Sunday, October 12, 2008

Trailers for sale or rent...

Today's Times-Standard, which is apparently some sort of tabloid published in the area, quoted acting police chief Garr Nielsen as saying Eureka needs a permanent, public-supported homeless camp. Did someone pave over the area behind Bayshore Mall when I wasn't looking? Why reinvent the wheel?

Nielsen suggested that Eureka should make some city parking lots available for people to sleep in their cars...

This brings up some questions--will these budget RV owners be provided with the spiffy new city parking permits, or will they need to keep putting change in the meter? "Spare some change, Ma'am? I need to feed the meter outside my living room."

Perhaps a low-cost, effective solution will present itself if we merely look around. You know, the former Jefferson School site is vacant. Why not make that a permanent, public-supported homeless camp? It already has bathrooms and wastebaskets, which appear to be acting chief Nielsen's main criteria for the facility. As a bonus, nobody thinks it looks like a fortress; win-win!