Strand Books Used Sprinklers to Douse Homeless

Strand Books Used Sprinklers to Douse Homeless

GREENWICH VILLAGE — The Strand Book Store used its sprinkler system to drive away homeless people from beneath its famous red awning and yanked a sign warning people of the tactic after a reporter asked about it.

Some homeless people said they were doused when they tried to sleep on the sidewalk in front of the store, store employees and the homeless said.

“It was to keep people from sleeping out there,” said a Strand bookseller who asked that her name not be used. “

This has got to be a low mark for civic conscience. I understand that business needs to be able to operate but isn't the sidewalk considered public space? Surely there is a better way to resolve the problem than hosing down the homeless. Makes me wonder just who and what type of person would even consider such a thing.

Strand co-owner Nancy Bass Wyden — who is married to U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) said in a brief phone interview Thursday that she was “not sure” about the reason for the sprinklers.

Strand manager Eddie Sutton denied the sprinklers were intended to disperse the homeless, saying they were there to clean the sidewalk.

Marcus Moore of the community organization Picture the Homeless said that the sprinkler tactic was “an attack on the homeless population.” “This is not what caring people do to each other,” Moore said.

Indeed it is not. Perhaps U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden should discuss this issue with his wife but it's doubtful he really cares about the homeless either.
Wyden, Smith AWOL As Number of Homeless Kids Climb

reply to post by Bassago


There's lots of homeless in this area. They find whatever dry and warm spots they can. Most of them don't cause a problem.

Not sure that loitering is legal anywhere despite being a public walkway...also pretty sure most people wouldn't enjoy having the homeless or mentally ill or drug users on the sidewalk in front of their house either. That said it could have been handled better for sure but people have the right to not want people loitering in front of their business (small or big), homes, or anywhere for that matter.

AfterInfinity
reply to post by Bassago

 

"Most won't murder or rob you"
Fixed that for you
There's lots of homeless in this area. They find whatever dry and warm spots they can. Most of them don't cause a problem.

crawley
people have the right to not want people loitering in front of their business (small or big), homes, or anywhere for that matter.

Really? Are you sure? So if I stand on the public sidewalk in front of your business and check my messages, look at the clouds, or just contemplate the general state of the world and you don't like the way I happen to look it's ok to turn a hose on me? Wow. Check your Karma, dude.

'Murica!

Is that the same as sleeping in front of a store? No. Don't be silly, it interrupts my tiny violin song...

reply to post by crawley


Ah, the "that's what I said but of course you misunderstood what I meant" defense. Well played!

Just took a quick look at the county and municipal ordinances around here. Nope, no loiter laws. Must just be where you are...

Loitering is illegal but so is assault which is what the store did when they sprayed them. Its not the way it should have been handled at all. To imagine that people can just sleep whereever is a dangerous notion that ends poorly for all involved

Yup you're right loitering has never been a crime and still isn't anywhere in the world. You win. Now tell me more about myself?

All I'm saying here is that hosing homeless people down so they don't interfere with business is pretty low. Affluent people such as the owner and her senator husband really need to do a self check. Maybe we all do considering all the homeless citizens in the US, the richest nation on earth (supposedly.)

They hose me down I would go inside and take a huge dump on their store room floor then take the 30 days of free bed and three squares a day offered by the local lock-up.

reply to post by Bassago


Considering the high in Seneca is the fifties and the low the thirties, spraying a homeless person with water could be considered assault with a deadly weapon.

If loitering is illegal the cops should have been called, if not then what they did was both illegal and dangerous.

If cities would just have designated tent cities where homeless could go, sleep, and a place to take showers then people wouldn't have to try and sleep on sidewalks.

That makes too much sense though, it's easier just to kick the dogs while they're down.

But shooting a homeless person with water when it's cold outside is assault, plain and simple.

That is a tough situation.

On one hand any business has the right to not have or want homeless, drunk, high, something similar people sleeping in front of their store. Folks here can cry about how it's horrible and throw that stupid 'murica designation out there , because homelessness isn't a problem all over the world , that a store had the nerve to not want them in front of it but it doesn't matter because we aren't the ones running that business.

On the other hand I would like to think that the store would have at least approached the homeless people about leaving. Verbally asking them to go and stay away from the front of their store. If they didn't try this approach first then their response seems inappropriate.

So the store gives the homeless a free shower and some people whine about it?

That is a very nasty thing to do you know. We used to douse our front steps down in the summer outside with water to stop the drinkers dossing there all day and that was their hostel. We had our reasons though as it was a very busy thoroughfare. Of course we were just watering the plants! The staff wouldn't dream of throwing water over people.
Its the spite bit that gets me. Why? Why not get a brass band or a loud hailer or better still make them all a cup of coffee and take them breakfast. Give them a sense of someone caring and they might piss off and leave you alone!!

That's my thoughts on this grim little tale...


hx

Sure, dousing people that have nowhere to go and dry off. Really nice there you jerks. Usually it is getting a bit nippy in NY around this time of year.....

Montana

crawley
people have the right to not want people loitering in front of their business (small or big), homes, or anywhere for that matter.

Really? Are you sure? So if I stand on the public sidewalk in front of your business and check my messages, look at the clouds, or just contemplate the general state of the world and you don't like the way I happen to look it's ok to turn a hose on me? Wow. Check your Karma, dude.

'Murica!

Splitting hairs aren't you? After all you don't crawl out of bed with the homeless look do you? If the homeless person in front of your business is keeping customers at bay, well, you do what you have to. BTW have you ever smelled a homeless person? Seems to me that a little light hosing would be the least of their worries. If anything it would at the very least make em smell better.

Yes Yes, homeless are people too, downtrodden people, drug users, alcoholics, crazies, the throw away that society has deemed not worth spending the money on to fully address in most metropolitan areas. Does that make the statement right? Perhaps not. Yet everyone makes their own choice in life, even the homeless. Hard for me to feel sorry for a individual whom has chosen that way of life. Rather than them exhibiting a little personal responsibility and pulling themselves up out of the gutter so they can at least live with a little self dignity.

Its not all that hard, I did it. I deal with the homeless on a routine basis in one of the worlds worst places to be homeless. Where I work is private property and frowns on the homeless squatting on our property. Since the police take forever to respond to remove them from the property, as most are not willing movers, we do what we have to do to get them off the property. Although this far north sprinklers would be a bad idea unless you want a meat popsicle on your doorstep.

After all it is far easier to be homeless in Hawaii than it is in Alaska.

PS- In all 50 states loitering is against most city statutes, even if its on a sidewalk in front of a business.

reply to post by GrandHerecy


I am splitting hairs?

No one is talking about private property here except you, so......

If someone is blocking access to the door of either a business or residence of course they can be removed. I didn't get where that was happening here, though. Public property is a whole different deal. Businesses like to think they own the city. They don't own it any more than an individual citizen. That citizen has just as much right to the public space and whatever legal use they want to make of it.

Happy to hear you grabbed yourself by the back of the neck and drug yourself out of the gutter all on your lonesome. Congrats. Others aren't there yet. And no one deserves to get soaked. If a city ordinance is being violated call the police. That's their function. Vigilantism only begets retribution. What happens when the homeless get their own back at 3 in the morning when no one is watching?

reply to post by GrandHerecy

Yet everyone makes their own choice in life, even the homeless. Hard for me to feel sorry for a individual whom has chosen that way of life.

That's quite a statement. We should tell that to the shop owners senator husband. After all there are only 60,000 homeless children their home state of Oregon. Those kids just need to buck up and take a little responsibility for themselves.

Homelessness is not always a choice. I doubt it hardly ever is. I've been there too.

reply to post by Montana


There's a difference between checking your text msgs and SLEEPING in front of a business. What good does your "Murica" post do?
Rabble-rousing.
What a tough problem to solve, how to keep homeless from loitering but in a humane way.