Guidelines

I am one member of a five person board. The opinions I express on this forum are mine only, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Escambia County Staff, Administrators, Employees, or anyone else associated with Escambia County Florida. I am interested in establishing this blog as a means of additional transparency to the public, outreach to the community, and information dissemination to all who choose to look. Feedback is welcome, but because public participation is equally encouraged, appropriate language and decorum is mandatory. Although this is not my campaign site for re-election--sometimes campaign related information will be discussed, therefore in an abundance of caution I add the following :








Thursday, November 4, 2021

Where Should the Homeless Base Camp Go? Part I-- Binary Choice

 

You cannot say you will achieve an unrealistic and un achievable deadline to do something by the book while simultaneously declaring  a deadline for such action that is not doable if it is indeed to be done by the book.  This is a binary choice.  You'll either do it NOT by the book, or you will do it after your stated deadline by the book or NOT by the book.  One way or the other--cannot be both.....and cannot be done in 20 days


So the city has proclaimed that by November 24th, 20 days from now, they will clear the area under I-110 of about 100 homeless men and women encamped there.  

Someone leaked to the press the locations where this group of homeless will be "relocated."

One of those locations was/is outside of the city limits--in the County.  In District 1.

Of course--I was not notified of this before it was leaked to the press and I began getting angry phone calls and emails from nearby residents who are justifiably concerned and understandably opposed to this camp site coming within a stone's throw of where they live and have purchased homes.

And I agree with these residents, and I stand with these residents in opposition.

Everyone at county planning and zoning has told me they have not received an application for the permitting of this site for such use.  Depending upon what is planned to be constructed/erected there--significant coordination and planning would be necessary to obtain the necessary permits, plans, and authorizations---not to mention the construction of the roads necessary for the trucks to service the porta potties that would necessarily be required.

All of which creates the apprehension that this deadline cannot be met utilizing the county's Houston Avenue site---unless somebody facilitates the mass migration (bus caravans, trucks, etc.) from I-110 site to Houston site----without getting the permits first.  This is what has me and my constituents concerned.

You're either: 

---being fallaciously unrealistic by publicly proclaiming you'll have the "area in the city under I-110 cleared out before Thanksgiving"

OR

--you fully intend to make the unachievable deadline and simply take the NIKE approach and (Just DO IT) ----regardless of the status of permits, licensess and authorization.


It's one or the other---can't be both.  Binary choice.

So, task force and city of Pensacola---which is it?


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Notice how Meredith Reeves spends untold hours working on Affordable housing projects with grants and D3 and D2 kill the projects then pat themselves on the back about working together to solve problems? Right.

No wonder she is starting to sound like the flood defender guy. Flat and monotone with a southern drawl. Why didn't you build affordable housing? AKA projects? In the inner city, near facilities? Why don't you? 3 votes?

Commissioner May goes on and on about racial stuff and gentrification, them draws boundaries to keep all black people in one place so he gets reelected. Beats anything, I've ever seen but seems to be par for the course for Democrats and Identity politics, they seem to want segregation. Lot of Lip service with that one also.

Youth sports is cool but what's wrong with affordable section 8 housing to put the homeless in. I know no one wants them in their neighborhood because of crime and the cycle of generational poverty.

I don't know how to fix it but I'm not a bleeding heart liberal either...

May says he doesn't mind a senior facility --but you can't age discriminate.


Anonymous said...

Where they are they have the shelter of the road over them.

They should work from there and get them in affordable housing even if in another county.