Let Them Take Cabs
The head of the city’s Department of Family and Support Services had a Marie Antoinette moment on Monday — when she suggested that homeless Chicagoans who need overnight transport this winter “take a cab” to emergency shelters.
After testifying at City Council budget hearings, Commissioner Evelyn Diaz was discussing the $2.4 million, mid-year cut in state funding that forced Mayor Rahm Emanuel to lay off 24 city employees who worked the overnight shift picking up homeless residents and transporting them to shelters.
Diaz was asked what would happen this winter without the overnight shift. How were homeless Chicagoans — many of them suffering from alcohol, substance abuse and mental health problems — supposed to get to emergency shelters overnight? Were they supposed to just hang tough until 8 a.m?
“If they can’t find another alternative,” she said.
Asked to identify an alternative, Diaz said, “Public transportation, cabs.”
When a reporter reminded the commissioner that homeless people can’t afford cab fare, an apparently embarrassed Diaz ignored the question.
When the overnight shift was eliminated this summer, Dworkin was told Chicago Police officers would transport homeless people who needed shelter after midnight.
Shelter providers subsequently told her police were simply giving people the address of the nearest shelter and asking them to go there.
Labels: we got nothing
posted by SCC at 12:01 AM
35 Comments:
midnights in 001 is already a free taxi service to 14th and canal. has been for a while now
Our stations are not dumping grounds...
WE are the dumping grounds.
Damn right. I've lost track of how many people have asked for a ride somewhere. Literally flagged me down. Not a stranded motorist or someone else in distress, just dregs of the ghetto.
I'm jealous of this woman. It must be great to know you have an important job making good money and you can be as useless as tits on a bull and not have to worry about any repercussions while I do things by the book at my job and still run the risk of being fired or indicted for doing my job depending on which way the political winds are blowing.
Fuck these people.
Maybe she meant, literally, TAKE a cab? Portable shelter, warmth, maybe even a candy bar left on the front seat.
Homeless, and more than likely jobless.
That means they have all the time in the world TO WALK.
They woke up, got dressed and WALKED OUT OF THE SHELTER.
They WALKED to the nearest library, WALKED to the CTA, took a ride. WALKED to the park, WALKED thru the alleys. WALKED to the corner to ask for change.
Here is an idea, when the shelter opens again-- WALK BACK IN TIME.
Why not have ex-mayor Daley's servants drive the bums? When they are not running errands for the millionaire Daleys, of course.
Isn't it ironic that when it comes to $100 million dollar tax breaks for companies like Motorola, Sears, and the CME we are constantly fed the line about saving jobs.
Maybe just one of those companies, just one...should of gotten only $97.6 million in tax breaks and we could have had the money to prevent the layoff of 24 city taxi driver social workers.
We won't even go into the six figure sums already spent on certain clouted millionaire citizens where we receive an excuse about how much time they have donated to the city.
What does the word "donate" mean to you guys anyway?
I donate to several charities each year and I don't expect to receive nor do I get anything in return. If you donate you donate right. You don't hold it over someones head for extortion later expecting something in return because then it's no longer is a donation.
Which brings up an interesting question. These freebees that they city is handing out..surely they should be taxed as income by the people receiving them right? I wonder?
You can bet Racoon Eyes never missed a fucking meal in his entire life. He was well taken care of by his family growing up. And that is good. But our sinister inept Fuckhead mayor doesn't want to acknowledge there are thousands of people within our city limits who have no place to live and nothing to eat. These folks are not the regular bums. These are men, women, and children who have been devestated by the worst recession in history. Men and women losing their jobs. Homes being lost to foreclosures, and cars being towed away because dad can't make the payments. We have kids living out of cars. Our wealthy heartless mayor can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to guard and drive around privileged politicians but he can't keep vans on the street to take the unfortunate to shelters. Is there something wrong here. We piss away $billions all over the world to help assholes who hate us and we can't take care of our own. I am not a bleeding heart liberal. Spent 35 years on this job and the way we treat our own is criminal. Why not take some of that TIF money($925 MILLION and counting) Mayor Racoon and give our own a warm place to rest during this coming winter. Give them some hot meals and medical attention.
Commissioner Evelyn Diaz was giving good advice. The homeless (and Chicago Residents) can't afford to pay the new parking meter rates. If their shopping cart received a parking violation they certainly couldn't get it non-suited like Tiny Dancer.
Commissioner
Evelyn DIAZ?
So...
who is THIS bag of rocks
contected too ???
Give her a break. She forgot they weren't living on double, ghost pay-rolled pensions. What? Isn't everyone?
No transport to shelter during winter means they'll walk south for the cold season.
Sorta like ducks and geese.
Unlike ducks and geese, these lazy trash heaps are unlikely to exert the effort to return in spring.
"Let them eat cake while they are cabbing it"..
The overnight shift was layer off for good reason. If they were ever working, we never saw then. Homeless people have been allowed to sleep in the airports, the district stations and NO ONE from this city dept. EVER came to get them. This dept just wastes money while shifting their responsibility onto other agencies like the CPD. No sympathy for their job loss when they never worked. Anybody have a different story please share,
SCC said: We aren't taxis and we shouldn't be used as taxis. Our stations also aren't shelters and shouldn't be treated as dumping grounds for the mentally ill or those who choose live outside of society.///// Agreed!!! It's about time some morons stopped taking the "Serve" in "Serve and Protect" too literally, and took responsibility for themselves.
Ms. Diaz forgot that not everyone has a take-home car, filled w/municipal gas. And Ms. Diaz is the niece, daughter, sister-in-law of who?
Trust me,the police will be the cab drivers taking these people to the shelter{Police Station}.
Why not take some of that TIF money($925 MILLION and counting) Mayor Racoon and give our own a warm place to rest during this coming winter. Give them some hot meals and medical attention.
11/02/2011 12:50:00 AM
---
And when you say, "our own," are you referring to the drunk, drug-addict, criminal, lowlife, parasitic homeless people or just the nice, polite, down on his luck homeless people?
I'd rather spend the money on education and public safety.
Isn't it ironic that when it comes to $100 million dollar tax breaks for companies like Motorola, Sears, and the CME we are constantly fed the line about saving jobs.
Maybe just one of those companies, just one...should of gotten only $97.6 million in tax breaks and we could have had the money to prevent the layoff of 24 city taxi driver social workers.
We won't even go into the six figure sums already spent on certain clouted millionaire citizens where we receive an excuse about how much time they have donated to the city.
What does the word "donate" mean to you guys anyway?
I donate to several charities each year and I don't expect to receive nor do I get anything in return. If you donate you donate right. You don't hold it over someones head for extortion later expecting something in return because then it's no longer is a donation.
Which brings up an interesting question. These freebees that they city is handing out..surely they should be taxed as income by the people receiving them right? I wonder?
Go bang your drum in Grant Park!
Don't the Aldermen get a "slush fund" to help better their wards? Buy a van, and transport the homeless to the shelters.
Yes, it is that simple of a problem to fix!
Put them on a Northbound Metra. Those liberals up north are worried about them.
No doubt this commish is an affirmative action employee.
I like the way you put that: "people who choose to live outside society". Dead on accurate.
But I'd add to it: "people who choose to live outside society . . . until such time as the benefits of society seem convenient".
Just call the police. They're a free taxi too. The wagon in 025 does homeless roundups, in which the homeless are taken to a shelter.
The people suffering because of the recession are in shelters long before the midnight crew comes on. The only people looking for a shelter during these hours were too drunk or high to get into one by 8:30pm. They made their choice for the evening. Life is full of choices.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Commissioner Evelyn Diaz was giving good advice. The homeless (and Chicago Residents) can't afford to pay the new parking meter rates. If their shopping cart received a parking violation they certainly couldn't get it non-suited like Tiny Dancer.
11/02/2011 01:04:00 AM
Diaz another hdo hack! Talk about a stupid, ignorant idiot!
"Homeless people can't afford cab fare --" but the foreclosure people are having some great office parties these days. They think the whole thing's really funny.
FORECLOSURE GIANT MOCKS HOMELESS
The New York Times revealed pictures from a party where the company's employees openly mocked those who had been evicted from their homes.
As is tradition at the law office of Steven J. Baum -- a top foreclosure firm in New York State -- employees donned costumes to work on the Friday before Halloween. This year, a revealing New York Times column surfaced on the web featuring photos from the firm's 2010 bash.
Employees were dressed as homeless people, openly mocking those who had been victims of foreclosure. In photos obtained from a former employee, one woman is seen wearing a sign that reads, "3rd party squatter. I lost my home and I was never served." According to the unnamed source, the sign is meant to reflect "the typical excuse" of homeowners attempting to avoid a foreclosure proceeding.
The source adds that the images are an accurate representation of the firm's mindset. "There is this really cavalier attitude," she said. "It doesn't matter that people are going to lose their homes." The former employee said that she wanted to make the images public in order to show the firm's "appalling lack of compassion towards homeowners."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/baum-foreclosure-firm-homeless-halloween-255004
More photos and analysis at --
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/opinion/what-the-costumes-reveal.html
We aren't taxis and we shouldn't be used as taxis. Our stations also aren't shelters and shouldn't be treated as dumping grounds for the mentally ill or those who choose live outside of society.
Labels: we got nothing
POSTED BY SCC AT 12:01 AM
************************************************
Hey maggie & dick daley: Take a freakin' cab you leeches/faux royalty moochers !!!!!! You CAN AFFORD IT !
Anonymous said...
Maybe she meant, literally, TAKE a cab? Portable shelter, warmth, maybe even a candy bar left on the front seat.
11/02/2011 12:27:00 AM
We are the funniest people on the planet. Thank you for posting.
I'd be glad to give the homeless a ride to her place ;-)
I ain't giving a ride to some homeless guy or gal who has tb, malaria, aids, or any other type of disease I can contract. TFB. Here is the address of the nearest shelter. Don't like it? Tough shit!
they'll just call 911 and get a 750 'cab' ride to the nearest ER.
Isn't it ironic that when it comes to $100 million dollar tax breaks for companies like Motorola, Sears, and the CME we are constantly fed the line about saving jobs.
Maybe just one of those companies, just one...should of gotten only $97.6 million in tax breaks and we could have had the money to prevent the layoff of 24 city taxi driver social workers.
We won't even go into the six figure sums already spent on certain clouted millionaire citizens where we receive an excuse about how much time they have donated to the city.
What does the word "donate" mean to you guys anyway?
I donate to several charities each year and I don't expect to receive nor do I get anything in return. If you donate you donate right. You don't hold it over someones head for extortion later expecting something in return because then it's no longer is a donation.
Which brings up an interesting question. These freebees that they city is handing out..surely they should be taxed as income by the people receiving them right? I wonder?
11/02/2011 12:42:00 AM
You are spot on. Great post. These people have not donated anything. They've been paid handsomely for their "service" along with all their friends. It should be taxable.
If I'm asked to transport I will be filling out exposure reports every nite
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