Believe me: A great great many want out of the Big Bear Trap of homelessness that has come into being from the constellation of Sacramento homeless-services organizations.

Top Cat 2808 on "Benches at I Street Central Library removed"

2009-08-10T15:39:10Z

MORE benches, MORE places to sit outside are a good thing for everybody. I cannot see how bicycles racks were blocked or that disabled people were blocked or discomfitted before the benches were removed. I would like to see the library's bench survey; I doubt it was a serious scientific effort.

Top Cat 2808 on "154 shelter beds slashed in county budget cuts"

2009-06-26T18:31:14Z

The Winter shelter at Cal Expo is enormously expensive and a huge waster of homeless people's time. Indeed, it is an extra-legal jail lockdown. Included in the costs are the unique features of bussing the sheltered back and forth and lots of security people. The county should spend its $135,000 on basic, minimal shelter that costs $10/bed/night and NOT $30/bed/night, the cost of a Motel 6 stay. This can be done using a warehouse, of which there are many unoccupied ones in the city.

Top Cat 2808 on "RT fares up, service down as board balances budget"

2009-06-23T21:27:12Z

I'm very concerned about these rising rates and falls in services. Surely, directing stimulus moneys to keep public transportation readily available would be wise. Public transportation allows us to work and derive our pleasures LOCALLY and lessens the need for so very many of us to have private cars with the myriad expenses they entail. Public transportation is Green. Bright, glowing, magnificent GREEN!