NYC: soda size is important, housing the homeless in freezing weather, not so much

This amazes me (but maybe on second thought, it doesn't).

Joe and I were part of a Midnight Run from our parish Friday, and around 11PM I asked three different street people (two men, one woman) where they'd spend the night. It was getting cold and a freezing rain was beginning. All three of them said they'd ride the trains (subway) for the night.

Meanwhile, families are being turned out or turned down for shelter by the city. The big issue though: don't drink soda's larger than 16 oz.

From the NY Daily News -

The city's 'code blue' policy that provides shelter for people when temperatures dip below freezing is leaving families out in the cold

Junior and Kaneesha Clarke with their daughter Janiah,4, are homeless and struggling in the cold. Usually during a 'code blue' the city would relax its shelter admissions rules so people on the street could come inside but thats no longer true.

 

Comments

[Dennis Cannon]

The Editor states that the "big issue"for New York City government is soda size and not the featured humanitarian crisis. But are you criticizing the city government or the public? It seems to me that the "big issue" status of the soda size regulations was awarded by the press (and I might add, if I may, that it received much more play on conservative media outlets than the lame-stream media). Why aren't these media sources mentioning this homeless issue? It's a good thing there's The Folly!

[tom faranda]

You're right (yet again), although I'm not so sure it received more coverage in conservative media outlets. If you google it, you'll find more than ample coverage from newspapers like the LA Times and Washington Post on the soda thing. Not NY papers, and not conservative media outlets.

To your main point - of course there should be more coverage from the media of NY's recent treatment of the homeless - I'm glad the Daily News picked up on it.