Thursday, June 21, 2007

The Return of the Aldi Shopping Cart


24 comments:

  1. Looks like a typical cardboard box "mattress" folded up on the bottom of that shopping card. Perhaps she is attending counseling around the corner at the Jesus People's Sylvia Center facility at 4615 N. Clifton and sleeping in an Uptown bush hotel at night. Or, perhaps she was kicked out of that shelter for a rules violation but her kids are still in there with another relative. Who knows?

    Perhaps, the Sylvia Center could be contacted

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  2. Perhaps focusing on keeping her life together with a shopping cart distracts her from working on the real reason why she's facing a dilemma in the first place. As long as she sleeps outdoors and relys on a shopping cart, she will not be moving forward with her life. She will either be stuck in neutral or be moving backwards.

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  3. Well, I sure hope the wheels on her cart work better than the one's I usually get!

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  4. Perhaps we should stop mocking and making assumptions about the person in the picture, since most people on this board (including myself) have probably never lived on the street or been homeless. Now, I agree that stealing a shopping cart is wrong and Aldi's should be contacted about it. Let's solve that problem, not create more by "mocking those we know nothing about".

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  5. To the last poster, chill dude. The commenters on this blog primarily consist of people who took on big mortgages for the privilege of being a neighbor to Aldi-Shopping-Cart-Girl, and if they want to blow off some steam, I say let them. It's harmless.

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  6. I don't feel sorry for any of the homeless in Uptown. I make my money honestly and shouldn't feel guilty about lazy crazies that are homeless. God knows we have plenty of social services/charities in Uptown. These people that stick up for the homeless are contributiing the problem. If you care so much about the homeless take one in your home. See how long until you figure out some people are hopeless and just users, drug addicts and will always be that.

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  7. Further just because you have never been homeless doesn't make it that we have to put ourselves in their shoes.

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  8. Those of us who have lived 15 or more years in this Uptown community base our assumptions on our experiences in trying to deal with these issues. There is nothing wrong with that. We haven't necessarily abandoned our compassion just because we are no longer naïve to the typical drug and alcohol addictions that underlie homelessness or the havoc that persons caught up in these cycles cause to themselves, their families, and the community around them.

    We also aren’t naïve to the dumping of mental patients into community settings, all to save state and federal tax dollars, with no adequate system to monitor them or to keep them on their medications. What do you want? For us to sit quietly while the city and state use our community as the dump for problems that they neither wish to fund or address? We are tired of holier-than-thou pontificators lecturing to us when they don’t solve these problems themselves. We have as much right to have laws enforced as the those living in Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Jeff Park, and Ravenswood.

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  9. Another colorful picture in Uptown, thanks. I can think of many, many, many ways the person who possesses that cart came across it without breaking any laws. Uptown-Guilty Until Proven Innocent, Cappleman for Alderman.

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  10. Please explain how someone might be in possession of this cart and not be breaking the law? It's stolen property.

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  11. Golly, did I miss the Aldi's Special Purchase of the Week for shopping carts and cardboard boxes? I must not have seen them behind the stacks of bananas.

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  12. Not sure if this nice lady was homeless or not. But she was certainly off her rocker. She blew kisses to me, sang a little song to me, then turned around a shook her booty for me to take a picture of.

    My guess is she's probably pretty harmless and is a victim of god knows what sorts of mental, socioeconomic, or other ailments. That doesn't excuse the behaviour of possessing what seems to be a stolen shopping cart, but this person is in need of some serious help.

    The problem is that there is no real help to be found. The social services are just a band aid applied to a gaping wound.

    Clifton north of Wilson is a strange, strange street.

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  13. The shopping cart may have been abandoned. Picking up abandoned property is not stealing. I don't know why it's been Aldi characterized as the victim all this time, I thought there are not any labels left on it for them or any other store to claim it. Should we have a jury trial of twelve priests or a simple witch trial?

    Imagine, someone sticking a camera in your face and acting crazy . . . what a bunch of lunatics.

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  14. An abandoned grocery cart? You don't believe that BS so why even try to pass it on to us? If a grocery cart leaves the property of the store, it's stolen.

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  15. Picking up an abandoned cart is not stealing IF it was abandoned by the original owner. When was the last time anyone has seen Aldi's abandoning shopping carts on the streets of Uptown? If it was stolen from Aldi's it remains stolen property, particularly where the person finding it knows where to return it to the rightful owner. I bet she knows where Aldi's is located.

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  16. Where or where is her social service agency as she shuffles around Uptown with her Aldi's shopping cart? Doesn't the Plan to End Homelessnes indicate that she should have a place in transitional housing?

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  17. Cool. "Picking up" stolen merchandise isn't stealing. Does that mean we can knowingly buy stolen merchandise?

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  18. This just shows what a complete failure Uptown social services are.

    If we aren't supposed to hold the mentally ill accountable for their actions, then we have to hold the social service agencies resposible when their clients are bad neighbors.

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  19. Keep it up and concerned citizens will have to start taking pictures of crazy yuppies and posting their antics on the internet.

    Owners leave more shit in my neighborhood than the homeless. It just happens to be their dogs' shit.

    Shit-faced ex-frat boys swarm Lawrence and Broadway on the weekend. They are happy to harass people or create a public nuisance while drunk or high.

    Don't get me started on the crap/illegal driving and parking, the cell-phone yammering, and the general rudeness and attitude.

    Good neighbors? Please.

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  20. 11:23 anonymous poster,

    Owners do leave dog shit around. Which is wrong.

    Many of the homeless pull their pants down and crap right in an alley or on the el platform.

    I don't think the owners do that very often.

    As for drunken ex frat boys.......if that was the worst problem we had in Uptown it would be an improvement.

    Now why don't you go back to your "intentional community" and leave us alone.

    You have your own blog which I'm sure gets few hits.

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  21. So glad you have no human feces in your area. We will be glad to send some of the residents of the Marine Drive bushes your way as our particular area remains over crowded. Will gladly trade for dog poop.

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  22. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  23. I worked for 12 years as a software engineer. Then the industry laid off pretty much all of us. I worked hard trying to keep up with the bills and financial obligations that come with having earned good money. Unfortunately, low income doesn't pay the same bills that a higher income does...and I still had the debts from before.

    "Survival of the fittest" seems to mean survival of the least compassionate. Those who can comfortably sit in their homes, watching their cable T.V. and using their high-speed internet for the Oh-so-worthwhile purpose of "blowing off steam" by judging others whose situations they do not know.

    We ended up homeless for a time. Fortunately I had just enough savings left to buy an old RV. We lived in a park for about 3 months while I waited for my "headhunter" to work through the red tape that goes along with getting a decent job in the industry I work in.

    Homelessness isn't something to be judged. It's something to be aware of and it's a reminder of how GRATEFUL we should be that our circumstances have enabled us to avoid being without a home.

    Areas with high homeless rates are usually overpopulated with homeless because of the weather. When you don;t have a home, weather is very important. Homeless means just that..no home..no shelter..no place to crap, no place to lie down and rest your bones.

    As I said, I was fortunate. I had some form of shelter. But if I hadn't? I would have been forced, along with my family, to move from place to place..constantly being judged and harassed by people who didn't want me in THEIR neighborhood. Who DOES want the homeless in their neighborhoods?

    And once you've fallen into homelessness for long enough..how do you get the clothes, the razors, the transportation money that it takes to get a decent job which pays enough for you to get a place to live? Most low wage jobs barely pay enough for a person to feed themselves, let alone shelter themselves..if you can even find enough resources to polish yourself up enough to be appealing to even a low wage employer.

    Be grateful for what you have..and I'm sure that some of you are. Let the homeless be a reminder to us all, that we are fortunate. They are paying for their circumstances and/or decisions heavily in the form of discomfort and loss of dignity..why should they also be the objects of our ridicule? Don't we have enough to entertain us? Aren't there enough politicians for us to blow steam off at?

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  24. When I was in school, I used to borrow a shopping cart from the store, walk it the two blocks to my house, unload it then take it back. Maybe that is what she is doing!

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