Dear Denver Mayor: Get a Clue

by Shannon Moriarty · 2009-01-31 04:24:00 UTC
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Dear Mayor Hickenlooper,

This morning, as I was eating my cereal and surfing the interweb, this headline made me drop my spoon: "Denver mayor wearing PJs to fight homelessness."

Here's what I read:

Denver's mayor and workers at about a dozen businesses are wearing pajamas to work Thursday to raise awareness about homelessness.

The city is holding what it calls "PJ Day," a day to wear fuzzy slippers or pajamas to raise attention to homelessness.

Mayor John Hickenlooper is attending a pajama party later Thursday to raise money for Denver's Road Home charity. The party includes a bedtime story read by the mayor himself.

Hickenlooper says the charity event will raise $500,000 for homelessness prevention.

PJs? Fuzzy slippers? To "fight" homelessness?

Wait a minute, my memory must be off. You're the same guy who, just last July, conducted a bizarre homeless sweep for the Democratic National Convention. Didn't you distribute museum and zoo tickets to homeless people, insisting it was a "cultural outreach" effort, not an attempt to hide unsightly street people from DNC crowds? (I should tell you, this brilliant move earned you a spot on my Naughty List. But I digress...)

But now, this latest move has me puzzled. Is this really an attempt to increase awareness about homelessness? Are you so out of touch with the homeless population in your city that wearing pajamas is the best expression of solidarity you could muster up?

Or, as I suspect, do you really just want to waltz around in your silk jammies all day?

I find your actions in the past several months bothersome, because it seems indicative of how you think about homeless people. Do you really think they sit around in pajamas all day thinking about expanding their cultural horizons and hoping for a bedtime story? Or do you think things like food, shelter, and, well, survival might be more likely to cross their minds?

Mayor Hickenlooper, if you really want to raise awareness about homelessness in Denver, you will stop parading around your office in your bathrobe and get serious about supporting measures that will provide serious help to these people. The city, the country, is in need of your leadership on this issue, and wearing your pajamas to the office one Thursday in January is in no way representative of the gravity of this issue.

I challenge you, Mayor, to spend a night on the streets. Away from the cameras. Away from your aides, your communications people, your family. See what it's like to get in line for food, sleep in a room with one hundred other men, carry all of your valuable possessions with you, and keep yourself safe from the dangers of being exposed on the streets.

You can even wear your pajamas, if you'd like.

Shannon Moriarty has worked in various homeless shelters and service organizations around the country. She is a graduate student studying housing and urban policy at Tufts University.
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