Someone done went and turned Cherie Kidd's idiot switch to "Full Power" at the last City Council meeting, especially during the discussion about homelessness...
Kidd repeatedly described panhandlers as entrepreneurs at Tuesday's meeting..."We are talking about people who are entrepreneurs and stand there with a sign and make cash. These are people who want to live a lifestyle by standing on corners and getting tax-free money."
Though, really, he couldn't hope to even be competitive with Cherie in the moron's race to the bottom, Dan Gase at least gave it a try...
"I am hearing our citizens are afraid to walk downtown and shop in downtown stores," Gase said.
If this guy is really an entrepreneur, maybe Cherie
could recruit him for the EDC Board?
But Kidd was at the top of her game, spewing forth her predetermined and fact-deficient views again and again. When they conflicted with reality, she just bulldozed ahead. When Jennifer Linde, the EDC rep from PA Forward, reported that 96 people had signed a petition calling for "tougher measures" Kidd smacked her down by saying that "more than 200 people had complained" about "aggressive begging." And when the City's own police officer, Sgt. Jason Viada, said that no one had ever - as in ever - described panhandling as a job, or a way to avoid paying taxes, his words couldn't penetrate the forcefield of fake facts Gavel Gertie had surrounded herself with. Still in full-on stupid mode the next day, Kidd just regurgitated her same set of fantasy facts...
"They get tax-free money," she said. "They are living a free lifestyle. They panhandle because it pays off."
***UPDATE!***
Be sure to add your sign to the Fence of Folly. This is a limited time offer, and spaces are going fast!
Great News!!!
ReplyDeleteThe city has erected an excellent canvas on which to place your protest signs. It is the long fence recently erected behind Mathews Glass. Bring your signs and zip ties and decorate this fence. It is about 30 yards long and six feet high. You can get your message out to all those motorists who have to stop for the light at Front and Lincoln. Get creative but keep it clean so they won't be in any rush to remove them. Anyone have any of those "Step Down Now" signs around? Zip 'em to the fence. Someone has already started the protest by affixing a really official looking sign reading, "Warning: Don't Feed the Hungry." See how it works.
Please send photos!
DeleteTHANK YOU, POC!
DeleteKidd also was quoted in the article as saying “It is not the homeless who are doing it.” I suppose she's personally asked all of them? Maybe she should do a segment on her "Positively Port Angeles" show where she goes around and interviews them? After all, they positively *are* PA! BTW...has anyone caught that show yet? I keep forgetting to see if I even receive that channel.
ReplyDeleteshe backed off on the "homeless do it" to another tact when someone from Humanity House spoke, and said it wasn't their homeless doing it. Meanwhile, Cherie brought visual aids -- empty malt liquor cans and a sign -- to show.
DeleteUnfortunately Cherie just seems like a batty, fearful old woman with this nonsense.
My aunt, who went all Alzheimer's, did the same thing before it got really bad. She became afraid of everything, irrational, and paranoid. She was sure that her house was bugged, and that we were all lying to her.
If it comes on, which Cherie, like it did for my aunt, it should be pretty interesting to watch over the next few months, and by the elections next year Cherie should be the Mad Hatter, or worse, the Red Queen "Off with their heads!!!"
I have become convinced, that in propping up demented officials such as Kidd (and others), the local powers-that-be are trying to run off everyone from what they see as THEIR TOWN, so they can just log & graft in peace.
ReplyDeleteThis place is beyond backward. In spite of that, the future is managing to arrive here anyway.
Port Angeles has sunk to a new low.
ReplyDeleteI've had enough. I moved here because of the beauty of the surroundings, but I had no idea about the people and the politics. I assumed there would be controversies of some kind, but that they would be like I saw in the town I used to live in. People arguing about developments that were proposed, mostly.
But in the last 6 months or so here, I've witnessed a type of arrogance and lack of compassion from the city leaders that I've never seen. In the town I came from, the city leadership held public awareness campaigns to help the residents understand issues like homelessness, family abuse, mental illness and climate change. We came together to find different and additional ways to help the town be a better place.
But here, there is a darkness. There is an attitude I don't want my two young children to learn. I don't want them, or myself, to learn these attitudes.
I only found this blog two weeks ago, as I searched to learn more. I have been upset by what I've been experiencing in Port Angeles, and was looking to see if I was somehow missing something. Finding this blog, where others are pointing out things I have seen, verified what I suspected.
I wish I had found this blog before I decided to move my family here.
Good luck to those of you who stay. Why anyone would stay here, when things are so much nicer elsewhere, and there is no reason to put up with this, is beyond me.
Be good to yourself, and your family.
Bye.
Good luck, and be assured you've made the right decision. Life is too short to live in Port Angeles.
DeleteLast year I left Port Angeles for Sequim and have not regretted it. Nowhere is 100% perfect, but Sequim is vastly more perfect than PA can ever hope to be. On the few times I have to go back to PA it's like a tour through Depression Land - dilapidated, dreary, desolate. Needless to say, I never linger in PA. So move to Sequim or Carlsborg, even.
DeleteIn the privacy of my own home, with no one there to hear me, I would be embarrassed to say out loud the things that Cherie Kidd says in public, on microphone, with the press there. Her lack of facts and lack of shame come together here to make her sound shrill, stupid and just plain cruel. You have to love how she not only manages to slam homeless people, but also undercuts and insults her own city employees and supposed business allies from PA Forward.
ReplyDeleteAmazing. Embarrassment is too small a word for the colossal fiasco that is Cherie Kidd. She is in a class(less) by herself.
It would be great if someone would challenge Cherie Kidd on her so-called "figures." A bum in downtown Port Angeles can make $200 a day??? That's just ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, there just aren't that many people in downtown Port Angeles.
Second, I'd bet that a majority of the businesses downtown don't see $200 a day.
It's an absurd claim from an absurd woman. Her mouth is disconnected from her brain, and her brain is disconnected from reality. A drunken cuckoo clock makes more sense than Cherie Kidd.
Just get your facts straight a little. She did not say he made $200 a day. He said that. That's different.
DeleteActually, I believe this is a case of she said he said it - as in, Cherie says the panhandler said. Which means, yes, Cherie said.
DeleteCherie also sad. Very sad, if you know what I mean.
Cherie lies, 5:49. She lies on camera, she lies off camera, she lies to herself, she lies to others. Cherie lies all the time. So, there is no way I believe that anyone said $200 a day. And, I don't believe that Cherie has any clue about what anyone makes or doesn't make from panhandling.
DeleteCherie is a liar. She isn't 3rd generation. She lived out of the area for most of her adult life. She doesn't own a business. She was never a "successful motivational speaker".
The woman wouldn't know truth if it were a dog that bit her in the arse.
What the hell is aggressive panhandling? As a general rule I pass on the panhandlers with the cutesy or clever signs. Being on a very limited fixed disability income I do however sympathize with the homeless and understand I'm one small financial crisis away from joining them. I do cough up a buck if I have two, to the people who are butt planted next to their wet sleeping bags and wet dogs. I have never ever experienced aggressive panhandling so I don't know what it is. If someone asks me for money and I not passing any out I simply look them straight in the eye and say "sorry, not today." That's it. No problem. I've never had anyone, who had not obviously missed their morning medication, ask me again or behave in a rude manner. I'm thinking Cherie and a few of her cohorts should maybe get dropped off at Wal-Mart with nothing more then the clothes on their backs and a sleeping bag for a couple of days. I imagine it wouldn't be long before she was tapping the public for some phone change to call for help. It's not like she could make it out there. I doubt very much she could even find the homeless shelter. As you recall the serenity house street overnight shelter. SOS was closed for a couple of months before any of our local government politicians realized it was shut down. That pretty much says it all about what they truly know about the homeless situation. Someone should explain to Cherie if you don't know anything about a situation your supposed to shut up and listen.
ReplyDeleteClassic.
ReplyDeleteDan Gase and Co. crash and burn our local economy, creating a downtown that's a dead zone. No jobs, no hope.
This, in turn, creates or facilitates the appearance of people panhandling downtown, which, in turn, supposedly makes downtown "unsafe."
Thus, the cause (Gase and Co.) blames the effect (homeless people) for the fact that downtown is failing. "It's not our backwards leadership, it's those bums!"
Classic.
While I understand your frustration CK, I must protest your scathingly negative rhetoric regarding Little Cheri Kidd and her problems with veracity.
ReplyDeleteFrom her ridiculously inaccurate description of Whetham's actions in the fluoride debate, to her wholly fictitious conversation with the 200 dollar a day homeless person, MS. Kidd has progressed from Kookie Old Lady to Off Her Rocker to Bat-Shit Crazy. She is not to be scorned, but rather pitied.
For most of us, the entertainment value of our City's continued indulgence of this poor woman's fantasy life, is far outweighed by the damage she id doing to an already embattled city council and the hopelessly mismanaged city they serve.
Short of euthanasia, the only humane course of action is to quietly remove her from office and put her out to pasture somewhere pretty. I would suggest somewhere in Happy Valley. She'll like the sound of that. Surrounded by her things, Cheri can live out her life happily and harmlessly. She can wear her costumes and chat with her imaginary homeless friends and be gracious to her scores of imaginary supporters and admirers. She may never have to know the joke is on her.
But by continuing the cruel practice of allowing her in positions of responsibility, the joke is on Us as well.
Absolutely the joke is on the residents. Yet, she's just a stupid patsy; ask her handlers why.
DeleteThey're the ones who don't want any smart, thinking, visionary folk here. Nope, they just wanna dump their logs any damn where they want to. What the hell do we care how this place looks? We just wanna sell our forests! Kidd, keep on distracting the crowd, will ya? You're doin' a great job there!
Cherie is senile. It's just so hard to tell when senility hits with stupid people.
ReplyDeleteOuch!
Deletehttp://komonews.com/news/local/police-port-angeles-man-uses-decorative-sword-to-fight-off-knife-wielding-intruder
ReplyDeleteThis is aggressive panhandling. It's all over the news. Wait. I missed this in the PDN. :D
Well, it's in the PDN this morning. You do have to wonder, though, how it is that out of the area news outfits often get Clallam County news out way, way before the local sources do. Why...the...lag...P...D...N?
DeleteMeanwhile...They've arrested somebody for the recent kidnapping/rape, but still no word at all on who owns the car that killed someone in that recent hit and run. I have to wonder...
ReplyDeleteNo witnesses. If they can't prove who was driving, and get DNA off the car, or pieces of car from the victim, they probably cannot get a conviction. Hitting a pedestrian is not automatically a crime anyway; circumstances matter. Be as suspicious as you want, though.
DeleteThat's because PDN over the border there heard the phrase "No news is good news" and, being in the ritin' bizness 'n all, took it literally.
DeleteI've worked downtown for years and do a fair amount of walking on my lunch breaks. I have no idea what they're talking when they use the term "aggressive panhandling". One time a young woman asked me for the time of day and then asked if I could help her out with bus fair. This whole thing is a distraction from the real issues and not worthy of the attention it has received. The real reason why people don't come downtown has little to do with panhandling. But, for whatever reason, our City Council can't cut to the chase. That is a much bigger problem.
ReplyDeleteI'm downtown almost every day, on foot. I see panhandlers. I watch panhandlers. I speak to panhandlers. I have never seen "aggressive panhandling" in any shape form or fashion.
ReplyDeleteIn Psychology there is a term called "projection" where we cast aspersions on others which are actually reflections of us. I call you what I am.
I want to see a list of those 200 complainants Cherie. None of this secrecy shit, okay.
ReplyDeleteshhhh, she's still writing up the complaints. Takes a long time to try and create that much documentation, don't you know?
DeletePeople need to remember how much support the John Birch Society has in this town.
ReplyDeleteI would really like to take issue with the commenter who said biting a pedestrian is not automatically a crime. Hit and run is a crime. They said they found the vehicle that killed the dead guy. That vehicle belongs to somebody. Unless the car was reported stolen the owner of the car is responsible for who ever gets behind the wheel. Cars don't just disappear in the evening , kill somebody and reappear later on without the owner having any idea it was gone. Even if they can't get a conviction their job is to investigate and assign responsibility for a death. There should be something, vague updates, announcements that they were keeping the investigation on the own low for whatever reason. You don't just trot out a dead guy and claim he was mowed down and left to die. Put a community on alert looking for white vehicles with new sudden damage and then say you have found your weapon but won't say who who owns it. If I was this guy's family I'd be getting lawyered up about now.the public has a right to know who owned a vehicle that was used in a hit and run that caused a death. What possible reason could their be for not releasing that information?
ReplyDeleteI've seen a few pedestrians I'd like to bite...
DeleteIt wasn't the hitting and killing of the person that was the issue, it was leaving the scene. You shouldn't even leave the scene if you think you hit a deer or a dog -- it isn't the "right thing to do". However, few, if any, do the right thing around here.
DeleteAnd, I'd wager that the hit-and-run-killer is some long-time PA family, who never get in trouble for whatever they do.
In case you haven't noticed that a few people still panhandle right there, from the sidewalk... Nothing's stopping anyone from panhandling or eating or feeding the hungry. The fence stops people from trespassing and congregating, pissing and shitting and littering, and getting bombed and passing out there on the private property. I'm not allowed to do those things on other people's property either, so it seems fair enough to me.
ReplyDeleteIt's the property owner's responsibility to secure his property. The city put up the fence. Edna told them to, she and John Brewer. You remember him, he published the puddin for several years. Now he runs the business association--along with edna.
DeleteWell, of course it is the owner's job! But they don't do it. They live in California and have no idea and la-la-la. The city has the legal authority to abate nuisances and to dun the property owner for it. This meets the legal definition and is probably the cheapest remedy. I could do without the signs, but I'm fine with the rest of it.
DeleteThe property has been vacant for over 15 years and I'd hazard a guess that the owner lives in Seattle or Cali. Either the property should be secured and renovations begun or the city should claim eminent domain (or something) and bulldoze the structure.
Delete"The city has the legal authority to abate nuisances and to dun the property owner for it."
DeleteAnd : "Either the property should be secured and renovations begun or the city should claim eminent domain (or something) and bulldoze the structure."
Why? As if it is the worst looking property n Port Angeles? Of the most problematic? Or, as if that is any kind of significant problem, here?
The only problem I see is that the community isn't doing enough to help people in need. Because the community won't keep shelters funded, or help the needy, a very few end up on that corner.
In the 15 plus years I've been driving past that corner, I RARELY see ANYBODY there. The relatively few times I see anybody at the corner of Lincoln and Front, there is one person. Even more rarely, two.
Empty building? How about the others in and around downtown?
Once again, the City and it's supporters go after a symptom, instead of addressing the problem. And nothing changes, except they get to demonstrate once again what a bunch of clueless, heartless and ignorant people make the decisions in this town.
Remember what NOAA said after evaluating different coastal town it could relocate to. Port Angeles does not have the needed "quality of life".
And, we keep showing the world how true that is.
Anon 2:40 - how many homeless folks do you feed, clothe and house on a regular basis? C'mon now, be honest. One a week? two per day? Three a fortnight? How many?
DeleteTypical of the Socialist elitist, you want to give everything away, do away with private property and level downwards.
It's no guess, 9:48 -- they DO live in CA, according to the County property rolls. Out of sight, out of mind, so there's no way to deal with them except the hard way.
Delete"Typical of the Socialist elitist..."
DeleteAnd here we see the reality of Port Angeles. I got mine, fuck you.
Of course, as soon as something goes wrong, and these despicable people feel the smallest discomfort, they are the first to start crying "Where is the government. Why didn't they do something."
Yes, even Jesus was one of the "Socialist elitist", by your definition.
The ugly-ness of Port Angeles' John Birch Society underpinnings reveals itself, one again.
6:44am, I support several people. I'm not a socialist.
DeleteWhat Anon 6:44 is too blinded to see is that they wouldn't have the life they enjoy, if it were not for a lot of people working together to create the society we live in.
DeleteBoy scouts, Eagle scouts and girl scouts are encouraged to volunteer, help ladies across a street and do all kinds of things to help others. There are so many examples of where, how and who helps others, without being asked to do so.
There are dozens of civic groups in Port Angeles. The business associations, the Lions, the Elks, the Moose, the Soroptimists and many others, ALL of whom volunteer to help residents of Port Angeles in one way or another.
It is just, as someone else noted, the few bitter, angry old white folk that have forgotten what it is to be human. Somehow, they have come to believe they are seen for the material things they have accumulated, rather than what kind of person they are. As if a big bank account impresses anyone. As if it will help you die any better.
They are the real losers.
What seems to be missed by these morons is the messaging they are generating about how bad and dangerous Port Angeles is.
ReplyDeleteFrom our real estate agent and City Council Member: "I am hearing our citizens are afraid to walk downtown and shop in downtown stores," Gase said."
You can't pay money for PR like that!
Yep. That was my first thought when I read about the City proposing to give businesses "Homeless Go Away!" posters: You're essentially announcing to any and all customers that there's a problem, something to worry about...Even though there really isn't. All this "attention" to a non-existent threat is creating yet another stumbling block for Port Angeles.
DeletePretty savvy, Mr. Gase. Slick, very slick. (Which rhymes with "hick"...)
This is what results when people are trained to think in terms of fear, and "them vs us".
DeleteBitter old white folk that have been turned into nasty people.