Monday, June 17, 2013

“Let them eat compost!” While 21,000 children starve and sleep on New York City streets, Mayor Bloomberg frets about composting potato peels.


More than 50,000 New Yorkers slept in city homeless shelters and on the streets last night. About 21,000 were children. These numbers are huge and appalling, higher than they were in 2002, when Mayor Michael Bloomberg took office, higher than in the dismal days of the fiscal crisis, the Reagan ’80s and the surly administration of Rudolph Giuliani…. 
… The shelter population has risen 61 percent while Mr. Bloomberg has been mayor, propelled by a 73 percent increase in homeless families, according to the Coalition for the Homeless, whose relentless advocacy has been provoking mayoral fury since the 1980s. These surging numbers — of families with children, especially — undercut claims that New York is steadily becoming a better place to live, and that its government has gotten better at helping its most vulnerable citizens meet their most basic needs.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who has tried to curb soda consumption, ban smoking in parks and encourage bike riding, is taking on a new cause: requiring New Yorkers to separate their food scraps for composting…. 
… Anticipating sharp growth in food recycling, the administration will also seek proposals within the next 12 months for a company to build a plant in the New York region to process residents’ food waste into biogas, which would be used to generate electricity.

In other words, screw the starving homeless children. They don’t have any potato peelings to contribute anyway. And by the way, who said businessmen-turned-politicians aren't great at setting priorities?

1 comment:

Patricia said...

The inky question is when will they commodify the homeless? That's the only way they Bloomberg and his ilk will notice them.
It's really interesting to think they are going to get people to compost. How will they enforce this? The compost police?
Wonder who will make money from this composting scheme?
My daughter was in NYC last weekend and she was shocked at how many homeless she encountered. She is smart enough to know for every one you see, there are ten you don't. It's tragic and disgraceful. Nice job, great post.