Last Thursday a diary was posted here about a lady from Salem, Oregon, who has bone cancer and was holding weekly yard sales, selling off her possessions, in order to pay her doctor bills. A neighbor complained, and the city shut her down:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
This will be short, but I thought people would appreciate an update on the lady, whose name is Jan Cline. All too often a diary like this is posted, we all read it and react with dismay and outrage, and then the diary disappears and nothing more is heard about it.
For example..remember the diary about the homeowner back in the Midwest who planted a vegetable garden in raised beds in her front lawn, only to be told by the city that her garden didn't conform to local landscaping ordinances? I wonder how that story has unfolded.
Anyway, here's an update on the Salem lady.
After this story broke on local news, it got picked up by the national press. As of Friday of last week, donations from around the country have poured in to Ms Cline the tune of $16,500.
The Mayor's office in Salem has, predictably, been deluged with critical emails. The mayor has not backed off on enforcing the code which bars people from conducting more than 3 yard sales per year, but has pledged to find a commercial location for Ms Cline to hold her yard sales moving forward, in the hopes that people would also, then, use it as a drop off spot for donations that she can resell. While she is both appreciative and humbled by the donations she has received so far from strangers around the country, she's not particularly pleased with the Mayor's suggested resolution to what has become a public relations fiasco for the city.
Here's a link to the local news story:
http://salem.katu.com/...