Downtown

Yesterday, I visited the new Wet Sand retail store that just opened on Main Street. It is a stylish and unique home grown business that shows how far our downtown has come. The transformation of Downtown Ventura over the past fifteen years is amazing. If you are ever tempted to take it for granted, spend some time in Fresno or Salinas as I've done recently.

And yet . . .

All this progress is being undermined by the anti-social behavior of a couple dozen people. Some of them are deranged and damaged people, ravaged by years of mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse and living on the streets. Some are lost young people deluded into an empty outlaw lifestyle of preying on others. Some are simply opportunists who take advantage of the sympathy of others to live without responsibility.

Lively beach downtowns are magnets for these individuals. Here they find all sorts of resources -- places to crash, people to hassle, drugs to buy and free services to leech off.

Downtown merchants, visitors and local residents are disgusted and afraid. They wonder why somebody doesn't do something about the presence of these drifters, panhandlers and thugs.

Good hearted people also feel sympathy. They imagine the tangled family and personal histories behind the tragic and empty lives these individuals now lead. But even the most charitable don't want to see vicious pit bulls attack pets on leashes. They don't want to be subjected to streams of obscenities. They don't want to worry about walking down a public sidewalk.

It's tempting to see this as a police problem. Why aren't the police there when you need them? And why don't the cops just round up these vagrants?

In response, typically government responds with the usual excuses that people find so annoying: the Supreme Court has struck down laws against "loitering" -- we don't have enough cops -- we have no place to put these damaged people -- blah, blah, blah.

Well, let's skip that part since no one is listening. Let's instead focus on one simple step everyone can take:

Stop feeding the problem.

In the time when the Jewish, Christian, Buddhist and Moslem scriptures were written, beggars on the street were lepers, either literally or figuratively. There was no social safety net. Giving alms directly to the poor was the right thing to do.

It is not the right thing to do today when you walk or drive by someone holding a cardboard sign.

Giving cash to beggers is not a solution. It won't straighten out deeply damaged lives. It's more likely to buy malt liquor or meth than their first month's rent.

Feeding the hungry in the park isn't a solution either. It keeps that person coming back to the park instead of finding a way out.

We can all be more generous. Let's choose wisely, however. Let's give our money to those who provide mental health care, decent housing people can afford, spiritual redemption and jobs that give back dignity to people who've lost theirs. Let's put our spare change to use to make real change.

Government has a responsibility here, of course. We must enforce our laws. We must direct public resources where they will do the most good. But we can't do that without a real partnership to tackle the underlying problems.

The Police are not parents, social workers or pastors. They can't scoop people up for being disreputable, toss them in jail and throw away the key. They can't put them on a bus to somewhere else. Nor can we expect the Police to build housing, help people kick addictions or talk angry kids out of wasting their lives.

Downtown is a great place that shouldn't be undermined by the anti-social behavior of a few. But solving this problem is a shared challenge for all the rest of us, not just "somebody else."