The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon.
Today’s question:
The President of the Oakland City Council is proposing using a cruise ship, which would be docked at the Port of Oakland, to house 1,000 of the city’s 4,000 homeless people.
QUESTION: What’s your opinion on this proposal? Do you think this is a good idea or a bad idea?
Talk about it.
Asinine idea. Where would they get the cruise ship? Housing that many homeless on top of each other would cause nothing but problems. They like being outside, and a ship would be a roof over their head.
“They like being outside”. So do you think we should just let them crap up the streets and neighborhoods? They are vagrants and there are laws against vagrancy. Scope them up and put them someplace off of the streets. If ships are the cheapest it seems it would be a good way to go. We have no cheap way out of this mess.
Even when cruise ships are filled with paying guests and a full crew to wait on them, they are breeding grounds for sudden outbreaks of sickness. Can you imagine what a petri dish a ship stuffed with thousands of homeless drug addicts and crazy people will be like? This is probably how the zombie apocalypse starts.
Its moot anyway. They don’t use the shelters because of shelter rules, what makes you think they are going to use the ships?
They are vagrants they have no choice. Get out of town or on a boat.
If we could compel them to go on the boat, we could also compel them to go into mental health facilities and rehab, which would be the better solution to all this.
We can’t do that because of current civil rights laws. Until there is a move to change this for the severely mentally I’ll and addicted, there is no point in even trying the cruise ship idea.
This isn’t a great idea; however, where in the port of Oakland would they be docking the boat? Jack London Square is a beautiful tourist attraction and appears to have little crime; therefore, they would lose a lot of money if the boat was docked where. Further, the home owners around there won’t allow it and the medical facilities won’t be thrilled either.
If this passes, I think they should have valet parking for their shopping carts.
If the price is right they need two. One for mandatory drug and alcohol treatment. The other for the mentally ill. Everybody off the street and into one of them.
They could call it the Bum Boat.
and this addresses the root cause, how????
It doesn’t. The root cause is mental illness. Which can be treated, but never cured.
Do they then plan to sink the boat?
Second best comment of 2019! rofl!
Well done Steve.
I’m laughing waaaayyyyyyyy too hard at that one.
We can only wish?
Sounds kinda like the French Devil Island. How much more expensive is it to actually sail the ship than just service the guests? If they’re already staying on the ship, might as well give them a free trip to Acapulco.
Only if they leave them there.
Even the rats would jump ship.
This isn’t a great idea.
There are no cruise ship docks in Oakland. It would cost a great deal of money to create a permanent dock to support a large ship.
How much would the ship and it’s maintenance cost?
Help those who want help first. Build suitable housing.
Help the mentally ill. It’s time to bring back mental hospitals.
Those who prefer to live wild don’t need or want help. There is no place for them here.
We should send that boat to all the socialist countries aka bums paradise
This is about the most stupid idea they have dreamed up yet. So who is going to pay for cleaning the ship back up, or pump out the sewer holding tanks. There is also the issue of powering the ship. Who is going to cover that cost. And most the homeless would probably strip the ship of any thing of value or recyclable to cover there drug and drinking habits
Oh no,….What a hot mess that would be.
House the Homeless,…would it be without cleaning service or cooked meals?
Too much to go wrong.
Bingo Roz
I doubt if 5% of them would agree to the rules dealing with drugs, alcohol and smoking. Not to mention all their stuff & pets. The City would have to provide full time policing the ship which would take about 20 officers total to man three shifts and days off.
It would be Oakland’s version of the Costa Concordia disaster with similar adult leadership in both cases.
Why not someplace out in the middle of the desert, where it isn’t profitable to panhandle and there is no sidewalk to block or use as a toilet. On the flip side, perhaps removing them from easy access to drugs, giving them a routine, and providing mental health services and basic medical care would restore them. But a cruise ship? This is nothing more than a publicity stunt made in cynical/bad taste.
bad idea. now the ocean floor will have more needles and trash in it than it already does.
They should totally do that. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
Great idea. Stick them all there and float it to portland.
After one of the hurricanes, possibly Katrina, they brought a cruise ship in and tried to put people on the ship. People went on if for a couple days but then got irritated by the rules. And of course, they trashed the place.
I also think I remember them bringing a ship of some kind after Loma Prieta. I think they put the homeless on that. I remember them all walking around in orange suits while their clothes were being cleaned. I think it was a Coast Guard ship.
This is a great idea! Fill it up and then set sail! Problem solved.
Who gets to police it? Nobody?
Feral people don’t want to be told anything, and would reject any kind of structure. Pipe dream. A nightmare in terms of general health issues.
Yes, then sink it at sea.
Hilarious!
The “homeless” crisis is not due to a lack of homes. It’s not due to the lack of housing. It’s a mental health crisis and a drug crisis. Providing rooms for people to stay in will do nothing to address the real problems, but it makes people feel like they’re doing something when in reality they’re doing nothing more than wasting money that could be spent on mental hospitals and rehab centers.
Not only will this idea not work, it will spectacularly fail.
People are crapping on the streets of San Francisco because they don’t have access to a bathroom, they’re crapping on the streets because they’re either high or crazy. A room on a boat in a place they don’t want to be with rules they don’t want to follow will not work.
Great idea! Will there be activities, ice cream sundae machine and trips to port?
Looks like Mayor of Claycord.com is conditioning us for his annual April fool story 2020.
A cruise ship?
Cruise Ships are a breeding ground for disease when they are full of paying customers, with a full-time crew to clean.
Honestly homeless people would be put at great risk being on one of those floating petri dishes.
Lol
When a politician says I have a great idea
RUN AWAY ….fast
Yeah a ship or rather drug den that will cost tax payers how much per year an extra 2-3 % on property tax I would imagine
Or the dems favorite
An increase to the so called sin tax lol
And I love how the dems have put no pun intended now …all the bums and druggies and flunkies into the same boat and labeled them homeless
They are not homeless a great deal of them want nothing to do with society
They do t believe in it or rather don’t want to adhere to the rules or governments red tape
They don’t want help or housing or clinics or anything
accept drugs pills syringes booze or crack
They want to just be in a hazy shade of deprived euphoria
The ones with mental disorders are the ones who need the help
But politicians get nothing from helping drugged out people
Which is why they lump them in a group and call them homeless
They dumb it up for the bleeding hearts to open their pocket books
and force taxes on the rest of us by calling for more affordable housing or low income housing
Claiming the tech people are devils and took up all the housing
Fact there are over here 16 million illegals here…. more likely 22 million
That the politicians have allowed and are actually paying to import more
Then they slap them into public schools and pay for their apartment and health care and even provide walking around money
And have been for over 25 years
You voters being swayed by the dem controlled media and paid politicians
To pony up for more affordable housing because of the homeless problem
So where do these illegals live since the gov of demifornia is paying for it
In all the cheap apartments only the owners know that the gov is paying and have raised their rates across the board …can’t blame them since property tax is choking them as well as the now ridiculous state wide rent control
That was introduced so the gov can lower the cost for housing illegals
So they can Bring in more and slam them into public schools
And you may say …why
Well each child at a public school is counted and each year they are added to the Budget and the fed pays a portion to cover the cost of educating that child
Just like all the illegals they bring in get counted for the sensus
And it gets locked in for 10 years
And that number is used for more fed money
All of that money is basically free money for the politicians
since the fed just gives them the money and requires no further involvement
The politicians then use it on what ever they want
Like campaigns or new cars or houses
This is the pay to play dem politicians game
As they gain even more by over taxing for roads to be fixed lol
They will never be fixed
And you really screwed us by calling for the mono rail scam oh sorry
The high speed rail scam
It failed and yet the bond is on the books and collecting money …billions of it that we will never see ….
Again nice one voters
But yeah keep rolling around in the poppy fields thinking Everything is ok
Lol
I mean a politician just proposed housing people on a ship in a port of Oakland
You still believe everything is kosher right
Lol
Just flamingos with their heads in the sand
Easy pickings for the pay to play game
You should feel proud you legalized theft and now are being preyed upon
Freedom to steal
I bet the forefathers never thought you would be so manipulated
Yay for you
You have outdone yourselves
Now go pick a cabin on the norovirus cruise to nowhere
You can check in …. but you can never leave
Sounds like many of you are resigned to having homeless all over the place. The homeless problem right now is costing millions for every city. I say put them on a ship and use the cafeterias to feed them. Put the homeless to work cleaning and cooking. The way I see it they either get on the ship or leave town. No more homeless vagrants. Ships have laundries and beds and furniture. Make the capable run the works with competent supervision. It would be worth the experiment. They can always find a place to anchor the ship we have dozens anchored in the bay every day waiting to get into port. What is going on now is brainless. I worry more about getting competent people to run it than anything else.
Make the ship a rehab center. You would need strict rules and over time the patients could graduate from the program and be offered a job such as a Ship Maintenance worker or Rehab counselor.
That is an awful idea. Too many special needs people packed in a giant container is very bad for the spread of disease and crime. Just the thought of this is not an answer. How could any intelligent person consider such a dumb idea!
Who said an intelligent person came up with this idea? It’s the Oakland City Council…
Grab a ship from the mothball fleet. Here is a place to live. How nice it becomes is up to the tenants. Get some recycled paint. It would require adult supervision. and regular garbage pick ups.
To the tune of an old Traffic song—
Here’s a little life you can all come live.
It’s very nice if you want it to.
Make your own life up as you want to.
Any new life that you want to do.
But we are going to keep an eye on you to make certain all is safe.
I’d like that idea if it was made into a reality TV show. Put a few thousand feral humans together in close quarters and it’d be like Lord of the Flies.
It is one of those off-the-wall, truly misguided liberal ideas that we see come flowering out full grown like weeds from the bastions of the delusional left like Oakland and San Francisco. Can you imagine disease central? They can’t sail one of those things from here to San Diego with “mentally well” passengers without having virus outbreaks. What makes them think they can put together a thousand people who can’t adequately care for their personal hygiene and not end up with typhoid? Honestly, sometimes I think they have nothing better to do than lie awake nights thinking up ways they can make things worse for all of us.
Where’s the Mothball Fleet when you need it?
Before the old Bay Bridge was demolished, I was a proponent of housing vagrants in shipping containers on the old section of the bridge. This would have given the hobos the freedom they desire, while keeping them safely away from forthright citizens.
Of course this won’t work. However If they were to try it, there would need to be three ships: One for the mentally ill, One for those really trying to get back on their feet, and One for those who choose this as a lifestyle.
Wow Im appalled at all of the hateful comments. Not surprised really though because thats about what I would expect from people who are priviledged and have no compassion. How do you think its right to group all homeless people into one category. Not all of them are on drugs. Not all of them want to be on the streets. They arent all bums who choose to be on the streets, who dont bathe, and carry disease. You should all be ashamed of yourselves. What you’re doing is very much like racial profiling. You are judging an entire group of people based on the actions of some of them. What if someone were to judge you all on your obvious hatred of homeless people. For example it could be said that people are all over priviledged snobs who have no compassion & like to whine & complain about serious issues such as homelessness, but never get off their butts to help anyone or to actually do something abt homelessness. That wouldnt be true however because there are people in this world who arent like you people. Some people do care. I used to be homeless. Believe it or not with certain circumstances it can happen to ANYONE. Try to think about how you would feel if you were homeless & being treated the way you are treating them. Where is your basic human decency? Your compassion? Your sense of right and wrong? I was homeless and I never stole from anyone. I dont use drugs. I didnt want to be homeless. I didnt leave messes everywhere I went and I didnt panhandle or do anything else to draw attention to myself. Now I am paying to rent a room. I pay on utilities, I have 2 jobs and Im currently on the Dean’s List with a 4.0 gpa in college. And the reason Im able to do so well now is because I didnt have a bunch of snobs judging me, treating me like I was less than human all because they dont understand how it feels to lose everything and be out in the cold with nothing and no one. In general we as a society are over priviledged. Sure we all work hard for our money and our belongings, and I agree Im not so willing to help someone if they arent trying to help themselves. But dont lump all homeless people into one category then turn your backs on them. Because some homeless people do want and need help. Im grateful to the people who took the time to help me get back on my feet and who didnt make me feel like a worthless scumbag while helping me. You all should be ashamed of yourselves, especially those of you who wish they would get on the boat and sink. Honestly its not the homeless who are the problem. Its people like you who have no compassion and who group all homeless people into the same category and who complain about homelessness but do nothing about it. Just know that while you are all opening up your expensive Christmas presents this year and stuffing your faces with Christmas dinner, there are people who would be happy just to have your old socks or coats and a sandwich. Merry Christmas.
Amen.
A lot of people here have lived both sides of the coin unlike you,judging people,from your sheltered life you have no idea what you are talking about.Pretty much all night time thievery is the homeless,that wont work if you dump it in their lap.so few are the down on their luck temporary type that you don’t even see them.
I agree. There is alot of venting. I think the frustration comes from the fact that most people willingly work. The majority of the best years of their lives are spent spent performing unpleasant or boring tasks. It might seem like privilege but maybe there is more to the story. Unjust treatment at work, unpleasant commutes, the rage that follows the constant pressure. The cost of living that has spiraled out of reach while being cheated by upper management. Yes, all that anger is often born silently.
But anyway, I think the majority of the anger comes from this drug infested society. I bet every one of our fellow Claycordians has seen drugs ruin lives, up close and personal.
I am glad you made it. I agree something must be done. Sorting the needs of the homeless would be a start.
Kat, I agree with you and I can not believe the awful and ignorant comments that are on this page. My faith in humanity is diminished after reading many of the comments. And the complete ignorance about the homeless situation. Educate yourselves people and those of you who comment regularly on Claycord, please! So you can make intelligent well thought out comments. Because your smarmy, humorless thoughts only contribute to the downfall of society.
Congratulations and keep up the good work Kat!
I assume you have taken in many homeless. How many do you currently have ?
A feeble suggestion of a thought of treating the symptom,not the cause.Liberalism,it creates jobs.
they would make little camp sites out of the inside of the building,and when it got so filled with feces nobody can breath,they would head for shore.
Has numb nuts (Mr. Newsom) weighed in on this?
Funny how the sports teams in Oakland split almost immediately after Libby Schaff announced one day to the press, “Oakland has more gays than San Francisco.” Now there’s something to be proud of. Bet the football and basketball teams couldn’t get out of town fast enough. Everything considered, I think Oakland needs entirely new more conservative leadership.
Kat you should step out of your self-righteous fantasy world and take a walk down the streets of Oakland and san Francisco and tell me how many of the homeless people living on the sidewalks are hard working people who fell on bad times. Your idea of compassion is what makes homelessness an acceptable way of life . Hard working people are not privileged snobs . They are tired of seeing millions of dollars spent on programs that don’t work and instead they make homeless worse . It’s called reality .
Michael, No I don’t think I need to take a walk through San Francisco or Oakland. Like I said before yes there are some people who don’t try to do anything about their situation. Does it occur to you that many of these homeless are mentally ill? You try living on the streets for years and see how it affects your mind. You are grouping all of the homeless into one lazy, don’t-want-to-work, don’t-deserve-anyone’s-help category. I’m one of those hardworking people who doesn’t want to just throw my money away to someone who is only going to use it to get drunk. But not all homeless people are like that. I very much agree that we are wasting money on things that are not helping the homeless. So does that mean they deserve to be put on a boat and sink it? Does that mean that we all have to be cold, heartless jerks who have no compassion and don’t care that there are people who are starving and cold while we are in our nice warm homes eating a hot meal? People who have money are the ones who have the power to try and help the homeless situation so that parts of the city can stop smelling like urine or worse, so that our children don’t find needles in their sandboxes, and so that we can walk down the street and feel safe. Obviously the programs and other things that we are doing now to help with homelessness are not working. So be an active participant and try to HELP the situation instead of turning your back on it then complaining about it. I was homeless for a couple of years. During that time I met all kinds of homeless people. Some of them need mental health care. Those are the worst. Some of them are like me and trying their hardest to get off the streets. Do you know how hard it is to get a job when you have nowhere to shower, or no one to help watch your kids? Or no nice clothes for a job interview? And yes there are some who are just drunks or drug addicts and they are perfectlly content to stay that way. Some of them could be helped if just even one person bothered to show them there’s a better way to live. Obviously there will be some who simply can’t or won’t be helped. But if getting even half of the homeless people enough of the right kind of help to turn their lives around and become productive citizens were possible it’s better than just allowing the situation to keep getting worse. It is possible if people like you would take the time to be a part of the solution rather than whining about it and doing nothing. You don’t even have to spend your money. – just donate your old clothes and shoes, and instead of throwing away your leftovers pack it up in a throw-away container and give it to someone who could use a hot meal. And more importantly be involved when city council discusses these issues and make sure your congressmen/women hear you. Complain to them about gas prices and the cost of living. It’s expensive to be in California and that’s why we have people just out of college who ARE working but living in their cars because of student loans. Be a part of the solution instead of being a part of the problem and I guarantee homelessness wouldn’t be such a problem. I’m not living in a fantasy. I live in a reality where people are too caught up in their own worlds to even try and help one other person. That’s really sad.
Theres no kid on the planet that’s living in his car because of a student loan,get real,Someone is going to not be able to pay rent because of the $50 A MONTH payment?Stop it.No loan payment is even 1/10 rent.
You liberals really get fictional to try to prove a point that can’t be proved with truth.Even if a loan was $500 a month payment,most kids is going to pay that and live in his car.Stop it.Almost every student loan takes a parental co sign,and mom and dad wont have there kid living on the street.A college student can usually stay with other student pretty cheaply.You comment is most emotion and not fact.Most ,onthly loan payments can be made by 1 day of work at any job
I assume you have taken in many homeless. How many do you currently have ?
There’s no helping the homeless,they don’t want help,just free money,One doesnt need to try to put them in ones own housemjust to see them trash it and steal anything of value.No not every homelss person would do this,only %99.8 would,theres always 1 good one in every group.And youll never meet them.Ive seen people like this make their old parents trty to help,and they still wont take a shower,still do dope,and wont clean anything up or even use a toilet,they like to”go” outdoors,and that ruins any property.Get out of your denial that lack of money or a housing shortage creates homelss people.They make more omney than you do each day with panhandling,recycling,and car,business.and home burglaries.They are financially just fine,most have a phone and a bank account.They don’t need help.They just want money to stay medicated.There’s a big difference.You can go to any downtown area of any city and see you don’t want these people in your house,they won’t transform and become human,they would just be hiding better and doing the same old thing.If you want to take some in to clean up the streets,im all for it.