The anti-Beans and Bread Movement, a band of middle-class homeowners in Upper Fells Point and Fells Prospect, has fought the expansion of the homeless day center for going on three years, appealing each decision by the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals, taking the fight to court, and generally gumming up St. Vincent de Paul's plan to help more homeless people. Why do they do it? Are they just soulless real estaters still angling for the big flip? Are they racist yahoos or cruel Ayn Randians who believe charity is evil? Some observers apparently think so. Then again, maybe they're just regular citizens who see through the pious lies spun by the institutional do-gooders who, despite their stated intentions, somehow seem always to perpetuate and expand a profitable blight. Or maybe they're just enamored of the rule of law, which once held sway in some precincts, at least, if not in Baltimore zoning.
