Yet another issue where I can just recycle my folders full of paper. When this issue came back I was a little surprised . . .for several reasons, including that the ordinance isn’t something that the Police Chief is asking for . . . and it had some serious racially charged problems last time around . . . and I actually found my folder.
Last night there was a “public hearing” on the issue. The notice for this public hearing said the meeting was expected to last one hour. And I don’t think Alder Bruer tried to get or wanted other Alders to/at the meeting. So much for public input. I wasn’t able to attend because I was working (TRC board meeting), but I wish I could have been there to hear what folks had to say.
Beyond my issues with the loitering ordinance, I am really struggling with how to find alternatives to a loitering ordinance. I’ve been thinking about it and I think the reason why I’m having such a hard time finding the alternatives is because the alternatives mostly don’t include policing or include policing options that already exist and finally, that many of the solutions are already there . . . just not properly funded, including the police.
The second problem is that I’m not sure which “problem” we are trying to solve? Is it downtown muggings? Or violence at bartime? Or drug dealing? Each of these problems has various different possible solutions. I wish we had started examining the problems and then tried to come up with a solution instead of presenting a solution without examining the alternatives.
Finally, I think the statement by Jim Kellerman in the Wisconsin State Journal this morning sums up my point of view quite well . . .
Jim Kellerman, who lived in what was once the troubled Broadway-Simpson neighborhood, now the Lake Point Drive area, said his neighborhood’s success in stopping crime problems “had nothing to do with the loitering ordinance.”
Rather, holding landlords accountable for who they rented to, youth programming, community policing, and a strong but not overbearing police presence lifted the neighborhood to where it is today.
“Sometimes people go after a false promise, and then you hold it up and it just doesn’t work,” Kellerman said.
These are complex problems, with complex solutions, and the loitering ordinance is just a false promise. Let’s get serious about finding real solutions for our real problems.
