Topic: Panera's pay-what-you want restaurants work, except in Portland
marvin !H0G.H/BnJg started this discussion 15 years ago#12,472
Panera Bread had an interesting experiment in opening pay-what-you-want locations in Detroit, St. Louis, and Portland, where all profits go to charity. It's worked in Detroit and St. Louis, but...
sluggy joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 13 minutes later[^][v]#223,874
Hipsters.
Broseph !!fxnDb+Ve4 joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 13 minutes later, 27 minutes after the original post[^][v]#223,876
Wow, this didn't even happen in Detroit, but Portland sounds fucked.
Inb4 Walter.
marvin !H0G.H/BnJg (OP) replied with this 15 years ago, 1 hour later, 2 hours after the original post[^][v]#223,890
@previous (Broseph !!fxnDb+Ve4)
I think there's generally a different attitude toward the homeless in that region. Frequently when you hear about initiatives about the rights of the homeless or mentally ill, it seems to be Seattle/Portland/etc. (trying to remember some -- drunk dorms in Seattle? and is it still the case that police in Portland can't kick homeless people off a sidewalk even if they're causing a disturbance?).
Frou-frou liberal shit that maybe goes too far in "empowering" this particular demographic.
Leo Vegas !gNoGoD5HzQ joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 2 hours later, 5 hours after the original post[^][v]#223,949
@OP
Expect Walter, receive his female counterpart.
Fuchs !!4KU9PSdLG joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 10 minutes later, 5 hours after the original post[^][v]#223,954
They actually needed to hire a person to tell these homeless people to kindly fuck off and quit camping around their store? Yikes.
Leo Vegas !gNoGoD5HzQ replied with this 15 years ago, 4 minutes later, 5 hours after the original post[^][v]#223,955
@previous (Fuchs !!4KU9PSdLG)
You'd be great for the job. You could help round them up and ship them to homeless camps.
Fuchs !!4KU9PSdLG replied with this 15 years ago, 4 minutes later, 5 hours after the original post[^][v]#223,956
Manny Marco, unemployed vagabond, tenderly loaded the last of 30 9-millimeter bullets into the spring-action, extended clip for his new Mac-10--a semiautomatic assault weapon capable of throwing rounds as fast as Marco can blink.
"That's very good, Manny," coaxed Arm the Homeless firearms instructor Pete Whippit. "Now, insert the clip and rack that lever there." Marco did so, producing the wicked, unmistakable chik-chik of a freshly loaded weapon.
"Okay, Manny," Whippit continued, pointing to a switch. "Now, all you need to do is flick this thing here from 'Safe' to 'Fire,' and you are cocked, locked and ready to rock."
Tears of joy trickled through the caked grime on Marco's face as he threw both arms around Whippit, still holding the fully loaded machine pistol. Nearby, a cluster of vagrants sorting through a shopping cart filled with handguns and shotguns ducked and danced away from the arc of the Mac-10's barrel.
"God bless you, and God bless Arm the Homeless," Marco said. "This is the nicest thing
anyone's done for me in 10 years."
With that, Marco withdrew from the embrace and shook the Mac-10 menacingly at a reporter. "Beats the hell out of a little spare change, don't it?"
The proud new gun owner slid the Mac-10 into a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles backpack, which he latched over a soiled bed roll. He waved goodbye, then set out across the desolate, dry bed of the Salt River, his course set for the corporate towers of downtown Phoenix, two miles away. Marco said he spends most afternoons there, panhandling near the Valley National Bank building.
I have bigger plans.
Leo Vegas !gNoGoD5HzQ replied with this 15 years ago, 1 minute later, 5 hours after the original post[^][v]#223,957
@previous (Fuchs !!4KU9PSdLG)
An army of Homeless Traps?
Fuchs !!4KU9PSdLG replied with this 15 years ago, 1 minute later, 5 hours after the original post[^][v]#223,958
@previous (Leo Vegas !gNoGoD5HzQ)
Arm the Homeless does not exclude the gender confused.
"That man is going to rest easier tonight because of the gift we bestowed upon him today," said Whippit, his eyes shielded behind military surplus mirror shades. "Not only did we give Manny the peace of mind that comes with carrying a weapon. We also gave him the sense of self-respect due any man who exercises his God-given, Constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
"Just because someone is homeless, doesn't mean they don't need a gun-quite the contrary," Whippit continued. "That's what Arm the Homeless is all about-making sure any American who wants a gun has one, whether they can afford it or not."
On March 25, Whippit and five other Valley gun activists calling themselves Arm the Homeless distributed free, legal firearms to 76 homeless men and women during a three-hour giveaway on the Salt River bed.
The action-technically a series of transfers between private citizens-was completely legal under Arizona's loose gun laws (Arm the Homeless required all firearm recipients to sign a form stating they are not convicted felons).
Appropriately, most of the weaponry-which included eight .357 magnum revolvers, at least five .38s, two .44s, dozens of 9mm, .45, .25 and .380 caliber semiautomatic pistols, a few Luger .22s, and high-capacity arms such as the Mac-10, seven Tec-9s, and one SKS assault rifle-was kept on-site in a shopping cart, from which the homeless literally chose their weapon.
The giveaway was staged in a secluded patch of wasteland beneath the Central Avenue Bridge. Honey Hawk, the gun group's "minister of information," said the event was promoted solely though word of mouth, on a "classified, need-to-know basis."
"Basically, we planned the operation, then established contact agents within the downtown Phoenix homeless population, through which we disseminated the time and place specifics," she said.
The giveaway was first-come, first-armed, and began at high noon. As the vagrants arrived in ragged bands, two Arm the Homeless organizers secured them into groups of five in a holding area cordoned off with rope in the shadow of one of the overpass' concrete supports. The shopping cart of guns was on the opposite side.
(Edited 30 seconds later.)
Leo Vegas !gNoGoD5HzQ replied with this 15 years ago, 50 minutes later, 6 hours after the original post[^][v]#223,966
@previous (Fuchs !!4KU9PSdLG)
So you are going to arm and organize a group of jobless, homeless junkies? Sounds good.
Anonymous F joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 1 hour later, 7 hours after the original post[^][v]#224,000
Cat, 43, a member of the first group, immediately seized upon a Mossburg 500 shotgun, which came with a box of Milstor shatter disc rounds--each Milstor shell is packed with a stack of 15 dime-size metal discs, perforated in quarters to detach upon barrel exit.
"I want this one!" Cat said.
"That's a lot of gun for a little lady," one Arm the Homeless volunteer told her. "How about this, instead?"
He reached into the cart and pulled out a silver, Colt .380 that fit into his palm. "This is what we call a purse gun. It might be more your type."
"I don't have a purse!" protested Cat. "I want the scatter gun!"
"Let her have the damn shotgun," Whippit directed. "We've got people to arm."
Whippit, 33, is a Marine Recon combat veteran who says he saw action in the 1989 Mongol-Sumerian conflict. After Whippit left the Marines in 1992 (records indicate an honorable discharge), he says he fought as a paid mercenary with the Mau-Mau Liberation Front in several west African tribal wars. Whippit followed a girlfriend to the Valley about a year ago, and now lives in east Mesa, where Arm the Homeless is based.
Arm the Homeless could have provided each gun recipient with more than one box of ammo, she said, but "we didn't want them selling bullets for booze."
Also, Hawk said, two days before the giveaway, Arm the Homeless mailed a letter to every address listed under "Pawnbrokers" in the yellow pages. The communique informed pawn shop owners of the group's action, and asked them not to purchase any weapons from homeless people.
"We thought this thing through," Hawk said. "We didn't just come down here and start handing out guns. This is not some haphazard distribution of dangerous weaponry. This is a well-organized political and social service action."
Thank you.
Anonymous G joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 8 minutes later, 7 hours after the original post[^][v]#224,029
A reporter who'd been invited to cover the giveaway asked Hawk if distributing guns to the homeless might lead them to rob and shoot people. She fired this sarcastic retort: "I think that question reflects your prejudice. Let me guess--homeless people are all criminals or crazy, and shouldn't be able to own guns. Yeah, that's real enlightened."
Hawk brandished a sheet of crime statistics indicating that people who live on the streets are 10 times as likely to become victims of violent crime as people who don't.
"These people need guns," she said. "It's not their fault our cities aren't safe, and it's not fair to deny them the right to protect themselves in a dangerous environment, just because they're poor."
She pointed to 74-year-old WW II veteran Gabo "Pops" McClean, who had just claimed a gleaming black Tec-9. McClean assumed a firing position and pretended to pull the Tec-9's trigger, rattling the weapon with both hands and rolling his tongue behind his teeth to make machine gun noises.
"I'd sure like to see some skinhead punks try to set him on fire tonight," Hawk said. "Gabo there looks like he's ready to go Charles Bronson on their ass."
As an Arm the Homeless instructor showed McClean how to conceal the Tec-9 on a shoulder sling beneath his tattered windbreaker, Hawk admitted that the homeless gun recipients probably do not have permits to carry concealed weapons in the state of Arizona.
Probably, although haters gonna hate.
protip !!pMmAiEwOm joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 37 minutes later, 8 hours after the original post[^][v]#224,039
The homeless population here is quite a bit larger than elsewhere, as the weather is very mild, there are winter shelters, social welfare is reasonably accessible, the citizens are reasonably tolerant, and there are a lot of cheap drugs that are easily accessible.
There used to be a “no sit/lieâ€Â city ordinance that was declared a violation of free speech rights. There are various homeless encampments that are tolerated. It’s really a hobo’s paradise.
They shoot up behind my apartment, sleep in the alcoves of neighboring retail, sleep under bridges I cross daily, shit in our plentiful flora, and rifle through recycling for $0.05 a can or bottle. Many homeless people seem to figure out who lives or works in a neighborhood and tends to leave them alone. Or, maybe I am just good at deflecting their panhandling.
Leo Vegas !gNoGoD5HzQ replied with this 15 years ago, 45 minutes later, 9 hours after the original post[^][v]#224,070
@previous (protip !!pMmAiEwOm) > Or, maybe I am just good at deflecting their panhandling.
Because you walk around with your cock exposed constantly.
Anonymous G replied with this 15 years ago, 14 minutes later, 9 hours after the original post[^][v]#224,087
Ha, there was a homeless man today shouting "WON'T YOU GIVE AN ENGLISH MAN A SHELTER TO REST HIS HEAD? WON'T YOU GIVE AN ENGLISH MAN SOME CHANGE TO BUY A MEAL?"
I think maybe he cottoned onto the fact that people just ignore the pity parade and so decided to try and attach himself to jingoism instead.
Anonymous I joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 15 minutes later, 9 hours after the original post[^][v]#224,092
@224,039 (protip !!pMmAiEwOm)
Mootles will apparently be in Portland to hang out tomorrow. Will you be arming a contingent of homeless for the occasion?
Anonymous J joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 2 minutes later, 9 hours after the original post[^][v]#224,094
@previous (I) > Mootles will apparently be in Portland to hang out tomorrow.
And there'll be drinks and cake! :3
protip !!pMmAiEwOm replied with this 15 years ago, 1 hour later, 11 hours after the original post[^][v]#224,188
brie !OudrPWaUDQ joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 1 hour later, 15 hours after the original post[^][v]#224,387
@223,890 (marvin !H0G.H/BnJg)
The police generally won't bother you if you're hanging out on the sidewalk, but business owners have been getting aggressive in recent years, with members of the Portland Business Alliance jointly hiring security to go around and hassle homeless people in front of shops. I used to hear some bitching about 'them Securtias motherfuckers' from random homeless dudes, but not so much anymore... they've adapted! ;3
Oh, this Panera Bread is like 3 blocks from the Department of Human Services, btw.
lol
I bet they would do a lot better if you could pay for your shit with food stamps ;P