HI Scott
Sounds to me,you a sorta got a bond with Bruce...maybe ya even look or have looked up to him.
I'm in no way trying to down you for that, Im sure he is a very interestind idavidual.I hope you still see him and here his stories and learn from him with EVERY visit, cause ya may not believe this but he carries a large part of your life within his heart ...and always will.
people can say..think.. feel,whaterver they want!
YOU have a very special opertunity, YOU are a part...
of the story of THE MOLE MAN!
I myself believe EVERYONE carries a story inside but,
The homeless carry it on thier sleeves,,,,in thier eyes
and on thier backs ,everyday and night and these stories are way more impowering than any novel or big screen stuff out there.BRUCE HAS < I don't know who you are or what you do but I feel in your words you are a good man and will do the right thing. And just a hint I think you can better your famillies lives through your father in laws story.And help him and his friends on the street too!
GOOD LUCK to you and yours BRUCE TRACY

ps.let me know how your doing badnews00@myway.com or if i can help, (Ill start at this end!)and yes this is my real name!

whoever wants to know about the mole man(Bruce Tracy)you can talk to me or my wife because he is my wifes dad.he is a very talented man and at one time had millions,he raised 2 beautiful daughters and put them through very nice schools and gave them whatever there heart desired.he lived a fast life and for some reason he never was wrapped to tight but as time passed and divorce and many other emotionaly trying situations he slowly slipped away into a life of drugs and mental health issues that have set him apart from the rest which is where he prefers it,hes very healthy for 52 and doesnt like hand outs he works for what little he gets now days he doesnt steel hes not a saint but he isnt what most people think when they hear of homeless people bruce is cool with me and theres so much more to be said but ill leave that for later thank you scott

Submitted by scottinkart (not verified) on Sun, 01/27/2008 - 22:52

to get ahold of me scottinkart@gmail.com

whoever wants to know about the mole man(Bruce Tracy)you can talk to me or my wife because he is my wifes dad.he is a very talented man and at one time had millions,he raised 2 beautiful daughters and put them through very nice schools and gave them whatever there heart desired.he lived a fast life and for some reason he never was wrapped to tight but as time passed and divorce and many other emotionaly trying situations he slowly slipped away into a life of drugs and mental health issues that have set him apart from the rest which is where he prefers it,hes very healthy for 52 and doesnt like hand outs he works for what little he gets now days he doesnt steel hes not a saint but he isnt what most people think when they hear of homeless people bruce is cool with me and theres so much more to be said but ill leave that for later thank you scott

You got it!

He proves what Fresno's street people are like.

They just want drugs and liqour and to have thier life enabled.

They have no respect for private property and think they should be allowed to do as they please.

They should be allowed to steal "I mean take" whatever they need or want.

Did you see them on the news protesting because Savemart put wheel locks on the shopping carts?

You are violating thier civil right to take the carts.

You are hurting the poor.

How does it hurt the poor?

They need the cart to haul all the copper wire and aluminum they stole to the recycling center?

Mama needs the carts to haul her groceries and all her children home.

Mama can make each of her fat little kids carry a bag home.

They need the exercise.

Beside if they walked to the store they can walk home.

But no you see fat mama pushing one cart full of groceries and the oldest child pushing a cart full of fat little kids.

Sometimes its 2 carts of fat little kids.

Those carts are private property as in belonging to the store.

The County and State should require all stores to install wheel locks.

Then the City should confiscate every shopping cart on the street not in a shopping center.

Tell the stores to come get them or haul them to the scrape yard.

If anyone is seen pushing a shopping cart down a street the police should confiscate the cart.

The public can't buy shopping carts.

So common Sense says the cart was stolen.

who saw this story the other week. It was quite funny. I have never seen that reporter before, but he seemed like a goofball. The footage started off with him roaming around Golden State Blvd. calling out the moleman's name. It almost seemed like a clip from the Blair Witch Project. And then he went down into the bunker to interview the dude. The moleman came across rather well spoken actually, I would lobby for him to take over for the reporter. And then it ended with D Neil showing how the moleman escapes if and when the police were to approach his hole. All I could think was "Dude, you are totally selling out the MoleMan and his secrets of escapism", but oh well. Oh, and the best part came after the interview when the Desk Anchors asked D Neil why the mole man chooses to live in a hole and he responded, and I shit u not with, "Because he likes to smoke a lot of MARIJUANA". The Desk Anchors were speechless as if they have never heard that word before and quickly wrapped up the story. Probably a "had to be there" sort of moment, but it was a pretty funny bit.

This street person thinks he has the right to dig where he wants.
That tends to be the attitude of most street people.
They want to do what they want but not have to follow rules.
We want to live in the sheds but only if we can come and go any time we want no curfew.
We want to be allowed to have liquor and drugs.
Enough of these street people already!
Let the churches take care of them.
Ban feeding them in public parks and on vacant lots too.
Take them to your church and feed them.
Wait you don't want them near your church do you?
I heard there is one woman that feeds them that works at a local school and she uses the schools kitchen to cook the food.
Isn't this improper use of school funding and wasting energy and tax money meant for school children?

...is better than the novelty reporting style of KMPH 26 segment. No mention of the fact he dug out his home because he is without legitimate housing.

The recent tool sheds set up at the Poverello are completely full. How do we help out the rest of the people who need shelter?

I saw this guy on KMPH 26 about 2 weeks ago. Darrel Nail interviewed him. I believe it was last weekend or the one before that. I am a niteowl and saw the intial report on channel 26. Then around 4am it was replayed on CNN, showing the footage of Darrel Nails report.

So my guess would be that the local report that KMPH did drew national attention, not the other way around.

my numbers are just hypotheticals (including the exact amount allocated to the project, -I really don't know, I'm just presenting scenarios that would make sense considering the situation at hand, -having been involved with such things for quite some time.

-If there was an amount donated for the sheds, --and there was residual funds left over? (and it went to the Pov.) -then great, (taking care of people is very expensive, -especially folks who are 'high-risk,' and are in a stressed and distressful mental/physical state (which homelessness definitely is.)

I would just think, -with Fresno being on the national front page
(now for NOT being able to handle a Prius Ad,)
--along with Fresno having (within the past two years,)
had a major suit filed against them for mishandling of 'homelessness,' ---

That there would be some rather public and loud accounting showing

HERE: SEE: ---LOTSA MONEY GOING TOWARDS HELPING OUR HOMELESS TO A HEALTHY LIFE,

AND

HERE: SEE: ---DOCUMENTATION OF WHERE THE MONEY WENT, AND THAT (TAXPAYERS,) SQUAMOLIANS (SHECKLES) ARE BEING SPENT IN A DECENT AND FAIR FASHION (FOR SAID SAME HOMELESS.)

-cause folks be payin' attention.
well, some folks.

I'm just curious, and to be honest?

I am not sure if I really want to know.
(It's like one's own eyelash mites and germs all crawlin' over ya, (even when you just got out of the tub,) ...some things are just better seen with eyes 'half-closed.'

If i could vote for a Top Story this would be it for this last month, I think I need to read the local indybay.org site more often.

Fuck the Bee for not reporting this story!

One of those 'toolsheds,' at HomeDepot or Lowes costs, (what) maybe 800.00?
(probably more like 400.00 or less,)

--and I'm thinking that the city got them much cheaper (AND) the Retailers (if they went 'retail,') probably wrote them off as a donation to a charitable cause.)

---so they might even have been 'free.'

so that's (what)
88 x 400.00, umn... 35,200.00

oh wait, sorry,
did I say 88?
sorry, HALF of that is the real number..
soooo,
44 x 400.00? 17,600.00 (that's better.)

Okay, so If they cost 400.00? that's right between 15 to 20 thou...
(but again, the sheds probably cost way less, might even have been free.)
--but there's 17,000.00 (possible,) out of 360,000.00

So we got 343,000.00 left to fool around with...

oh wait, LABOR, (yep, builder guys like me...)

jeesh...
-Okay, lets say we have a crew of 3 guys getting paid 10.00 per hour (each hour will cost 30.00,)
---but you know, their 10.00 per hour? actually is more like 25.00 for the employer, (workmans comp and all,)
-sooooooo, we're talking... um... 25.00 x 3...
75.00 per hour for that crew
---Now, depending on the payment and coverage of the crew, -some crews? work faster, (paid more, more 'high-end experienced crews,) -a builder can start at 40.00 per hour...
-Other crews? (bid lower, 'dubius,' employment status, 'day laborers and temps and such, ---they're getting (probably,) more like 8.00 per hour, (maybe.)
---so we gots plenty of wiggle room there...

---and maybe it takes an hour (probably only fifteen to twenty minutes actually, if you know what you're doing,) to build a shed...
(so we'll keep it at 75.00 per hour labor,)

-whups, do they have concrete pads?
okay... lets go with 50.00 per concrete pad (it's actualy cheaper in bulk,)
And 1 hour o lay out the concrete and stuff... (maybe same three guys,)

Jeez, this is like a math exam...

we'll do it like this:

44 huts at 475.00 a piece (labor included,) =20,900.00
44 pads at 100.00 a piece (labor included,) =4,400.00

(total for buildings and labor? = 25,300.00)

So, that's 360,00.00 minus,
uh... 25,300.00
equalllllssssa... (hang on.)
334,700.00 left over...

let's take the gang out for coffee...(starbucks) ---drop another 700.00)

So... there's another 334,00.00 just sort of 'hangin?' around on this effort?

(Are we sure about these figures here?
(scratching head?)
360,00.00?
(we didn't accidently throw another zero in there, did we? 36,000.00 sounds like a ballpark for the project... but heck, 10x's that?
-some really nice sheds there...)

-Another factor... (not considered,)

-Pov. is a religiously affiliated effort,
-and they get a lot of volunteer assistance (by surrounding churches, social groups, people who live there and are in 'program,'(I know this, my churches have done this for years.)

---IN fact A LOT of homeless efforts here in Fresno are volunteer driven (it's not unusual,)

-so what if
(both) the sheds were donated,
(or gotten way cheap,) because it was for 'humanitarian effort / write off to charitable cause,'

AND

-the labor was also donated/written off (like, sort of how Hab. for Hum. does???) --or done as a co-joint 'community services,' thing with the local legal system???
(hmmmm...)

How much money was set aside for this?
(360,00.00?)
---Even if it was only 36 large,

How much money was actually used?

(That's it, no more math today... gubbye.)

First, it doesn't surprise me that the local news did not cover this story. Second, Mayor Autry just spent about $360,000 to install 44 more tool sheds @ Poverello. The cost is for one year and will "house" 88 people. According to the City of Fresno Consolidation Plan, there were over 8000 homeless residents in Fresno during 2005. I can only imagine it has increased over the years.

Here's a link to more on the underground dwelling that the city is going demolish:

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/11/11/18460272.php

The guy does look sort of familar to me, and if he's who I think he is, he's quite talented and resourceful, (and each night (as of last year,) there are something between 3 to 5 thousand people sleeping outdoors Parks are not unusual places for them to stay.

-Sorta makes you wonder,
--after going nuts on a Florida marketing firm, (when it was the Georgia one that had done the Toyota Prius ad,)
--if there's not going to be a bit more 'Fresno-brand,' attention paid.