What can be done to make Downtown’s public open space experience more appealing to those who live, work and visit Downtown was once again the topic of discussion when the City Council Recreation, Community Development, Public Health & Safety Hemming Plaza Subcommittee met Tuesday at City Hall.
The subcommittee is chaired by Council member Robin Lumb, who was joined by Council members Reggie Brown, Kimberly Daniels and Don Redman. Council member Lori Boyer, who was listed on the public notice announcing the meeting, was unable to attend.
Council member Denise Lee attended the meeting in order to make a statement for the record, she said, before leaving to attend the Finance Committee meeting downstairs in the Council chamber.
Lee said she and Lumb called a noticed meeting Oct. 12 to discuss issues involving improving Hemming Plaza but did not know until Monday that Lumb and Boyer had noticed Tuesday’s meeting.
“I felt like if a meeting was going to be held, I should have been contacted as to a convenient time, since I would want to be involved,” said Lee.
“This isn’t about one-upmanship or me getting credit. It’s about how we do business. To call a meeting about Hemming Plaza and not make me a part of it is not right,” she said.
“I apologize. It was an oversight,” Lumb said.
“The inspiration and impetus (for the subcommittee) came from you,” Lumb said to Lee before she left the conference room in the Council suite.
Also in attendance were representatives of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, directors of social service agencies and Downtown business owners and advocates.
Lumb said he expects the subcommittee to meet monthly for several months to study what can be done to “create an atmosphere in Hemming Plaza that is welcoming to those who work, live and visit Downtown.”
He said the committee’s intent is to address Hemming Plaza, not the issue of homeless people. Lumb said, however, that any discussion of improving the environment of Hemming Plaza will involve homeless people.
He said the issue is behavior, not employment or social status, and then cited behaviors exhibited by some people who enter Hemming Plaza and “stake out the tables.”
Lumb’s list included boisterous behavior and the use of profane language, loud arguments, drinking alcohol in public, panhandling and urinating in public.
He suggested that a review of existing laws regarding public behavior should be conducted as well as an analysis of whether laws are being enforced.
“This will be a wide-ranging, freewheeling discussion,” Lumb said.
Daniels said she would attend the subcommittee’s meetings to be the “conscience” of the group.
“I was one of the people in the park and now I’m a Council member. No laws say you can’t sit in a park,” she said.
“The reason most of the people sit in the park is because the City took LaVilla away from them. The federal government gave the City money to enhance LaVilla and the City moved the black people out,” Daniels said.
She also said people who are breaking the law in Hemming Plaza or any other City park should be held accountable.
“We need to arrest people who are urinating in parks. We need to arrest people who are smoking reefer,” she said.
Redman, whose Council district includes Hemming Plaza, said he thinks the park should be available to people who want to “come and go,” rather than those who wish to spend all day there.
“I’ve recommended putting a time limit on how long a person can stay at a table,” he said.
Redman also commented about the Occupy Jacksonville group that has been camped in front of City Hall for several weeks.
“The Occupy people have been a thorn in my side as long as they’ve been there. It’s time to move those people on some way or another. They are using our electricity for a Crock-Pot and a heater.
“I’ll fight for the right of freedom of speech, but it looks like a junk pile. It’s embarrassing,” he said.
Brown said he believes if any progress is to be made concerning Hemming Plaza, “we have to deal with the root cause.”
“We talk about a day shelter (for homeless people) but we move away from it because there’s a cost involved,” Brown said.
He suggested the solution is likely to be a public-private partnership, in keeping with Mayor Alvin Brown’s policy objectives.
“Let’s deal with this. Otherwise, we’ll be here next year having this same conversation. We need to give the mayor a plan and deal with this head-on,” said Brown.
Before adjourning the meeting, Lumb instructed Assistant General Counsel Jason Teal to evaluate existing laws concerning panhandling, camping, the use of profanity in public, drinking alcohol in public and regulating permits that allow churches and other groups to feed people in parks.
He also asked representatives from social service agencies to attend the next meeting to offer reports about what’s currently being done for homeless people.
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