|
|
|
February 2010 |
|
| S |
M |
T |
W |
T |
F |
S |
| |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
| 7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
| 14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
| 21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
| 28 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 What The Homeless People Mean For Downtown Mobile
|
| By : Roy_Pope on 05 Jan 2010 at 12:20:29 am
|
|
|
The downtown business leaders really do have a heart, and we do feel the pains of the homeless. But just to let you know how real the things are that I wrote in my last article, just today a homeless man went into Naman's Department Store across from my restaurant. He tore through the store, ripping down shelves and displays, then he attacked the owner of the store, David Naman. He beat David up pretty bad, then tried to strangle him to death. Luckily, a police officer was nearby and the homeless man was arrested.
This was not a transient just passing through. This was one of the regular homeless people in the community. And what worries us all is that he could have killed David, or he could have chosen to come into one of our shops instead.
This was not the first time that something like this has happened, and as long as we continue to attract and keep these problematic people downtown, I'm sure that it won't be the last time either. I just thought that I would share with you readers that bit of info that may, or may not make tomorrow's newspaper. |
|
| |
Category : News and Opinion
|  Comments [27] |  Trackbacks [0] |
|
|
|
Before You Judge Us
|
| By : Roy_Pope on 22 Dec 2009 at 09:30:11 pm
|
|
|
There are some who have begun to judge the downtown business leaders for the recent and ongoing stance that many of us have chosen to take against the panhandling, loitering and public feedings that have taken our city by storm. They would rather that we allow the panhandling to persist so that the poor can afford a bite of food and shelter for the night. They would rather the loitering to persist so that the weary homeless can get a moment's rest from the strains of their days. They would rather that the public feedings persist so that the poor and needy do not hunger.
Before passing judgement on any of the business leaders who have chosen to stand against these activities in our community, I ask that each and every person consider the following...
There are five facilities established in downtown Mobile, within mere blocks of one another, that provide free food to the homeless. Some of these facilities also provide the homeless with personal hygein items, showers, and clothing. There are also three facilities that I am personally aware of within the same area that provide overnight lodging for the homeless so that they can get in out of the weather and get a good night's sleep.
There is no reason why any homeless person should go hungry in the City of Mobile. None, whatsoever. And there is no reason why any homeless person should have to beg for a single cent when our community already provides to them for free everything that they need in order to survive.
The public feedings in the parks of downtown Mobile are being conducted by individuals and organizations who are skirting around the requirements of the Mobile County Health Board. They do so by setting up their serving stations towards or after the close of government offices. By doing so, they avoid being reported for setting up to feed, and they avoid being inspected to insure that they are serving food that is maintained at proper temperatures necessary to keep the food relatively safe from harmful germs and bacteria.
Some of these public feedings, such as the ones being conducted by Mission of Hope, were also illegal in that they were being operated from private parking lots owned and operated by Central Parking. No advance permission had been received by Mission of Hope to conduct feedings in the parking lot, and according to Mr. David Buchanan the Mission of Hope feeding group was tresspassing.
I was once a homeless man. I was homeless for more than a year. And in being homeless for such a long period of time, I came to learn things of the homeless that the average person may not realize.
To begin, there are many homeless who simply will not register at a facility that has been established to assist the homeless. By not registering, they miss out on the free food, the safe places to sleep at night, the hot showers and the clean clothes. These are the homeless that "need" the services of free feedings in the parks and parking lots. But, why do they not register to receive help if they need it so badly?
The answer is simpler than many may think.
Those that do not register make up the largest portion of the homeless that panhandle, beg, loiter in the public spaces and create the greatest concern for society. They are made up of people that have been discharged from institutions (mental hospitals and prisons) with nowhere else to go. They are made up of habitual drunkards, crack addicts, thieves, burgulars, prostitutes, sex offenders, and possibly even murderers. They know that in order to receive the services of the established facilities then they are going to have to clean up their acts and at least try to get meaningful jobs.
Before passing judgement on the business leaders of downtown Mobile for wanting to make our community a cleaner and safer community, consider this...
If you feel so compelled to help these beggars, why have you not invited them to move into your community so that they can beg from you and your neighbors on a daily basis, so that they can lounge around half-naked in your front yard, so that they can spread their lice to your children, and so that they can deteriorate the values of your properties?
If you feel so compelled to help these people, why don't you instead deliver your gifts and donations exclusively to establishments such as 15 Place or The Salvation Army so that they can be more evenly and appropriately shared amongst the needy, and so that the unregistered homeless will be more compelled to seek rehabilitation from the follies of life that contribute to their continued homelessness?
If you feel that it is so necessary to your personal salvation that you must help these people, then why don't you show up in the Mobile City Council meetings and insist that a homeless shelter and feeding establishment be set up in your district so that the homeless camping in Theodore, Eight Mile, Toulminville and other areas of the city don't have to walk so far every day just to get a meal?
Before you take it upon yourself to judge us for what we are doing, judge yourselves for what you are not doing. |
|
| |
Category : News and Opinion
| Comments [29] | Trackbacks [0] |
|
|
|
Downtown Merchants Fighting For A Safer Community
|
| By : Roy_Pope on 22 Dec 2009 at 08:43:11 pm
|
|
|
Downtown Mobile, Alabama is finally starting to clean up its image. After many years of on again, off again panhandling seasons, city police are now under directives from City Hall to maintain a zero tolerance attitude towards panhandling and loitering in the Downtown Business and Entertainment District.
On Tuesday, December 08, business leaders and land owners within Mobile's downtown met to discuss the ever-growing problems with panhandling and loitering in the district. Also attending the meeting was District 2 Councilman William Carroll. The talks covered everything from the types of problems that are being caused by these illegal activites, to the negative impact that these types of activities have on the city's economy, businesses, and the overall view of Mobile as a tourism destination.
On Wednesday, December 09, business owners David and LeAnne Naman and Roy Pope met with the Downtown Mobile Alliance to discuss the various problems that business owners are having with the panhandlers and loiterers in the area. In that meeting, several suggestions were offered for curtailing the problem, including a suggestion to post "No Begging/No Loitering" signs in the public parks along with information on how to report violators to the local police.
A lot of good came out of that meeting. Barbara Drummond with the mayor's office informed us that the city's Legal Department would be meeting with the Police Department on the following day. "We are planning on enforcing our laws and we are planning on putting more foot patrols in downtown", said Mrs. Drummond.
The business leaders of downtown Mobile are determined to have the safety of our business community restored. Not just for ourselves, but for our guests and visitors to our city. So, it was with great excitement that we were invited to address our concerns to the City Council on the morning of December 15. The speaker was to be Roy Pope - both a business owner and a land owner in the district - however that address was postponed for a period of four weeks following a gentleman's agreement between the business leaders and the Downtown Mobile Alliance.
The agreement, negotiated on a handshake between Roy Pope and Sam Covert, the President of the Downtown Mobile Alliance, gives ample opportunity for the City of Mobile to demonstrate that it is as concerned with the panhandling and loitering problems in the downtown area as the business leaders are. In simple words, Sam Covert asked that we hold off addressing the City Council with our concerns for four weeks, and if we do not realize a significant change in the community in regards to those disruptive activities at the end of those four weeks then Mr. Covert will secure for the business leaders an opportunity to then address the City Council.
This is going to be a multi-part tale of the struggles that downtown Mobile is facing in regards to panhandling and loitering, how it negatively affects our community and businesses, and what is being observed over the course of those four weeks agreed to between Roy Pope and Sam Covert. |
|
| |
Category : News and Opinion
| Comments [28] | Trackbacks [0] |
|
|
|
Downtown Merchants Going To Jail For Good!
|
| By : Roy_Pope on 07 Nov 2008 at 01:49:14 pm
|
|
|
Merchants throughout Mobile will be rounded up and jailed on Thursday November 13, 2008. Friendly warrants have been sworn for the arrest of many pillars of the Mobile business community by the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
During their incarceration in a holding cell at the Bragg-Mitchell Mansion on Spring Hill Avenue, the Mobile Jailbirds (as they are being called) will endeavor to raise "bail" for their release by telephoning family, friends and business associates. All bail proceeds will go to the Muscular Dystrophy Association to assist in financing medical research, providing support groups for families dealing with muscular dystrophy in their lives, and purchasing wheelchairs and leg braces for those afflicted.
If you receive a phone call or visit from one of Mobile's Jailbirds asking for your assistance, I encourage you to dig deep and give whatever your heart and your personal finances will allow. Donations made to the Muscular Dystrophy Association are tax deductible to the extent allowed by applicable laws.
After agreeing to participate in the East Mobile Executive Lock-Up, I reflected back upon a television show that my wife and I enjoyed so much when we were able to watch it - Donald Trump's 'The Apprentice'. Remembering the creativity that Mr. Trump's candidates for Apprentice used to raise money, I was inspired to get a little creative myself.
I created a flyer asking for the public's help, using a mafia-style theme, and was able to get 100 free color copies made from a new copy shop located downtown (they asked me not to mention them by name). Many merchants in Downtown Mobile have allowed me to post the flyers in their windows - just their little way of helping out in this ever-worsening economy.
I watched in amusement as many people read the flyers and chuckled at the way that I worded my plea for help. It made me realize the love that one can have for another when the very first dollar that I collected towards my goal of raising $2,600 came not from a businessman or a friend, but from an elderly, homeless woman that I have seen on the streets of Mobile for the past seven years that I've been in business here. She refused a receipt, saying "God knows, and that's all the receipt I need", then she gave me a hug and went her way back to the streets that she knows so well.
If you'd like to help raise money for Jerry's Kids, donations are being accepted Monday through Saturday at Busaba's Thai Cuisine located at 203 Dauphin Street in Downtown Mobile, Alabama. Donations can also be made online by visiting https://www.joinmda.org/eastmobile08/charity. |
|
| |
Category : News and Opinion
| Comments [41] | Trackbacks [0] |
|
|
|
Food World Senior Bowl Trashes Downtown Mobile
|
| By : Roy_Pope on 01 Nov 2008 at 06:49:45 pm
|
|
|
I am certain that the Food World Senior Bowl Charity Run hosted in the streets of Downtown Mobile on Saturday generated plenty of money for the charity that they are funding. The race kicked off at around 8:00 am and ended some time around noon. It is nightfall as I write this and Bienville Square is still buried under mounds of trash that was left over from the run. There is one mound well over six feet high. Over fifty-percent of the park is covered in a blanket of paper, cups and plastic. I just watched as squirrels tore their way into plastic bags for food to eat - plastic bags that they can get trapped in, choke on or become suffocated by.
It only goes to reason that if a corporate giant such as Food World is going to host an event of any kind in our city, they would have the decency and courtesy to at least bring in a crew and clean up after themselves. They didn't. Instead, they have left our downtown in a littered shambles for tourists to gawk at in disbelief and for residents and business owners to shake our heads at in shame.
As a downtown landowner, I am forced to pay an annual assessment to the Downtown Mobile District Management Corporation. Part of that assessment is supposed to go towards the care and maintenance of our parks and the cleanup of trash after special events in the district. The cleanup crew from the DMDMC clocked out at 4:00 pm today, four hours after the Charity Run had ended. They did not bother cleaning up after the event, so the land owners have not received what we are forced by law to pay for.
Likewise, the City of Mobile Parks Department has failed us as well. As taxpayers, you'd think that our taxes would be used to maintain the parks and to keep them clean. Nobody from the Parks Department has been out today to clean up this mess.
I say that if Food World and other corporations ever applies for a permit to host another event in our city, they should be required to clean up after themselves or face steep fines by the city. What they have done to us today only brings disgrace upon us all and undermines our efforts to Keep Mobile Beautiful. |
|
| |
Category : News and Opinion
| Comments [42] | Trackbacks [0] |
|
| |
| Page: 1 2 3 ...14 15 16 Next |
|
|
|
![[Valid RSS]](../../images/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed"){kind=small}
