Wes's beginning rant on homelessness -- abridged by the local paper

Dear Mayor Wynn, Council Members, Ms. Futrell, Mr. Garza, and Chief Knee:

I truly believe that each of you have the noblest of intentions at heart for making Austin a livable city. Unfortunately though, I am quite concerned that the collective good intentions and rhetoric from city leadership, both elected and appointed, falls far short of approaching the realities of leading and administering a large city.

I have had some qualms about the direction that our city has been taking for some time, but my experience yesterday served to cement these doubts and hesitations. At approximately 9:30 in the morning, I was approached by a homeless person for money at the Exxon gas station at the intersection of Anderson Lane and Burnet Road. As soon as he left my immediate vicinity and I completed my purchase, I contacted 311 to report this incident.

From this experience as well as noting that almost every major intersection in Austin has at least one person holding a sign asking for money or a "church" of dubious origins selling candy, it is apparent to me that the City of Austin has chosen to turn a blind eye to the fact that the chronically homeless have taken over our urban center, and are rapidly spreading throughout the city. Unfortunately, whether by directive from city leadership or by sheer neglect, the Austin Police Department appears unwilling to aggressively address the issues of "panhandling" or "soliciting in a public roadway," both of which are prohibited by city ordinance and/or state law. In fact, I have, on several occasions, witnessed APD motorcycle and Highway Enforcement units working traffic enforcement at Parmer and I-35 at the same time that the other corners of the intersection were occupied by beggars.

Our city seems intent on spending large amounts of public funds to "redevelop" downtown and encourage people to move into the urban core of the city. Unfortunately though, it would appear that this willingness to spend money does not extend to public safety, either through a highly visible police presence or adequate street lighting (I would submit to you that much of downtown is inadequately lit.). Rather, the city has chosen to spend the money on concessions to downtown developers and on social services rivaling those of any Scandinavian welfare state. The city's development of the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless (ARCH) as well as transitional apartments only serve to prove the Kevin Costner adage of, "If you build it, they will come." It is well-known throughout Texas that Austin is a haven for the homeless and anecdotal stories exist of police in Dallas and Houston purchasing bus tickets to Austin for their chronically homeless.

I am certainly not opposed to providing temporary assistance for those homeless people who seek help and wish to better themselves. Alas, though, it would seem from what I have seen that the city leadership chooses not to address the problem of the chronic homeless population who do not wish to receive assistance in making a transition to a stable and productive role in society. Rather than "tough love," our city chooses to lionize some of them. Witness the local celebrity status of Albert "Leslie" Cochran, whose criminal record for petty crime must surely be several pages long.

Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Chief Bill Bratton chose to make New York City livable by aggressively addressing "quality of life" crimes, including panhandling, as George Kelling advocated in his book "Fixing Broken Windows." Our city has chosen a different approach, with the result that our city resembles a Dickens novel in the omnipresence of a perpetual homeless underclass begging throughout the city.

I request the favor of your response to this matter and look forward to hearing how the city leadership truly makes to wish our city livable -- which must inherently include safety.