USS America to be sunk off East Coast

Find me a city mayor willing to take a shipload of homeless people from all
parts of the country and I'll show you a mayor who will be looking for
another job in the immediate future. This idea is stupid. Not only is it
not cost effective, but from a liability standpoint its financial suicide.
"John A. Weeks III" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Dave in San Diego wrote:

So you would be proposing to not only house the homeless on this carrier,
but to transport them from their "home" cities to whatever port the
government can suck into hosting it.

Sure. There are a lot of empty port facilities, so there should
be cities out there that would be happy to bring in a major
government white elephant project. There are lots of busses out
there. Greyhound has been hurting for years, so I think they
could give the government a good deal on transporting these
homeless people to their new home.

BTW, John, have you ever lived on an aircraft carrier? Further responses
on my part depend on your answer.

No. But how could that possibly make any difference. Have you
ever had a job working with the homeless people on a day to day
basis? If your answer is no, then are you really qualified to
respond any further?

-john-

--
================================================== ====================
John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
================================================== ====================

"John A. Weeks III" wrote in
:

In article ,
Dave in San Diego wrote:

BTW, John, have you ever lived on an aircraft carrier? Further
responses on my part depend on your answer.

No. But how could that possibly make any difference. Have you
ever had a job working with the homeless people on a day to day
basis? If your answer is no, then are you really qualified to
respond any further?

On a day-to-day basis, no, but I have done some work in our local shelters.

On my end, I spent almost three years sleeping on carriers, and am very
familiar with the plusses and minuses.

As for the practicality of your scheme, I think that you are painfully
unaware of exactly what will be involved in doing the conversion you
propose.

1. A carrier is a large metal structure that is, at best, poorly insulated
- cold in the winter, and hot in the summer. This requires a lot of energy
for environmental control. This is on top of ordinary ventilation
requirements.

2. When any Naval ship is decommissioned, it is stripped of most of the
furnishings, including mattresses, and similar creature comforts. This also
included all of the cooking equipment that is not permanently installed.
The facilities you speak of are, in many cases, no longer there. You are
looking at an almost total refit of the living spaces.

3. Meeting fire codes is a huge expense. All of the public access areas on
the carrier museums but be plumbed with sprinkler systems. This is a
significant expense. I'm sure a housing unit would be no different.

You say: "Who pays for everything else in America? Government and faith-
based charities."
Right. As long as it isn't coming out of *your* pocket, anything is
possible.

Sorry, my supply of troll food just dried up.

Dave in San Diego

In article ,
"Scot Bearup" wrote:

Find me a city mayor willing to take a shipload of homeless people from all
parts of the country and I'll show you a mayor who will be looking for
another job in the immediate future. This idea is stupid. Not only is it
not cost effective, but from a liability standpoint its financial suicide.

OK, its time to wind this discussion down. But one last tidbit...

Back in the 70's some guy who called himself "Bagwhan Ramesh" or
something to that effect chartered a bunch of busses and sent
them to various cities. He collected homeless people, and only
promised them a meal if they got on the bus. He took all these
people, thousands of them, to a place in the middle of nowhere
called Antelope, Montana. Bagwhan was already famous because
he had over 50 Rolls Royces, all painted in bizarre patterns like
flowers. The locals up there tried to throw this group out.
The responded by getting all the former homeless people to
register to vote. They voted all the natives out of office and
took over the city government. I don't recall what finally
happened. I think they failed to file taxes and the IRS got
them. At any rate, the entire town was forsale at one point.

It can be done. If you build it, they will come.

-john-

--
================================================== ====================
John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
================================================== ====================

Mike Kanze wrote:
...Not to mention teaching them all of the petty "survival" tricks and
cultural understanding needed to thrive on shipboard, such as (for example):

* Water hours.
* Smoking lamp.
* Visiting the seabat.
* Mail buoy watches.
* Knowing when potable water is available from the scuttlebutt (and
conversely, knowing when you could refill your Zippo from the same source).
* Enjoying the Nth rerun of the same movie.

Etc.

LOL...
powdered eggs with Texas Pete sauce on top for breakfast
sliders and autodog

John A. Weeks III wrote:
OK, its time to wind this discussion down.

Way past time. Someone (was it you?) should be spanked for floating the
idea in the first place. But let me point out the likely reason for the
resistance you're encountering, because I believe you're not trolling,
merely misguided.

The homeless/carrier thing is simply the wrong solution to the wrong
problem. Like many well-intentioned people, you're attacking the
symptom rather than the cause. The focus should be on eliminating
homelessness, not warehousing the homeless.

But even if warehousing were the goal, putting them on an aircraft is,
if I may say so, a spectacularly bad way to do it. If you would only
reflect on it it a bit, you'd no doubt come to the same conclusion.

--
John Miller

"John A. Weeks III" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Scot Bearup" wrote:

Find me a city mayor willing to take a shipload of homeless people from
all
parts of the country and I'll show you a mayor who will be looking for
another job in the immediate future. This idea is stupid. Not only is
it
not cost effective, but from a liability standpoint its financial
suicide.

OK, its time to wind this discussion down. But one last tidbit...

Back in the 70's some guy who called himself "Bagwhan Ramesh" or
something to that effect chartered a bunch of busses and sent
them to various cities. He collected homeless people, and only
promised them a meal if they got on the bus. He took all these
people, thousands of them, to a place in the middle of nowhere
called Antelope, Montana. Bagwhan was already famous because
he had over 50 Rolls Royces, all painted in bizarre patterns like
flowers. The locals up there tried to throw this group out.
The responded by getting all the former homeless people to
register to vote. They voted all the natives out of office and
took over the city government. I don't recall what finally
happened. I think they failed to file taxes and the IRS got
them. At any rate, the entire town was forsale at one point.


You have it almost totally wrong.

This was a cult led by the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his followers
built the Rajneeshpuram commune. Not only did they have a habit of
flaunting land use ordinances and election laws but they took to poisoning
those who opposed them.

It can be done. If you build it, they will come.


Thats what Jim Jones said in Guyana I believe.

Keith



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Jim Carriere wrote:

LOL...
powdered eggs with Texas Pete sauce on top for breakfast
sliders and autodog

But as I recall the noname BBQ sauce was great.

On Tue, 08 Mar 2005 21:27:35 -0600, "John A. Weeks III"
wrote:

In article ,
Tiger wrote:

I'm quite sure there are existing shelters in your area on dry land. A
carrier seems like a very big & expensive solution.

If so, then why are there still homeless people?

Answer this question and you can get quite rich.

Have you ever
been to San Francisco?

Yup.

The homeless are everywhere sleeping in
the sidewalks and doorways along Market Street. Get on the light
rail train about 11PM, and ride around San Francisco--you will get
the education of a lifetime. All they need to do is tie the
America up next to the Hornet, and they are ready to rock and roll.

Have you ever lived on a Big Grey Boat? If so, you would not make
this comment. If not, then you are speaking from a Great Well of
Ignorance.

A much better solution would be old troop ships, retired liners, etc.
This has already been suggested.

But the cost to do either would be vastly higher than just creating
places on dry land.

Bill Kambic

John A. Weeks III wrote:

In article ,
Tiger wrote:



I'm quite sure there are existing shelters in your area on dry land. A
carrier seems like a very big & expensive solution.



If so, then why are there still homeless people? Have you ever
been to San Francisco? The homeless are everywhere sleeping in
the sidewalks and doorways along Market Street. Get on the light
rail train about 11PM, and ride around San Francisco--you will get
the education of a lifetime. All they need to do is tie the
America up next to the Hornet, and they are ready to rock and roll.

-john-



Never Been to San Fran. Stayed in San Deigo for a while thanks to Uncle
Sam. Most of the guys on the street tend to be folks who either don't
like shelters or have been kicked out for bad behavior. Now if you said
open some unused Base housing units at a place like the Presido or NAS
Alameda and then I would agree with you. Those are real houses....

Now if you said open some unused Base housing units at a place like the
Presido or NAS Alameda and then I would agree with you. Those are real
houses....

"Were" is more operative.

Much of the Presidio housing has been razed and the rest is mostly being
used for its original purpose. At the former NAS Alameda, ALL of the
"outside the gate" Capehart housing has been flattened and the land is being
"redeveloped" with current stock, while that remaining on the former base
proper is being used for - housing. Similar with the housing on-board
Moffett Federal Airfield (ex-NAS Moffett Field), today a NASA facility.

There were any number of hare-brained schemes by former San Francisco Mayor
Willie Brown's Administration to house the homeless at the former NS
Treasure Island, but none of these got off the ground. All of these were as
poorly conceived as Mr. Weeks' suggestion and many were even worse.

Much of the housing stock on "BRACed" bases is very old or expensive to
maintain, or has contamination issues ranging from lead-based paints to
proximity with Superfund-grade contamination. This problem would be even
greater if people were housed on WWII construction ships due to asbestos,
lead, volatile organic compounds, etc., which brings us right back to one of
the main reasons that the Gummint plans to turn AMERICA into a crab condo.

Meanwhile, the voters in San Francisco approved a "care not cash" program
for addressing the very large homeless population. In the resulting absence
of generous cash payouts, San Francisco's homeless population has declined
significantly.

--
Mike Kanze

"One phrase that no Member of Congress should ever use lightly is 'political
hack.' The ironic possibilities are too rich."

- Wall Street Journal (3/7/05)




"Tiger" wrote in message
...
John A. Weeks III wrote:

In article ,
Tiger wrote:



I'm quite sure there are existing shelters in your area on dry land. A
carrier seems like a very big & expensive solution.



If so, then why are there still homeless people? Have you ever
been to San Francisco? The homeless are everywhere sleeping in
the sidewalks and doorways along Market Street. Get on the light
rail train about 11PM, and ride around San Francisco--you will get
the education of a lifetime. All they need to do is tie the
America up next to the Hornet, and they are ready to rock and roll.

-john-



Never Been to San Fran. Stayed in San Deigo for a while thanks to Uncle
Sam. Most of the guys on the street tend to be folks who either don't
like shelters or have been kicked out for bad behavior. Now if you said
open some unused Base housing units at a place like the Presido or NAS
Alameda and then I would agree with you. Those are real houses....