I can’t believe this all happened in 72 hours . . . this is really insane. I can’t believe how out of control things have gotten and how absurd it all is. Here we go . . . you’re not going to believe all this! I’ll try to make it as simple as I can . . . thanks to all the video cameras and pictures from so many of our friends, I think that will help.
LATE FRIDAY NEGOTIATIONS
So, Friday afternoon they came up with the offer to send us to Token Creek Park Campground. They sent poor Andy Heidt, the County Ombudsman down the hill to deliver the message around 3pm – he was the alleged negotiator. We asked a whole bunch of questions, he went back up the hill and asked them and came back with a letter that answered some of the questions but asking us to leave by 6pm on Saturday. We didn’t. Their offer to send us to Token Creek was so absurd, and they wouldn’t really give us time to decide or listen to our concerns. Rob described it to me like this. They hand us a turd and tell us it’s chocolate. We tell them that we can clearly see its a turd. They say “no its not, its chocolate.” We tell them again that its really a turd, we can see that. Then they get mad because we won’t eat it. It’s still a turd, no matter what they say. And no, we will not eat their “chocolate”.
OUR RESPONSE
We held a press conference at 4:00 to read the statement the Occupiers agreed to. Short story is that Token Creek won’t work because its 7 miles further from where we are and there is no public transportation out there and you can’t ride a bike and the transportation they are offering isn’t viable for people to go to work or get dinner. They also offered a porta-potty and fire, but not water or showers, etc. Also, they won’t allow some members of our group to go there and the shelters are not acceptable because . . . duh . . . they have bed bugs – which is what people were saying the whole time. Public Health found them in both shelter 1 and 2 this time. Read the statement for the full explanation. We also asked Joe Parisi to come to our meeting at 5:30 on Monday to discuss instead of sending messengers that have no authority to do anything.
NON-NEGOTIABLE!
Before the statement was even read, Lynn Green, Director of the Department of Human Services came down the hill with the latest and greatest. This time, telling us to be out by 6:00pm on Sunday and that the terms they offered the day before were non-negotiable. So, it wasn’t really a negotiation of any type, they didn’t even wait for our response or answer some of our questions. Again, Green was just the messenger, stuck in the middle like everyone else. Here’s the statement as read on video.
A WEIRD BLOW UP
So, there was a whole lot of confusion and conversations going on, but Channel 15 went to talk to Lynn Green and Sina, one of the Porchlight Homeless Outreach workers was there and um, this happened!
Yeah, I don’t really know what to say. Sina was the good outreach worker that people tried to work with. Was. People already refuse to work with Stephanie because she lied to get a homeless baby taken away from its parents. Liz has mostly been M.I.A. but uses threats a lot to get clients to do what she wants, and that doesn’t work out so well, plus she’s lousy at returning phone calls. Mike is the only guy left for which we have any hope . . . but he can’t do this job all by himself! I don’t know how we work on trying to get Sina to work with the group after all that – and it sucks, because I think she is going to be part of the staff at the warming center. This seriously bummed me out.
OVERPASS LIGHT BRIGADE
Where Can We Live? from Occupy Riverwest on Vimeo.
NO ONE MOVED
6:00pm came and went. Nothing happened.
PARKS AND SHERIFF
About 10:20 I got a call saying that 5 cars/trucks of the sheriff and parks departments were there with lights shining and they were waking people up and shaking the tents and giving everyone tickets. I got there as quick as I could, they gave 12 – 14 tickets for $169. Including many of the campers but not all (?) and 2 neighbors and myself and Chaous. I think Rebecca Kemble’s photos captured the mess best. Tho there were many cameras there and I’m sure there are more photos to come.
Here’s some video describing what happened.
I asked the Director of Land and Water Resources, Kevin Connors what would happen next after they gave us tickets. He said “I don’t know”. So, neither do we.
SILLY FIRE GAMES
After that mess happened, people decided to light the fire. There is some creepy neighbor who hides in the woods and calls the fire department and within 5 minutes of lighting the fire the firetruck with sirens is there. Followed by the police. They squirt out the fire and say “gee I hope you get that fire permit soon” and we explain we asked for one and they denied it. Actually, they just never responded. So, we play silly games while people try to cook food and stay warm.
So much for the spirit of Thanksgiving. People look the other way while filling grocery bags to drop off at the local food pantry to make them feel like they care about the less fortunate and did their best. So much for Matthew 25:40 “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”
There is a difference, Jackie. Sending bags of food to the foot pantry DOES help people in our community, and only a snobby, pompous person would sneer at people helping their community through food donations.
Meanwhile, we have “Occupy,” led by community blowhard and apparent publicity whore Brenda Konkel, serving their lists of “demands” on city and county government. This isn’t about getting help for people and reforming the system – this is about pushing a political agenda, sticking fingers in the eyes of our government officials, and demanding as much “free” stuff as possible for a group of people who can’t or won’t participate in the existing homeless support system. People see through this nonsense and it is not going to work.
The crux of the matter is that Brenda is mistaking a privilege for a right. And that’s sad.
I wonder how long it is going to take Soglin and Parisi to learn, you are
not doing yourselves any favors by trying to be accommodating with this group. Look at the warming shelter last year, and trying to accommodate the real Occupy Movement last year. This is what you end up with. Now “negotiations”? What are the homeless shantytown folks offering in these negotiations, to start to obey the law? Tickets should have been issued the minute these guys broke the law. Signs should have gone up the next day. Arrests should have followed. You should be doing all you can to discourage people from setting up camp and staying in Madison without housing over the winter. As soon as someone dies after choosing to stay in Madison without housing, they will be blaming the city for their own irresponsibility. If you have been banned from the parks, you better find another community to camp in. If you have maxed out your time
in our homeless shelters, it’s time to find another community to support you while you get on your feet. And if you don’t have a warm place to sleep or spend the day this winter, you better find a warmer place to survive while you get your life together. Encouraging people to do otherwise is not helpful or kind, it is irresponsible.
Does anyone commenting care that Porchlight does indeed appear to have serious problems affecting homeless attendees? That shelters have bedbugs?
Poor Sina. It seemed like she was only trying to help but was being attacked by ungrateful, entitled angry people. Time for them to get on the bus I think.
Well, being I generally only come around for GA’s, I missed all the drama. What isn’t getting said here is that left to itself, Occupy is nothing like this, and certainly the GA’s are not–there are disagreements but I am yet to hear anyone raise their voice or see anyone shouted down. The facilitator keeps time, but never has to tell anyone to act right. I mean, anyone who has no exposure to occupy beyond the media and this blog should ask this: if the Occupiers treated one another in the way the city and county treat occupy, would it last sun-up to sundown and would anyone dare close their eyes after sundown? negative, negative. In fact Occupy has already survived one evacuation, has contingency plans and known support if there is another one, and has committees to investigate new sites, plan a possible co-operative, work out attendance and strategy for a slew of official meetings, and maintain neighborhood relations–under these conditions and with the insecurity of homelessness too. Looking at the contrasting sets of behavior, the “official” community and the Occupy community, I’d say whose GOT a community? This is all an instance that adversity proves the strength of those who endure.;
To me the more relevant question is given a choice between bedbugs versus frostbite or bad-attitudes versus pneumonia what would one choose?
Thank you so much for your work and report, Brenda. It is amazing to me that in a country with such a strong cultural value of independence, people have no problem impinging on others’ liberty if those people lack economic resources. The same people also have no problem attributing motives to and making assumptions about people they don’t know. In the time I’ve spent at the camp in the last week, I have been treated kindly and shown concern, by people who have been treated like crap by others. Maybe it is asking too much to have people walk a mile in someone else’s shoes — sadly, it seems like it is also asking too much to listen to someone before drawing conclusions. We should be celebrating the survival and resilience of people who’ve been working with the toughest hands our culture deals out – and real leaders would go where the problems are and talk to people.
Thanks, Brenda, for keeping us informed, and for your work to defend the rights of people without homes. This protest is nothing less than a battle to decide if housing should be a human right in our county. It is also bringing a lot of attention to the problems in the shelter system, and contributing to a greater understanding of what homeless people face every day. Thanks to all of you who are taking a stand to defend your right to be treated as human beings.
Bedbugs and ‘bad attitudes’ are preventable and need not be a choice, especially in a facility whose mission is to provide a warm bed, hope and opportunity…You may not tag some behavior as merely a bad attitude if you were subjected to it.
The pragmatic response is to try and fix those problems and not to make things worse by encouraging people to camp out in the cold.
Remember, people can die of cold and often do; probably less likely to die from bedbugs and bad attitudes.
These ‘occupiers’ are urinating and defecating just feet from peoples homes. Simply disgusting. They don’t want bed bugs, but crap on a pile of leaves? If they are bright enough to come up with a list of demands, then one would think they are capable of staying at Token Creek. They want the attention, and frankly, it’s sad that they are getting any at all. The neighborhood residents will likely be taking matters into their own hands soon enough.
Correct.
Don’t make the assumption that people posting here don’t know any of the homeless individuals in Madison….and/or haven’t been homeless themselves, i.e. have walked in the shoes of those we now attempt to serve and support. Many of us know them very, very well. That’s why the demands this small group is making and attention this group is getting in relationship to the NEEDS of the hundreds of homeless individuals in Dane County is infuriating to many of us.
Wow… all this focus on whether or not the shelter has bedbugs. Well, the Kalahari Resort has bed bugs, too, as do many hotels from one end of the spectrum to the other. Point being, bed bugs are prevalent everywhere. My gripe with Brenda and her supporters is the lack of interest in thinking outside the box to solve any of the problems they say exist. Instead they want to divert limited PUBLIC funds and resources to provide for their own little community / shelter system. This is hardly “occupy” anything. Occupy as a political movement demanded change within existing systems. And while they were protesting, THEY SUPPORTED THEMSELVES! This group does not do either of these things.
Agreed. The response is to try to fix the existing systems… not squat somewhere and demand to have everyone’s sympathy and support because they are camping outside as winter approaches.
eye roll