Friday's Odds And Ends...

Now in a handy SPRAY CAN...for all those impulsive "tagging" moments! Bringing to you all the informative (anything but obscurant) news that never seems to make it to the FRONT page (wonder why that is?) is my passion. So buckle up the kids, put down the trans-fat filled foods, and put out those smokes...

NYC To Give Out "Branded" Condoms
Coming from a city hall in Manhattan to YOU...condoms with a "jazzy wrapper" (thought they were only found on BET?) perhaps printed with a colorful SUBWAY MAP (or another city theme). Sure...that's JUST what the world needs..think about it.
You're in NYC, you're lost, and need to get from the upper west side to Battery Park....what'cha gonna do? Call Ghostbusters? Nah...just find some homeless bum sleeping in one of the numerous subway stations, rifle through his pockets for a condom...and VOILA...you've got a map of entire NYC subway system right at your freshly soiled fingertips. How novel is that?
Imagine if we do that in Fort Wayne? Condoms carrying our latest "logo" - ROOM FOR DREAMS. Actually, that's not a bad slogan FOR a condom company (as in dreaming of getting 'lucky' tonight at a local club)...LMAO!

Elmhurst High Gets "Reprieve"?
The Yellow Ribbon (more like a dorsal STRIPE) Task Force has begged off on recomendations about closing Elmhurst. Gee, I guess some folks ARE reading my blog after all! This "task force" is leaving the decision up to the FWCS board. Any projects to Elmhurst will be an adjunct (separate) from the "hostage deal" of (up to) $600 MILLION DOLLARS. Of course the CEO of Schmidt Assoc. (contractor) said the building needs SERIOUS attention (he wants the contract all for himself). The cost to demolish Elmhurst and renovate Wayne to accept the Elmhurst students would come to approx. $10.4 million, while the cost to renovate Elmhurst could be as high as $40 million. North Side and South Side were also removed from the "bottom line", as they were BOTH renovated with the past decade.
See...that $600 MIL is getting SMALLER, isn't it? I said that the ACTUAL costs would be lower, and that these "arbitrary" numbers were so much BS (as did jon Olinger, but not quite in the same manner). This whole fiasco, in this person's opinion is much worse than the rancher who decides to fix his gate AFTER the horses have all gotten out. In this case, not only is the gate broke, and the horses gone...the rancher is under chapter 11, the "back 40" has been plowed under, the home and barn have been deemed unfit for habitation, and the rancher's wife has left him for the landscaper. I can't see how FWCS could not have forseen ANY of this....must have been all those "feel-good" programs acting like BLINDERS...'ya think?

City Takes Homeless Survey
Volunteers in Fort Wayne braved the cold weather in an effort to "count the homeless" (sounds like a new gameshow). HUD (the people who bring you disheveled neighbors and urban blight in abundance) requires cities to survey the homeless population every other year to receive money from the department (talk about good money tossed after bad, eh?), as this survey helps social service agencies with needs and gaps in service to the homeless (noble sentiments IF the money ever got to them in the first place). Numbers for Fort Wayne will be available by next week.
(You're really going to like this....)
This is a difficult task in Fort Wayne, as many who ARE homeless STAY WITH FRIENDS OR FAMILY (then they're NOT really "homeless", are they?) and may not consider themselves homeless (thought I just SAID that). The cold weather also drives the homeless into abandoned houses (maybe NCE can secure a few officers and check the several HUNDRED houses we have mainly on the SOUTH side out, hmm?) or into homes of family and friends. The survey doesn't ask what CAUSED the homelessness (overblown property taxes?), and doesn't ask what services would HELP them (uh...maybe a HOME????). The Homeless Task Force (how many of these damn things ARE there?) found out the homeless want heavy-duty trashbags and duct tape (as do I) for shelters (I use them for what they're DESIGNED for instead). Reasons cited for homelessness were inability to pay rent (we're supposed to have jobs...so where are they Mr Mayor?), and being released from prison (thought we had re-entry programs as well as other facilities to reassimilate these felons BACK into the community?). Funny, I thought they could always get a "job" as a neighborhood COKE MULE...that should pay enough to find a cheap crib. I mean we DO have drugs coming into Fort Wayne, right? Also makes me wonder (since half of those counted were Spanish-speaking) how many are LEGALLY here?

There you go...all the news that's not fit for the front page...BUT is damn good enough to incite debate, discussion, and discourse right HERE...

...And provide a smattering of pungent social comment....(that would be ME). LOL!