The Tucson City Council is trying to clean up Tucson streets by moving transients off of the medians and into actual jobs.

At their meeting tomorrow the Council will discuss the option of making it illegal for "hawkers" to sell newspapers on the medians, and for panhandlers and charity volunteers to loiter on them. Councilmember Carol West proposed the plan, and says the measure could help keep these vagrants safe.

The ban would not take effect until the middle of next year.

As long as the city provides effective alternatives to these vagrants and newspaper hawkers, they ought to move forward with the proposal to get them out of the streets. Along with getting them off of the medians, the city should sharply enhance its support for job training programs and drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs. If West's measure is not coupled with a program to actually help these people, it is useless.

Hopefully the council will see the critical need for such social programs, and will make it a priority before passing West's measure.