Shoeshine man catches a break - and some cash

[Kadie]

Shoeshine man catches a break - and some cash
C.W. Nevius, Chronicle Columnist

Friday, June 5, 2009

(06-04) 21:07 PDT -- Larry Moore shined so many shoes on Thursday that he ran through two bottles of polish.

Then there were the women who walked up to give him a hug, the tourists who had their photo taken with him, and the people - more than one - who stuffed $100 bills in his shirt pocket.

"Honestly," Moore said, "it is probably the best day of my life. And not for financial reasons. It just means so much to have people come out and recognize someone working hard."

On Thursday, we reported that a city worker told the homeless shoe shiner that he had to fork over $491 for a sidewalk vendor permit. And that was roughly how much he had saved for a first month's rent that would get him off the streets. The city's inane bureaucracy put him back to square one.

Moore wasn't terribly upset. After all, he has lived under a Bay Bridge ramp for years. A few more months wouldn't kill him, he reasoned.

But San Francisco got outraged.


more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/05/MNVJ1817N1.DTL&tsp=1


:-)



Shoeshine man catches a break - and some cash
Jill Sideman wishes shoeshine man Larry Moore luck after giving him a tip and a hug at Market and New Montgomery streets. Moore had a hectic and productive day Thursday, including a visit from city officials. (Paul Chinn / The Chronicle)


previous story...

Bureaucrat scuffs dream of homeless shoe shiner
C.W. Nevius

Thursday, June 4, 2009

He sleeps under a bridge, washes in a public bathroom and was panhandling for booze money 11 months ago, but now Larry Moore is the best-dressed shoeshine man in the city. When he gets up from his cardboard mattress, he puts on a coat and tie. It's a reminder of how he has turned things around.

In fact, until last week it looked like Moore was going to have saved enough money to rent a room and get off the street for the first time in six years. But then, in a breathtakingly clueless move, an official for the Department of Public Works told Moore that he has to fork over the money he saved for his first month's rent to purchase a $491 sidewalk vendor permit.

"I had $573 ready to go," Moore said, who needs $600 for the rent. "This tore that up. But I've been homeless for six years. Another six weeks isn't going to kill me."

more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/04/MNJQ1807UK.DTL

[Auggie]

1. San Francisco values at work

[FSogol]

2. K& R. Get thee to the greatest page. n/t

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Best of luck to Larry Moore

Wow, homeless and yet clean cut and dressed nice. And working. And recovering from alcoholism, a devastating disease. And he wants to follow the rules. Glad to see a good guy like him win.

[malaise]

4. Great story

Go Larry

[pansypoo53219]

5. nice, but

would reactions or coverage be the same if he was black?

[Posteritatis]

6. They were a few years ago when something similar happened in my town (nt)

[Chulanowa]

8. Yes, I think so

The better question is, would people give a shit if it weren't for the publicity?

[here_is_to_hope]

7. Best of luck to him, typical of California though...

Here in Oregon we say that you need a permit just to shake a stick in Cali...we also call it the "No State", whatever it is, the answer is no!

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. Attorney Loren Lopin walked Moore across the street to help him open a bank account

nice story

[Kadie]

10. .

:kick: