Pie and Coffee 
The Street
From last night’s Worcester City Council agenda:
11f. FROM THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES - Request City Manager update the City Council concerning the current incidence of panhandling in the City and efforts to address same.
You may recall the City’s previous push to curtail panhandling was an ugly failure.
A fellow Worcester blogger alerted me to this Toronto art project from earlier this year.
Mark Daye made these signs, with slogans like “Homeless Sleeping–QUIET,” for his design school thesis.
Spacing Wire has lots more pix, and The Star has an article. (I lifted this photo from The Star.)
Puts me in mind of Worcester’s ill-fated anti-panhandling campaign. The response to that mostly involved modifying existing signage, rather than creating new signs.
On the front page of today’s Telegram & Gazette is an article about how Donna has closed the Mustard Seed Catholic Worker soup kitchen for a week, because she needs a break.
I don’t hang out at the Mustard Seed, but it’s my impression that closing the Seed is not news; it’s something she does several times a year. I talked to a couple Mustard Seed habitues today, and confirmed this.
“She closes all the time. Why are you asking me about this?”
It’s on the front page of today’s paper.
“You’re [kidding] me!”
So why does this make the paper? The article describes a note left on the door:
I would advise you to open up the doors for the hungry people who come there soon. Thank You.
[...]
If you don’t, I’m going to the newspapers and see what else can be done about this.
Hmm.
Obscenities have been omitted from this article in respect for the fine work done six days a week at the Mustard Seed.
Here are some reader submissions. Thanks!
Tent city at St. Jude Catholic Church in Redmond, Washington:
St. Jude Catholic Church welcomed Tent City 4 to its Redmond location on February 10th. The city of Redmond, where a one bedroom apartment generally rents for $911 to $1188 a month, issued a permit, but then rescinded it, threatening to fine St. Jude up to $500.00 a day for occupying the space. The stay could end up costing the church more than $37,000, which it says it will pay with donations, not parish funds.
In March, I visited tent city and interviewed pastor David Rogerson and three residents of tent city.
Spanish archbishop shuts down parish with unorthodox priests:
The archbishop of Madrid has shut down a parish where priests said Mass in street clothes and handed out cookies as the holy communion, his office said Monday.
The parish of San Carlos Borromeo, in the working-class Vallecas district of Spain’s capital, was popular among poor people, former prisoners, recovering drug addicts and immigrants.
Parish of San Carlos Borromeo photo
Liturgical abuse bugs me, but there’s always so much going on in a situation like this, you never know the real story.
Police are reporting that a suspect they had in custody confessed to involvement in the murders of Mike Lawson and three other homeless men in South Bend. Previous P&C coverage on this here and here.
Update (by Mike B): This slideshow by the Tribune gives a nice overview of the “scrapping” trade. The accompanying article gets into some of the details.
Particularly among the homeless, the quiet college town of South Bend cemented its reputation for tolerance and hospitality a long time ago. For years, it has been the place to go from around the region for emergency shelter, free meals, and even shots of hope, some said, from myriad charities and service groups.
A few days after Christmas, folks living on or near the streets in downtown South Bend started talking about a couple of guys who were missing. Mike Nolen’s family had been expecting him and his friend, Mike Lawson, for Christmas dinner, but they never showed up. This was unusual, not like them. Nolen’s mother put in a missing person’s report. We started calling local hospitals and jails.
A week later, with no word from either of the Mikes, their friends told police to check out an abandoned building where they were known to hang out, or down in the nearby manholes, in case something bad happened.
Read the rest of this entry »
Lawson and three other men were found dead inside city manholes near Coveleski Stadium last week.
The deaths of Lawson, 53, Michael S. Nolen Jr., 40, Jason Coates, 29, and Brian G. Talboom, 51, have all been ruled homicides.
Authorities released no new information Friday regarding the deaths of the homeless men.
[Jerry] Eason spoke fondly about Lawson at the Mass held at Our Lady of the Road, a drop-in center at 744 S. Main St. About 80 people — primarily friends and a few family members — attended the Mass, which was followed by a potluck dinner.
The Mass was for Lawson, a Catholic who stayed at the Catholic Worker House, but all of the victims were prayed for.
In mid-July I was told that Worcester took down its anti-panhandling signs, after more than a year of a failed anti-panhandling media campaign.
Now, photographic evidence has arrived: posts that used to have anti-panhandling signs, and no longer do:
I’ll be revising this post a bit in the coming days to give the history, as I understand it, of this campaign. I’ll probably be removing most of the anti-panhandling info from Worcester Poverty Issues.
42 people gathered outside South Bend’s Paramount Restaurant last night for a prayer vigil remembering Jan Griffiths, who was run over by Keith Romine earlier this week outside the restaurant, killing her. This restaurant is practically right around the corner from the Catholic Worker house in South Bend where I’m staying.
Also struck was Derrick Herron. According to Tribune reports, Ms. Griffiths was staying at the Center for the Homeless, fleeing a “domestic violence” situation caused by Mr. Herron. Ms. Griffiths had previously been dating Mr. Romine, who she met at the Center, and who was released from prison last December after serving 24 years for killing his wife.
Mr. Romine had been staying at Dismas House, a couple doors down from the CW, but was kicked out and moved to the Center.
A sordid and sadly ironic tale.
After a reading of the 91st Psalm at last night’s vigil, there were words of praise for the Sheriff and the security staff at the Center. But no Sheriff or security staff was there to keep Ms. Griffiths from being killed. Any of us could die at any moment. Nobody with a gun can offer us real security or real safety. Some of us find these things in religion; others do without.
The Common Council unanimously passed an ordinance banning solicitation directly in traffic on Monday. The ordinance prohibits those collecting donations, distributing literature, or selling or offering items, from stepping into traffic to solicit motorists. This includes standing on a sidewalk and reaching into traffic in any way.
The discussion seems to have been entirely about people fundraising at intersections, but the last sentence indicates that this would ban panhandling, too. You could stand on the sidewalk and hold your sign, but if a motorist offered you money, you could not reach “into traffic” and take it.
It strikes me that a ban like this has much more impact in a city like South Bend than in Worcester. Worcester has several urban areas with lots of foot traffic, so if you want to pass out fliers or solicit donations, you don’t have to rely on motorists. South Bend, on the other hand, is just a big suburb, with a low population density and few areas with lots of walkers. Motorists are the only game in town.
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