Cleaning Calgary Downtown

[Euro838]

Okay,

Anyways, just watched about the muncipalities conference and how the mayor wanted to clean up the city downtown core and such. My question is, why build the drop in center, mustard seed and other homeless shelters so close to downtown? Why not build in the industrial areas or something where they can get those blue collar jobs. By placing these shelters essentially prodominantly white collar core, you're just asking for trouble. Anyways, maybe there's more politiics to this than meets the eye but I'd deal with our homeless problem by creating self-sufficient communities for these people and as they progress further, they'll move to the next level community and so on.

I'm not here to criticize the homeless, I am just questioning why the city creates these situations and then says there's a problem they're trying to deal with.

[em2ab]

It's because mayor 1 promises it to get into office and then does it to look the image. Then he does his part, mayor 2 gets into office and has to deal with the mistakes of mayor 1. Then mayor 3 has to deal with the dumb mistakes of mayor 2. Nobody is in it for the long term, they do whatever it takes to make their short run good for them.

But anyway, I think Alberta needs to study the ways of other provinces like Newfoundland. They've got an unemployment rate 5 times that of Alberta's and not one single homeless person downtown in the major city.

[crazydriver]

I think its ironic they cleaned the downtown core. If I was a mayor asking for cash I'd take that cash used on cleaning and spend it in other areas, then drag the PM out and say
"hey look buddy, there's crackheads and homeless people everywhere in my town, i need funding for shelters, rehab centers, police, etc."

On the reverse side, If I was a mayor from another city and saw that Calgary was spiffy clean. I'd question why Calgary's major would ask for more cash when what's in front of my eyes seems to be doing ok.

[zieg]

Bleh, polotics.

Anyway, Euro, your plan makes perfect sense to me. :dunno:

[Justing]

from what i understand, its not that easy to just place homeless people in one area and give them work.
Most of them have deeper problems than meets the eye. Many are unable to work or don't want to work not because of laziness but becuase of other psychological problems.

I think it makes sense to put the shelters etc downtown as it's easier access since its central and provides a bit of help.

As for putting them in suburbian areas or self sufficient communities, those who are willing and able to work do get that. I think thats what the mustard seed and drop in center do. After a certain amount of time and a certain amount of progress is made, they are moved to different areas to be more self sufficiet (cooking cleaning etc) within the drop in center. If progress continues then they may be provided with subsidized low income housing. Once they can hold a job they can eventually become completely self-sufficient.

But again, most of that falls on the responsibility of the homeless person, its whether or not they are able and willing to go through the process.

[MaLwa]

ALduer was mayor for 10 years before bronconier, but on another note I don't understand why the hilton was built in downtown, mustard seed, cecil hotel and alot of other places have been around for a long time but when we had a chance to buck the trend the government didn't come through.

[B20EF]

^^^Hilton isn't downtown, but all other major hotels are downtown because thats where the business is.

On the news I thought i heard a mayor from another town say she didn't see any homeless people and she thought our city was cleaned up, is she friggin blind? Try working downtown, ha.

[MaLwa]

by "hilton" i meant the nick name for the homeless shelter / rehab thingamajig on 5th by the cold beer and wine liquor store.

[kertejud]

Originally posted by em2ab

But anyway, I think Alberta needs to study the ways of other provinces like Newfoundland. They've got an unemployment rate 5 times that of Alberta's and not one single homeless person downtown in the major city.

Consdiering that Calgary has a bigger population than Newfoundland, and ten times the population of St. John's, its pretty useless to study what they do. Now if Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, even places like Hamilton or Winnipeg can solve their homeless problems any better than we can, then yes, we should try to follow their example, but trying to mimic a ""major" city of 100,000 people is just silly.

[Xtrema]

For this I have to refer to South Park s11e07

Homeless like changes. The more changes you give, the more they'll gather around the area. Since downtown has the highest density of workers, their chances of getting money is way higher. So they all hang around downtown.

If the shelter is not in DT, homeless will probably just sleep anywhere. Placing the shelter too far away and not accessible means nobody will go, hence useless.

The only way I can see reducing number of homeless (actually panhandlers since some homeless do work and have jobs) is to ticket people who give change to panhandlers.

[Euro838]

Originally posted by Xtrema
For this I have to refer to South Park s11e07

Homeless like changes. The more changes you give, the more they'll gather around the area. Since downtown has the highest density of workers, their chances of getting money is way higher. So they all hang around downtown.

If the shelter is not in DT, homeless will probably just sleep anywhere. Placing the shelter too far away and not accessible means nobody will go, hence useless.

The only way I can see reducing number of homeless (actually panhandlers since some homeless do work and have jobs) is to ticket people who give change to panhandlers.

Hmmm, now I have to go download that episode!

Well, one thing that is consistent about he homeless across all major cities is that they are persistent and will exist in the areas where the major source of the income is.

[urban.one]

Solution to Calgary's homeless problem = One-way bus tickets to Newfoundland.


Originally posted by em2ab


But anyway, I think Alberta needs to study the ways of other provinces like Newfoundland. They've got an unemployment rate 5 times that of Alberta's and not one single homeless person downtown in the major city.