It's the Wild West at work, more than ever lately.
The little park on the corner next to us (it's a plaza, only the footprint of a building) has
become a sort of encampment, as the City pushes homeless people hither and yon.
Outside our door, the street business that's always simmering is heating up.
All the ills of poverty (including addiction and the things people do to feed it) parade past... and come inside too.
The City is doing nothing, not even picking up park trash.
On Wednesday the trash had spilled into our alley, which people drive down to drop off donations.
A coworker and I swept up the wet, gag-making garbage with push brooms and shoveled it into our trash cans. (Problem: our dumpster is already overflowing, mostly full of crap donations.)
The park has NO trash cans.
I took some plastic tubs over to the park for people to put garbage in. I talked to some of the people who are sort of living (?) there--they have set up chairs under the shade of some trees.
They said thank you for the bins, and told me the City never comes to talk to them...
Big surprise.
I called the City to request a trash can for the park.
After an hour of being misdirected--it's not the Park Board's purview, nor Sanitation's––I talked to the right person, who filed a work order with CPED--Committee for Planning and Economic Development.
Right, so obvious.
We shall see if anything happens.
I have my doubts.
I will keep trying.
Trash pick-up is the least of it, but it's a place to start. It's doable.
Meanwhile, half my coworkers were giving me a hard time. It's pointless, they said. The people in the park don't care.
Not true.
Not true.
Ass't Man, who has been improving a lot, backslid:
"Those people need to take personal responsibility," he said.
Luckily Mr Furniture was standing nearby as I was talking about trash pick up. Mr Furniture has lived this whole story, and Ass't Man grants him credibility.
"Responsibility?" Mr Furniture said. "Those people are destroyed."
___________________
So. Not sure what comes next.
I don't know what happens tomorrow.
I can't know. I don't need to know.
Today, it's today.
5 comments:
frustrating dilemma- the homeless issue a national tragedy and a violent disaster waiting to happen. Stay safe, would be advised but , located where you are, i would say call in sick until the homeless are removed from that park. The situation in this little town is dire, homeless setting up the most god awful "camps" everywhere. The Reagan improved mental illness crowd- no help for them- just brutal!
Yes, it’s a brutal situation for all concerned.
I’m not so worried for myself (fingers crossed!).
I want to/am willing to be at the store as long as I feel I can do any little thing to help.
Today I brought Asst Man a bottle of nice beer and told him he won an award for hanging in at a workplace where a customer threatened his life.
(Even though he has a ways to go, I do hand it to him that he WANTS to get better.)
“Next time I saw that dude,” he said—and thanking me-/ “he called me ‘brother’”.
So, it’s like that.
PS The problem with removing people from the park is there’s nowhere for them to go—they just get shifted to the next area of concentration…
It’s such a huge problem,
interlocking —as I know you know-/- with other problems like PTSD, addiction, social inequalities etcetera
Thank you for stepping up as long as you can. While you work there, it's your neighborhood, too.
Thank you for taking over some bins. We have bins in our parks but they are few and far between and the people who camp there can't be bothered walking to them. Usually they are too drunk to notice the rubbish surrounding them.
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