Fresno Homeless Moved into Tool Sheds

"When I told him Indymedia, he gasped, asked if I knew Mike Rhodes and immediately called his boss."

Good lord, what you Fresnites have to deal with. At least the whole nation was able to see and empathize with your situation in Fahrenheit 9/11

this:

http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/09/1695797.php

These bums are lucky. The sheds they are being given are nicer than the one I have for my yard equipment, maybe the pov. house could hook me up with one too.

what the hell is going on here?

people consider the homeless to be lucky because they have a nicer shed than someone's yard tools? does that make the inference that a lawn edger is more important than a homeless family? what a disgustingly selfish, materialistic, anti-human viewpoint.

who the hell has to build a house for thier tools? how ridiculous... it's a sad comment on american materialism when we construct houses simply for our stuff and not for our fellow people.

The Shrines to worthless Shit that are known as:
storage lockers, tool sheds, shoping malls, fast food establishments, luxury homes etc... should be reclaimed and occupied in the interests of human beings instead of worthless consumer goods.

it's time to put people before profits.

Not since I was a little gir (before the War on Poverty) have I seen people openly living in sheds with no running water, electric service, plumbing etc. I have never seen government openly endorse or approve of these kinds of living arrangements, much less boast about them.

I think it's time working people in this community insist that the City Council get control of the administration of this city, and get out the color crayons for the Mayor and his minions.
In an attempt to be in good grace with the right wing neocon faction Bubba has completely lost site of this first responsiblity, and that is to insure the people of Fresno are not reduced to such things as living in sheds and begging for food.

We spend a barrel of money on "economic development", yet the mayor sides with the team that opposes a raise in minimum wage.
We have people living in sheds at the same time we have city employees working for his appointees who verifibly have spent over 1200 hours on the phone (on city time) talking to her boyfriend at the police dept. Apparently both positions are not needed if that's all they have to do, and obviously the appointee that secretary is supposed to be working for doesn't produce enough work product to justify the secretary, lest she wouldn't have all that time (which amount to MONTHS) chatting with her boyfriend.

The best thing the City Council could do immediately to stop the bleeding (producing more homeless) is to slap a moratorium on rents in this town until real wages catch up with expenses.

The second thing they should do is to either turn the policy this city currently operates on (ideology) around, or just cut off the money to the mayor's office until he gets it.

The third thing they should do is to implement an ordinance banning actions by the mayor that are devisive in the community and counter-productive to the job of the economic development community staff. I am referring in particular to the spectacle of re-marrying hetro-sexual couples on the steps of city hall. A disgusting display akin to race baiting, and an attempt to shove his particular religious beliefs down everyone's throat.

This may come as a surprise to the mayor who constantly likes to talk jobs, however someone should wise him up to the reality that people who are looking to relocate their business are less likely to chose a community that appears on its face hostile to some citizens.

Wives play a big role in those decisions, and usually don't care to be replanted somewhere where the community "leaders" (their social class) give the impression that they are just plain backwards or that there is still some argument over whether the earth is round or flat. When the wife say NO, its a deal killer.

The people in this valley are poor primarily for one reason, that is because the local elected officials have carried on a tradition of pandering to those they consider to be in a special class of citizen, ie. ag interests, health care interest, their own personal interest.

I would like to hear from others who are tired of seeing this community dragged into the ground by the current political atmosphere and who are ready for change in policy.