Hemming Park Problem

[JeffreyS]

I agree you can not solve our vagrancy issue with a single block policy.

[deathstar]

Here's the solution: Send JTA down there to hire up some new drivers since it seems they don't give 2 shits who they put behind the wheel.

[sheclown]

Ft Lauderdale...."the homeless have worn out their welcome".

They are hardly "guests" -- they are citizens.

In all of the plans, all of the schemes to save downtown....let's not lose sight of that.

Even the poor are Americans, belong to this country and this country belongs to them.

We are losing our humanity.  Some places more quickly than others. 

[Ocklawaha]

Ft Lauderdale...."the homeless have worn out their welcome".

They are hardly "guests" -- they are citizens.

In all of the plans, all of the schemes to save downtown....let's not lose sight of that.

Even the poor are Americans, belong to this country and this country belongs to them.

We are losing our humanity.  Some places more quickly than others.

ABSOLUTELY! At least we haven't bowed to pressure from the 'clean extreme' as Orlando has... This has been an ongoing battle for several years now.

Over the past week, twelve members of food activist group Food Not Bombs have been arrested in Orlando for giving free food to groups of homeless people in a downtown park. They were acting in defiance of a controversial city ordinance that mandates permits for groups distributing food to large groups in parks within two miles of City Hall. Each group is allowed only two permits per park per year; Food Not Bombs has already exceeded their limit. They set up their meatless buffet in Lake Eola knowing that they would likely be arrested as a result.

The law was first passed in 2006, after local residents claimed that Orlando Food Not Bomb's twice-daily homeless feeding was becoming disruptive. A federal court ruled the ordinance unconstitutional in 2008, deciding that Food Not Bomb's activities are a protected form of free speech. But in April, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the earlier ruling. They agreed that feeding the homeless constitutes free speech, but argued that the Orlando ordinance does not infringe unreasonably on the group's rights. (An editorial in the Orlando Sentinel supported with the court's decision this morning. They note that "at least 10 organizations regularly serve food to the hungry downtown" without defying the law.)

Orlando Food Not Bombs maintains that the restrictions are unconstitutional and unjust. They have said that they plan to continue feeding the homeless despite the arrests.

[sheclown]

Has there ever been a time in this country's history when we were afraid to feed the poor?

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

[ronchamblin]

Beautiful quote sheclown.  I find myself thinking occasionally about how our "system" has evolved a design which, by perhaps natural evolution as guided by man's habits of personal enrichment, and by the inclination of legislators and the comfortable elites to close their eyes to the needs and realities of the poor, applies subtle but continuous and ultimately powerful pressure and persuasion, to keep those who are down, down perpetually.  The design and habits of doing things in our society, in our economic and banking systems is set, by subtle machinations and unspoken rules, to promote and allow gains for those who need it the least.  Thus, the continued existence of a rather large population in poverty.   

[DeadGirlsDontDance]

I know I'm late to the party, but I think taking tables and seating out of Hemming is plain stupid. The  scary negroes* are not going to magically vanish, so the only real result will be fewer tables and seats left over for everyone else.

*Please imagine the phrase "scary negroes" being said in a bitterly sarcastic tone, accompanied by eye rolling and jazz hands.

[Jaxson]

@DeadGirlsDontDance --- You are one of my favorite metrojacksonville posters.  I think that they based Lana's character on 'Archer' after you.  Keep up the good fight!

[sheclown]

A question....

How many murders have happened in Hemming Park?  How many rapes, assaults?  Do we have any crime figures? Armed robberies?  What exactly is going on at the park?  What does JSO say?  What do their stats tell us?

[Jaxson]

Public spaces will be dominated by the people who live adjacent to those public spaces.  Because of this, Hemming Plaza is merely a reflection of the life that exists around this space.  For example, when I went to Washington Square Park in New York, the people there were NYU students, Greenwich Village residents and tourists.  This park was full of life because the area around it was also thriving.  Sure, office workers were supposed to make Hemming Plaza a more welcoming place, but these commuters drive into downtown in the morning, may grab a hot dog in the plaza for lunch, and then drive back out to the suburbs.  This leaves us with those people who inhabit these spaces...

[Ocklawaha]

A question....

How many murders have happened in Hemming Park?  How many rapes, assaults?  Do we have any crime figures? Armed robberies?  What exactly is going on at the park?  What does JSO say?  What do their stats tell us?

Don't know, but here are the stats for the 32202 neighborhood. Note that '100' is the national norm, and the scores show the relationship between the neighborhood and the national norm.



2010 Crime Rate Indexes   Jacksonville, FL 32202   Florida   United States
Total Crime Risk   333   
Murder Risk      113   
Rape Risk              218    
Robbery Risk     302   
Assault Risk     628   
Burglary Risk     425   
Larceny Risk     329   
Motor Vehicle Theft Risk   260   

[JeffreyS]

Public spaces will be dominated by the people who live adjacent to those public spaces.  Because of this, Hemming Plaza is merely a reflection of the life that exists around this space.  For example, when I went to Washington Square Park in New York, the people there were NYU students, Greenwich Village residents and tourists.  This park was full of life because the area around it was also thriving.  Sure, office workers were supposed to make Hemming Plaza a more welcoming place, but these commuters drive into downtown in the morning, may grab a hot dog in the plaza for lunch, and then drive back out to the suburbs.  This leaves us with those people who inhabit these spaces...

You nailed it move the shelters and services that provide some of what home does and you will reduce the amount of homeless/jobless from the area. I still contend it is much ado about nothing. If you want the park to attract more people make the services and design more attractive.

[urbanlibertarian]

Public spaces will be dominated by the people who live adjacent to those public spaces.  Because of this, Hemming Plaza is merely a reflection of the life that exists around this space.  For example, when I went to Washington Square Park in New York, the people there were NYU students, Greenwich Village residents and tourists.  This park was full of life because the area around it was also thriving.  Sure, office workers were supposed to make Hemming Plaza a more welcoming place, but these commuters drive into downtown in the morning, may grab a hot dog in the plaza for lunch, and then drive back out to the suburbs.  This leaves us with those people who inhabit these spaces...

You nailed it move the shelters and services that provide some of what home does and you will reduce the amount of homeless/jobless from the area. I still contend it is much ado about nothing. If you want the park to attract more people make the services and design more attractive.

Ok.  Where do you move the shelters and services?  What neighborhood would accept them?  Dude, the political reality is that the shelters and services aint goin nowhere.  They were here when I moved DT and I'm cool with it.

[strider]

Shelters and missions open where the people who need them live.  Something to do with the fact than the homeless, the mentally challenged and the poorest of the poor seldom have cars so it didn't make sense to open a shelter on the Southside when the homeless were already downtown.  (After all, it's not like JTA would get them there for free, if they could get them there at all.) Downtown is where they have always lived, you know, where, by the way, no one else wanted to be.  Remember, you all moved out to the burbs. They, these unwanted,  were here, by the way, when the stores were still here and the streets and parks were filled with people enjoying them.  Even the groups of people you like to see.  You all, the cool kids, moved away and stopped using the stores and now you want to move the people out who are still downtown and using the parks because they are not who you want to see and then, wanna bet you still won't use the parks?  Because there are still no stores to bring you downtown and you still shop out in the burbs where you live.

Wake up - Jacksonville has to stop treating only the symptoms and start treating the disease.

[sheclown]

If we can have satellite Tax Collector offices, or libraries, certainly we can spread the love around town and have satellite social services. 

We DO need to DE-centralize social services so that whatever part of town you live in, there you are served.  Shelters, medical care, social services, day centers, each city council district ought to have their fair share.   

And they ought to be small and personal.  And they ought to partner with churches.