A Rhode Island farmer who helps abandoned and even tortured animals, continues fighting red tape and foreclosure. John and I head back to North Scituate for this Street Story.

 

 

Dan MacKenzie’s foreclosure deadline ended without an extension, leaving Dan and more than a hundred ‘rescued’ animals on the edge of eviction or worse.

 

 

“A lot of them were old, crippled, abandoned. Abused. Diseased,” Dan tells us.

 

 

“Only one way I’m leaving,” he says to a couple of friends who stopped by the farm.

 

 

He says he paid his mortgage on Bonniedale for eight years but when the note was sold, the new bank didn’t get his payments. The foreclosure was underway and unstoppable.

 

 

“When the notification went out in the papers, people thought I was out of business.”

 

 

His western store that’s attached to the barn suffered. The horse stalls were suddenly empty.

 

 

“I can’t rent any stall out until I get it back in my name.”

 

 

“And you can’t pay your mortgage until you rent out the stalls?” I asked him.

 

 

“Correct.”

 

 

He says the only option to stop the spiraling, catch 22 is to buy back the farm that his attorneys claim he should’ve never lost the rights to in the first place.

 

 

“A lot of good people in Rhode Island are helping us out. And that’s why I’m doing this. To tell the people exactly what happened.”

 

 

He raised almost enough for a down payment on a re-finance but now he needs a new bank or an extension from his old bank.

 

 

“We need help. Plain and simple.”

 

 

Dan thinks the eviction could come any day and that most if not all the animals would go to slaughter.

 

 

You can email Dan directly at snakehill1007@aol.com if you have any questions or can help. Also, take a look at the video version of this story by clicking on this link.

 

 

http://www.wpri.com/subindex/on_air/street_stories

 

As always, comments and ideas are welcome.

Christopher Young’s often-tossed-hat is in the ring for mayor of Providence. His latest run more than likely puts him well into candidacy double digits. I was once criticized by one of his supporters for calling him a ‘perennial’ candidate. . .as if that was an insult. I still think perennial fits but at this rate he’s on his way to becoming an ‘annual’ candidate. Win or lose, he’ll help make the race interesting.

Assault with a dangerous weapon, eluding police, resisting arrest and more.  If he was informed about those crimes, you would think he would’ve been offered ‘back up’ of some sort.

One vital detail his chief says he didn’t know is that the hit and run Catalano was accused of, the collision that started the ordeal, involved a pedestrian who later died.

By the way, the state’s criminal data base is open to anyone. Take a look at the link above.

The recent ‘wrong site’ surgery at Hasbro reminded me of a case from a few years ago. The surgical team operated on the wrong side of a patient’s head. Several reporters’ questions included the phrase ‘botched surgery’. A hospital representative bristled at the wording.

“Let me make one thing clear,” he said to us. “The surgery was not botched. The operation went fine. It was just on the wrong side of the patient’s body.”

His expression was serious. Many of us did our best to keep the same composure.

They can’t or won’t live in homeless shelters and that’s one reason local tent cities are expanding. One even has its own government and this week John Villella and I will take you inside these local ‘communities’.

 

In Providence, it’s called Hope City which is somewhat sheltered under the Crawford Street Bridge.

 

“This was set up as 98% percent need and 2% protest,” Barbara Ferrara tells us.

 

She serves as the treasurer in Hope City’s fledgling ‘government’.

 

In the shadows of Woonsocket’s River United Methodist, it’s about protection.

 

“Tents have been set on fire while they’re actually sleeping in the tent,” the Reverend Brian Souza tells us.

 

He says the homeless were safer near his church.

 

“We’ve had several who have been beat up. We had one gentleman who’s no longer with us. He died on the streets 2 years ago but kids used to throw rocks at him.”

 

A Providence homeless advocate who did not want to talk on camera tells us many of the tent city homeless either won’t or can’t follow shelter rules.

 

“Sometimes yes,” Barbara tells us.  “And sometimes no.”

 

Shelter rules touch on criminal records, drug use, religion. . .

 

“And forcing religion on someone seems very wrong.”

 

But she admits rule number one in Hope City is that you must have been barred, not allowed to live in any local shelters.  That’s what sent some homeless to set up a second tent city across the Providence River. The people who live there could live in shelters but choose not to.

 

Barbara used to live in abandoned homes that she calls, ‘abandominiums’ 

 

“Abandomiums,” she repeats with a craggy laugh. “See. Homeless people can be funny.”

 

“It’s funny but it’s sad,” I tell her.

 

“It is. I lived literally two streets from the mayor. He never knew I was there”

 

About 20 live in Hope City now and during the last 3 months, about a dozen were helped by leaders of that community to move off the streets.

 

“Into homes. Into jobs. Into jobs and homes.”

 

I tell Barbara that Hope City sounds like a shelter without the shelter.

 

“We are. We are a shelter that runs without grants. Without funds.”

 

In Woonsocket, River United tried to keep the tents pitched.

 

“To work out whatever variances need to be done.”

 

“A variance for what?” I asked Reverend Souza, pointing out that the tents are on church property.

 

“I’m not sure,” he says.  “I never saw a citation.”

 

The church-side tents eventually came down and in Providence they know the rusty Crawford Street Bridge is coming down next year.

 

“Where are you going?” I ask.

 

“We have a few places.”

 

Meanwhile, River United Methodist is handing out 50 or so more tents and there’s a waiting list for even more for people who will pitch them somewhere out there in Woonsocket.

 

Take a look at the video version of this story by clicking on this link.

 

 http://www.wpri.com/subindex/on_air/street_stories

 

Let us know what you think and please keep the ideas flowing.

 

 

Ryan Greenberg is about to plead nolo contendere in the death of Patrick Murphy two summers ago. I’ve been asked what nolo means in this case and while I’m clearly not a lawyer, I talk to a lot of them on TV. 

With the plea, Greenberg will not admit guilt but he’s also not offering a defense. In the court’s eyes, he’d be judged – guilty. Attornies will tell you nolo is a way to save face and avoid a trial.

Greenberg, who witnesses say was drinking on the day he aimed a speed boat at Murphy and ‘throttled up’, is charged with 2nd degree murder and wreckless boating, death resulting. He’s expected to enter the plea Monday and will be sentenced in late July,  2 years and 5 days since prosecutors say he caused Murphy’s death.

Greenberg continued to get into alcohol-related trouble after the deadly incident and now offers no defense for his actions.  The court of public opinion may wonder if the AG should force a trial and whether the sentence will fit the crime that ended a teenager’s life.

Don’t say it. This time, Manny’s mistake is much more than that over-over-over-used cliche. Think back to the beginning of the steroid revelations. We had one former superstar naming the guilty and several relative no-names suffering the consequences.  The world mocked Jose Canseco when he was pushing his book on 60 Minutes but now? Arod? Manny? Probably Bonds and Clemens?  Four ’former’ first ballot Hall Of Famers? Who’s next and how will the Baseball Writers Association decide who goes to Cooperstown when the players from this era retire?  Maybe Pete Rose and Joe Jackson have a shot now. . .

An update on Bonniedale Farm in North Scituate where the owner is fighting to keep the farm and the hundred or so abandoned animals he rehabilitated. This is someone who paid his fixed rate mortgage on time but through a red-tape glitch, is still in danger of foreclosure. Here’s the link to the story.

http://www.wpri.com/dpp/on_air/local_wpri_street_stories_bonniedale_farm_20090501

Now the update; He is halfway to his fundraising goal of the down-payment for the property his lawyers say he already owns the rights to but the deadline is fast approaching. It’s Tuesday and he believes if he’s evicted, the animals will be slaughtered. There’s just too many of them. He needs a bank to step up. He can pay his bills, if they let him.

While we debated what to call H1N1, I still wonder why it is so mild here. Could it be our immunizations? Cleanliness? All around, decent health? The DOH has no answers. Maybe it was the awareness effort which involved following your mom’s advice about coughing and sneezing. No matter what it is, it’s great to know we didn’t even reach a dozen cases at this point and not one hospitalization.