Poverty and the heartlessness (1)

I know people who are considered heartless because they treat poverty as the subject of an imaginary Lefty polemic.

I have two stories to tell about poverty. This blog and the next.

From 1978 to 1981 I created, built and operated a park for street people at 6th and Minna in San Francisco.  Everyone called the location Drunk Park, since most of the regulars there were winos.  After 1981 this class of people were called 'homeless', based on the terminology developed in New York City. The term was erroneous because most of the winos had an indoor place to stay if they wanted to, but few wanted to.

I got to know many regulars well, knew their families and their lives.  I built the park so this bottom class would have a safe place to hang out and visit with their friends.  It worked beautifully on that level. In fact, many regulars did business from the corner of the park.  A fellow would drive up to the park, signal a friend and tell him he needed a color TV or an auto tire of a specific size.  The next day the same fellow would drive up and the order would be filled.

The Lefties who work in the field of homeless have created a whole fabric of phony stories about these street people (most were males, black). Many, if not most, loved drugs of any kind.  None that I met were in mental trouble and all had chosen the lifestyle because they rejected normal lifestyles.  All knew how to use social services effectively and at their own convenience. No one was ever hungry... they got food for each other, daily. 

Moses, a giant black man, had a large coat, with 20 pockets inside.  Every day, several times, he went to McDonald's after meal times and was given left over burgers and sandwiches to fill all his pockets.  Which he brought back to his friends.

So why was the park for this large poverty group closed?  You guessed it, Democrats in government (Diane Feinstein was mayor), do-gooders of every stripe, harassed this group of comfortable, satisfied men to 'get sober, get jobs and move inside. I was pressured mercilessly to close the park. The residents were all chased away.