Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Family Reunification Program

San Francisco's new homeless strategy:Leaving's now a lot easier for S.F.'s homeless

Mayor Frank Rizzo in Philadelphia tried something similar in the 70s. He had the police quietly round up the homeless (Rizzo called them bums), take them to the bus station, and gave them one way tickets to Pittsburgh. There wasn't much of an outcry in either cities, though people in Pittsburg started wondering why a lot of guys asking for quarters sounded like they were out from Philly.

2 comments:

Eiranai said...

That`s actually quite shocking!

Diligent Blogger said...

Rizzo was very controversial mayor even in his day. He was a Democrat, with a strong law and order background, who used the race card as a campaign tool. Liberal and civil rights groups tried to recall him for, of all things, trying to raise taxes. Just in case there was ever any doubt, Rizzo had massive billboards installed outside of Philadelphia featuring a huge image of himself, with a caption that said, "Welcome to my city."