HA HA HA HA HA! That's funny dude! I WISH I lived in a suburban home and not the $25 a month public housing I live in (Townview Towers). And I usually spend 45 minutes or an hour in the park, thank you.

"It's easy to defend the homeless when they are not sleeping in your door way or pissing at your back door every night. "

Like the ones who sleep in the lobby of my building or like the moron I caught pissing on my back porch a couple nights ago?

"What fantasy land do you all live in, maybe I should round up the bums from Krutch and the library (where it's allmost impossible to find a free seat) along with the hustlers and let them lounge in your yard."

What fantasy land do YOU live in sir? I'm at the library every day (except Saturday, it's closed) and I have no problems. There are homeless folks in there sometimes but not in the great masses you indicate. If you want to let them lounge in MY yard they'll have to fight for space with the crack dealers, hookers and drug addicts. If they can find the space they're welcome to it!
It seems to me that you do a great deal of what my old papaw used to call "talking out of your hat".

MS

No doubt Mr. Wilde can find the sanitized experience he feels deprived of elsewhere, and in such a setting may be spared the dread of mingling with his fellow citizens and having them pry on their "betters." However, until such time as his means permit this isolation (or he discovers said alternatives), I would suggest he refrain from visiting public spaces where his delicate sensibiities are in jeopardy.

After all, it was his namesake who said:
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

It's a pity this Mr. Wilde seems to find himself among the former, but without the benefit of the latter.

Might I suggest you consider your above statement as a response to your initial post.

Attacking? I don't see where anyone attacked you. I just think your post is hyperbole. I'm around Krutch more days than not, and your description just doesn't hold water. MS said it, SnM said it, and I say it. Your post was laced with sarcasm (i.e. "...do the mantanince workers ask the the male prostitutes and drug dealers to move out of their office...I'm sure the photos of the wedding will delite the family for years...incase the bestman at your next wedding does'nt show up, you can allways grab a freshly washed homeless guy") and so you set the tone.

You all seem to think trashing Victor Ashe in every issue of Metro pulse is your right

You seem to think I work for Metro Pulse. Wrong again.

Obviously you spend your weekends and time after 5pm in your clean bum free subburban track homes and never have to see the homeless

Those who know me are laughing at this statement. Hell, I know a lot of 'em by name.

If you hang around after 5pm depending on the day and time there's up to 7-8 hustlers along clinch ave from Krutch to walnut if they are not on 17th st or Tyson park where they tend to rotate.

I do not have the intimate knowledge of this topic that you possess.

If you're around the Square, you might encounter Byron. Byron is pretty creepy. A short, stocky man usually dressed in some incongruous way. Maybe a newish looking blazer and no shoes. Maybe a trenchcoat and shorts. If he sees you smoking, he'll ask for a cigarette. Byron always asks for a cigarette.

He's dirty. He's weird. But Byron's not homeless. And from what I understand, used to be a pretty sharp and successful guy. Then Byron was in a motorcycle wreck some years ago and suffered extreme head trauma. I'm not sure Byron knows how to tie his shoes anymore. I understand that he lives in government assisted housing downtown. It's unlikly that Byron's capable of work. It's equally unlikely that he needs to be institutionalized.

And there are a lot of people like Byron. People who are inconvenient for society, and who take up park benches, and mess up the scenery for sensitive folks who'd prefer the world to be disnified for their protection.

I just give him cigarettes. And I make deals with him that if I give him a cigarette, he'll quit asking me for one. But Byron can't keep that deal. And I can't bring myself to hate him for that.

~Gene Harrogate

Hell, I've met Byron. He comes in the Soup Kitchen almost every day for his free glass of tea. We always tell him "One glass Byron, that's it, don't come back today" and invariably a little while later here he comes again, scaring the lunch crowd. Then we have to run him out again. Sure it's sad and I do feel kinda sorry for him, but it's still a pain in the ass.

MS

Nobody's doubting that you saw those things (well, actually, I don't believe you've ever seen "7-8 hustlers along Clinch Ave. from Krutch to Walnut"), but I think holding them up as a portrayal of the area is a little off-kilter.

First, in response to your response to my original post: You entirely evaded my point, a common stratagem for someone who has no argument. I never said I was concerned about the homeless folks downtown. Quite the opposite: I'm not bothered by them, and I suggested that if YOU were so concerned about them, you should stay inside where you are safe. None of them have ever bothered me in all my meanderings around downtown, night or day. Seems like you and your attitude are the problem, not the homeless folks.

Second: You can complain about whatever you want. Nobody ever said you couldn't. But if you do it on this board, especially if you phrase it in such asinine terms as you have, you can expect to get retorts. Sorry if that hurts your feelings, but again, if it bothers you, maybe you should stay inside with the curtains drawn and the computer off.

He's scary, I'll grant you that (and that's "scary" with a lower-case S, mind you). I have eaten lunch with the guy, and it was terrifying.

Back to Krutch Park, though:

hustling and doing your laundry in Krutch park is wrong

I live downtown, I work downtown (right across from Krutch), I spend an inordinate amount of time on the MacLeod's patio (also right across from Krutch), and I've never seen anyone bathing or washing their clothes in the park (you'd have to be pretty dang grungy to resort to that). Ain't saying it's never happened, but I've certainly never seen it. And I've never seen anyone hustling there, either — there'd be no point, since you can't be seen from a trollling car.

there's up to 7-8 hustlers along clinch ave from Krutch to walnut

News to me, and I walk down Clinch from Krutch to Walnut after 5 PM every day. You do see a few hustlers downtown, but they don't bother anybody. One of them — this sad-looking guy I'd walked past maybe a dozen times in three weeks — asked me for spare change once, and he seemed really embarrassed about it, like yeah, maybe he was a hustler, but he wasn't no damn beggar.

I hear what you're saying about people pissing in your doorway, though. One of our staff writers was leaving the Arnstein via the back door, which seemed to be blocked by something. A head popped around the edge of the door and said, "Hey, buddy, do you mind? I'm trynta take a dump here." Our writer decided to use the front door instead.

You should be. I'll eat YOU for lunch.

But what about Gene? He's been all nice and pleasant, but he too, has pointed out the many errors and faults in your previous posts. Care to just acknowledge that Gene was right and say, "Oops, sorry, I was wrong about several points there, and yes, I'm the one who started using the sarcastic tone, and I admit, I can aim sarcasm at people who aren't here to defend themselves, but I get all upset and flustered when it's aimed at me, so I'll just be a good poster from now on, and not take potshots at people"?

Think you could do that, hmmmmm, Sunshine?

Before you request intelligent discussion, you ought to demonstrate that you can actually participate in one. So far, you have not.

Nope, not me. Gene's right. I'm sarcastic. Try to distinguish the two, please.

Of course, you haven't disproved anything I've posted either, but that's another issue...

Defenselss and unarmed as you are, you present no challenge. Frankly, you are boring, as well. Nothing but a one-note sparrow, and it's a shrill note you sing.

Then please, steer it back toward your disdain for the homeless in public.

Yes well I never said the homeless or hustlers bothered me in my original statment

I must have misinterpreted: has more ugly per square inch than Time Square and the sight of a homeless man bathing in it was uncomfortable so I decided to move on

And Finally:
...there's way too much sex going on in the market square bathrooms to leave them open all the time, yeah surprise surprise!!!

Again, I'll have to defer to your elemental knowledge of these things. You seem to know a good deal about where hustlers hang out and the preferred local arenas for sex.

Surprise, surprise.

~Gene Harrogate

Christ. You and JJJ. Why is it that spewing shit to provoke response is regarded as popularity among wackos? I suppose any attention is better than no attention.

Oh wait, you would like that, wouldn't you?

Sick. Sick. Sick. Sick.