Thursday, October 12, 2017

Tiny houses aren’t just for Millennials. They could help homeless

As the homeless issue reaches a critical level, the city of Reno is scrambling to find a place for a second shelter. For now, the best option is this site near East Fourth Street. Anjeanette Damon 



RENO — A coalition of faith-based and human services groups is working to build a tiny house village for the homeless in Reno, but they need money and land.
They would also need the city of Reno to change its zoning and building code laws to allow for such homes to be built without bathrooms, kitchens or other code requirements that other builders are held to.
At the Reno City Council meeting Wednesday, Pat Cashell of Volunteers for America and Sharon Chamberlain of Northern Nevada HOPES presented their ideas for a tiny home village to help house the chronically homeless.
The plan is modeled after similar villages in Seattle; Portland, Ore.; and Eugene, Ore. It would include 40 bare-bone houses that one councilwoman likened to a "tent with hard walls," including a roof and a locking door. The houses would be situated around a central building with bathrooms and kitchen facilities.
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Cashell said the group would count on volunteers from youth groups, church groups and other community members to donate supplies and labor. He estimated each house would cost about $3,800 to build.
Chamberlain estimated the project would need a $270,000 operating budget, which would fund a project manager and case managers who could help connect residents to other social services and permanent housing.
The village would help close a housing gap that is widening as Reno comes to grips with an economic recovery that is driving housing prices up and vacancy rates down.
Human services agencies have seen wait times triple as they try to find transitional housing for chronically homeless individuals who can't make use of the shelter because they have a partner, a pet or a health condition that puts the shelter out of their reach.
Cashell, who spent 10 years homeless as he battled addiction, stressed such a project is critical.
"People without shelter die," he said. "I can’t stress this enough. These are human beings who actually die."
The group is on the hunt for land and has its eye on three parcels already owned by the city of Reno.
The city is already considering a second homeless shelter. Councilman Paul McKenzie suggested both the shelter and the tiny home village could be built on the same site.
Councilwoman Neoma Jardon has been pushing for a tiny home project, saying she'd like to see it get off the ground within 90 days.
"The homeless shelter is full and the overflow shelter is overflowing," she said.
That could be difficult, however. Reno's building and zoning codes don't allow for such dwelling units.

Originally published on https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/10/12/tiny-houses-arent-just-millennials-they-could-help-homeless/756955001/
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G-20 summit protests: What is a Black Bloc?

A University of California Berkeley spokesman says a small group turned protests violent, as Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos came to speak. The spokesman added that it's not a proud day for the Berkeley campus. (Feb. 2) AP

The violence that erupted outside the G-20 summit — smashed store fronts, petrol bombs and catapults — marked the latest surge of Black Bloc protests, a European resistance that recently emerged in American political demonstrations.
The Hamburg, Germany, Police Department reported Black Bloc protesters are among the thousands of protesters attempting to disrupt the annual gathering of world leaders. President trump called the protesters, "anarchists."
Black Bloc, is a tactic, not a group. Those who practice it often wear black and cover their face with masks. Typically, they leave a wake of destruction.
In a 2015 article published in Police Magazine,  author Kory Flowers said anarchists use protests such as the ones in Ferguson, Missouri, after the shooting death of Michael Brown, to launch their signature "chaos- and havoc-laden tactics." The article described Black Bloc strategy as "throngs of criminal anarchists all dress in black clothing in an effort to appear as a unified assemblage, giving the appearance of solidarity for the particular cause at hand."
Videos and photos of the events in Hamburg show throngs of people dressed in black.
Black Bloc gained attention in the United States in 1999 after violent protests at a meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle, according to a 2001 history of the tactic on the anarchist news website, A-Infos. The reason for the dress, wrote the history's author Daniel Dylan Young, was to "fend off police attacks, without being singled out as individuals for arrest and harassment later on."
Hundreds of people were arrested in the Seattle riots, which involved anarchists vandalizing businesses.
Young said Black Blocs spread in Europe in the 1980s as a "popular resistance to the police state and the New World Order." About 3,000 people engaged in a Black Bloc protest in 1987, according to A-Infos, when President Ronald Reagan visited Berlin.
In early February, swarms of people dressed in black invaded what was supposed to be a peaceful demonstration against right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulous on the campus of the University of California - Berkeley.
The group tossed smoke bombs, set fires and started fights. Yiannopoulous' speech was canceled as a result. The protest's organizers, the Berkeley Against Trump coalition, said the peaceful acts of the 1,500 demonstrators were marred by 50 to 75 anti-fascist Black Bloc protestors.
Outside of Berkeley, media outlets have linked Black Blocs to a number of modern protests, most recently in efforts opposing President Trump. The Nation credits a Black Bloc protestor with punching alt-right leader Richard Spencer in the face on Trump's inauguration day.  The Washington Post said Black Blocs were involved with violent protests in Washington, D.C. on inauguration day and in Portland following Trump's election win.

 Originally published on https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/02/02/what-black-bloc/97393870/
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NFL, players have one easy answer for how to end protests on their own terms

 
 
If there was any doubt about who really is fighting whom in the continuing saga of the NFL anthem protests, Wednesday morning’s back and forth between Donald Trump and the league should settle matters once and for all.
At 6:47 a.m. ET, Trump tweeted the following:  “It is about time that Roger Goodell of the NFL is finally demanding that all players STAND for our great National Anthem-RESPECT OUR COUNTRY.”
Only problem with that tweet is that Goodell said no such thing in a letter to all 32 clubs on Tuesday. Goodell did not “demand” that all players stand during the anthem. He said they “should stand,” reiterating the language already employed in the league’s current anthem policy while also saying it’s time for the league “to move past this controversy…together with our players.”
Nearly three hours after Trump tweeted, the NFL called him on his mistake in one beautiful sentence:
"Commentary this morning about the Commissioner’s position on the Anthem is not accurate.”
More: Can the NFL convince players to stop national anthem protests?
More: Donald Trump tweets it's 'about time' NFL, Goodell make players stand for anthem
The league went on to say it “is doing the hard work of trying to move from protest to progress, working to bring people together.”
Perhaps that means there’s someone out there trying to pull us apart? Is there anyone out there with a Twitter account trying to do that?
Since Trump inserted himself into what was a dying issue late last month, many in the news media have turned the anthem protest story into an owners-vs.-players battle, which is exactly what Trump wants.
But that’s just not right. The owners and players certainly have their differences, but those pale in comparison to the havoc Trump is wreaking on both parties.
If we’re going to be correct about this, we need to call this what it is: Trump waging war on the NFL for his own selfish political purposes.
This was not a fight the NFL wanted. Trump dragged the league into this one with his despicable, race-baiting, “son of a bitch” comment about anthem protesters in a political speech in Alabama nearly three weeks ago.
But like it or not, this is the fight the NFL now faces. As much as the league says it wants to work with its players on the very significant issues some are highlighting with their bended knees and locked arms, it can’t when a human noise machine with a cell phone continues to pound away from the vast beyond.
So, what to do? There’s a very simple answer: Go back to the days before 2009 when teams were not required to come out of the locker room until after the anthem was played (except for the Super Bowl and after 9/11).
With no players on the field, the anthem will go on, fans will stand at attention or stand in line for nachos or run in from the parking lot or do whatever it is they do during the anthem, and the controversy — at least the visible part of it — will be over.
This quick fix would deprive Trump of visual evidence of player protests, which has provided the oxygen for his incessant and incendiary tweets. He’d find something else to tweet about, for sure, but it likely wouldn’t be about players on the sidelines during the anthem, because they wouldn’t be there anymore.
What this solution must not do is stop the ongoing conversations between the players and the league over the issues of social injustice that Colin Kaepernick first drew attention to on the 49ers sideline last year, concerns that have faded the past couple of weeks as players felt the need to join forces to protest against Trump. 
Those who would be angry to lose the powerful imagery of players taking a knee should consider that they’d also likely lose Trump in this deal. Getting him out of the way would allow the league, the clubs and the players to address these important issues calmly and wisely.
Keeping players in the locker room is a far better answer than the preposterous plan Jerry Jones floated the other day, the one in which he said he would immediately bench any players who protested during the anthem. How would that work if, say, quarterback Dak Prescott took a knee, or perhaps the entire Dallas Cowboys wide receiving corps?
One nagging concern among NFL players has been Trump’s end game, that if and when they stop protesting and stand at attention, Trump would be able to declare victory. Can you imagine what that would look like? The tweets might never end. 
Staying in the locker room just might solve that problem too. The patriotic sideline scene Trump is dreaming about can’t happen if the players aren’t there.

Originally published on https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/brennan/2017/10/11/nfl-national-anthem-protests-roger-goodell-donald-trump/754607001/
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