83 thoughts on “Feeding Groups Trash Leftovers Monroe Park 11/28/10

  1. 8 volunteers so far with Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity have expressed an interest in helping build a shelter in Monroe Park.

  2. Eric and Mo from FNB have pointed out that the above pics are dated Nov 27th not the 28th when they were taken. Eric- please refer to the FNB Facebook entry I made on September 13th with a pic asking yall to recycle your waste. That pic, which is dated Sept 11th on my camera was actually taken on Sunday, Sept 12th around the same time. I guess that backs up my statement that my camera is a day off.

  3. Yeah Todd but that still doesn’t detract from the point that it’s NOT THEIR TASH! I agree with Liz’s statement, because of the holiday, there was an excess of feeding programs/park intiatives leading to more trash- it makes perfect sense. I was in the park Saturday and even then I noticed an increase in activity. The city should’ve prepared for this by scheduling more trash pickups, but it didn’t. This isn’t FNB’s fault- it’s yours.

  4. As a member of the Monroe Park Advisory Council and not merely a concerned resident, a council which is responsible for 6.2 milllion in renovations to Monroe Park, Todd Woodson has a moral responsibility to advocate for a shelter and community kitchen for parkdwellers who do not have access to shelter in Richmond.
    Apparently, trash in the park from overfull trashcans is more important to Todd Woodson than the people that sleep there.

  5. “Parkdwellers”? What are those? You can’t LIVE in the park! It is not a residence! If this renovation and walling off drives the bums somewhere else, great! No one wants to “share” the park with park with aggressive panhandlers who pee right in front of you. I’m strongly in favor of helping find jobs and homes for those people who are down on their luck and want to pick their lives up, but that is NOT these people. They do not WANT jobs, homes, real lives … just want to get wasted full-time and bum around a park that is supposed to be for everyone. The LAST thing Monroe Park needs is a bum shelter and community kitchen to further entrench the problem. Why on earth do some want to nourish and support chronic homelessness? For whose benefit, really??

  6. Great summary of the people who frequent the park. From my personal experience, it is quite spot on. I also have had people come up to me, start peeing, and aggressively asking me for money. Every single one of the “parkdwellers” do this, or at least the black ones… Or at least I like to think that is what is going on, as I sit and think about it, in front of my computer, in my comfy home, secretly mad that some people get free food while I have to work hard for mine, except, I haven’t had to work for anything my entire life…

  7. Concerned Racist, 60.6% of Richmond’s homeless identify as African-American (only 31.6% say they are White)(Homeward.org). What if there was a residence there. Then you could sleep there couldnt you? What’s the “problem” to you? You saw somebody’s penis? Did you actually see somebody’s penis or are you just stereotyping? Somebody ask you for change? Were they “aggressive” about it? Got a problem saying no? Make you feel guilty? sad? sad for them? rather they just die so you dont see them?
    Parkdwellers are people that sleep in the park and spend a lot of time there. They do this because Richmond does not have enough shelters and because Monroe Park is in a part of Richmond that is populated and has stores.
    Working bathrooms should be a priority at Monroe Park. MPAC’s Master Plan does nothing to help parkdwellers find jobs and homes. A lot of chronically homeless are sick and unable to care for themselves. Many are disabled and not able to work. They live there out of desperation, a lot of them for years. You could say the “problem” there is already entrenched. How do you help people who dont have a shelter if you have 6.2 million dollars to spend? By building a shelter.
    Todd Woodson’s concerns are preserving the historical importance of the park, preserving urban greenspace, and “fun”. He would rather have a park that is aesthetically pleasing than one that is useful to users of the park. Make sure you include race when you make generalizations about Richmond’s “aggressively panhandling bums”. Todd Woodson wants to preserve the historical importance of a park that was a hospital for the Confederacy in the Civil War. What about making it one for the homeless that live there now? Monroe Park is 8 acres. Not only is it rightfully ours, you owe us 32 and a mule.

  8. I have spent almost every Sunday in Monroe Park for 2 years. I have spent many Saturdays there as well. I have never seen anyone pee, panhandle, or do anything I wouldn’t see in a VCU dorm or Richmond neighborhood. I am not saying it has never happened, but I do think there is a WHOLE LOT of assuming, exaggerating, and prejudice happening here. I’ve seen VCU students do MUCH WORSE things in Oregon Hill, and I don’t see the City trying to put a wall around Oregon Hill or favoring families and working people over students for housing.

    If you don’t like to see poverty, do something to help, or move to the suburbs.

  9. I never brought up race, and I wasn’t thinking of race. That’s ALL on you. I was descibing behavior that is unacceptable for all people.

    I also never said I wanted anyone to “die.” Rather, I said I am in support of programs to get people off the streets – as in working, living indoors, and so forth. Yes I understand the plans for the park do not include that, and I think I was pretty clear how I felt about that, but I reiterate that I am favor of the park ceasing to be an open air homeless shelter. Why isn’t that what everyone wants? Why would anyone want their “fellow human beings” living in the park? So they can go feed them once a week? Whose interests are you really serving when you encourage people to remain chronically homeless?

    No I have never seen the bums’ penises, but it is easy to tell from behind what they are doing when they are pissing on a tree. And to assume that for every time I see it (at least once or twice a week) it’s actually happening many more times. That adds up to quite a lot of piss.
    Yes, I would describe men following me after I say no to their demands for money and continuing to demand money as “aggressive” and unacceptable. I don’t feel one bit guilty – sure, we all owe our fellow man, in some vague way, but that does not boil down to I “owe” total strangers the contents of my wallet – just very annoyed. Maybe they think I am more easily intimidated because I am a woman, since they do seem to back off men more quickly. I can only speculate on that, but that may be why men don’t seem to believe it happens much, when I experience it firsthand often.
    If you’ve never encountered these problems in the park yourself, good for you, but I see this behavior almost every time I walk through the park, and I’m sick of it. It is just plain nasty.

    As for “doing something” I have a limited income, but I happily contribute what I can regularly to feeding the poor, through organizations such as the Food Bank. I don’t wish people harm, quite the contrary, but I expect all of us to maintain a certain standard of behavior.
    I have lived in the City of Richmond for 20 years and I am not going anywhere. There’s no reason living in the city means you shouldn’t expect others to behave decently. When we catch people peeing in the alley beside our house, we chase them off, but that is not really practical in the park.
    I will admit Monroe Park has been much worse in the past than it is, but it is still not a nice place, and it really could be.

  10. J: can you think of any civil rights organizations that have achieved their goals by becoming less visible?

  11. Dave T…liberals like you need the homeless more than they need a meal in Monroe Park: without them, you and the F Bombs are useless!!

    Caring citizens of Richmond constantly give to worthy organizations like the United Way: http://www.yourunitedway.org/media/Homelessness_Program_Descriptions_2009.pdf

    These programs offer more “hope and change” for getting the homeless off the streets and makeing them productive members of society.

    As a taxpayer, I do not feel guilty for directing the homeless out of Monoroe park to these resources and neither should you!

  12. – Hey TOT, sorry, not a liberal, and most of us at FNB aren’t. Don’t turn this into one more battle field for this ridiculous “Culture War” between Glenn Beck’s followers and Bill Maher’s latte drinking hypocrites that is passing itself off for political discourse in this country.

    – Food Not Bombs uses the Wingnut to cook in. We have only been there less than a year. We have existed in this city for almost 17 years and have always served in Monroe Park, on Sundays, at 4. We aren’t leaving either.

    There are other ways to handle these renovations and these conflicts. I am not implying you all do nothing to help, but not understanding the legitimate issues surrounding urban poverty is evidence to me that it isn’t something you spend much time concerning yourself with it. Stop working on tired old adages about “pulling yourself up by your boot straps” or “give to the shelters, not the homeless”. We’ve heard them for ages. And poverty just gets worse.

  13. Yes women do experience more problems with panhandlers. My wife can’t walk one block in this city without getting hit up. Who would go to the park with their children. The park is chronicy empty except for the usual crowd. You can comfort yourself believing we are all racists. It makes things much easier for you. I am far from wealthy. I’m notgoing anywhere. You don’t own the park. We all do.

  14. #58: “Not only is it rightfully ours, you owe us 32 and a mule.”

    Really? No one owes you shit! Get over yourself!

    You clearly have a nerve calling someone else racist!

  15. Nathan…they say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. . . since you have been doing the feedings at Monroe Park for 17 years and people are still homeless, I suggest you take the feedings to the State Capitol and tell the lawmakers how to end this problem…actually, I would really like to know what I could do to help…I always thought giving to shelters and organizations like the United Way was a good thing?!

  16. I want to make sure that everybody knows that I speak for ONLY myself. My views are in no way indicative of the views of the Monroe Park Advisory Council, their members or anyone else.

  17. Paul Hammond, you have a problem with your wife getting “hit up” by mostly Black people and you wouldnt bring your children to a park where there are mostly Black people.
    SEW, Really.
    TOT, you can help build a shelter and community kitchen in Monroe Park. Contact Julie Gordon (community relations director of Richmond Metro Habitat for Humanity) @ julie@richmondhabitat.org
    Todd, your disclaimer is noble as a lamb. Resign from MPAC or include a shelter and community kitchen in a revised Master Plan. Your views “…are in no way indicative of the views of MPAC,…” The 11 of you met together regularly, drafted and approved a racist Master Plan together. Your views arent in any way similar? Really? Are you saying nobody else on MPAC is a racist? “…preserving the historical importance of the park” You should be ashamed.

  18. I will repeat what I have stated earlier:

    If it was not for Woodson, VCU might have just annexed Monroe Park and chopped down all the trees like was originally suggested.

    I understand MPAC is well-intentioned (and should be congratulated for their work).

    These insults back and forth are counterproductive, in my opinion.

  19. I am certainly glad I do not live in Oregon Hill. Nasty people down there. in the 1980s, they cried for justice when the VCU Master plan wanted to bulldoze their neighborhood. For years, the Civic Association has cried that it gets the short end of the stick from the city and VCU. You would think that the average Oregon Hill M.O.P.E. (Most Oppressed People Ever) would feel a little more compassion for homeless people. But when you get those rising real estate values and that middle class job, well “Money, money changes everything.”

  20. Derek,

    I could care less the race of whoever is harassing myself or my family. Anyone who disagrees with you is suspect or already guilty. Nothing anyone says will make a difference in your views. You can talk to yourself now.

  21. But you are White arent you Paul? And your wife…. she’s White too isnt she? And you feel like youre being harassed and your wife “hit up” on every block by a group of people that are 2/3 Black.

    If you dont feel safe bringing your children or your pretty White wife around Black people in the park, dont go there Paul.

    Charles Samuels and Todd Woodson and you too are segregationists.

  22. I saw two white homeless dudes dealing drugs in the park yesterday. Pissing on trees and drug dealing and drinking in public and pan handling is color-blind!

  23. Pingback: Oregon Hill » More Trash Left In Monroe Park - Richmond, Virginia

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