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Gainesville Votes to End Meal Limit Chad Smith
The campaign to end Gainesville’s soup-kitchen meal limit scored a major victory Thursday after the City Commission voted unanimously to repeal the controversial code in favor of a three-hour window in which anyone can eat. Opponents of the 130-meals-per-day cap on soup kitchens filled the City Hall auditorium, sitting through a number of items before theirs was finally heard. Indeed, advocates for the homeless and opponents of the meal limit have been frustrated with how long it took for the petition to repeal the limit to reach the commission. That boiled over when Pat Fitzpatrick, an outspoken advocate and three-time commission candidate, started an outburst during another item, asking why it couldn’t be heard earlier. “We’ve got a lot of people that want to talk about hungry children,” Fitzpatrick said before a police officer escorted him from the auditorium. Of the 21 people who did speak, 19 were adamantly in favor of the petition. Timothy Ray, a 72-year-old retired social worker, said coming off the “great recession” and with the economy still in dire straits, “none of us … can be sure we won’t find ourselves homeless and hungry.” “I pray that you will bring our community to a higher moral ground than we’ve been lo these many months,” Ray said, referring to the span that the city has been enforcing its 130-meal limit laid out in Section 30-111 of the city’s codes. In 2009, the city started enforcing the limit after complaints from a downtown developer that the St. Francis House, a shelter and soup kitchen on South Main Street, was feeding more than 130 people a day. St. Francis House, the only institution regulated under the limit, filed a petition earlier this year to lift the cap and exchange it with a three-hour time frame. The time limit was a point of contention for some advocates, but most felt it was a good compromise. In March, the City Plan Board, a resident advisory board, approved the petition, sending it to the commission for a vote. On Thursday, the commission gave its seal of approval
with a 6-0 vote; Commissioner Randy Wells was absent. The city attorney’s office will now draft an ordinance that the commission will have to approve in two more votes. Then St. Francis House will have to apply for a permit under the newly adopted ordinance. Kent Vann, the shelter’s executive director, said he would submit his application with the city next week so it can move ahead as soon as the commission casts its final vote. Asked about the perceived slow process for the commission to hear the petition, Vann said the time was necessary to get all the stakeholders on board and build consensus among commissioners. “We needed that,” he said. After Mayor Craig Lowe signaled his support for the petition last month, it became clear there were enough votes for it to pass. But advocates were cautiously optimistic. They let loose after the vote Thursday, erupting in ap-
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We’ve got a lot of people that want to talk about hungry children
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KCNC/CNN.
Homeless man puts his music on iTunes
A homeless street musician in Denver is becoming an Internet star. One of his performances is getting hundreds of thousands of hits on YouTube and his album of cover tunes is rising high on the iTunes singer-songwriter charts. David Dred Scott moved to Denver 16 years ago for the music scene. He does what he loves full time but income from the streets is inconsistent. “I’ve come out here, set up, played, broke a string, made a dollar and left. I’ve come out here and played and made $300,” he said. Tyler Ward stumbled onto his talent one day walking down the street and with the help of an outreach group, they recorded his music and put it up on iTunes. Scott’s talent generated almost $2,000 in the first two days. “[The] end goal is just to get his music heard. He’s a talented dude. Let’s just get his music heard,” Ward said. It may not be enough to get him completely off the streets but it’s a start. “I’d like to make enough to have a comfortable living. I believe my music is good so I should be able to make a decent living off of it,” Scott said. Scott’s album of cover tunes, “Live From 16th Street Mall,” sells for $3.99 on iTunes. Proceeds are used to buy food and clothing for Scott, but he does not get cash directly.
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