Jean discusses Mayor Pam Iorio's treatment of the homeless in Tampa, Florida

[MissPuddy]

Run time: 03:34 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhF0HLgtvig   Posted on YouTube: February 19, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: February 27, 2009 By DU Member: MissPuddy Views on DU: 1894

 
The HOMELESSinTAMPA channel was just started on YouTube to show the treatment of the homeless population in Downtown Tampa. Ms. Jean Batronie has been feeding the homeless every Sunday out of the back of her SUV since March 2004. From what she says, anybody walking Downtown carrying a backpack was swept away and arrested during Super Bowl Weekend. They are often dumped at the county line when released in effort to discourage their return. Many of the homeless are Veterans and the numbers are increasing.

[DonCoquixote]

1. Context info from Tampa

Pam Iorio wants to build a major project called "riverwalk" which is to be a downtown "rebirth" as it supposed to be shops around the local musuem of art (which itself is getting a major face lift. There are just several little problems.

1) Most of the people who work Downtown are the ones who go to the suburbs. Despite major lofts and condos, you could not pay people to move to downtown. Some of this is from the Bubble, but a lot of it is the fact that many people in Tampa are transplants who do not have any feelings for the actual city. They would rather live next to somewhere with a supermarket and drugstore, two thing downtown does not have.

2) Most of the artists and merchants you would need to make this work were very badly burned when they were chased out of Ybor City, Tampa's answer to the French Quarter. Imagine all the merchants kicked out of new orleans, replaced with bars and malls. Pam is counting on the artists to come and make something Chic, but the fact is, many of them are not going to risk their meager savings once again as they know that if this does become Chic, they might get kicked to the curb yet again.

It's not that riverwalk cannot be good, the locale is lovely, but Pam has to realize that, as bad as her GOP predecessors were, you at least had to throw small business a dogbone. She also needs to realize that if she wants her "arts" district, she will need to actually work WITH the community, enfranchising even those poor and/or homeless, because they are the ones who make an arts district work, not the Yuppies!

[MissPuddy]

2. Mayor Pam Iorio needs to get real...

Yes, I'm familiar with the "riverwalk" idea and the millions being poured into the art museum. She wants to make Tampa like San Antonio. That would have been nice 10 years ago when the economy was better. Look at Harbour Island and its failure. There was once a monorail that took people from Downtown Tampa to the shops at Harbour Island. Like you said, the 'burb people maybe work Downtown but want to stay away on the weekend.

Overall, my bone of contention is how the Mayor plays "nice lady politics" but is no better than St. Pete's Mayor Baker. Let's face it, the homeless aren't a pretty site in Downtown Tampa. Maybe she should help the people Downtown instead of doing "window dressing" of the city. These people are being arrested for no reason other than walking w/ a backpack.

As more foreclosures erupt, we are going to see a LOT more homeless in Tampa.:nuke:

[DonCoquixote]

3. One thing

My beef is not with the idea of riverwalk, indeed, we WILL need to make downtown livable and desirable, especially as the days of commutes dwindle. The problem is that you cannot just kick out anybody not under the upper middle class, and think that the yuppies will spend money. If she wants to make a downtown, she needs to make a community. The sad part is, there is the seed for something genuine, heck, if downtown can support the Tampa Theatre, it can support other art.

[DaLittle Kitty]

13. TRUE!

Tell Pam!

[DaLittle Kitty]

14. Not Likely!

:puke:

[DaLittle Kitty]

4. Pam Iorio Is NO DEMOCRAT And Is Just A "Player" For The Powers That Be!

Pam Iorio MUST be exposed for what she is... A 2 bit political hack who could care less about working people or the less fortunate. She works for the "Money People" and is ONLY registered as a democrat for show. Democrats like Pam Iorio are what's wrong with the Florida Democratic Party. They're just DINO's! :puke:

[MissPuddy]

5. Window dressing doesn't make a community

Arresting and shipping out the homeless because they are an eyesore doesn't solve the situation. It fills up the jails needlessly and the people are back on the street again. Providing a job and a purpose might help more.

[DaLittle Kitty]

6. Exactly This Is Becoming Increasingly Common. America Has Gone To Pot!

:puke:

[MissPuddy]

7. Going to show a running saga of the homeless on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/user/HOMELESSinTAMPA We just started going to Downtown every week to capture the stories of homeless. Every few days we hope to post the continuing saga of life on the streets.

[MissPuddy]

8. Example of crime on the homeless...Rape

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=71904892386&h=n7Rmw&u=8ns4R Link to video of a homeless woman discussing her recent rape upon arrival to Tampa...Homeless are often victims of crime and who can they call?

[MissPuddy]

9. Iorio claims she was not jailing homeless for Super Bowl

January 26, 2009
Iorio: We're not jailing the homeless for Super Bowl

TAMPA -- Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio denied today that there has ever been a mandate for police to arrest homeless people and keep them in jail during Super Bowl week.

"I've talked to the chief about it and he assured me there is absolutely no targeting of the homeless. And, of course, it would be absolutely unacceptable," Iorio said. "We are not doing that."

Yet that's why advocates for the homeless said they are not conducting a homeless census that began today in counties across the country, including Pinellas.

Last week, three prominent homeless advocates from Hillsborough and Pinellas counties said police were aggressively charging homeless people with petty crimes and jailing them to keep Tampa from looking bad to out-of-town guests. One advocate, Tampa Crossroads director and former state representative Sara Romeo, said she heard a police captain say this at a meeting without providing details.

Iorio said she would never condone rounding up homeless people to make the city look better to Super Bowl visitors or for any other reason.

"The city is what it is," she said.

And like many other big cities, Tampa has homeless people.

"Sadly it represents a failing of our society as a whole," she said.

Iorio said she spoke to Police Chief Steve Hogue, and they are looking into which police captain may have said this in the meeting with Romeo.

Iorio said she hasn't called Romeo to ask her.

-- Janet Zink and Emily Nipps, Times staff writers

Posted by Times Editor at 3:54:21 PM on January 26, 2009
in Hillsborough County | Permalink

http://blogs.tampabay.com/superbowl/2009/01/iorio-were-not.html

[DaLittle Kitty]

10. Mayor Pam Iorio Is Not Like ANY Democrat That I Would Care To Know!

Heartless and self-serving in what is, depending on your perspective already an economic depression!

[MissPuddy]

11. Homeless man fined for helping a chicken cross the road

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8geQ1mL4vg

PLUS...according to the men I interviewed, they can get arrested for picking aluminum cans out of the trash (aka scavenging) per Mayor Pam Iorio's orders }(

[MissPuddy]

12. When you go to the "poor house" where do you go?

[MissPuddy]

15. Jean thrown off the church premises for feeding the homeless

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScPYdq2TRak

First United Methodist in downtown Tampa...Jean tried to feed the homeless on the sidewalk outside the church at was thrown off!

[DaLittle Kitty]

16. NICE Church!

:puke:

[DaLittle Kitty]

19. Out On Da Street!

:puke:

[bcdreemin]

17. Film student

Hello Jean, I am a film student at the University of Tampa, and was researching homeless in downtown Tampa for a short film project. Are you interested in allowing me to tag along and film on an upcoming Saturday? My goal is to use the film to put a face on those who call the streets of downtown home, and to raise awareness of how they got there, and what the community can do to lend a helping hand.

[MissPuddy]

18. Hi, Film Student...

Hi, Film Student...We usually do the filming on Sundays. While I'm filming I've had students from Art Institute of Tampa tagging along. Pls. contact me via YouTube...Peace...Chyrisse