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Aug
30
Bumblebees move north
August 30, 2006 | 18 Comments
The Bumblebees or Yellow Jackets that you see patrolling the Downtown Loop and keeping things nice and clean have expanded their reach. The River Market neighborhood has formed a Community Improvement District and contracted with the Downtown Community Improvement District to provide service.
What this means is that the property owners in the neighborhood are taxing themselves to provide their own private security and maintenance service. It’s worked quite well in the Loop, where crime, littering, panhandling, etc. are all decreasing. Other neighborhoods with community improvement districts include Westport, West 39th Street, Bannister, and Brookside. Main Street in Midtown is also getting on the bandwagon.
Star: Cleanup efforts spread
Categories: Business, Crime, Downtown
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The bumblebees are a decent idea – but now that the program has been around and will expand, they need to raise the bar on who they hire. Alot of people they hired were homeless in the same areas a few years before.
What’s wrong with that? Better they me productive and useful and bettering their situation.
If it decreases the number of homeless people, then it is doubly productive.
The problem is instead of doing their job, they normally are at the 10th and Main bus stop, talking with their friends and not doing their job. Alot of times they will bug you and follow you around. If a private company wasn’t willing to hire them in the first place, why should the city?
First, the city didn’t hire them. They *do* work for a private company, the Downtown Council.
Second, I think they do an incredible job and 99% of them are extremely professional and dedicated to their job.
This is unfortunate news. BIDs are efforts by corporations to privatize public space. The goals of the BIDs may seem noble, but they turn parts of the city into areas run by corporations. BIDs are also notorious for their anti-homeless policies. Some may find the homeless to be annoying, but they have a right to be anywhere you or I go. Homeless also need to be visible in order to make it obvious that homelessness is a serious problem, caused by the very capitalists who start these BIDs.
Another BID is another victory for Cupcakeland. BIDs just take the fun out of the cityscape and make the city safe for rich Johnson County racists.
People should also be opposed to anything run by the Downtown Council, that unelected, unaccountable group of wealthy Kansas Citians.
Getting rid of the panhandlers is good for the city; I am by no means “rich”, but it sure annoys me and makes me apprehensive whenever I go downtown. I don’t see how able-bodied people begging for “spare” change adds color to the city; good grief, get a job already, it is just annoying, must less charming. ANYBODY can get a job…
>The problem is instead of doing their job,
>they normally are at the 10th and Main bus
>stop, talking with their friends and not
>doing their job.
Kinda like when office workers hang out at the water cooler or in the break room or out on the sidewalk smoking, huh?
>Alot of times they will bug you and
>follow you around.
Never had this happen and I walk right by them several times a day, including walking through the 10th & Main bus stop.
Johnson County racists? Why so much anger pointed south, Chuck? Jealous of all the riches you imagine existing in JoCo? Such accusations should also provide a little more hard proof then the kind of tired cliches that serves to shift the blame. Perhaps you can start by explaining how the homeless have a “right to be an ywhere you and I go.”
> Homeless also need to be visible in order
> to make it obvious that homelessness is
> a serious problem, caused by the very
> capitalists who start these BIDs.
I’m no Republican but I believe that the vast majority of the homeless got that way by their own fault and it’s not my responsibility to bail them out or force them to change their life choices.
It’s one thing if a corporate failure or a disaster causes a temporary homeless situation — things like that are what assistance is for. But most homeless people refuse any assistance except for what they can shake clueless bystanders down for and I say good riddance.
*Perhaps you can start by explaining how the homeless have a “right to be an ywhere you and I go.” *
They’re human beings and most likely citizens of the United States. As such they have every right to be on public streets, in public parks and in public buildings.
Being impoverished doesn’t strip you of basic civil rights, even if that makes your fellow well-heeled citizens uncomfortable. How stupid can you be?
Murph-
You can’t be serious. There are restrictions on where people can go and set up house. There are many laws and regulations that prohibit loitering and pan-handling. It is not so much a right to be someplace as it is the lack of any right or privelage covering the activities that the homeless participate in, such as sleeping in the park. I am not allowed that privelage and I am a tax-paying citizen. How stupid can YOU be?
Do you lack reading comprehension skills? The comment is clearly on private interests sweeping the homeless and other “undesirables” from public streets and property, not a comment on “loitering and panhandling” and setting up housekeeping.
As for the taxpayer comment, you must be dense. There are other taxes citizens pay besides the property taxes, which you suburbanites love so dearly to bitch about. In fact, the homeless, the poor and the other “riffraff” you deign to look down upon do contribute to the public coffers in the form of sales taxes. Proportionally, they contribute far more revenue to public entities than you do.
>First, the city didn’t hire them. They *do* work for a private company, the Downtown Council.
>Second, I think they do an incredible job and 99% of them are extremely professional and dedicated to their job.
BlogKc – the Downtown Council is private and not with the City? I doubt that.
>Kinda like when office workers hang out at the water cooler or in the break room or out on the sidewalk smoking, huh?
Scooter J – what is your point? There is a big difference between two people loitering around the water cooler in a PRIVATE building and the bees loitering around the front of the library or at 10th and Main, which are PUBLIC domains used by the PUBLIC.
Seriously folks – watch three bees next week for at least 5 minutes a piece. If you took off the uniform they would remind you of Jerry down at the plaza.
I don’t intend to be mean but I do intend to make a point. The idea is great – but they need to hire more qualified people.
Murph-
What does it matter if the laws are upheld by private or public entities? My reading skills are quite fine. How are yours?
Hajkar,
Yes, it absolutely matters if “laws are upheld by private or public entities.” For one thing, the government is accountable to citizens or “taxpayers” as you call them. Private entities are not, and private entities will always act in their best interest, not in the public’s best interest.
I seem to remember a Plaza panhandler sucessfully suing for the right to loiter and panhandle on public streets. They are certainly down there to this day. Can you point to a Kansas City statute that bars loitering or panhandling on public streets? You say there are “many”. Your proof?
Murph-
There are countless restrictions that prohibit such things as overnight camping in public parks. Neither you nor I sleep in the public parks. Neither you nor I are allowed such a privelage. I weon’t cite chapter and verse in the absence of your proof that the homeless have rights beyond those that you and I enjoy. These restrictions may not be specific to loitering or panhandling but it is sufficient for my purpose.
What makes a private entity above accountability? Public entities are often immunized against prosecution for certain violations where a private entity is not.
With citizenship comes responsibility. Do not confuse liberty with freedom. OTOH, he ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.
*shrugs*
The panhandler who sued the city has a house and a family yet constantly harrasses people for a “downpayment on a cheeseburger”. Anyone who wants to defend that kind of nonsense, go ahead. I wish what he is doing were illegal.