My ministry partner took this photo at the entrance to the Greenway, near the block. Image credit: Audrie Keen
Two days ago, I wrote about “the block” at Lee and Eugene Streets being empty. The block is a long-time gathering spot where folks, many of them homeless, are known to loiter and drink. A friend, who catches a bus just down the sidewalk, had contacted me to tell me that police had cleared everybody out.
Yesterday, I wrote a follow-up post after hearing from multiple sources that the block-clearing, among other things, was the result of a meeting between County Commissioner Chair Skip Alston, Chief Bellamy and neighborhood residents.
Today, the News & Record reports about the block being empty. Their story says that it took a week of 30-minute patrols to clear the block. Actually, the zero-tolerance enforcement began on Tuesday morning, and the block has been clear ever since. It didn’t take a week. The block cleared as soon as the police cracked down.
But let’s back up a minute. If Chief can impose a zero-tolerance policy on loitering on the block, and it’s automagically cleared, then why did it take 20 years to do that? Residents have been complaining for a long time. So have the merchants on the block, as business after business has failed there. If there was such a quick and easy solution, why wasn’t it done before?
Well, for one thing, there wasn’t a Downtown Greenway 200 yards from the block before. Which brings me to another question: Now that the block is cleared, how long will it be before those artistic benches are back?
“Endurance. Triumph. Faith. Strength. Hope.”
Prescient?
CM, am not sure of your point. Are you upset that the block has been cleared or that it took the Greenway media attention to do it?
What is your issue with the benches? (Or did I read that wrong?)
If the end result is that business increases in that area and redevelopment succeeds and residents are OK with the increased security in their neighborhood, is this a good or bad thing if the perhaps homeless or unemployed people who hung around there are moved away?
Of course, I know you’re concerned with where homeless people will go; so am I. Yet if the Greenway was started in a neighborhood so in need of development, is it a bad thing? (Can you imagine the reaction if it had started in a “nice” part of town?)
I’m really unsure if your issue is that it took 20 years (truly disgraceful, agreed) or that it was done at all. Can you clarify?
My point was the question: If it was so easy to clean up the block, why wasn’t it cleaned up before the Greenway came? Audrie and I were talking yesterday about how the Greenway has already been a catalyst for change in that neighborhood, and the Freeman Mill camps are the next place it goes. We both believe that good can come from those changes — that the Greenway is providing our community with opportunities to address issues that we haven’t addressed previously. If we step up and do it well, it’ll be good for Greensboro.
And I don’t have anything against the benches. I never thought they should have been removed in the first place. The benches were never the problem. Even the people on the block said so. I think that they should go back where they were. If not, I wouldn’t mind having them in my backyard.
CM asked, “Did it take a Greenway to clear the block?”
I think we all know the answer to that question, now don’t we?
Billy, if it takes a Greenway to get funding for the day center and to help find housing and resources for the people in the Freeman Mill homeless camps, then that’s a good thing, right? Change doesn’t have to be a bad thing, especially when a lot of what’s changing wasn’t good to begin with. I want to see good things happen for our homeless friends. And I look forward to walking on the Greenway with them. The one thing that I’m most concerned about, though, is how the guys who were on the block feel. They are residents of Greensboro, too, and I’m concerned that they feel pushed aside. I believe that there’s a way to build community without breaking it. I hope that we can all find a way to balance that, and make good changes for everyone.