Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Tulsa Relief Mission Not Welcome In Pearl District

An architectural rendering of the proposed new site of Iron Gate Ministry
    A Tulsa city adjustment board narrowly denied approval to a soup kitchen run by a ministry to the homeless and other desperate & hungry people.
  Iron Gate Ministry is looking for a less congested location than the current church basement in the downtown financial district of Tulsa.  So their ministry board attempted to purchase and convert an old facility just east of the downtown loop.

 But the Tulsa government said; "No".

  Evidently the reason is "there is not enough off-street parking for the homeless to park their vehicles when coming to the new location. Yet the downtown financial district is exempted from providing off-street parking.
  Frazier Henke (husband of Rep. Katie Henke) along with new board member Tom Flanagen were willing to grant the ministry's request:

 But the other two were opposed. They insisted that the ministry buy and set aside 40,000 sq. ft. for off-street vehicle parking. Then the real reason began to show itself. Stuart Van De Wiele stated;
“I just can’t get there to say that it wouldn’t be injurious” to the neighborhood".
  Board member, David White added;

" I have seen Pearl District residents pour millions of dollars into revitalizing their neighborhood and that their perceptions of what could happen should the soup kitchen be built there  — whether valid or not — “have to be considered.”

 The Pearl District in't anti-christianity, they just want select types of Christian ministry to the right kind of people who will enhance the image of the neighborhood.
  On a 2-2 tie vote, the motion for the project failed.
 How many homeless mothers will be denied access to a meal because the board decided that the desperate mother and children needed to have a parking space before they got a meal.
Read more on this issue at Kevin Canfield's Hyperlocal blog.
David Van Risseghem

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We can't feed starving homeless people until we provide them enough off-street parking

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