They lined up long beginning early this morning for assistance to pay skyrocketing utility bills.
One of the reasons why I don't have much sympathy for suburbs fighting the placement of social and charitable services in their neighborhoods is that I live in a neighborhood that is already saturated with them, including the Metro Action Commission, which helps people pay their rising utility bills. I already have those services in my backyard.
I am sympathetic with people who despite their best efforts fall behind on their utility payments. That sympathy is strained when I watch them come into Salemtown and throw their litter on our streets. I even watched one guy get out of his car and take a piss on the sidewalk before heading down for some assistance. There's nothing like a hikers code among these folks that says you leave a campground cleaner than you found it. And MAC certainly does nothing that I can see to provide people who are waiting outside with proper facilities to relieve themselves. And there is still that annoying small number of aid-seekers who get out of some pretty nice looking vehicles to go up and get help with their utility bills.
So, what we have heaped on Salemtown today is a combination of a total ineffectiveness to regulate utilities prices and a lack of personal responsibility. Both hurt my neighborhood, and so I am AIMBY about MAC: I would like to see another neighborhood shoulder some of the social services burden, if not in part then on the whole.
Poor guy having to take a leak onthe street like that. If you saw him why didnt you invite him in to use your bathroom? Or is that something you only expect businesses like Rocky Mountain Creamery to do?
ReplyDeleteI noticed that line-up as I drove past to head to work. You're right that "MAC certainly does nothing that I can see to provide people who are waiting outside with proper facilities" to relieve themselves or otherwise -- plenty of times I've seen people lined up in the morning when it's raining. Folks crowd under the canopy and some have umbrellas, but most don't and can't fit under the canopy. I'm not saying that MAC needs to provide umbrellas to people waiting in line, but the whole process is just not very well thought-out in general.
ReplyDeleteWhy the continued disjointed comparisons, anon? Perhaps a little too obsessed?
ReplyDeleteIf a woman came knocking at my door with a young child screaming, "Diarrhea!" and begging me for help I would either--unlike RM--let her go to our loo or point her to a convenient nearby location if my insurance did not allow me to loan out my water closet.
When I crossed paths with the pisser, I wasn't going to interrupt him in mid-leak and offer him a chance to use a real toilet. Besides, he wasn't showing much regard for my neighborhood, so what would he have done to my house?