Nothing but Bullshit

The following article in which I will be copying/pasting is nothing but City Government Bullshit, plus a little extra. The article comes from the Lexington Herald Leader newspaper, dated 11-26-2005. The link to the article is here.

• CHARITY VS. CITY CODES
  Lexington officials, church at odds

By Frank E. Lockwood

Herald-Leader Staff Writer

Lexington's parks and recreation department wants a Christian youth group to stop feeding the poor and homeless at downtown's Phoenix Park on Sunday afternoons.

Deputy director Bill Carman warned Hill-n-Dale Christian Church this week that its charitable workers could be violating city park and health codes.

Church members say it's their Christian duty and their legal right to serve the poor. They'll be serving beef vegetable soup, cookies, lemonade and probably hot cocoa Sunday.

Carman concedes there's not much he can do to stop them if they operate in the park without a proper city permit. "If people just choose to ignore the law, what do you do? Arrest the church?" he asked.

Yesterday, mayoral spokesman Bruce Edwards said the church might be legally entitled to serve food in a public park. "Constitutionally, there's no argument there."

There are several other programs that provide meals for the homeless, but few do it in a more prominent public space.

Phoenix Park, a 1-acre spot where the homeless often congregate, is next to the Lexington Public Library and Park Plaza Apartments.

Aaron Allen, a Transylvania student and Hill-n-Dale homeless ministry volunteer, says the meal program makes some Lexingtonians uncomfortable. "They'd rather sweep it under the rug and put it in a part of the city where the white upper-class suburbia can kind of ignore" homelessness, he said.

Park officials worry about the lack of restroom facilities and they say litter is a problem when homeless people eat in the park.

Hill-n-Dale volunteers say they pick up the trash after every meal and haul it back to their own church's dumpster.

Park Plaza residents and library workers have complained about the hungry throngs.

Library patrons don't like being panhandled, Edwards said.

Library executive director Kathleen Imhoff has also complained to the city. In an interview, she said meal recipients bring their food into the library and leave litter inside the building.

Other locations, such as the old courthouse off Cheapside, might be better, Carman said, offering to work with the church.

Hill-n-Dale senior pastor David Welsh says he's willing to cooperate with the city. "We're not being contentious. We don't want to cause problems. Our kids just want an opportunity to continue this ministry," he said.

Hill-n-Dale's young people, mainly college students, have been bringing food to Phoenix Park every week for about 21/2 years.

The church says roughly 75 to 100 people eat lunch at the park each Sunday. Carman puts the number at 200.

State Rep. Stan Lee, R-Lexington, a Hill-n-Dale elder, took issue with the city. "You shouldn't try to stop that. You shouldn't throw a bunch of bureaucratic red tape and nonsense" in the way of the project, he said.

In an e-mail to church leaders, Carman suggested Hill-n-Dale's aim is praiseworthy. "We endorse your mission, but we cannot endorse the date, time or place where it is being accomplished," he wrote, adding that the program was having an "impact on other taxpayers."

Yesterday, poor people in Phoenix Park criticized city officials for trying to move the meals. "They don't want us around here," said Grover Rawlins, 42. "It ain't right. It just ain't right."

• Where should I begin with my comments about this? I don't know where to start.

• OK... I'll start here... From personal experience, the library executive director, Kathleen Imhoff is nothing but an executive BITCH. (That felt good to say that. I've always tried to be nice in putting into words how much I dislike her, but damn, calling her an outright BITCH is nice.)

• I might as well say this, I once worked at this library. Everyday I went to work and I crossed Phoenix Park. I wouldn't really call it a park. There's no grass. What it is, is a concrete area, with some trees (a little parkish), and benches located around the trees. It's a corner location where two streets cross, and to one side is the five story Central Public library, and the other is about a 20 story apartment complex. Supposedly the premiere apartment complex in downtown Lexington. People hang out at this park all the time. Occassionally the city will hold small events through the year, and this part of the location for the farmer's market during the summer.

• The homeless of Lexington has sat in this area for MUCH longer than the church has been giving out food. The homeless have made the library a place of refuge for years. It didn't just start when the church started handing out food. So for the executive bitch and the city elude to the fact that this incident has caused other non homeless people to be approached by the homeless because of this charity is just bullshit. I really like the comment about the apartment residence not liking to be panhandaled. If they can afford to live in Park Plaza apartments, they can damn well give some pocket change, and even a meal to the homeless.

• Just some background information, the church started bringing sack lunches to the library and handing them out to individuals. Food isn't allowed in the Central library. At least not above the first floor. (There's a small deli on the first floor and a couple of tables to sit and eat.) As I'm at the reference desk I see a teenager giving what looked like a sack lunch to a gentleman in our "lounge area." Unofficially it's called, "Sleey Hollow." Comfortable chairs to sit and read, but also a tempting place to catch some ZZZZZZZs. (Sleeping is not allowed either.) Anyways, I watched the teenager give him the lunch, and I didn't have the heart to say, "Food isn't allowed up here." I mean, I don't know when was the last time he had a meal. Granted I'm going on the assumption that he was homeless, but working there day after day, I had a good feeling. Next week, some other teenagers did the same thing.

• I finally notice, there were no more lunches being brought. Or it could be I was busy and didn't notice. Then one day I look outside down below to Phoenix Park and there are tables set up and a line of people receiving food. I wanted to applaud (did I spell that correctly) those individuals giving out food. It was quite a cold day.

• Imagine my surprise that months later, when I was still working at the library, and I hear about the city, and some downtown businesses, complaining about a church giving out food. And here it is in print.

• When I left the Lexington area, the government was doing their best to establish the downtown area a place to live, eat, shop, and work. So for the homeless to sleep on these benches at Phoenix Park, and receive charity, is putting a damper on their elite plans. What a punch of assholes. There's a reason why I didn't vote for the current mayor of Lexington (that and I wasn't living in the city at that time.)

• If the library is so concerned about the homeless coming into the library, to sit, rest, sleep, use the restroom, they should just quit their complaining. If the city government continue to be the assholes they are and stop the church from providing food, the homeless are still going to come into the library. They are still going to use the restrooms, catch a nap, and panhandle. Nothing is going to stop that. It happened before the church, it's going to happen after.

• Let me make a comment about the other programs in Lexington designed to help the homeless. Some of them are really inconvienent (I think I spelled that wrong too). Some are extremely out of the way. Others put restrictions on who can be helped. Here is a church willing to go where the homeless are located to give them what they need. No one else is willing to do that. Why stop it?

• That's all for now. Wait, did I mention the library executive director is a BITCH? I just wanted to make sure I got that point across. Now I am glad I never received a phone call from that library after I sent in my application for a recent job post.