When it comes to aiding the homeless the City of Orlando is one of the worst.
A 2009 study released by the National Coalition for the Homeless revealed that the City of Orlando ranks as the most violent city in the state of Florida against the homeless.
Violence against the homeless is one thing but now the city just looks aloof. For years charitable organizations would feed the homeless in local parks. This led to an overflow of people to come into the parks and that got some of the residents and business owners in downtown Orlando a little upset.
So the city has tried and tried to stop this practice of feeding the needy in their parks and last week the city finally got its wish.
An appeals court ruled that any organization wanting to hold a mass feeding that will attract more than 25 people in a public park must file for a permit. If the organization fails to do so they will be subjected to a fine and possible arrests.
Violence and starvation is what’s hot in the streets of Orlando now-a-days, eh?
Today an Orlando Charity, Food Not Bombs, held one of those unlawful mass feedings at Lake Eola. The organization wanted to bring attention to the city’s newest ordinance and also feed the needy.
That want and need to feed people who aren’t able to feed themselves is all righteous and everything but, when people are threatened with jail time stuff usually gets pretty real.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer wasn’t pleased when he heard about the group’s planned challenge.
“We’re not playing their game. Their whole goal is to draw attention from Channel 6. It’s not to actually do anything to help the homeless,” Dyer told news station Local 6 when asked about the organization’s intent.
Dyer went on to state that the city will enforce the ruling if it’s violated. Nobody was arrested during today’s protest but if Food Not Bombs makes a return appearance I stand to believe that the city’s jail population may rise.
Mayor Dyer is up for re-election and his voters live downtown. Mayor Dyer is still blowing the trumpet of economic development for downtown as he just announced that there will be a ground breaking ceremony next month for the new Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts (DPAC).
Can’t feed the homeless without a permit but the city has the money for a new performing arts center. That’s not a quantification of either matter but which one seems more important?
DPAC has nothing to do with feeding the homeless but how does this make the Mayor look in the eyes of local residents? One who cares for the economically challenged or a man only concerned with economic development?
At the end of the day Mayor Dyer has a job to do and that’s to make sure that Orlando is living up to its name: The City Beautiful.
How can that be accomplished with dozens and dozens of homeless people loitering in the city’s beautifullest parks, word to my man Keith Murray.
Simple, it can’t.
-JH
