Scheming Homeless, Parking Mafia, and Meter Fairy: Just Another Day in Miami's Parking Hell
One thing I like about living (and working) in the ‘burbs is that not having to fight for cheap parking or pay through the nose for expensive spots. Not so for people in Miami. Apparently, the scarcity of parking there has created much violence, a cottage industry involving the homeless, parking mafia and even a "magical meter fairy."
Gus Garcia-Roberts from the Miami New Times explains:
In 2004, Kendall native Xavier Cortes was a 37-year-old out-of-work actor in desperate need of a gig. Opportunity came in the classified pages of this newspaper, where an advertisement sought "an extroverted, fun individual, male or female, who knows how to ride rollerblades and isn’t afraid to wear a tutu."
Cortes immediately answered the ad. He was hired by the Coconut Grove Chamber of Commerce. He donned a hot-pink wig and matching tutu, carried a wand, and began each shift with $40 in dimes. For his wage of ten dollars an hour, paid each day by a different Grove business, Cortes skated through the neighborhood putting coins in meters that were about to expire. He left a calling card tucked under windshield wipers. "You’ve just been saved by the Coconut Grove parking-meter fairy," it read, and included a coupon to the business that had donated the dimes.
Cortes’s new occupation was the counterattack strategy employed by Grove business owners who felt under siege by MPA enforcement officers scaring away customers. [...]
Cortes was catcalled by construction workers and berated by teenagers, but to the Grovites who understood his purpose, he was a hero worthy of tips, cigarettes, and free meals. Soon though, he says, a cold war developed between him and MPA officers. "They would try to intimidate me, telling me it was illegal to feed another person’s meter," he recalls. "They’d try to figure out my routes and shifts. I’d see them hiding behind walls spying on me. It got ugly, and it went all the way to the top of the MPA."
Link (Photo: C. Stiles)
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Beneath the Neon
Hundreds of couples are living underneath the US gambling mecca Las Vegas and living off the scraps left behind by its patrons. It’s claimed that up to 700 people call the network of tunnels beneath the casinos home.
They make their living by scavenging, and working their way down the strip of casinos. Steven moved into the tunnels two years ago after he lost his hotel front-desk job due to a heroin problem he claims he kicked in January. “The most I’ve ever found is 997 dollars on one machine. I’ve found about $500 a few times. But normally $20 or so is enough to call it a night.
“We buy food and supplies like shampoo and soap. Last night I went and watched the new Quentin Tarantino movie Inglourious Basterds up at the Palms Hotel.”
Pete Sampson wrote the article for The Sun: Link (Photo: Austin Hargrave)
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Japanese Homeless Camp, Complete With Solar Panel
Images : Kyohei Sakaguchi
The Japanese are just better than the rest of us. There. I’ve said it. From consumer electronics to cars, it seems that the Japanese just do things better.
I’m sure we’ve all heard that the Japanese may be academically better (their school children consistently score at the top of the charts) but they’re not creative. But that is dead wrong as anyone who has seen a Japanese game show, watched an anime, or play Super Mario can attest.
Even the Japanese homeless are better. In 2000, architect Kyohei Sakaguchi ran across this homeless camp along a riverside in Tokyo. The homeless man who was living in it worked for a camera company and knew his electronics – so he outfitted his "Zero Yen House" with a solar panel that let him watch TV and listen to the radio.
The Interior is made from wood. The roof is made from the cardboard. He covered it with a big blue vinyl sheet. He stocks under the floor. This house isn’t connected with the road. He just put it on the road. He said to me that this could float on the water once. This house is also a ship!!!
Link – via anArchitecture
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Housing Drunks and Letting Them Drink Saves Millions
Classic social programs dealing with long-term alcoholics are expensive and do not have a great success rate. In 2005, a controversial experimental program in Seattle began to put homeless drunks in their own apartment building and let them drink as they pleased.
A new study came out in JAMA this week detailing whether the concept of “Housing First,” as it’s known, had any impact (here’s an AP piece on the study). The 98 street drunks whom the study tracked had cost the public $4,066 a month prior to entering 1811 and afterwards they cost $1,492 a month after six months in the facility and $958 a month after 12 months. That’s a pretty big savings and, oddly enough, some of the residents began to drink less. Some even got sober. (Some also died.)
[...]
While this sort of program would have to replicated elsewhere to see if these savings hold, it sure is a vastly more humane way to deal with a chronic urban problem than in the past. It also has all sorts of implications for addressing homelessness among the mentally ill, chronic crackheads and junkies of every stripe. My own guess is that, for example, housing the mentally ill who are homeless instead of herding them into very stressful homeless shelters or leaving them to the streets would improve their mental health issues dramatically, with or without medications. There is something magical about having a roof over one’s head, even a modest one.
The financial aspects of this experiment are not all that surprising, but is it really a good idea? Is it more ethical to spend time and money to try to save people from their own bad decisions, or to give them the dignity of living their lives the way they choose, however harmful? Does this kind of program send the wrong message? Or would it make our streets safer? Link -via reddit
(image credit: Flickr user dno1967)
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Homeless Man Panhandles the Internet
Is this exploitation or genuine concern? 37 year old homeless man Tim Edwards has roamed the streets of Houston for the past five years.
Sean Dolan and his father Kevin saw an opportunity, and ‘hired’ Tim to be a part of their new website Pimp This Bum, soliciting donations for him. People can donate everything from food to a college education, and Tim receives $100 a day from the Dolans.
According to the Dolans, all proceeds from the website go directly to Tim. So why are they doing this?
Their theory is if they can make Edwards popular, they can make anything or anyone popular, a bankable skill to attract big businesses.
“Take a homeless guy on the side of the street that has a sign, ‘I should have used Monster.com,’ and Monster. com just turned (someone) into a walking billboard,” Sean Dolan said.
Link – via ascendgence
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Carts of Darkness
Carts of Darkness is an interesting documentary film about a subculture of street life involving the homeless and the extreme sport of cart racing.
The National Film Board of Canada has recently posted the entire film online along with the usual trailers. The film by Murray Siple
“follows a group of homeless men who have combined bottle picking with the extreme sport of racing shopping carts down the steep hills of North Vancouver. This subculture depicts street life as much more than the stereotypes portrayed in mainstream media. The film takes a deep look into the lives of the men who race carts, the adversity they face and the appeal of cart racing despite the risk”.
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Almost Homeless and Looking for a Job ...
Paul Nawrocki worked in the toy industry for 36 years as an executive before he was laid off. The economic is bad and after more traditional approaches of looking for work failed, Paul decided to do something drastic:
Paul Nawrocki says he’s beyond the point where he cares about humiliation.
That’s why he weekly takes a 90-minute train ride to New York, where he walks the streets wearing a sandwich board that advertises his plight: The former toy-industry executive needs a job.
"Almost homeless," reads the sign. "Looking for employment. Very experienced operations and administration manager."
Wearing a suit and tie under the sign, Nawrocki — who was in the toy industry 36 years before being laid off in February — stands on Manhattan corners for hours, hoping to pass resumes to interested passers-by.
"When you’re out of work and you face having nothing — I mean, having no income — pride doesn’t mean anything," Nawrocki said. "You need to find work. I have to take care of my family."
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