Urban renewal in Olympia

[BrianFromWA]

http://www.theolympian.com/2011/09/04/1785828/its-try-try-again-for-olympias.html

About a dozen young people, some in their teens, some in their twenties or older, are gathered, meeting friends and asking passers-by for change. They’re careful to stand six feet away from the building’s edge; to do otherwise would violate the Pedestrian Interference Ordinance, a 2006 measure that bans blocking the sidewalk, sitting or lying within 6 feet of a building’s edge. There’s a blanket sitting right next to the curb, with two leashed dogs and a cardboard sign asking for change.
Snyder said business owners told her people don’t want to shop downtown “because they can’t walk down the street without being occasionally – not all the time – but occasionally, harassed.”
But the people on the street say they’re there because they have nowhere else to go. Bob VanHaelst, 20, is skeptical of the city’s efforts.
“Honestly, I believe that it’s ... just a joke,” said VanHaelst, who has been homeless for the last two years. “Everybody has a right to the land that is given us.”
...
Olympia Municipal Court statistics help tell the story: 1,353 people charged with drinking in public from 2008 to 2010; 525 charged with criminal trespass; 204 cited for urinating in public, and 135 charged with pedestrian interference.
...
VanHaelst, the homeless man, said people simply get their limit of drinks at one bar, and go to the next.
“We don’t have places where we can take (alcohol) where we won’t be cited for drinking in public,” he said
VanHaelst said people need a covered area, “almost a gazebo” that could be used, and monitored for minors who drink.
“We would do everything somewhere else,” rather than on the Fourth Avenue curb, “if we could do everything we wanted to do somewhere else,” he said.

 

[julius]

Land they're given? that's rich

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

We should call them "Obama Village People". They can live in Obamaville cardboard cities.

 

[BrianFromWA]

I especially enjoyed the underage 20 y/o talking about how "we" don't have places to drink after being kicked out of bars, and therefore need the city to build a gazebo so they can drink while "monitoring" for minors who drink, because if they had somewhere else to go they would.

 

[julius]

We should call them "Obama Village People". They can live in Obamaville cardboard cities.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

We need a thread where we can go and drink and ask each other for money.

 

[ABM]

We need a thread where we can go and drink and ask each other for money.

Heck, go ahead and make it a sub forum. If there's a lack of forum real estate, it can just replace the Beavers one. No problemo.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

Heck, go ahead and make it a sub forum. If there's a lack of forum real estate, it can just replace the Beavers one. No problemo.

 

[maxiep]

We should call them "Obama Village People". They can live in Obamaville cardboard cities.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...h-cathedral-to-be-built-out-of-cardboard.html

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...h-cathedral-to-be-built-out-of-cardboard.html

Built out of small cardboard tubes- empty toilet paper rolls? I'd like to see the public service announcements for that one.