Tent City Moving onto 25th and King on Friday Feb 5

I have posted before with my observations and comments about earlier homeless encampments, and beleive that my experiences are more common. Originally my neighbors and I had all paniced when we were notified of the planned move of a homeless camp into our neighborhood. The plan called for them to take the drug and prostitute infested lot across from the church at the corner of E Cherry St and on 22nd ( behing the Arco on 23rd, across from the Garfield Community Center ). The illegal activity had always been bad, and we just knew that these folks would only make patrolling our area more difficult. Well, after now having lived through three ( Yes 3 ) of these encampments at this same location, I have to report that all of my neighbors agree that these folks are clean, law abidding, and helped discourage illegal activity while here. Tell you the truth, we were better off with them being visible in our streets than a few of us home owners attempting to do the same thing.

Bottom line, I think you will find these camps have very stringebt guidelines for admission, police themselves very well, and are respectful of your property rights. I think you will find ( as we did ), that having these extra eyes watching out for illegal activity, that it will become safer and cleaner in your area.

Best of luck, and please remember to say hello to these new neighbors, as they will try very hard to be good neighbors.

Thanks

Nothing like a group of hysterical, yuppy Wallingford moms posting anonymously online to give you a real sense of a place...

"Nothing like a group of hysterical, yuppy Wallingford moms posting anonymously online to give you a real sense of a place..."
Yup- your statement is ignorant. Why do you hate intelligence and those who have economic means? Perhaps if you tried to better yourself you would not be so bitter and make a jackass out your self with these statements.

"Nothing like a group of hysterical, yuppy Wallingford moms posting anonymously online to give you a real sense of a place... "

What and ignorant ststement.

Yes, apparently disliking hookers, crack heads and trash on your doorstop is something only white people in Wallingford dislike.

I agree, keep them in your neighborhood.

I'd take my family in.

Oh, so you mean if the person on the street was responsible for their position because they drank too much, refused to take their meds and burned all their bridges?

I admire Daved for offering to take in a family member down on their luck, or suffering from mental or dependancy issues, but not everyone has such a loving and obviously compassionate relative. Though these Tent city dwellers may not be Daved or my relatives, I hope we remember that they still deserve our patience and assistance. If we can allow them to live in a temporary encampment, where they have community, feel a little safer, and can hopefully find a way back into main stream society, then I support their efforts.

Have you ever been camping, and awaken cold, hungery, and needing a bath? Think of these homeless folks facing this every morning, possibly needing to look respectable to get or keep a job, and worried about just getting clean, warm, and staying safe enough to get through the day. Then on top of all these other issues they try to placate the tent city neighbors so they can feel safe, and hopefully not face eviction. These folks just need the compassion our wonderful CD neighbor Daved has shown towards his family members. Thanks Daved for showing the rest of us what works!

Really? Publicola had a great series of articles last fall about how Ncklesville residents who refused to participate in political protests were kicked out of the camp.