Restaurant Forced To Stop Feeding The Homeless After Complaints From Nearby Businesses

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70. I'm very uncomfortable with the calls to target an individual small business owner and ruin him.

I think he had some legitimate gripes.

From his shop (Kalal) had a front row seat to the chaos he said accompanied Donation Thursdays.

“You’d have 50 or 60 people standing outside the Buttery Shelf, spitting, swearing, open alcohol use, clogging the sidewalks,” Kalal said.

Other local business owners seemed to take issue with it as well:

Makenzie Kus, who opened Something Blue Bakery at 918 Main St. in 2007, said the cursing and fights left her uneasy, especially for her bakery, which is patronized in large part by moms who regularly bring their children.

“There was a crowd that used a lot of foul language there,” Kus said. “I watched one guy just cold-cock another guy right in the face. I know it’s not like that all the time, but I definitely see why businesses were uncomfortable with it.”

Jennifer Layton, executive director of Lafayette Transitional Housing Center, admits that places providing food to the needy sometimes deal with chaos:

Sometimes those who food banks and volunteers are trying to help make it hard. Occasionally a food pantry line will devolve into foul language or fights.

Hours of waiting in the heat or cold can fray tempers, leaving the crowd on edge and forcing organizers to crack down.

“Within the last three or four months, we’ve expanded our regulations here,” Layton said. “We will no longer tolerate inappropriate behavior, abusive language, cursing.”

The Democratic mayor, who spoke compassionately and sympathetically about the stigma faced by those who use food banks said,

Some business owners had concerns (about the Buttery Shelf's Thursday free lunches), and some may have been legitimate.

According to Capt. Chris Downard of the Lafayette Police Department, there had been four calls to police in the last six months - three anonymous, one from K. Dee's Coffee. Two more calls in September were initiated by officers due to the large number of people crowding the corner of 10th and Main streets.

Downard said each conflict in the six-month period was resolved peacefully.

“No one’s been arrested. They’ve never even done a police report,” Downard said. The issues dealt with concerning the Buttery Shelf were limited to patrons blocking traffic, on either the street or sidewalk, while waiting to get in.

Ok, so the large crowds were impeding both foot traffic and street traffic. That alone is enough to hurt surrounding businesses.

Another local business owner (Brumbaugh, of Main Street Cheese and Wine) who supported the Thursday free lunches, said this:

They used to have a whole crowd waiting and, yeah, sometimes it gets noisy.

Another admission that crowds and noise were an issue.

But by all means let's gleefully ruin this man's livelihood.