Just toss the homeless wherever it's convenient

From Newtown Pentacle:

As stated in yesterday’s post, my objections to the placement of this facility revolve around the actual location of it, which I honestly believe to be a violation of the human rights of a vulnerable population.

The Holiday Inn sits across the street from the Long Island Expressway, which produces a standing wall of high decibel sound. While I was shooting the shot above, I actually called a friend, whom I could not hear even though my headphones were in – and she could barely make out what I was saying despite the fact that I was shouting into the microphone.

This gas station with a convenience store is directly across the street from the hotel, and would presumptively fill the role of a supermarket for purchasing food and other existential necessaries. As is the case with such locations, everything you can purchase within is priced as high as the market will bear, and food items available are typically highly processed food stuffs designed for a long shelf life.

I guess the Mayor thinks that microwave burritos are good enough for these so called “Homeless” he’s planning on exiling to industrial Maspeth.

Is it smart to exile a vulnerable population in an industrial zone found along an elevated highway that carries close to a half million vehicle trips a day and which produces an ear shattering din? Is it ok for these people to be exploited by a check cashing location, and to have to make a choice between eating convenience store food, Chinese take out, or at McDonalds? Or, is it just expedient?

Check cashing scam being investigated

From the NY Post:

Investigators for New York City and State are zeroing in on corporate cheats that have allegedly been using storefront check-cashing operations to launder money and evade possibly hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes, according to very reliable sources.

The scam goes something like this, according to Mazzilli and the sources involved in the probe:

Let's say a bowling alley in the city needs a contractor to repair some concrete work.

The management of the bowling alley would, obviously, pay a contractor with a check.

In the illegal way of doing it, that check would then be brought by the contractor to a check-cashing operation -- rather than a regular bank.

The contractor would, of course, be given cash minus a fee of perhaps 2 percent to 5 percent of the total amount.

The check-cashing firm, ultimately, would deposit the check in its own account at a bank.

Investigators believe that contractors are routing these payments through check-cashing firms in order to avoid having the money show up as income, and thus skipping the payment of taxes.

Plus, doing it this way gives the contractor better cash flow for things like paying undocumented workers and, perhaps, making under-the-table payments to others.

Photo from the Daily News