Taking back the park

I see they managed to sweep out the Laurelhurst Park tent camp yesterday with no one being injured and apparently only one protester being arrested. The mellow outcome is a bit surprising, actually, but I guess the self-appointed "activists" who showed up to get in the way each took a squatter home to live with them.

Interestingly, every media story I saw about the sweep included the name and sob story of one of the campers. They all say they have nowhere to go except a tent on the sidewalk at Laurelhurst Park. Well, they went somewhere else last night, at least.

I wish I could say there's hope on the horizon, that the city and county have a plan and they're executing it. But there's no leadership. Just $2.1 BILLION in new taxes over 10 years to fund the homeless industrial complex. They'll probably make it worse.

Yesterday proves nothing. Everybody knows that the campers will come back to Laurelhurst at some point; the only question is how long they'll give the upper-middle-class park neighbors and normal park users a break. 

At times like this, I kind of miss New Jersey. Try pitching a tent on the sidewalk across from some guy's house in Leonia, N.J. Let me know how that goes.