(Metro Wire photo)

POTD: Bedding down for another night

Metro Wire Staff

A flower bed in the downtown square is the site of a makeshift bed for the second night in a row.

The sleeping location was found by a Metro Wire reporter at about 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 13. Yesterday, the city’s streets department found another makeshift bed in the same spot.

Police Chief Bob Kussow was not available for comment on Tuesday, but Lt. Joe Johnson from SPPD said the area was filled with “broken down cardboard boxes being used as a bed.”

The boxes were shipping parcels from the United States Postal Service. A plastic USPS box was also located in the area.

The downtown surveillance cameras were not functioning at the time, according to Johnson, but an officer was looking into the matter in an attempt to locate a suspect to cite for littering.

Mayor Mike Wiza said he and other department heads are also aware of the problem.

“So some people have different needs, and I gotta tell you, some people are very comfortable with the lifestyle they have. We have, on several occasions, offered different forms of assistance, and they’ve refused,” Wiza told the Metro Wire in July. “Now, you can’t violate someone’s right by rights by forcing them to do this, if they’re comfortable where they are and they’re not violating any other laws; what’s the problem, right? If I were sleeping in front of Process, is that illegal? No, but if I’m throwing garbage down, if I’m leaving leaving beer bottles or garbage or my personal property just lying around. Yeah, there’s, there’s rules against that stuff, though, if you’re not watching your property, it’s considered abandoned.”