tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36892255.post2817066776301099589..comments2024-03-28T13:46:38.346-04:00Comments on Pardon Me For Asking: Carroll Gardeners Petitioning For Input And Due Process In Regards To Proposed Homeless Shelter Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17882047670852126739noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36892255.post-38516752989535707002012-10-25T07:37:17.496-04:002012-10-25T07:37:17.496-04:00Carroll Gardens has decided: "Let them eat c...Carroll Gardens has decided: "Let them eat cake". Marc Levinehttp://www.coalitionforthehomeless.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36892255.post-32816487536375332602012-10-17T11:00:50.381-04:002012-10-17T11:00:50.381-04:00Michael Reiss, nobody said "community purity&...Michael Reiss, nobody said "community purity" but you. <br /><br />Why are you linking your name to organizations you are not affiliated with, and which have no immediate association with this proposed shelter? If you want to bring attention their way as a good model to follow, why not instead mention them in the text of your comment? It seems designed to mislead.<br /><br />Your accusatory comments are not helping further the dialogue. Please stop.Beckynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36892255.post-3175315680222292962012-10-16T23:58:10.794-04:002012-10-16T23:58:10.794-04:00Are you conducting an investigation? Or is it an ...Are you conducting an investigation? Or is it an inquisition? Ridiculous direction you're going in. <br /><br />Just for the sake of your own paranoid mind, I'll put your suspicions at ease: I worked at Baltic St. AEH from November 2009 until September 2010. My supervisor was Anthony Sgarlata and the executive director is Isaac Brown. The head of human resources is Mr. Brown's assistant, Mariana Barbarash. <br /><br />You're a sick person, Anonymous, for having to investigate such a thing, but you seem to be used to being paranoid, concerned with some sort of "community purity", and other slander and crap.<br /><br />I thought there might be some people who gave a s**t about things other than property-value in this neighborhood, but it doesn't appear that too many sympathetic voices are out there. The shelter needs to be modified and reduced in number of residents, that's a no-brainer - but the original reaction was simply Carroll Gardeners bristling at the thought of homeless people amongst them. Purely elitist. Social engineering and control-freakish. And you'll probably get what you want.<br /><br />I just signed a lease in Bay Ridge today. And your comments showing mistrust and animosity make me very glad that I'm moving away from the people who make comments like the previous one, the inquisition of "Anonymous". Sadly, there's this sort of thing in most neighborhoods, but I had hoped that Carroll Gardens, my home for the last decade, would be different. And it's not. <br />Michael Reisshttp://www.theonion.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36892255.post-59893775100265491612012-10-16T10:14:19.890-04:002012-10-16T10:14:19.890-04:00Now that we have the Common Ground connection clar...Now that we have the Common Ground connection clarified, perhaps someone from their org would care to clarify their involvement with the issue of the Shelter on 9th Street? <br /><br />While we are waiting, a few talking points from the Common Ground 2010 financials on their publicly available Form 990:<br /><br />Staff Cost/Revenue received: 25%<br /><br />Total Salaries (2010):<br />Roseanne Haggerty (founder) = $230,070<br /><br />Timothy Marx (exec dir) = $230,293<br /><br />Eduardo Ronquillo (Controller) = $150,634<br /><br />Baltic Street AEH meanwhile shows that it paid out 65% of the revenues it received as staff compensation in 2011 (the average payout for 2008-2010 was over 62%). JP Morgan Chase paid out 30% in its latest 10-k filing for 2012, by way of comparison. There is no Michael Reiss on their Forms 990 going back to 2008, so if he exists he must have been a non-reported staff member. <br /><br />There is a healthy Homeless Industry which might be well and good. However, it is interesting to put the data above in the context of the comments vilifying the "privileged" Carroll Gardeners. The same local people who would actually welcome a facility that realistically gave people a hand up<br />instead of just feeding those who sanctimoniously pig themselves out on the public largess flowing to the Homeless Industry.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36892255.post-76204836182824100462012-10-16T08:56:32.852-04:002012-10-16T08:56:32.852-04:00I don't work for Common Ground. I used to wor...I don't work for Common Ground. I used to work for Baltic St. AEH at 250 Baltic St., which is part of South Beach Psychiatric. We don't work with Common Ground. I linked my name to Common Ground because they deal with homeless issues and I've heard they do a very good job. <br /><br />Again, you continue to attack the messenger because you don't seem to have the resolve or the forthrightness to be part of a welcome and diplomatic solution. But this is something I expect from the territorial urban malaise of communities that never actually commune. <br /><br />Communities can very easily be communal. But you really don't seem to want it. Michael Reisshttp://www.deoxy.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36892255.post-38487172737893945942012-10-16T01:18:16.491-04:002012-10-16T01:18:16.491-04:00In response to Michael Reiss, my name is Jim Somoz...In response to Michael Reiss, my name is Jim Somoza and I am happy to tell you that I am the person that wrote the first comment. Your statement that we "should help and deliberate, rather than dancing around the issue" is a head-fake because you obviously know that The City and Housing Solutions USA is invoking a loophole that allows them to cram something like this down our throats without any community review. Your claim that we should appeal for changes is insulting because you know full well as part of the machine that is trying to impose this on us that we currently have no right to appeal it. I have researched the facilities run by you and only 2 of your 17 facilities are for transient individuals like the one being proposed for our neighborhood. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36892255.post-40345585573935229072012-10-15T16:38:15.983-04:002012-10-15T16:38:15.983-04:00I was admiring Michael Reiss' decision to be v...I was admiring Michael Reiss' decision to be visible. However, when I click on his name, the link goes to an organization called Common Good. What gives? <br /><br />There is no Michael Reiss on the Staff or Board of that org. What is up and why the link to that org?<br /><br />Sidenote: interesting that their Exec director pulls over $213k p.a. (their Form 990). <br /><br />Big bucks, big egos and a LOT of self-righteousness and preaching in low income housing / homeless helping!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36892255.post-60028570804231560032012-10-15T11:54:17.372-04:002012-10-15T11:54:17.372-04:00Solutions, please, Anonymous People. You are stil...Solutions, please, Anonymous People. You are still whining in the wind, like hungry ghosts. You should help and deliberate, rather than dancing around the issue with thinly-veiled animosity and this unique elitist brand of resistance. <br /><br />This false and manufactured righteousness is people resisting what has been brushed under the rug for so long. Now that the homeless problem is spilling over in every neighborhood and every part of New York and elsewhere as we can see - and our inept city tries to jam 170 people into a space not big enough for them - now you are finally seeing the issue in broad daylight. But many of you ignored it for so long, all you have to say is... "not on my watch" or "not in my community". <br /><br />Try appealing for a reduction in the number of people in the building and petition for yet another shelter and some actual low-income housing. There are ways to handle this if you put your focused indignation to work, rather than leaving homeless people to blow in the wind. This is all part of who we are - and we need to embrace rather than keep pushing away the unfortunate. <br />Michael Reisshttp://www.commonground.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36892255.post-29295253050110206212012-10-15T10:52:24.729-04:002012-10-15T10:52:24.729-04:00Excellent coverage on the issue by Andrew Rice her...Excellent coverage on the issue by Andrew Rice here:<br /><br />http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2012/10/6538212/new-carroll-gardens-homeless-shelter-built-old-relationships#.UHwLc0t-b6E.email<br /><br />Fair, balanced and well informed coverage.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36892255.post-23910608961864162742012-10-14T12:42:41.042-04:002012-10-14T12:42:41.042-04:00Housing Solutions USA plans to operate a shelter f...Housing Solutions USA plans to operate a shelter for individuals at 9th Street but they have no experience running shelters for individuals. They currently only operate shelters for families which are much easier to operate than shelters for individuals and don't have many of the issues that go along with shelters for individuals. Their lack of experience creates too much of a risk to the community because a poorly run shelter for individuals will inflict great harm to the community and its residents. Go to their website at http://www.housingsolutionsusa.org/housing-programs#tab-1 and you'll see that every one of their shelters is identified as being for families, not individuals. So it's either true that they have no experience with shelters for individuals or they are lying about the true nature of their current shelters. Either answer should disqualify them from operating a shelter in our community.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com