Public Comment

A few Sundays ago I needed to prepare for a talk and presentation in our museum in the Veterans Memorial building. 

First I needed to clean the excrement off the back of the marble memorial plaque in the front of the Veteran’s Building. It is often used as a toilet by the homeless despite the portapotty and bathroom located in the park across the street. 

Then, approaching the door to the building, there was a female person sleeping so that I couldn’t open the door. A request to move prompted a tirade of language with every third word one of the 4 letter words.. 

I entered the building at the back entrance. 

The front steps and handicapped ramp was filled with a homeless encampment- litter, bags of personal property, grocery carts and sleeping people. 

A verbal request several times to vacate the steps in preparation for a large number of people coming to an event brought no results. 

Per city protocol, The Ambassadors group was called. They arrived but were unable to get the persons to move, along with their belongings. 

Finally the Police were contacted and an officer arrives in about 15 minutes and the occupiers reluctantly moved everything to the park across the street. 

That left me to clean up- the mess. It took another half hour to – pick up food wrappers, trash, and at least 30 cigarette butts. After sweeping the steps, we finally were able to open the doors for visitors to the program.