As you can see the LINK is coming soon, and something this community has needed for a very long time. But aren’t we currently triaging now? According to MCC Dean Karsky we are, but it is not a very nice place. Welcome to addiction.
Starting last summer (2019) I noticed my neighborhood became quite popular for pan handling, drinking and bridge dwellers. Everyday the same group of folks, about 6 of them, begin panhandling on the corner of 14th and Cliff. Once they get enough money for malt liquor, they go over to Get N’ Go, load up, either go under the bridge on Cliff or along the bike trail, drink until they pass out and take a nap. Like clockwork, this happens almost every day, and every day the SFPD show up and herd them away. And they are still at it, even this late in the year. I had only seen the ambulance show up once and have never seen a police take any of these people to triage or jail. They usually pour out their beers, and herd them away.
In fact just a few weeks ago, I saw an officer on an ATV literally herding a couple of them like they were cattle by the skate park. I’m not sure where he was herding them to? Well you know what the mayor says, we have a cowboy mentality so maybe this a good old fashioned homeless round up? Giddy Up!
While I look forward to the much needed new triage center opening, I hope the SFPD will start using it instead herding these folks like cattle to another bridge.
Solving our homeless issue is NOT a game of whack a mole and I am wondering when our supposed leaders in town are going to take it seriously.
I just noticed that the 14th and Cliff panhandlers group was gone this week; did they go to their rural homes or what happened? I was kind of wondering.
Last summer, I noticed a homeless person hanging out at 33rd and Minnesota Avenue on a regular basis during the early evening hours. He would just set at the bench there. Then one evening I noticed him sitting there while an officer was talking to him. And since that evening, I have not seen him at that corner anymore.
But like my late father used to say: “You never saw the homeless in Sioux Falls until Reagan became president.”
Ogre, there is still a handful at 10th and 14th and Cliff.
VSG, that is because Reagan destroyed the middle class and family farms and created our super rich society.
By comparison, it is estimated that the average CEO was paid about 20 times the typical worker’s pay in the 1950s, with that multiple rising to 42-to-1 in 1980, and to 120-to-1 in 2000. In 2017 I believe it was 281-to-1.
CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978
Typical worker compensation has risen only 12% during that time.
Malt liquor, under the bridge, and a nap sounds good but not in winter. There’s a homeless problem. Worse than ever. There’s also crime. Much of it is because of the economy but many make it their choice because they’re not Republican. I listened to a police scanner recently. The activity is unbelievable. Maybe I need one to get local news instead of full time Stormland weather.
This could be the first President forcibly removed from office.
Homelessness exploded because Reagan defunded federal support to state behavioral care facilities – insane asylums.
The patients for the most part became homeless. Those that would have been hospitalized if states had resources also became homeless.
All for tax breaks.
Panhandling is still a skill…
By the end of Reagan’s term in office federal assistance to local governments was cut 60 percent. Reagan eliminated general revenue sharing to cities, slashed funding for public service jobs and job training, almost dismantled federally funded legal services for the poor, cut the anti-poverty Community Development Block Grant program and reduced funds for public transit. The only “urban†program that survived the cuts was federal aid for highways—which primarily benefited suburbs, not cities.
These cutbacks had a disastrous effect on cities with high levels of poverty and limited property tax bases, many of which depended on federal aid. In 1980 federal dollars accounted for 22 percent of big city budgets. By the end of Reagan’s second term, federal aid was only 6 percent.
Oh, I know, I know. Some still think that Reagan was one of our greatest presidents, but he was more like a two term Hoover with his own eventual stock market crash, however.
Golly gee, Obongo had 8 years to fix what “Reagan†did how many years ago? Now, Obongo’s puppet will have a shot. But he’s been part of the problem for 47 YEARS!!! You clowns really believe that an actor that became president had more to do with our issues today than someone that has made millions and millions off the people for 47 YEARS? Again, critical thinkers you are not…just a bunch of whiny angry lib’rals in an echo chamber.
To answer your question: Yes, I do. Even Obama called Reagan an transformational president. Do you remember that? Hillary even challenged Obama on that during a debate. But it was a transformation, which was not good.
I always tell people, that FDR, one of our greatest presidents, might have made us too dependent, but Reagan made us too greedy, and we are still paying for it.
Oh, I might add that Obama had to spend most of his eight years cleaning up Bush43’s mess. That’s usually what Dems do in the Oval Office, just as Biden will now have to do with Trump’s mess, while Reagan’s transformation still hangs over us.
Yes, obviously Bush’s fault Obongo did nothing for 8 years. I’m sure you will say ACA, but what did Obongo do that was noteworthy? Cleaning up the housing crisis the Democrats created? Exactly what did he do except give pretty speeches and promote racial tensions which started riots in the cities?
Obama is a member of a special class of presidents. There are only two president that are members of that class. The presidents are FDR and Obama. They both saved capitalism. ACA and cleaning up the housing crisis, which some Democrats were enablers of, are secondary to saving capitalism.
( and Woodstock adds: “‘saving capitalism’?”… “But PUC Hanson and Dusty claim Dems are socialists”…. )