Berkeley council moves to deal with downtown loiterers-deal with social deterioration on streets

[The Straight Story]

Berkeley city council moves to deal with downtown loiterers

Last Update: Mar 15, 2007 2:54 PM

BERKELEY (AP) - Berkeley's taking steps toward getting downtown loiterers out of the streets and into counseling and rehab.

Mayor Tom Bates' proposal, called Public Commons for Everyone Initiative, went before city council this week. It calls for more police presence, cleaner streets, and less loitering. The mayor says loiterers often harass people passing by, and sleep on the streets. He says his plan will help businesses downtown.

But some city council members spoke out against the proposal, saying people have a right to hang out without buying anything.

http://www.kget.com/news/state/story.aspx?content_id=f297fe26-6daa-47ed-af12-97dadf6df5fb
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‘Commons for Everyone’ Excludes Homeless, Some Charge
By Judith Scherr


Mayor Tom Bates’ proposal to crack down on people engaged in “prolonged sitting” or yelling in public spaces near businesses got Berkeley City Council approval (5-2-1) in concept Tuesday night—and sharp condemnation from the several dozen residents who came to the meeting to demand that the council not criminalize homelessness and drug addiction.

Councilmembers Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington voted against the plan the mayor calls the Public Commons for Everyone Initiative; Council-member Max Anderson abstained.

“The idea is to not penalize any particular group,” Bates said at the meeting. “We need to deal with the social deterioration on our streets.”

http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?issue=03-16-07&storyID=26562

[lovuian]

1. It is troubling to see a population which is uncontrollable

round them up and put them in a ghetto is that the answer

[The Straight Story]

2. Apparently

The streets are there to keep people moving along it seems. So much for hanging out shooting the shit with someone. They will compare the sidewalks to the street, no parking in the middle and disrupting the flow, etc and so on.

No smoking, no yelling, no hanging out, no people who might make someone else feel uncomfortable.

I can see the business side and their concern - but those should be secondary to the concerns of the individuals. There should be common sense regulation- no urinating on the street (buy some port-a-potties), no harassing people (including not harassing the homeless), etc and so on.

Some people loiter because they have no where else to go. Some just because they like the scenery. It is obvious which this is aimed at.

[Warpy]

3. If all the merchants don't like having the homeless

standing around, perhaps they might join together with the city and find a way to match donations to convert some eyesore or other into housing.

It's obvious the Feds don't give a shit that the economy has gotten very bad for most of us, but worst of all for people who have fallen into destitution for whatever reason. It's obvious that we have a long way to go in getting cheap labor conservatives exposed for what they really are and what their programs have really done, then getting them disgraced, humiliated, and out of power for at least the next few decades.

Don't like the homeless? Blame a conservative.