There's been some action at Tent City this week. Two men got in a fight the other night on the way back from the abandoned house. The Lubbock Avalance-Journal reported the story here. The resident who went to the hospital is reported as being in critical condition. He was still in the hospital as of this morning, and his condition is improving. All of the news stations in Lubbock reported the story. All stories are the same except for this one. The resident interviewed in the video is a younger guy who was evicted of Tent City a few weeks ago for stealing. He waited the required two weeks and was allowed back. I'm not sure why he didn't want to be shown on video since the only people he upset were the residents of Tent City who like to drink, and they know his voice. I think some editing was done in an effort to paint Tent City as an unsafe place, but I would disagree.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Health Department Shuts Down Couple's Efforts to Feed Homeless
Read the article and watch the video here and another video here. The second video is my favorite with the code manager seemingly not knowing the code and then hitting on the reporter like a creepy uncle. It's probably not a good idea to get caught with your pants down and then wink at the reporter, Mr. Walker. And, the real story here is the explosion which reportedly occurred at KLLL, but it is literally ignored for most of the video. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal also has an article here.
A Lubbock couple have been providing a meal to the homeless at a local park every Monday for the past couple of years. The food is prepared in their home and then distributed to the homeless at a city park which is, apparently, a health code violation. While the couple's quotes seem a little dramatic to me and everyone seems to be missing the point that the code enforcement official makes, it does seem that they had been targeted by someone who wanted to shut the operation down. I never partook in this particular couple's meal, but I did attend a couple of meals at this same park on Sunday evenings. My guess is that a resident in the neighborhood was tired of all of the homeless loitering in the park and filed a complaint. The most obvious solution here is to have a church in the area offer up their building to people who want to serve the homeless. Ever wonder what happens in a church building the six other days of the week? My guess is that the preacher walks around in his underwear with a cup of coffee enjoying all of his days off.
There will be more to come on this story. In the meantime, go to Tech campus and feed the homeless. City code officials can't touch you there. Remind Stuart Walker of that, too.
A Lubbock couple have been providing a meal to the homeless at a local park every Monday for the past couple of years. The food is prepared in their home and then distributed to the homeless at a city park which is, apparently, a health code violation. While the couple's quotes seem a little dramatic to me and everyone seems to be missing the point that the code enforcement official makes, it does seem that they had been targeted by someone who wanted to shut the operation down. I never partook in this particular couple's meal, but I did attend a couple of meals at this same park on Sunday evenings. My guess is that a resident in the neighborhood was tired of all of the homeless loitering in the park and filed a complaint. The most obvious solution here is to have a church in the area offer up their building to people who want to serve the homeless. Ever wonder what happens in a church building the six other days of the week? My guess is that the preacher walks around in his underwear with a cup of coffee enjoying all of his days off.
There will be more to come on this story. In the meantime, go to Tech campus and feed the homeless. City code officials can't touch you there. Remind Stuart Walker of that, too.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal Article
This article printed by the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal features Tent City. It's worth a read.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
July 5, 2011
Sorry for the delayed post. I took a break from the internet. June 30 was my last full day at Tent City. I spent another night there over the weekend just for the heck of it, and it was a pretty good time. I'll probably make another post soon about the month; a sort of "final thoughts" thing. The song of the day today is "Too Long In the Wasteland" by James McMurtry.
A couple of weeks ago the young, mexican couple (see June 2, 2011) moved into Tent City. One day the new mexican resident had introduced himself to me as Carlos when his girlfriend was at work. I've noticed that she always wears really baggy shirts (sometimes sweatshirts) and I wonder if she is pregnant. After talking to Carlos for a little while, I ask him how long he and his girlfriend have been together. Carlos thinks for a moment before he answers in a Tex-Mex accent "mmmm 'bout six munts." I'm thinking that the matter of Carlos's girlfriend's gestation status is still in question and Carlos continues "but we known each utter longer." I tell Carlos that I'll see him later and head to cut Sweet Cheeks off in the campground. He seems to always know the latest gossip so I want to test my theory out on him. Upon hearing that I've met Carlos, Sweet Cheeks launches into a breathless and meandering narrative about how they fornicate all the time (even in public restrooms!) and he's pretty sure she's pregnant and she works at Taco Bell while Carlos sits around all day and he should take some responsibility and he saw her make him a sandwich the other day while he just sat there and another resident told him that she saw her cleaning out their tent when he was supposed to be out selling papers but he was really just hanging out at various spots around town (omg). This is all a jumbled mess of pronouns and heresay that I find hard to follow, but I do learn that my suspicions are shared by another resident. I walk back to my tent trying to make sense of everything I just heard.
A couple of weeks ago the young, mexican couple (see June 2, 2011) moved into Tent City. One day the new mexican resident had introduced himself to me as Carlos when his girlfriend was at work. I've noticed that she always wears really baggy shirts (sometimes sweatshirts) and I wonder if she is pregnant. After talking to Carlos for a little while, I ask him how long he and his girlfriend have been together. Carlos thinks for a moment before he answers in a Tex-Mex accent "mmmm 'bout six munts." I'm thinking that the matter of Carlos's girlfriend's gestation status is still in question and Carlos continues "but we known each utter longer." I tell Carlos that I'll see him later and head to cut Sweet Cheeks off in the campground. He seems to always know the latest gossip so I want to test my theory out on him. Upon hearing that I've met Carlos, Sweet Cheeks launches into a breathless and meandering narrative about how they fornicate all the time (even in public restrooms!) and he's pretty sure she's pregnant and she works at Taco Bell while Carlos sits around all day and he should take some responsibility and he saw her make him a sandwich the other day while he just sat there and another resident told him that she saw her cleaning out their tent when he was supposed to be out selling papers but he was really just hanging out at various spots around town (omg). This is all a jumbled mess of pronouns and heresay that I find hard to follow, but I do learn that my suspicions are shared by another resident. I walk back to my tent trying to make sense of everything I just heard.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
July 1, 2011
I plan on making a couple of posts covering my last couple of nights at Tent City and recapping the month, but Hobo Time abruptly switched to Business Time so Spare Time is at a premium. Please keep checking back for updates.
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