Comments on: Santa Rosa F.I.S.H. food pantry to seek new home

By: Lets be Reasonable

Lets be Reasonable — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 21:47:40 +0000

@Mockingbird – “So LAY OFF SOME MANAGERS, take the savings and put it where it will really be used “PRODUCTIVELY”.”
.
Actually, the City has laid off quite a number of managers. Like rank and file, our low level managers are all overworked. While I agree with you mostly, on this issue you need to take off your blinders.

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By: MOCKINGBIRD

MOCKINGBIRD — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 17:37:15 +0000

So first the city council decides to HELP the poor, disabled and elderly by cutting city bus routes deciding the “productivity” of the buses, not the people, not the riders, not the needy but the “productivity” of some routes isn’t worth it and increasing the riders fees now they have decided to starve these very same people as well.

They surely can find the money to fix this building. They should have been upkeeping it in the first place. They surely can find another building for this very worthy group to continue feeding the needy. But they only needed $500,000 dollars to keep the current bus routes and they aren’t even trying to find it.

It’s all about “productivity”. Not public needs, not the poor, or the elderly, or the needy, or the families, or the disabled. It’s all about numbers.

So LAY OFF SOME MANAGERS, take the savings and put it where it will really be used “PRODUCTIVELY”.

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By: Reality Check

Reality Check — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 13:36:27 +0000

I recently attended a meeting of a group considering its year-end donations. A rep from FISH made a presentation. One question asked: how do you know people coming in for free food are poor? The answer was they don’t. They make no effort to restrict who gets the food.

The rep acknowledged that it wasn’t unusual to see people drive up in very expensive cars–BMWs, Mercedes–and dressed very nicely. That tempered our enthusiasm for donating to FISH.

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By: Lisa

Lisa — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 20:22:54 +0000

My hope is the word will get out about F.I.S.H.

Service is NOT dead in Sonoma County; my church just did 400 boxes of Christmas gifts to kids in in 3rd world countries; raised $18,500 for the Redwood Empire Food Bank and The Rose/Manna House; we have over 200 people registered to ‘serve’ this Holiday Season. And as of Thursday collected ‎372 pounds( 290 MEALS) for the Food Bank, with more coming in today.

It is my hope the word will get about this need and you’d be surprised how people will rise to the occaision.

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By: James Bennett

James Bennett — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 21:52:39 +0000

This is very sad.

Plenty of money for unwanted crap.

We have lost the sacred concept that is being of service.

I met some of these people at a council meeting a couple months ago, when this was an item on the agenda.

I know they understand what it means to them, you could feel it from across the room.

I offered to let them use the kitchen at my community center in the interim…
I’m sure they’d have a regulation against that too though.

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By: RICHARD

RICHARD — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 17:57:52 +0000

Welfare for the wealthy, free enterprise for the poor ?

Santa Rosa City gave the train depot in Railroad Square to the chamber of commerce rent free and had it remolded recently. SMART is not allowed to use it.

The city bought the AT&T building, thus taking it off the tax rolls. The city stands to lose about a million dollars on the resale of the building.

The city gave Mr Simon’s company a favorable multimillion dollar loan, with a provision to forgive half the loan, to remodel Coddingtown. Mr Simon’s pay for last year was over $ 140 million dollars.

This is what the business friendly city council members did to us. Business friendly is not necessarily people friendly.

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