My good friend and fellow Syracuse blogger, Jim McKeever, is trying to put the challenges of one of our homeless into better focus. It is a worthwhile mission. And a good read.
James, a homeless man in Syracuse, N.Y., writes a letter from inside a post office on a snowy morning. Outside the window is the shopping cart that holds all his possessions.
I’m still getting to know James, one of the “hardcore homeless” in Syracuse, N.Y.
Every few days I stop by his place, a doorway of a long-abandoned building downtown in plain view of City Hall.
It’s been snowy and miserably cold in Syracuse for months now, yet James lives and sleeps outside. His world is a three-mile square, circumscribed by his shopping cart’s mobility, his sense of where he’s welcome — and not — and his day-to-day survival skills.
Unlike most 48-year-olds, James settles in for the night by 5 p.m. He does so by cocooning inside his layers, including a couple of oversized winter coats, and trying to get comfortable in a sleeping bag on top of several…
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Mark Bialczak 
Thanks for sharing this beautiful story, Mark.
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how nice that you’ve connected with another blogger and friend who is as kind and caring as you are. great piece he wrote on james. )
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It is a great piece on James. Here’s the inside scoop on Jim McKeever and I: We worked together at the paper, in the features department, sharing the same small cubicle. We go way back. He’s a good friend and a great writer.
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really nice you guys have stayed connected –
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I am so glad that you have become connected to someone homeless. I feel this makes us more human and helps us in our writing with compassion. Mark, you write well and have so many different areas that you cover, too! Take it easy, Robin
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My great friend Jim — we’ve known each other 30 years here in Syracuse — is the one responsible for the great piece on homeless James, Robin. He is a great writer and reporter.
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