By: Whitney Hamrick [| Central Florida Future]
Posted: 5/21/07

Members of Orlando Food Not Bombs marched down Central Boulevard in downtown Orlando last Wednesday [May 16], protesting Mayor Buddy Dyer's presence just two blocks from Thornton Park where the group feeds the homeless once a week.

Dyer was holding a campaign fundraiser at Urban Think! Bookstore. Dyer made efforts to avoid eye contact with protesters who pressed their signs and ladles against the glass.

"I don't view them as an organization that does a service to the homeless," Dyer said. "They are using the homeless for their own political purpose."

The group brandished ladles, signifying their solidarity behind Eric Montanez, whose April 4 arrest affidavit stated that he fed the homeless "from a large pot utilizing a ladle."

The protesters carried several signs, some reading "Compassion shouldn't be a crime," and lined the sidewalk in front of the bookstore.

Bruce Harris, the owner of the bookstore, said he was approached by the Dyer campaign and was thrilled to hold the fundraiser. Guests were asked to make a campaign donation of $25.

Harris said he has had problems before with homeless people panhandling to his customers outside, but said he remains apolitical about the ordinance OFNB protested outside his store. Harris never attended a city commission meeting on the matter.

"Tonight has been a little bit disruptive with the banging on the window and making noise," Harris said.

Still, the group's chant, "Food is a right not a privilege" and "Baker Act Buddy," couldn't be heard from inside the bookstore when the front door was shut. Inside the bookstore, looking out, protesters could be seen making angry faces, but not heard.

Occasionally, when the store manager let someone in, they would be followed by a burst of shouting.

Inside, Dyer and the Democratic Party of Orlando gathered to speak about re-election aims and the party's agenda - briefly including the homeless - as the guests, armed with Corona bottles with lime, were serenaded by members of the SAC Comedy Club singing the "Re-election Blues."

OFNB should be grateful, said Dale Revels, a resident of Thornton Park and owner of an insurance agency in Kissimmee.

"If we had a Republican mayor, there'd be riot cops on horseback with batons beating them to death. This is a progressive city with a progressive mayor that lets people protest. It's not like L.A.," Revels said, holding a Corona. "[Dyer] can't fix all the problems Š We're for helping others get on their own two feet."

Six police cars, a bike patrol officer and a paddy wagon were on either side of the block on Summerlin Avenue and Eola Drive, where the two streets intersect Central Boulevard. The usual pedestrian traffic was forced to go around the protest.

"There was an armed robbery at the Chevron on Orange Avenue. There was a murder at a 7-11 and a rape in Wadeview Park, all this month," said Jim Callahan, 48, of South Street. "Why are all the cops here?"

"I support the mayor, but not all the mayor's policies, and this is one of those policies," Callahan said.

The homeless population in Florida is on the rise, according to the Annual Report on Homelessness Conditions in Florida.

According to 2006 "data reported by 29 local homeless coalitions, 85,907 persons were homeless on any given day in 2006." In 2005, 83,391 were homeless in Florida. The report attributes the rise of homeless to the displacement of people due to hurricanes Katrina and Rita from the previous year.

The homeless population in Orange County is 6,500, according to the state of Florida Annual Report from the Office on Homelessness, which is part of the Department of Children and Families.

HUE restaurant manager Heidi Skehan, 32, looked on with five servers to see what all the commotion was about. "I think it's great. I feel they are helping people. Regardless of where it [the feedings] is, who cares," Skehan said.

Server Louis Beador, 46, disagreed. "I think there is a place and time to do it [the feedings], and not in a park like Lake Eola."

Tim McKinney, 37, a customer at Shari remarked, "They're not making an impact with their style of protest. I don't think it's doing anything to help their cause."

Wednesday's feeding occurred without incident.

Matt Houston, a 22-year-old psychology major, was cited last week with a trespass warning, and isn't allowed inside the park for a year.

Houston stood at the barrier of Thornton Park with a sign that read, "I went to Lake Eola park to share food with the homeless, and all I got was this lousy trespass warning."

Five groups, Students for a Democratic Society, Orlando Progressive Alliance, Young Communist League, OFNB and Orlando CodePINK set up four tables to feed the homeless, giving them the numbers necessary to feed up to 100 homeless.

The park supervisors weaved in and out of the cluttered table arrangement as the homeless and present groups abandoned the single-file line approach.

Four police officers stood in the cul-de-sac of Osceola, occasionally glancing over at the commotion in the park and keeping an eye on Houston who had to walk around the park to meet the protesters.

"They're going far beyond their right to enforce the ordinance," said Dante Terminello, senior international business and economics major and organizational chair of Orlando Progressive Alliance. "Every week, we try to go by the rules as they change their interpretation and don't change the wording of the law. They should just let us feed people."