When last year the Board of the Chamber of Commerce generated a resolution towards an Aggressive-Panhandling Bylaw - this was to directly benefit downtown merchants. Only. As much seems to in Nelson. An official Request for Decision was put to Council, without any evidentiary documentation whatsoever backing a need for such bylaw.
After much toing-and-froing the Request didn't make it; the bylaw-proposal was shelved with a diplomatic let's-wait-and-see.
Initially bylaw-focused - then going much further - discoveries/deliberations manifested the Nelson Street Culture Collaborative: the pooling of local energy from diverse sources to deal with a much larger issue - of which panhandling here is only a small part.
This group formulated a plan to be found in
City contributes $10.000 to street outreach worker project
Bill Metcalfe, Nelson Star, Aug 11, 2016,
with funding-needs of $100.000 for two outreach-workers plus one year's admin-costs.
The effort is commendable and will be of positive impact on many levels.
Contributions thus far:
Salvation Army - $40.000
Nelson Committee on Homelessness - $36.000
City of Nelson - $10.000
Nelson Community Services Society - $5.000
Total - $91.000
There also are an embarrassingly scraped-together-seeming $1.780 from the "Nelson business community" - still leaving the goal short of $7.220. Reasonably/logically to be sourced within that "community". Since they - next to focus-groups in the streets - may ultimately directly benefit more than most from the Collaborative's work.
Taking - Yes/Giving - No! Coming from a place of entitlement: as a whole Nelson's business-community has not been known for generosity. Even when - as here - tax-deductible!
Shop Local! Seriously?
1780?
Shame On You!
whudat.de
ink361.com
claus schunke
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