Dallas Cedars neighborhood residents try to shut down homeless event

Scott Doyle, says:

I wonder if the Yosts live in The Cedars...

Also, wonder if this lieutenant lives over there. He/she didn't seem terribly thrown off by the request.

Tracy Yost, says:

We do not :-) But I agree with whomever suggested that the church have this event on their own property :-)

Pavel Lishin, says:

Pretty sure if I was pulling up to my empty lot and saw a bunch of people having dinner, I'd be very disinclined to put on the brakes.

Shawn Williams, says:

Pavel.....we meet again.

It just surprises me so much that we live in a society where helping those in need is seen as a nuisance. It's once a year and our church actually picks up folks from the area every Sunday of the year and bring them to our facility. They are fed, able to bathe if they like, given haircuts, whatever. If that's not a service to the residents of the Cedars, then I don't know what is. Our efforts on this week as always, is focused on helping people get off the streets.

Rick Yost, says:

Now wait a minute...I thought I was the Grinch towards homeless in this city! :-)

Yes Shawn, homeless folks are seen as a nuisance. After you pick them up, and feed them, and bathe them, and style their hair, do you just take them back to the corner you found them on?
If that's not helping the homeless...I don't know what is!

And by the way...it's not that helping those in need is a nuisance- giving handouts to those that go right back out to the street is a nuisance.

And I do agree with Tracy, why doesn't this...whatever church it is, hold this little gathering on their own tax-free property? Maybe the other folks living on Wheatland Rd wouldn't appreciate it. Is it that the homeless would be a nuisance to the church's own neighborhood? Do they want to be seen as helping, just 'not in their backyard'?

Rawlins Gilliland, says:

Frankly, in all due respect, Yost nails it. My experience is that my 'benevolent' friends who live in ivory (translate white upscale) towers are the 'liberals' who tell me all about things like immigrant issues, racial whatevers.... when they would never look (let alone buy) in a mixed raced neighborhood like I live in and love. And they would flee anyplace that had anything approaching a 'street person'. To them, said souls are a threat comparable to a rabid rodent. ("Nothing personal").

These are the people who believe that "something should be done about the homeless" as they email me from Las Colinas. They see themselves as activists simply because they express 'concern' in a forwarded email after their third glass of Chardonnay.

But when I want to truly talk about anything like a couple of years ago when I suddenly was having to walk the welcome-to-the-real-world walk....(as Yost has been made to with treats to his biz vs. armchair posturing) .... when I experienced a situation where, for two years, only two houses on my short street accounted for a 30%-80% increase in 1) cars 2) people 3) children 4) noise 5) traffic 6) code violations 7) etc....., these 'devout believers' recoiled into their la la land posturing and fingered me for the 'insensitive' right-leaning centrist. (Everybody say 'Huh?')

I have come to both better believe in and become increasing wary of 'faith-based' initiatives. Without them, many many meaningful programs would be nil. But if ever there was a case like Billie Holiday described, "You can help yourself, but don't take too much"...... And life after the politization of 'Christian' America...always a given in the Black churches but now endemic in Conservative USA.... I look at any gift horse in the mouth.

CLIFF NOTES:

Everyone wants clear burning nuclear power. We just don't want the waste buried behind our homes.

There were soldiers in that Trojan horse.

Rick Yost, says:

I won't go into my problem with the church in general- Go to http://www.rickyost.com for that.

But I will say this- NPR does pledge drives, the 'church' gets all benevolent on us. Look, if you are staffed with volunteers, and don't have to sweat property taxes, then you can do great things.

Every Thanksgiving, most of the religious businesses make a splash in the media by 'feeding the needy'.
If the needy actually went away- the church would have a much harder time looking...benevolent. Hence they'd not be so appealing to those potential flock (guilt-ridden souls) that want to be associated with those that feed the needy- rather than ending the problem of there being 'needy' altogether.

Pavel Lishin, says:

Shawn, apparently we do, but I was drunk last time, so forgive me for forgetting how, why, and where I am right now.

Yes, helping others is a nuisance, even when it's the right thing to do. (I've had to scour my parents' laptop free of spyware half a dozen times, and I hate every moment, but I still do it.) I'm all for clothing the hungry and feeding the naked or whatever, but I'm just saying that if I come home and find a bunch of homeless people at my apartment going through my fridge and using my shower, my first thought wouldn't be "Aw, thank god someone annexed my apartment to give these poor folks some help."

Obviously a stretch because my apartment isn't an empty lot, but that's just the sentiment I was trying to express.

Michael Davis, says:

Using the same logic stated by some of these posters, no one would give to canned food drives or donate 'toys for tots' since it won't end hunger and the kids getting toys will still be poor after the holidays.

Are the same people that are protesting this the ones that hate Lee Harvey's?

Would it kill anybody to let them get ONE decent meal over the holidays?

Giving them housing is more a policy issue - right now the assistance center will be finished soon. So will CDM's CityWalk @ Akard single-occupancy housing building.

You have to go where the problem is located, and there are a lot of homeless people in downtown and the Cedars.

Scott Doyle, says:

Michael, I'm sure Chris Jones has a hand in this somewhere. If it's The Cedars and it's regarding any kind of policy that might give him a reason to complain, he's on it.

I don't think anybody's terribly upset that these cats get a meal on a plate instead of out of the dumpster (they're upset with the audacity of attention-whoring hosts). Attracting homeless peeps to a specific area means they're not leaving for awhile if they don't have to. Apparently in the past there have been issues with not cleaning up after them once feeding them, among other problems.

It's a nice gesture to empathize during the holidays and do something nice for people less fortunate, but to think that there can't be consequential issues is being naive.

Rawlins Gilliland, says:

Everyone is right here. Yost points to the (tax-free) church doing God's work in someone else's area (no Chris, that did not collectively mean you) and then the disenfranchised are back on the street. Davis when he says the 'all or nothing at all' disclaimer would derail any outreach to the desperate. Doyle and Paval with their graduate degrees in skepticism...the most American of traits other than altruism. Clay suspicious for all the right reasons. Me because I know those who make the biggest public splash about 'making a difference' are often ulterior motive lime-lighters.

That said, if all of us will do something to help living things that are helpless without us; children, the elderly, animals or homeless desperate.... simply because we can....the Dallas, Texas American future will be better for all concerned. It is hard to imagine who is blessed more when, despite every reason to be jaded, we care. Happy Thanksgiving.

Michael Hogenmiller, says:

Since when did the Cedars' residents get all up in arms about their property values and the state of their neighborhood?

There's an art complex around the corner where people are blowing glass six days a week. There's a bar with a backyard the size of Texas where the Shins hung out and bought rounds, and there's a guy with an apartment he's converted into a party space that looks like a mixture of Keith Richard's bachelor pad and the lair of the Cheshire Cat. It's where the city's burlesque troupes rehearse in borrowed studio spaces and where photographers stage 3am photoshoots in the streets.

Every city has a district like this, and I'm amazed that there are Cedars residents so motivated towards gentrification that they can't appreciate the culture in their own backyards. Move to Plano.

Rawlins Gilliland, says:

michaelhogmiller is totally on the money here. But one correction; Clay is on to something; the 'stilted language' etc. suspician that all the communications quoted are invented by (dare we say the name?).

I know many living there and think a lot of Cedars residents are happy and excited with their area although they would appreciate people not urinating on their flower pot or doorstep. But the erstwhile 'gentrification' in real terms that michael mentions is a goal of but maybe one semi-Simian male. (Grab the garlic and crosses.)

Rick Yost, says:

Luniz has cut to the heart of the matter. "That would take a lot more effort and generosity than one meal, Rick."

I'll couple that with Rawlins' well-stated: "They see themselves as activists simply because they express 'concern' in a forwarded email after their third glass of Chardonnay."

Together they describe America.

The homeless situation is only one of America's problems that we have the resources to change, just not the courage.

Americans spend enough on flat-screen-TVs, plastic surgery, dog clothing, and Hummers to feed and house all of America's homeless. (that's me making a point- not to be taken as an accurate assessment)

But no, we love our big houses, expensive cars, vacations in Can-Cun, immigrant gardners, playing with our toys, and wringing our hands over 'Dancing with the stars'. We're far too busy concentrating on our own personal fulfillment, wealth, comfort, and happiness, to think of actually re-structuring our society so it is truly just and equitable. (okay, maybe I'm being unreasonable) Having what we deem 'losers' in our society may even heighten our euphoria.

But as life goes, things are already set up when you get here. Learning how to work the game as it's set up is difficult enough, changing things seems monumental.

If you do start to feel pangs of guilt, and decide things need changing, how do you go about it? How do you change the minds of a whole nation- a nation built on excess?
How do you get everyone to give up some of their pleasures just so all Americans can be fed, and housed?

Sure, you could be a maverick and give up your own acquired wealth to charity, but then YOU would be homeless.
Your principles can make you hungry.

Yet another empire shudders under its own weight.

I'll shut up now- I'm gonna go get me a sandwich.

alexander troup, says:

It was a very intesting...mysterious place in the 1900's.....I recall....photos and other events..A/T,Is There a comeback,.. at the price of funk......and kitch...and maybe a good hitch...

alexander troup, says:

It was a very intesting...mysterious place in the 1900's.....I recall....photos and other events..A/T,Is There a comeback,.. at the price of funk......and kitch...and maybe a good hitch...