San Francisco bureaucrat shakes down homeless shoeshine man

[archerships]

He sleeps under a bridge, washes in a public bathroom and was panhandling for booze money 11 months ago, but now Larry Moore is the best-dressed shoeshine man in the city. When he gets up from his cardboard mattress, he puts on a coat and tie. It’s a reminder of how he has turned things around.

In fact, until last week it looked like Moore was going to have saved enough money to rent a room and get off the street for the first time in six years. But then, in a breathtakingly clueless move, an official for the Department of Public Works told Moore that he has to fork over the money he saved for his first month’s rent to purchase a $491 sidewalk vendor permit.
…
The bureaucrat told Moore that she found out about his business after reading about his success in this paper.

Thank god! What if we didn’t have public servants to protect us from unlicensed shoe shiners? We can only imagine.

Original: craschworks - comments

Comments

[mighty-sam.livejournal.com]

Wait... I thought all that government did was hand out money to the poor, and we're all paying for the entitlements. That's what Rush said, right? Between his pills?

But hold on... this guy pulled himself up, needed a little support, and then got dicked by government? Because support needs support, and the more that comes from the entreprenuerial poor, the better?

Hmmm.

Two problems, and one common element: government.

[phanatic.livejournal.com]

I so wish they'd have the balls to *name* that particular bureaucrat.

[pasquin.livejournal.com]

Doesn't San Fran still make cash payments for the homeless? Those don't pay for themselves, you know.

[lucystag.livejournal.com]

That's horrible. Who are the people who think that that is okay/ a really super idea? I know they're government loonies, but after reading about the man's success and hard work, how does your mind jump to "somebody needs to make him buy a shoeshine permit"?

This is why I'm a libertarian. People never believe this shit, and when they do, they never seem particularly offended. So what that a florist and a hairbraider need licenses? They're just being overly cautious, but it's not a big deal... And these are generally the people who pretend to care so much about small businesses. And we're the ones who are supposed to be fans of corporations.

Man, this just ticks me off. I would go kick a liberal, but since I'm at my parents' house, there aren't any to be found.

ugh.

[spoonfeeding.livejournal.com]

stay classy, san francisco.

[h-postmortemus.livejournal.com]

"I can solve that problem with one bullet!"