Safety and Security Concerns

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Liz on August 1, 2008 at 5:23pm

Just throwing it out there, a couple of goofy ideas which may or may not work:

(1) Enable the guides--or any other civilian volunteers--to give $10 tickets for every damn stupid thing and skip the warnings. Spitting, littering, jaywalking, whatever. I know there are already much stiffer fines in the code for these kinds of minor behavior violations, but consistent enforcement has been shown to be a much better deterrent than harsh penalties.

William often says that you can't enforce manners, but I do think that you can enforce respect. I think that almost all of the crap that goes on downtown isn't due so much to a serious criminal element--even the drug-dealing is pretty small potatoes--as it is the result of the widespread belief that it's OK to shit on downtown. So let's make it clear that it's not.

(2) Guerrilla sit-ins. This is sort of a variation of a neighborhood watch, so somebody would need a police radio. Here's how it could work: at irregular but frequent intervals and at places known in advance only to the participants, a small group of volunteers shows up (bring your own chair) in a "problematic" public place, such as in front of the Pizza Pipeline or Kesey Plaza, and just sits and hangs out for an indeterminate amount of time. Really brave people could more directly get in the face of the usual denizens. The idea is to reclaim these public spaces and break up the territorialism, as well as to keep an eye on things.

The more ridiculous and attention-getting the better: we could bring balloons or musical instruments or distribute leaflets about what we were doing and encouraging people to come downtown.

Permalink Reply by William Kennedy on August 1, 2008 at 5:36pm

(2) Guerrilla sit-ins. This is sort of a variation of a neighborhood watch, so somebody would need a police radio. Here's how it could work: at irregular but frequent intervals and at places known in advance only to the participants, a small group of volunteers shows up (bring your own chair) in a "problematic" public place, such as in front of the Pizza Pipeline or Kesey Plaza, and just sits and hangs out for an indeterminate amount of time. Really brave people could more directly get in the face of the usual denizens. The idea is to reclaim these public spaces and break up the territorialism, as well as to keep an eye on things.

Just crazy enough it might work.

Permalink Reply by Liz on August 3, 2008 at 2:17pm

I'll take that as a compliment. :-)

I was also quite serious about distributing (or otherwise making readily available) photos and personal info of any repeat offenders downtown. Maybe more eyeballs looking out for the troublemakers would help keep things under control.