Members of Mayor Bloomberg's administration announced last week that the city was making "real progress" combating homelessness. Allow us to respectfully disagree! [Flickr]

The New York Times followed Oprah's lead today and sent a reporter to cover the growing number of tent cities—"Bushvilles" or "Obamareas"?—sprouting up around the nation.

It's no surprise that legendary author Gay Talese has yet to fulfill the three-book contract he signed with Knopf in 1991. He's spent the past few days crafting signs for homeless people so they can panhandle more effectively. Really. As he told one of the men he encountered on the street, "the big bankers and industrial leaders the government was bailing out had lobbyists and public relations companies doing their bidding," and if the men on the street had any chance, they'd have to "tap into the topicality of their plight." So he went home and made up a bunch of signs referencing President Obama and the stimulus bill, handed them out to people, and then "took down names and phone numbers," so he could follow up to see how they did. We're not sure how it is that homeless people now have phones, but perhaps that's just because Talese is already making a difference?

Pop-up mini-shelter for homeless people [BoingBoing]