By
The Wildcat Opinions Board
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.
In 1998 the city council required all median workers to wear orange vests for protection. This year, the council has asked the Median Task Force-which includes local newspaper executives-to toss around the idea of making it illegal for vagrants to sell newspapers on the medians.
Though the measure will force local newspapers to find a new way to sell all of the newspapers that hawkers sell, it is critical for the city as a whole that these people be given better opportunities. Moving them off of the streets and into job placement and rehabilitation programs is one of the best ways to do this.
West wants to move the vagrants out of the medians because of the safety hazard they pose and because "as a city we can do a whole lot better for these people."
Councilmember Jerry Anderson has a legitimate concern about the proposal. Anderson wants to ensure that displaced hawkers will be given replacement jobs, and that panhandlers will be adequately helped and not merely swept under the rug by the city.
There is a tendency to view such vagrants as blameworthy and undeserving of social programs to get them on their feet. However, improving the way the city looks is obviously an important goal of this measure. Helping the city's vagrants rebuild their lives is just as important as getting them off the streets-in fact, it will help make Tucson more beautiful as a whole if we have less people living in such impoverished conditions.
West's proposal is an important one, and residents of Tucson should attend tomorrow's meeting in order to encourage the city to move forward with the proposal. They should also encourage the council to couple West's proposal with enhanced social programs to help newspaper hawkers and vagrants get back on their feet.
The meeting will be held tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. in City Hall, 255 W. Alameda St.
