… and State of Colorado could not do anything as stupid as the things they have done in the past . . .
If you recall, when John Hickenlooper became the Mayor of Denver, he launched a program that he titled “The Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness.”
The Ten Year Plan plan not only didn’t end homelessness, but the newest federal figures show Colorado’s homeless rate is increasing at one of the higher rates in the nation. So like a degenerate gambler, Hickenlooper announced “I’m doubling down!” When he declared his original war on homelessness, his generals were his Chief of Staff Roxanne White and John Parvinski, head of Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. Their stupidity when it comes to the issues of homelessness can only be matched by the governor himself. Conspicuous by his absence was the late Bob Coté, the head of Step 13, who in the war on homelessness was a combination of George Patton, Black Jack Pershing, and Dwight Eisenhower all rolled into one.
In a recent radio interview with my colleague Craig Silverman, Chuck Plunkett (the editor of the editorial pages of The Denver Post) said he had never heard of Coté or Step 13. But Plunkett was willing to endorse one of the most world class, stupid, ill conceived, asinine, ridiculous, spending programs the city that invented the train to the plane has ever seen — that further tripped down the yellow brick road i.e. taxing marijuana to end homelessness.
When John Hickenlooper’s 10-year program began, they set up give collection boxes all over the city, as well as, fake parking meters at DIA, for people to contribute to Hickenlooper’s great leap forward. When former Denver City Auditor Dennis Gallagher did a first blush audit of the plan, there were all kinds of misuse and missing monies and even how much had been collected was unsure. I have heard numbers between $32 million, $40 million, $50 million, but no one knows. So, the only real purpose of Hickenlooper’s Ten Year Plan was to give six figure incomes to Hickenlooper’s cronies with absolutely no accounting for itself. He now asks for more, much more. So, I ask you to ask yourself, what did you get for those tens of millions except more crime, more homelessness and more sadness.
John Hickenlooper, according to The Denver Post, has a plan for dealing with homelessness that The Denver Post hopes lawmakers will take seriously. What is it, you query? Taxing pot to build homes and take care of homeless people. So all that Denver’s Ten Year Plan has just created a bird feeder for as many homeless across this country that can get to Denver.
Look at 16th St Mall crime figures before the Ten Year Plan began. Look at the safety of the Cherry Creek Bike Path before the clarion call of John Hickenlooper. They are so much worse today. Like birds to a bird feeder, these druggies and drifters, street alcoholics and mentally ill arrived in droves because John Hickenlooper will do for them what they won’t do for themselves (take care of me).
So now, does anyone believe that $12.3 million to be raised from marijuana taxes will build 1,200 housing units for homeless alcoholics? No one in the media is asking who will clean and maintain those units, who will pay the utilities on those units, and who will feed the occupants.
The sadness on the streets of Denver can be stopped by using Bob Coté’s proven methods; sobriety and work, and work and sobriety. Bob was never listened to by any of these idiots in the past, I don’t expect them to listen now. But apparently, according to The Denver Post, the city’s public safety agencies, cops, fire and sheriffs, are going broke. Whatever you do, don’t help them with this money. Rather create an even larger problem and sadness. As Bob Coté would say, you are helping the homeless commit suicide on the installment plan. They are committing suicide one day at a time. For God’s sake, don’t let these immoral fools continue these ridiculous programs. There is really nothing more to say.
— Peter